Gothic Settings & Symbolism

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Symbolic Effect of the Setting

Stevenson uses light and fog symbolically throughout the narrative.

Stevenson emphasises the darkness in the novel. The less respectable parts of London are especially associated with darkness.
In Soho, the light is always changing: this symbolises the narrative as a whole - only parts of the truth can be seen at any one time.

Stevenson repeatedly mentions the fog. It’s so dense it covers the streets, making them a place of secrecy where crimes take place.
During the Victorian era, London was known for its smoke. It was so dense that people sometimes fell into the Thames.
Stevenson uses the fog to isolate the characters and restrict the view of events. The fog symbolises mystery.
- E.g. the fog in Jekyll’s house symbolises how deeply his secret is hidden, and Hyde’s house is surrounded by a “pall lowered over heaven”, which shows how the fog is connected to death and sinister activities.

Jekyll’s house symbolises his character in the following ways:

Jekyll’s house shows both sides of his character: the Hyde half has a “sense of strangeness”.
Jekyll’s house is divided, like his character - with the laboratory representing the shame and the hidden unconscious desires that Jekyll represses.
This is why the door is “blistered and distained” which indicates the decay that Jekyll hides from society.
Jekyll’s house is described as “three dusty windows barred with iron”. The windows are blacked out, which could represent the unconscious part of his mind that he has suppressed and crushed from releasing.

The laboratory is also described as a “dingy windowless structure”, which further suggests that his house is sinister.
As Hyde becomes more powerful, this increases. The house becomes a “house of voluntary bondage”, which shows that Jekyll has chosen to lock himself in the house. Just as he has tried to hide from Hyde emerging, so the house has become a vessel for harbouring his unconscious and hidden self.

London is presented as a threatening place.

The streets are often empty, creating a sense of silence and mystery.
Hyde’s attacks take place there, and there is therefore a nightmarish atmosphere around London’s streets.
This is also emphasised by the use of pathetic fallacy (when weather is used to reflect the mood) and metaphors that describe the fog and the streets as frightening places. Soho is described as “a district of some city in a nightmare”.

Stevenson also uses vague descriptions of familiar settings, and there are rarely any people in what is normally a busy city.
The lack of characters makes the streets seem isolated and mysterious. Instead of being highly populated, there is a movement of “embattled vapours”. We also hear: “a fog rolled over the city in the small hours”.
These dynamic metaphors suggest that there are clandestine (secret) forces working within London, and these sinister forces of evil manifest in the weather and the conditions of fog and vapours in the air.
These subterraneous hints and ambiguous symbols are familiar throughout the novel, and increase especially when Hyde is around.