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Revision and exam practice for English
Literature written for the linear 9-1 GCSEs

The
Strange
Case of
Dr Jekyll
and Mr
Hyde

Grade 9 revision guide

Full mark example essays
Clear guidance on how to achieve the
top grades
Practice essay questions
Condensed, flashcard style-information

THE STRANGE CASE OF
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
A GCSE REVISION GUIDE DEVISED
AND WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH QUIGG

2

The right of Elizabeth Quigg to be
identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted by her in accordance with section
77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988
First published 2020
All rights reserved
...

Design by Elizabeth Quigg

3

'I had long been trying to write a story on this subject, to find a body, a vehicle, for that
strong sense of man’s double being which must at times come in upon and overwhelm
the mind of every thinking creature'-Robert Louis Stevenson
...
It includes full mark essays, exam tips, flashcard style
summaries of paragraphs and is written in essay style throughout
...
I have tried to keep this
book as precise, aiming to cover everything to the highest standard in as few pages as possible
so that you don’t feel bored, overwhelmed or burned out
...
the list goes on
...

If you want to achieve the top grades you not only need to consider what the author means
when they write a particular line but what that particular line represents and what the characters,
motifs, structure and location also represent
...
Often characters will represent a political view, view of gender, view of
sexuality, view of empire or a criticism of a certain character trait, this will often link to the
author’s purpose to criticise these elements within their own time period
...

Purposes to consider:
● To criticise the hypocrisy of Victorian society, especially the male upper-classes (made of
the ‘professional classes’ and ‘governing classes’)
● To show that the respectability that the upper-classes show is a facade, hiding their
repressed side and disreputable desires
● To exemplify the dangers of addiction
● To explore the concept of identity and present it as a changing and unstable state
...

● To explore contemporary masculinity and its relationship to violence
● To criticise Christianity as an institution that encourages its followers to repress their
desires and then to show the violence, chaos and corruption that repression leads to in
a person
...
Clearly Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written decades
before these events so you should refer to it in your essays as either ‘proto-modernist
elements’, meaning things that resemble modernism but were written before it happened as a
movement
...

❏ Clashing time periods
❏ Psychological or physical isolation
❏ Doubt: this could be doubting the testimony of the characters, doubting the supernatural/
theistic, having an unreliable narrator etc
...
You should also
comment on whether or not this adheres to or deviates from the genre/literary style of
the text
...

How do gothic elements relate to Stevenson’s purpose?
● Providing atmospheric effects (pathetic fallacy)
● In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson invokes the malevolent pathetic fallacy provided
by the typically gothic use of fog, the decaying building that represents the occupants
disordered mental state and the use of prison-like architecture , however, he adapts and
innovates within the conventional framework of Gothic fiction because he dispenses with
the remote geographical setting of the conventional Gothic tale choosing to set the story
in London
...
London is the home
of the professional upper classes, the degradation, decay and disorder are situated in
the heart of central London which suggests that the professional upper classes that live
in the centre of London are also decaying and corrupt
...

The House:
Jekyll’s house is used as a symbol for Jekyll himself, here Stevenson is following in the Gothic
novel tradition of associating the labyrinthine, decaying building with the body and mind of an
outcast in society
...
The most carefully-guarded innermost part of
Jekyll’s house, the cabinet, symbolises the innermost part of his mind, with Hyde at its centre,
the most primitive, instinctive or most hidden part
...

Jekyll’s house represents the gothic trope of the house of decay and degradation, it is isolated
and far from recognisable landmarks, and Stevenson creates a threatening malevolent
atmosphere through the decay of the back entrance, the flickering fire in the hall and the chaotic
dissecting theatre
...
In the Gothic tradition, the decay of the house,
the sordid back door and seedy front square corresponds with the degeneration of its inhabitant:
Jekyll cannot escape from Hyde, from his decaying body or from his decaying house
...
, had presented
the figure of ‘the other’ as one on the outskirts of society, by distancing the horror from
civilisation
...

The location of Hyde’s house:
Jekyll’s home of Soho was an enclave of poverty and criminality, such criminality had been
principally associated with the East End, but Soho is also within the more expensive, upperclass West End of London too
...

Night and day
All the central events in the story take place in the hours of darkness: the trampling of the girl,
the meeting of Utterson and Hyde, Utterson’s interview with Jekyll, the murder of Carew, ‘the
last night’, Hyde’s transformation into Jekyll before Lanyon, Jekyll’s first transformation into
Hyde, the 'incident at the window' that takes place at sunset with the courtyard 'full of premature
twilight'
...

