Dr Henry Jekyll

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Jekyll and Society

Dr Henry Jekyll is a well-respected doctor and friend of Lanyon, a fellow physician, and Utterson, a lawyer.

Façade

Jekyll has always tried to put on a façade for his society - he worries about his hidden desires.
He over-dramatises how bad his desires are because his inner desires contrast to the character he appears to be. He puts on “a more commonly grave countenance before the public”.

Guilt and shame

Jekyll’s hidden desires cause him to feel guilt, so he tries to repress these desires and he feels a “morbid sense of shame” - this shows how he feels he has dishonoured the society that he lives in, and he feels embarrassed of his secret activities.

Guilt and shame - Christianity

His engagement with science, and his guilt thereafter, is often linked to the rigorous Christian ideals that citizens were expected to uphold, causing guilt and shame for those who did not conform to the Victorian ideals prescribed to them.
As a result of his dual interests, Jekyll finds himself committed “to a profound duplicity of life” which is why making a potion to split his two sides appeals to him so much, and he pursues the transformation into Hyde as a result.
"Duplicity" means to be disloyal, or to be unfaithful- so this implies that Jekyll is disloyal to the Christian upper-class community he lives in.

Jekyll, Science and Religion

Jekyll is a man of science who wants to experiment with the human psyche.

Context

During the 1800s, science challenged religious ideas and beliefs.
Jekyll’s science challenges the religious belief that humans should try to lead a life free from sin.
Stevenson wanted to show the audience that it is impossible to do so, and that repression only leads to excessive corruption.

Revolutionary research

Jekyll decides he wants to experiment to divide the two sides of the human psyche. He experiments on himself. Jekyll’s experiments in “transcendental medicine” show that he is a revolutionary scientist, who is not afraid to pursue controversial research.
Jekyll believed that “man is not truly one but truly two.”
Jekyll is so desperate to split the two sides of the human psyche that he “risked death” to transform into Hyde. However, the experiments do not go as planned: he only succeeds in releasing his bad side, and he remains undivided as he was before - with both good and bad qualities.

Contempt of Jekyll

Jekyll and Lanyon do not agree on their scientific theories, and Dr Lanyon refers to Jekyll’s science as “unscientific balderdash”.
- This means that his theories are nonsense and pollute the field of material medicine with the supernatural and mystical theories that Lanyon and other doctors at the time shunned with resentment.

Jekyll's Transformation

When Jekyll transforms into Hyde, he feels immense pleasure. The long-term effects of transforming into Hyde cause him to feel shame.

Pleasure

Jekyll gains pleasure from transforming and he is unable to tear himself away from his darker side once the experiments begin.
He says: “There was something strange in my sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness” (10).
This quote suggests he enjoys the transformations, and he feels released from the heavy restraints of the external society.

Shame

Jekyll writes in chapter 10 how his experiments have failed, and he is ashamed of his failures.
His former self cannot be recreated, because we cannot exist without having both good and evil within us: “Both sides of me [good and evil] were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering".

1Plot Summary

1.1Chapters 1-10

1.1.1Chapters 1 & 2

1.1.2Chapters 3 & 4

1.1.3Chapters 5 & 6

1.1.4Chapters 7 & 8

1.1.5Chapters 9 & 10

1.1.6End of Topic Test - Chapters 1-6

1.1.7End of Topic Test - Chapters 7-10

2Characters

2.1Jekyll & Hyde

2.1.1Dr Henry Jekyll

2.1.2Jekyll - Name & Quotes

2.1.3Mr Edward Hyde

2.1.4Jekyll/Hyde Quotes - Chapters 1-9

2.1.5Jekyll/Hyde Quotes - Chapter 10

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Jekyll & Hyde

2.1.7Exam-Style Questions - Mr Hyde

2.2Other Characters

2.2.1Mr Gabriel John Utterson

2.2.2Dr Hastie Lanyon

2.2.3Minor Characters

2.2.4End of Topic Test - Other Characters

3Gothic Genre

3.1Gothic Elements

3.1.1Gothic Conventions

3.1.2Gothic Settings & Symbolism

3.1.3End of Topic Test - Gothic Conventions

4Key Themes

4.1Key Themes & Quotes

4.1.1Science

4.1.2Dual Nature of Man

4.1.3Religion & Sin

4.1.4Violence & Horror

4.1.5Victorian Gentlemen

4.1.6End of Topic Test - Key Themes & Quotes

5Context & Author

5.1Context & Author

5.1.1The Victorian Era

5.1.2Deacon Brodie & Freud

5.1.3End of Topic Test - Context & Author

6Literary Techniques

6.1Literary Techniques

6.1.1Language

6.1.2Structure & Form

6.1.3End of Topic Test - Literary Techniques

7Grade 9 - Key Character & Theme Questions

7.1Key Character & Themes - Linked Questions

7.1.1Grade 9 - Key Characters & Themes

7.1.2Extract Analysis - Jekyll

7.1.3Extract Analysis - Duality

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