Duality

“man is not truly one but truly

two”

Two sides of Jekyll:

respectable/ flamboyant

Utterson/ Enfield

Jekyll/Lanyon

Jekyll/ Hyde

Shows everyone has two sides

1 side can dominate: evil

Jekyll is mostly good/Hyde is predominantly evil

Utterson: Quiet and solitary

Enfield: vivacious and “man about town”

“furnished with luxury and good taste…recently and hurriedly ransacked”

Hyde

“dismal quarter of Soho”

Soho: place of wickedness and loose morals

Jekyll

“The street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood”

Physics vs metaphysics

Lanyon referred to Jekyll’s work as “unscientific balderdash”

Lower class

Upper classLanyon changes when he witnesses the transformation

Duality

Light

Dark

When we see Hyde

sinister

Mysterious atmosphere Main events happen at

night eg. Carew murder

When we see Jekyll

When Utterson meets Hyde

“I must flee before daylight.” Hyde

Turning point: Jekyll spontaneously turns into Hyde.

Shows Jekyll is losing control

Shows good and evil coming together.

Evil is becoming dominant.

We here about this in Jekyll’s ‘confession’ in chapter 10, but the transformation in Regent’s Park actually happens at some point between the murder of Danvers Carew and Utterson’s visit to Lanyon in Chapter 6

Setting

Hyde lives in Soho, an area of “muddy ways” “slatternly passengers” and “some district in a nightmare” No respectable person would be seen there.

However, his rooms are “furnished with luxury and good taste”

Hyde’s door is “blistered and disdained” and has no bell or knocker. Only Hyde has the key

H’s rooms in Soho have, after Carew’s murder“, been recently and horribly ransacked”

Hyde appears to occupy the night until J starts to lose control, he then appears in “twilight.”

Moonlight when Carew dies show duality as it can show romantic and horrific atmospheres.

Victorian society was obsessed with the idea of “degeneration” London was a city of high unemployment, prostitution, poverty and the upper classes were afraid of being brought down to this level.

London was fashionable for novels at the time although until J+H Gothic horrors were always set in Eastern Europe e.g. Frankenstein

19th C. Victorian society J has to adhere to a standard because of his class. Creates Hyde to escape oppression

Hyde created early morning, in the dark-sense of evilness/wickedness.

The street in the 1st chapter shines out with its “neat shop fronts” .

Jekyll’s house is located amongst “handsome houses...decayed from their high estate” but J’s has an “air of wealth and comfort” and is the only one not fractioned into separate chambers.

The back of J’s house is distinct from it surrounds as it’s “sinister” and has the “marks of prolonged and sordid negligence”

Fog covers up the mystery and is also an important genre marker.

There is a foreground (murder) and background (romantic moonlight) aspect to the chapter where Carew dies.

“Morning, black as it was”

Setting in London brings the action closer to the reader.

Fog is the prevalent weather in the novel

Symbol for secrecy. Literal fog obscures the metaphorical fog i.e. the identity of Hyde.

Jekyll

Jekyll can still be regarded as a

respectable gentlemen.

“ I had gone to bed Hyde and awakened Edward Hyde. This shows that

Jekyll is unable to control Hyde.

“it was Hyde…and Hyde alone that was guilty”

Creates Hyde to act without responsibility

with no consequences. He uses Hyde to cover and take the blame for

what his “concealed pleasures” require

Jekyll feels no responsibility for the

actions and cruel aspects which are carried out as Hyde. Wants to protect

status and respectability.

Henry Jekyll, M.D, D.C.L, LL.D, F.R.S and C. This

indicates Jekyll’s intelligent. Also that he’s

respected and high in society.

“The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde”. This is important because we find out this is not true as Jekyll becomes addicted to Hyde.

Jekyll accepting a small piece of responsibility.”

“Man is not truly one but truly two” This represents the duality of man

He believes man has two sides.He is addicted to Hyde which is

His bad side

Born “to a large fortune”. This means he

was part of the upper class from when he was

born.