Hyde is consistently associated with ‘black,’ linking him both with the nocturnal setting of the
narrative and with the conventional associations of the Satanic: he displays a 'black, sneering
coolness', enters 'Black Mail House', undoubtedly has 'black secrets', and frightens the
attendants at the inn with a 'black' countenance
...
But in the last chapter, the morning and even sunlight are associated not
with returning hope but with the first spontaneous transformations into Hyde
...

Fog:
The use of ‘pall’ to describe the fog suggests a theatrical scene, the lowering of the stage
curtain, and the ‘pall’, a cloth spread over a coffin or tomb, pall is also used to describe a cloud
of dust or smoke, a scene reminiscent of hell
...

This can be read in several ways:
- Showing that Hyde’s influence (representing the influence of repression leading to sin
and evil) is present over all of London and, by extension, all of the respectable upperclasses and governing classes
...
This may be
viewed as retribution for his crimes against God
...

- The fog symbolises the dichotomy between appearance and reality, as the increasingly
present fog hides and distorts appearances
...

Preface this with the view that you are going to propose, for example ‘in a modernist
reading’, ‘in a Christian reading’, ‘a gothic perspective may show…’
How the structure of the text relates to key themes
Stevenson’s text is divided into ten chapters, the clearly marked beginning and end, the clear
temporal progression noted at the beginning of each chapter, and the rational interpretations
attempted by Utterson and Lanyon
...
In the story, we find a series of doors: the by-street door (also known
as ‘the laboratory door,’ or ‘the dissecting room door’), Jekyll’s front door on the square, the
inner door of the hall, and finally the red-baize cabinet door
...
When Hyde unlocks the door for the first time he immediately enters and
re-locks it
...
The door hides a
mysterious truth and is often presented as closed, symbolising secrecy, deception and
repression
...

Writing your introduction:
Exam tip: Use an introduction that briefly explains the point you are about to make, the
genre and style used, the theme and character the question is asking you to write about
and how this all relates to the author’s purpose
...
Often they will not award you marks for an introduction (though
including one is crucial) but writing an introduction in this style will mean that you have
included AO3, ‘showing understanding of the relationships between texts and the
contexts in which they were written
...
Stevenson follows many of the literary conventions of the
traditional gothic, however, it's references to atavism are contained within the individual which is
in turn located within London
...

Write and use a stock introduction like the one shown above and edit it slightly to fit the question
being asked
...


8

In writing an introduction like this you show:
● You understand the key themes of the text (hierarchy, hypocrisy, atavism, the forbidden
sides of mankind, respectability)
● You know the location and time period (Victorian London)
● You know the genre and the literary movement that it follows (proto-modernism and
gothic literature)
● And you know how this relates to the author’s purpose (to explore the hypocrisy of
Victorian society and the dichotomy between the respectable and forbidden sides of
mankind)
Example essay paragraphs on fear, setting, Utterson, gothic imagery, confusion,
violence, Mr Hyde and repression
Utterson’s ‘story’ reaches a climax during ‘The Last Night’
...
The violence of
Utterson’s command to break down the laboratory door is emphasised by repetition (‘the axe
[…] the axe’; ‘the blow […] the blow’; ‘again […] again’)
...
Additionally, verbs usually
associated with animal subjects such as ‘leaped,’ and ‘bounded’ are juxtaposed with unfeeling
objects such as ‘door’ and ‘frame
...

This moment echoes the murder of Carew
...

Stevenson constructs this scene so that Utterson’s aggression is paralleled with the Carew
murder, with Utterson taking the part of Hyde: the 'frame bounded,' Carew’s 'body jumped upon
the roadway'; the 'panels crashed,' Carew’s 'bones were audibly shattered
...
In doing so Stevenson exposes the hypocrisy of Victorian Society, Utterson, the ‘last
good influence in the lives of down-going men’ becomes himself one such ‘down going man’
...
Ironically, unable to accommodate their
own ‘others’ both Lanyon and Jekyll are driven to a very different ‘other’, to death itself
...
The lack of the determiner 'a' in
front of 'lamp-lighted city' suggests that London is an uncountable, amorphous place with no
fixed identity or clear beginning and end; like Hyde, the city is reminiscent of ‘water’ or
‘darkness’
...
Like a ‘labyrinth’ or ‘maze’, any indicator of location is kept deliberately vague, he
encounters 'a man […] a child […] a room […] a house […] a figure' yet any identifiable features
9

are withheld in order to perpetuate Utterson’s sense of confusion
...
This heightens mystery as both space and time lack in linearity, regularity,
predictability, creating a chaotic external world that corresponds to Utterson’s undefined fear of
the ‘faceless’ figure of Hyde
...
The violence of Utterson’s command to break down the laboratory door is
emphasised by repetition (‘the axe […] the axe’; ‘the blow […] the blow’; ‘again […] again’)
...

● verbs usually associated with animal subjects such as ‘leaped,’ and ‘bounded’ are
juxtaposed with unfeeling objects such as ‘door’ and ‘frame
...
Serve to amplify
the shock of Utterson’s violence
●
●
●

Hyde’s cane was of 'tough and heavy wood' just as the door’s 'wood was tough'
As Carew’s beaten 'body jumped upon the roadway', the beaten 'frame bounded'
As Carew’s 'bones were audibly shattered,' the 'panels crashed'
...

● ‘Wider labyrinths of lamp-lighted city’
● Like Hyde, the city is reminiscent of ‘water’ or ‘darkness’
...

● Like a ‘labyrinth’ or ‘maze’, indicators of location are vague, he encounters 'a man […] a
child […] a room […] a house […] a figure'-identifiable features are withheld in order to
perpetuate Utterson’s sense of confusion
...
This heightens
mystery as both space and time lack in linearity, regularity, predictability, creating a
chaotic external world that corresponds to Utterson’s undefined fear of the ‘faceless’
figure of Hyde
...
At the end of ‘The Last Night’, the reader learns that
Utterson’s first names are ‘Gabriel John’: the names of an angel and of an apostle
...
However, Utterson is a deeply hypocritical figure that contrasts
the just, merciful and reverent connotations of this name
...

Furthermore, Stevenson invites the interpretation that Utterson’s religion is superficial, rather
than holding authentic spiritual value
...
Stevenson suggests that Utterson
unconsciously resents religious texts through the plosives ‘dry divinity’, the harsh ‘d’ sounds
could reflect disdain at the divine
...

The confining influence of religion is referenced further through Utterson’s geographical
location, he is situated ‘conveniently’ near to ‘the church’, yet remarks to Hyde that he is ’Mr
Utterson of gaunt street’
...
Thus Stevenson may be
suggesting that the institution of the Church is ultimately repressive and hypocrisy can be
observed both within and outside of its walls
...

●
●
●

‘Gabriel John Utterson’, the name of an angel and an apostle may link him to the church
and the powerful forces of the divine
...

Utterson displays ironic detachment, he wonders ‘almost with envy’ at the energy and
pleasure of those that seek his legal advice, perhaps suggesting that he would like to
pursue the same temptations
...

●

On his desk is ‘some volume of dry divinity’, the alliteration of plosive ‘d’ sounds
reflecting his disdain towards religion and ‘dry’ associated with joylessness, dullness,
dissatisfaction and dehydration
...
The adjective ‘gaunt’ may allude to self-mortification
and starvation which is intimately tied to the street’s proximity to the church
...
Yet Utterson is also presented as a deeply
hypocritical figure, he ‘was austere with himself’, yet ‘drank gin when he was alone to mortify a
taste for vintages’
...
Further, gin has a far higher concentration of
alcohol than wine, therefore, the ‘mortification’ of this vice actually equates to the ‘mortification’
of his body as gin is far more dangerous than wine
...

Utterson’s repression appears to be orientated around the suppression of feminine pleasures,
‘though he enjoyed the theatre, he had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years’
...
Modern readers may view this an an expression of toxic
masculinity, interpreting this as the view that Utterson’s view of masculinity is as an oppressive
and repressive force that compels him to disregard his love for the theatre and the emotional
catharsis that this provokes
...

Utterson’s repression is orientated around the suppression of feminine pleasures
...


Example essay paragraphs on repression and Hyde
Stevenson presents Hyde as a symbol for the repressed desires of contemporary society, as
such, descriptions of him are indeterminate
...
] of his deformity’, there is ‘nothing out of the way’ yet he is ‘extraordinary’
...
This is reinforced through the plosives ‘downright
detestable’, the alliteration of the ‘d’ sounds creates a harsh sound, reflecting the disdain that
Enfield directs at Hyde
...


12

Key points summarised from the section above:
●
●
●

Enfield ‘is able to specify the point […] of his deformity’, there is ‘nothing out of the way’,
yet he is extraordinary
...

However, the earlier associations with Hyde (‘my gentleman’, ‘my man’, ‘our friend’ and
‘my prisoner’) indicate that this disdain is a projection of Enfield’s repression of his
darker desires
...
Yet the noun ‘reflection’ may suggest
one that Utterson is looking at himself in a mirror, Hyde is his dual side just as he is Jekyll's
...
They categorise Hyde within the existing social
structures of medicine and law, Utterson’s book is a ‘Strange’ legal and medical ‘case’ to be
examined
...
However, despite this attempt to create order and coherence there is a distinct
sense of incoherency and disorder: Jekyll cannot stop the emergence of Hyde, night bleeds into
day, fog obscures the entire city and we are provided no real scientific explanation of exactly
what Hyde is
...

Additionally, Jekyll tries to define Hyde clearly and order his personality by creating two
identities: two doors, two separate houses for them, yet both remain irredeemably mixed
...

●

●
●

●
●

Authority figures attempt to categorise and constrain Hyde within the existing social
structures of medicine and law
...

Jekyll tries to define Hyde clearly, creating two doors, two houses, two phases of the day
Utterson apparently creates a ‘case’ that is highly ordered with: opposed characters,
divided into ten chapters each beginning with an adverbial of time, the opening word
‘Story’ and the final word ‘end’
...

Further silence and secrecy occupy much of the novella, as the nature of Hyde’s crimes
and much of Lanyon’s account is unresolved
...


13

In a similar way, Jekyll aspires to create a personality that is stable and clearly ordered, but
Hyde, the expression of what is 'inorganic' and 'amorphous', he makes increasingly chaotic
eruptions and finally establishes himself permanently
...
Hyde rejects established authority, burning letters, ‘writing
blasphemies in [Jekyll’s] bible’ and destroying the portrait of Jekyll’s father
...

Hyde rebels against legal and textual structures imposed by Jekyll, Utterson, government as
well as biological and textual structures:
● Burning letters
● ‘Writing blasphemies in [Jekyll’s] bible;
● Destroying the portrait of Jekyll’s father
The murder of the MP Sir Danvers Carew may be viewed as a rebellion against order and
governance, the foundation of civilisation
...
In Jekyll’s final statement he
realises Hyde’s composition: ‘he was the slime of the pit [that] seemed to utter cries and voices;
that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape’
...
However, the descriptions of
‘formlessness’, being ‘amorphous’, like ‘water’, ‘darkness’, ‘fog’ and ‘dust’ implies that Hyde is
an ever-changing and irrepressible force
...

● ‘he was the slime of the pit [that] seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous
dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape’
...

● However, the descriptions of ‘formlessness’, being ‘amorphous’, like ‘water’, ‘darkness’,
‘fog’ and ‘dust’ implies that Hyde is an ever-changing and irrepressible force
...
The semantic field of Darwinism is
used throughout, Hyde is ‘troglodytic’, ‘ape-like’, ‘brutal’, ‘an animal’ and ‘primitive’, even his
stature and hair growth refers to ape-like physical characteristics
...
He has associations that are both subhuman, and superhuman and
profoundly human
...
The book ends unresolved as the reader suspects that information is omitted
or destroyed, and questions are left unanswered
...

Furthermore, there is a distinct contrast between content and form
...

Lanyon
Stevenson’s purposes when writing the character of Dr Lanyon:
-The effects of addiction on social relationships
-Strengthen his criticism of repression by suggesting that denial and repression of one’s own
‘Hyde’ is harmful to the self, even suicidal
-To contrast the incredulity of the division of the self with a rational scientist
-Emphasise pathologization in the medical field
...
He can be read as
someone who refuses to acknowledge the unattractive side of human personality, exclaiming
'Hyde? […] No
...
This refusal to acknowledge the duality of man’s
personality may be drawn from the security with which he regards his own identity, perhaps
believing it to be monolithic, however, Stevenson suggests that he displays an artificial
demeanor that subtly hints at his own duality
...

It is the denial of his own inner Hyde that means that after he witnesses the transformation of
Hyde to Jekyll, he is ‘confined’ to the house, ‘grown pale’, ‘visibly balder and older’ resulting
from ‘some deep-seated terror of the mind’
...
It is the confrontation with Hyde
that exposes these fears rather than the origin of them
Why does Utterson survive with the knowledge that Jekyll and Hyde are the same being whilst
Lanyon has a ‘death warrant [now] written legibly upon his face’ and dies shortly after? Why
does Jekyll die due to the division of himself?
We may conclude that Utterson can accept his own duality but Lanyon and Jekyll would rather
die than accept theirs
...
His final
words reveal his death to be a form of suicide as he embraces death, exclaiming ‘I sometimes
think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away
...

Violence as the expression of repressed desires:
Throughout the text, violence is expressed as the logical end of repression, which manifests
both externally, in events such as the Carew murder, the trampling of the young girl and
Utterson’s breaking down of the door, and internally, in the self mortifying nature of the
characters
...
The adjective ‘gaunt’ implies that Utterson is thin
and angular, as if from starvation, as he ‘mortif[ies] a taste for vintages’ and other pleasures
such as going to the theatre
...

Utterson’s violence in The Last Night
Utterson’s ‘story’ reaches a climax during ‘The Last Night’
...
The violence of
Utterson’s command to break down the laboratory door is emphasised by repetition (‘the axe
[…] the axe’; ‘the blow […] the blow’; ‘again […] again’)
...
Additionally, verbs usually
associated with animal subjects such as ‘leaped,’ and ‘bounded’ are juxtaposed with unfeeling
objects such as ‘door’ and ‘frame
...

This moment echoes the murder of Carew
...

Violence enjoyed vicariously
In addition, Stevenson criticises the commodification and enjoyment of violent literature through
parodying the hypocrisy of gothic fanatics
...

Stevenson offers a satirical portrayal of the maid: ‘Never (she used to say, with streaming tears
when she narrated that experience), never had she felt more at peace with all men’
...
This undermines the sadness and horror of her ‘streaming
tears’, subverting it as an image of melodrama
...
Furthermore, Stevenson emphasises the maid’s romantic inclinations, (‘it
seemed she was romantically inclined’) and uses the semantic field of superficiality to discredit
her: ‘seem’, ‘seemed’, ‘appeared’ and ‘with the air of’
...

Further, ‘the maid faint[ing]’, a characteristically gothic trope, however, Stevenson mocks this
once more as the maid faints for twelve hours, once again a melodramatic depiction
...

Stevenson develops the idea that women enjoy violence through Hyde’s landlady: ‘a flash of
odious joy appeared upon the woman’s face
...
The ‘joys’ of violence are exemplified in the exclamation ‘ah’ and her enthusiasm is
shown through the exclamation mark and immediate questions of ‘what [Hyde] has done’
...

Utterson is a deeply hypocritical figure that contrasts the just, merciful and reverent
connotations of this name
...

Women
Female characters are significantly absent, perhaps corresponding to the exclusion of women
from contemporary society
...
Alternatively, the
text reflects the exclusion of women from male society as an attempt for Stevenson to explore
the identity of men exclusively
...
They are presented as
both passive onlookers to the ‘case’, yet, they delight in the violence of it
...
The idea that she ‘narrated
that experience’ on many occasions with the same wording, suggests that she enjoyed
describing Carew’s death
...
The sibilance ‘streaming tears’ exaggerates her
hypocrisy, as the sound created is serpentine and cold, undercutting the innocence of her
‘romantic inclinations’
...
This suggests that the maid’s innocence
and purity is a guise for her delight in violence
...
This suggests that
Stevenson’s view of women is that gothic and romantic literature has caused them to
exaggerate their view of the world, romanticising strangers and taking pleasure in violence
...
'Ah', said she, 'he is in trouble! What has he
done?’
...

Perhaps Stevenson’s portrayal of the landlady is a mocking personification of the female reader
...
He describes the alcoholic
tendencies that many of them exhibit as ‘many women of different nationalities [are] passing
out, key in hand, to have a morning glass’, a phrase laced with condemnation of the gin houses
popular in his time
...
This idea contextualises the effeminacy of Hyde, who has a ‘light step’, ‘with a
certain swing’ and ‘weeps like a woman’
...

Addiction
When discussing addiction it is useful to note that Robert Louis Stevenson took the drug
ergotine via an injection, this resulted in vivid hallucinations and convulsions
...

The ‘potion’,’ draught’,’ drug’ or ‘mixture’ taken by Jekyll alludes to the 19th-century drug
laudanum: the red coloured tincture of opium
...
However, the effects of Jekyll’s potion are
stimulating rather than narcotic as it is associated with 'a current of disordered sensual images,'
'delirium' and 'ecstasy of mind'
...

Jekyll exemplifies the physical effects of drug-taking through contrasting Jekyll’s past health with
his now gaunt and cold figure
...
His fragility is emphasised as he ‘did not rise to
meet his visitor’, perhaps a suggestion of his physical weakness but also the erosion of
pleasantries and social gestures as a direct result of drug-taking
...
It may
also be a denotation of his physical fragility as the ‘warm’ gestures of his introduction are
contrasted with the ‘cold’ hand
...


18

Stevenson describes the withdrawal symptoms that affect Jekyll due to his dependence on the
drug
...
Changes in appetite are also associated with
withdrawal, and whilst in the throes of withdrawal ‘the very meals [that are] left’ for Jekyll are
only ‘smuggled in when nobody [is] looking’
...

After a term of addiction, ‘the rosy [Jekyll] had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; and that he
was visibly balder and older'
...

The animalistic nature of Hyde may be a distilled representation of the figure of the addict, who,
in desiring the drug, loses all sense of morality and therefore humanity
...
For instance, an addict often abandons old friends, much as Jekyll did when he
stopped associating with Lanyon, noting that 'The quarrel with Lanyon was uncurable'
...
The loss of friends,
the neglecting of interests, and the proclivity for secrecy are all ways in which addiction can
negatively impact one’s social life, and when coupled with the social response to addiction,
Stevenson manages to accurately catalogue these symptoms of addiction
...
In
the following section I’m going to break down exactly how you can do that so that you can
achieve full marks in your essays
...

For example you may write ‘Hyde is constructed to represent the repressed and hidden desires
of Victorian upper-class men’
...
Use language such as ‘alternatively’,
‘perhaps’, ‘may’, ‘potentially’ and ‘possibly’
...

Your conclusion should not summarise your argument but should instead discuss what
the author is encouraging the reader to do as a result of the purpose that they have
...

Embed your quotations:
-Whenever you quote the extract try to make it flow within the sentence
...

Stevenson follows many of the literary conventions of the traditional gothic, however, it's references to
atavism are contained within the individual which is in turn located within London
...
Sequentially, atavism is presented as the logical
conclusion of sustained repression, evident in the characters of Jekyll and Utterson
...
Enfield explains that he is unable to ‘specify the point [
...
Hyde’s appearance is both uncanny
and ordinary; Hyde, the division of Jekyll, is further divided yet these divisions occupy parallel syntactic
units
...
However, the earlier
associations with Hyde indicate that this disdain is a projection of Enfield’s repression of his darker
desires
...
This may demonstrate the feeling of anxiety and discomfort that the elite had
around the ‘criminal class’
...
This is strengthened by
the fact that Hyde turns to Utterson ‘as if upon some sudden reflection,’ here Stevenson depicts the Hyde
and Utterson in parallel as they staring fixedly at each other
...

Stevenson perhaps constructed the character of Mr Utterson to facilitate his criticism of religion as both
hypocritical and self-mortifying
...
However, Utterson contrasts the just,
merciful and reverent connotations of this name through the superficiality of his religious practice
...
On Utterson’s desk is a ‘volume of dry divinity’, yet there is no assurance that Utterson
regularly reads the bible
...
The adjective ‘dry’ further
suggests dullness, dissatisfaction and dehydration perhaps associated with repression and detachment
from the vitality of life
...
The adjective ‘gaunt’ may allude to self mortification and starvation which is
intimately tied to the street’s proximity to the church
...

Stevenson’s criticism of the hypocrisy of religious figures is exemplified most clearly in the ‘The Last
Night’, during which Stevenson constructs this scene so that Utterson’s aggression is paralleled with the
Carew murder, with Utterson taking the part of Hyde: the “frame bounded,” Carew’s “body jumped upon
the roadway”; the “panels crashed,” Carew’s “bones were audibly shattered
...
In doing so Stevenson exposes the hypocrisy of Victorian Society, Utterson, the ‘last good
influence in the lives of down-going men’ becomes himself one such ‘down going man’
...
Ironically, unable to accommodate their own ‘others’ both Lanyon and Jekyll
are driven to a very different ‘other’, to death itself
...
Despite Hyde’s irregularity and
unpredictability both Jekyll, Utterson and Lanyon attempt to categorise Hyde within the existing social
structures of medicine and law
...
Similarly,
Utterson apparently creates a ‘case’ that is highly ordered: a story involving a series of opposed
characters, divided into ten chapters, each one beginning with an adverbial of time, the text beginning
iconically with a “Story of the Door” and ending clearly with the word ‘end’
...

In a similar way, Jekyll aspires to create a personality that is stable and clearly ordered, but Hyde, the
expression of what is “inorganic” and “amorphous” rebels against these legal, physical and textual
structures, he defies the hierarchical structures imposed by Jekyll, Utterson and wider contemporary
society
...
In Jekyll’s final statement
he realises Hyde’s composition: ‘he was the slime of the pit [that] seemed to utter cries and voices; that
the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape‘
...
However, the descriptions of ‘formlessness’, being ‘amorphous’,
like ‘water’, ‘darkness’, ‘fog’ and ‘dust’ implies that Hyde is an ever-changing and irrepressible force
...
The semantic field of Darwinism is used
throughout, Hyde is ‘troglodytic’, ‘ape-like’, ‘brutal’, ‘an animal’ and ‘primitive’, even his stature and hair
growth refers to ape-like physical characteristics
...
He has
associations that are both subhuman, and superhuman and profoundly human
...
Utterson is ‘gaunt’
and self ‘mortifying’, whereas Jekyll and Lanyon are unable to survive under the constraints of society
...
He suggests that in doing a less hypocritical and repressive society will be
formed and we will mitigate the intense and destructive effects of restrained impulses
...
Explore
the presentation of Hyde in this extract and other places in the novel
...
Stevenson follows many of the literary conventions of the traditional gothic,
however, it's references to atavism are contained within the individual which is in turn located
within London, enabling Stevenson to explore the duality present in all men
...

In the extract, Enfield unconsciously associates with Hyde, calling him ‘my gentleman’, ‘my
man’, ‘my prisoner’ and ‘our friend’
...
Alternatively, the determiner ‘my’ serves to
objectify Hyde
...
This may suggest that
the upper classes excuse or dissociate from their evil natures through presenting them as
predetermined and original
...

Furthermore, Stevenson presents Hyde as a symbol for the repressed desires of contemporary
society, as such, descriptions of him are indeterminate
...
] of his deformity’, there is ‘nothing out of the way’ yet he is ‘extraordinary’
...
This is reinforced through the plosives
‘downright detestable’, the alliteration of the ‘d’ sounds creates a harsh sound, reflecting the
disdain that Enfield directs at Hyde
...

Similarly, Utterson’s first meeting with Hyde involves a vast amount of interrogatives and
fricatives, Hyde is a ‘figure with no face’
...
The inability for other characters to
recognise Mr Hyde’s appearance further implies that he is the incarnation of their own
unconscious desires and thoughts
...
Yet the noun ‘reflection’ may suggest one that Utterson is
looking at himself in a mirror, Hyde is his dual side just as he is Jekyll's
...

Utterson’s dream ends with the “wider labyrinths of lamp-lighted city”
...
The noun ‘labyrinth’ connotes the inextricable, unknowable topography of London
which repeatedly leads the explorer back to the same place, Jekyll’s cabinet
...
] a child [
...
] a house [
...
Stevenson accentuates such chaos through the manipulation of
23

time, with increasingly fast action and greater spatial disorder (“more stealthily [
...
] dizziness [
...
] at every corner”)
...

Despite Hyde’s irregularity and unpredictability both Jekyll, Utterson and Lanyon attempt to
categorise, diagnose and segregate Hyde
...
Jekyll tries to define Hyde clearly and order his personality by
creating two identities: two doors, two separate houses for them, yet both remain irredeemably
mixed
...
He
intends to provide a sense of coherence and authenticity through the use of documents,
however, the reader is given no assurance that these documents have been unedited, omitted
or destroyed
...

In a similar way, Jekyll the protagonist aspires to create a personality that is stable and clearly
ordered, but Hyde, the expression of what is “inorganic” and “amorphous”, he makes
increasingly chaotic eruptions and finally establishes himself permanently
...
Hyde rejects established authority, burning
letters, ‘writing blasphemies in [Jekyll’s] bible’ and destroying the portrait of Jekyll’s father
...

The chaos created by Hyde’s may be derived from his own duality
...
The
adjective ‘formlessness,’ associated here with ‘evil’ and ‘death,’ can be seen as part of his
Jekyll’s desire to impose fixed dualistic structures on experience
...

Hyde’s multiplicity is recognised throughout and is expressed through the dichotomy between
the subhuman and superhuman aspects of his character
...
Yet simultaneously Hyde is
associated with the superhuman, he is ‘like Satan’, ‘pure evil’ and seems to reside in each
character he encounters
...

Utterson’s ‘story’ reaches a climax during ‘The Last Night’
...
The violence of
Utterson’s command to break down the laboratory door is emphasised by repetition (‘the axe
[…] the axe’; ‘the blow […] the blow’; ‘again […] again’)
...

24

Additionally, verbs usually associated with animal subjects such as ‘leaped,’ and ‘bounded’ are
juxtaposed with unfeeling objects such as ‘door’ and ‘frame
...

This moment echoes the murder of Carew
...

Stevenson constructs this scene so that Utterson’s aggression is paralleled with the Carew
murder, with Utterson taking the part of Hyde: the “frame bounded,” Carew’s “body jumped upon
the roadway”; the “panels crashed,” Carew’s “bones were audibly shattered
...
In doing so Stevenson exposes the hypocrisy of
Victorian Society, Utterson, the ‘last good influence in the lives of down-going men’ becomes
himself one such ‘down going man’
...

Ironically, unable to accommodate their own ‘others’ both Lanyon and Jekyll are driven to a very
different ‘other’, to death itself
...
Unable to reconcile their
desires with the repression necessitated by contemporary society both Jekyll and Lanyon are
forced to face death rather than confront the fact that they are composite beings
...
He suggests that in doing a less hypocritical and repressive society
will be formed and we will mitigate the intense and destructive effects of restrained impulses
...
Stevenson follows many of the literary conventions of the traditional gothic,
however, it's references to atavism are contained within the individual which is in turn located
within London
...
In the novel, language, structure, religious
texts and scientific principles crumble under the influence of ‘the other’, suggests that humanity
is unable to withstand the expression of the repressed other and that the systems holding
society together are ultimately fragile and inadequate
...
At the end of ‘The Last Night’, the reader learns that
Utterson’s first names are ‘Gabriel John’: the names of an angel and of an apostle
...
However, Utterson is a deeply hypocritical figure that contrasts
the just, merciful and reverent connotations of this name
...

Furthermore, Stevenson invites the interpretation that Utterson’s religion is superficial, rather
than holding authentic spiritual value
...
Stevenson suggests that Utterson
unconsciously resents religious texts through the plosives ‘dry divinity’, the harsh ‘d’ sounds
could reflect disdain at the divine
...

The confining influence of religion is referenced further through Utterson’s geographical
location, he is situated ‘conveniently’ near to ‘the church’, yet remarks to Hyde that he is ’Mr
Utterson of gaunt street’
...
Thus Stevenson may be
suggesting that the institution of the Church is ultimately repressive and hypocrisy can be
observed both within and outside of its walls
...
” Contemporary Victorian society regards Hyde as completely ‘other’, an outlier on the
edge of society who represents something so separate from human experience that we have no
moral duties to him, however, Utterson’s outburst of brute force actually removes the separation
between the “criminal classes” and the scientific or religious authorities
...
Utterson’s final embrace of his
‘other’ may be the reason that he is able to survive within a changing society whereas Jekyll and
26

Lanyon had not
...

Stevenson’s criticism of Christianity extends to other respectable figures within the novella
...
The determiner ‘my’ implies a connection between Enfield and Hyde and
connotes that Enfield has imposed a hierarchical structure on this relationship as Hyde is
presented as the belonging of Enfield
...
In this way, evil becomes a fixed and established object
...
We may view this as Stevenson’s criticism of Christianity, which excuses
immorality under the guise that it is innate to civilisation rather than the product of repressed
desires and constraining social structures
...
They categorise Hyde within the existing social
structures of medicine and law
...
Utterson apparently creates a ‘case’ that is highly ordered: a story involving a series of
opposed characters, divided into ten chapters, each one beginning with an adverbial of time, the
text beginning iconically with a “Story of the Door” and ending clearly with the word ‘end’
...

Hyde is unable to be constrained
...
Hyde rebels against
these legal, physical and textual structures, he defies the hierarchical structures imposed by
Jekyll, Utterson and wider contemporary society
...
The
murder of the MP Sir Danvers Carew may be viewed as rebellion against order and
governance, the foundation of civilisation
...
In Jekyll’s final statement he
realises Hyde’s composition: ‘he was the slime of the pit [that] seemed to utter cries and voices;
that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape‘
...
However, the descriptions of
‘formlessness’, being ‘amorphous’, like ‘water’, ‘darkness’, ‘fog’ and ‘dust’ implies that Hyde is
an ever-changing and irrepressible force
...
The semantic field of Darwinism is
used throughout, Hyde is ‘troglodytic’, ‘ape-like’, ‘brutal’, ‘an animal’ and ‘primitive’, even his
stature and hair growth refers to ape-like physical characteristics
...
He has associations that are both subhuman, and superhuman and
profoundly human
...

Utterson is ‘gaunt’ and self ‘mortifying’, whereas Jekyll and Lanyon are unable to survive under
the constraints of society
...
He suggests that in doing a
less hypocritical and repressive society will be formed and we will mitigate the intense and
destructive effects of restrained impulses

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