Jekyll and Hyde themes

Alternative transcript:

"he is in trouble! What has he done?" ● Mockery of female reader Reader personified in unflattering portrait of women Christianity ● Stevenson didn't necessarily believe in God ● Give Christian context for readers of novella Make funs of readers for Christian belief Hyde 'This was the shocking thing; that the slime of the pit seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape, should usurp the offices of life' Usurp- overcome/attack Offices of life life Amorphous having no shape Over exaggerated form of language - hyperbolic Poke fun at complicated religion Over-exagertes Hyde's evil 'slime of the pit' - pit of hell, over exaggerated to point out no true beliefs in Hell Language over-exaggerated - christianty is over exaggeration, life is not really like that Link to new discoveries in science - theory of Evolution, Bible no longer holds relevance - Stevenson drawing attention to this Appearances Two main characters are Jekyll and Hyde. 'None the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul' • Description of Hyde from Jekyll ● Jekyll highlighting inside him is evil and just notice when see Hyde as Hyde looks evil Stevenson questions idea of evil through Hyde as no proper description of him - idea of looking at someone and telling that they're evil Belief in this false dichotomy, false division between good and evil - humans are a mixture of good and evil Victorian readers considered to be evil, Stevenson doesn't - questioning science of time Pseudoscience of appearance determining someone's intelligence - popularised at times, denying this claim. Jekyll Victorian society encourages idea of secrecy and to hide true natures 'Large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes' ● Can't tell by looking at people if good or bad need to look at actions • Duality of man - surface respectable, blackness is evil desire inside 'A large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness' Doubt 'perhaps' ● Respectable citizen but underneath surface different truth Stevenson may have written a Christian novel where evil is killed but that's appearance on surface. Dig deeper to see if making fun of conventions to attack Victorian society - grew up in very christian household with a nanny who conformed to Calvinism (strict version of Christianity) Hypocrisy and duality of man - Setting ● House acts as metaphor for Jekyll 'The house wore a great air for wealth and comfort' ● Personification - respectable properties contain people like jekyll appear to be good but something else going on inside proved by 'Though it was now plunged in darkness' Symbolic of evil 'For even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr Jekyll, looking deadly sick' ● Jekyll becomes more evil through hyde - fog comes inside the house ● Metaphor - we confuse what looks respectable and what is actually evil and sinful 'A certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street' Back of the house where Hyde enters 'Thrust' - violent house reflecting on Hyde as it is where he enters 'Blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the mars of prolonged and sordid negligence' No windows secrecy Don't pay attention to evil instincts they will take over • Negligence make appearance seem evil 'Door...was blistered and distained' House itself has become evil Suggestion of fires of hell 'Schoolboy had tried his knife' All people contain evil element All people contain evil elements equivalent to back of house (it's kept out of sight) but it is quite a common instinct.Idea of original sin, fighting temptation in order to enter heaven. Stevenson questions the idea of what is evil and what is sinful. Drug taking - warning to Victorian audience Sins at the forefront of Victorian minds - giving in to taking drugs. Easily accessible within the Victorian era. 'Well, sir, every day, ay, and twice and thrice in the same day' 'This drug is wanted bitter bad, sir, whatever for' Describing hyde desperate drugs to become Jekyll ● Description of potion that needs to be used, deliberately focuses on evil of drug taking 'Maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer' • Portrayed as evil - torture and deform user Make user eager to find drug at any cost 'I knew well that i risked death for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity, might by the least scruple of an overdose' Stevenson worried about possibility of overdose and risking death Read the whole story as a warning against experimenting with drug taking. Stevenson looking at thing more than one point of view effect of drug 'shook the very fortress of identity' - • looks at who you are and shakes it about Stevenson looks at Jekyll and shows identities aren't a fortress, looks like one thing on outside but underneath is something else Utterson looks like respectable Victorina lawyer but hides fact that Jekyll knows where Hyde (murderer) is, takes letters from Lanyon and Jekyll and locks them away in a safe - hides evidence from police Idea of identity being a fortress and you can build yourself to be a wholly good character is a myth, something Stevenson doesn't want; author becomes other people and drug-taking advantage to creative thinker-popular among creative artists and writers. Friendship One of reasons tragedies occurs is as Jekyll has to operate without friends; Lanyon, Jekyll and Utterson' trio were inseparable friends' caused by society's Breakdown in endship caused by Jekyll's new experiments in creating Hy values - conflict between Christianity and science. Lanyon falls out with Jekyll as science anti-christian Hidden as playing with idea of releasing another human being - goes against teaching of Christianity especially as potential evil If friends stuck together they might have been able to help Jekyll but he felt he was excluded from society which led to his tragedy. Utterson reflects on this when he gets the confessions and says "I have buried one friend today," he thought: "what if this should cost me another?""" Before reads letter which will contain the truth ● Stevenson saying what kind of friendship which is based on not revealing truth to one another • Society to be more open and to have fewer things in it which are taboo e.g atheism, decline of Christianity, homosexuality Emphasises the idea of friendship in things that could have saved Jekyll when he reflects on the creation of Hyde. Problem with being Hyde is that he is for ever, despised and friendless' • Hyde could enjoy secret pleasure and leaping impulses under disguise ● Prefer to be surrounded by friends 'I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor, surrounded by friends' Suggest friendship is more important than society's values e.g christianity, putting on exterior that looks respectable, reputation Society based on friendship much happier one which to live Good vs Evil Points out to readers, all live in society that judges everyone else on balance between good and evil Idea that religion fo Christianity forces them to use to consider every human action and human being Jekyll describes self after created Hyde 'Evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul' 'It fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found warning in the strength to keep to it' He's saying we all try to do better part and chose good but we all don't have strength, we lack strength to keep doing good and fall to temptation Idea of original sin - all born with sin that Adam and Eve gave us - eating forbidden fruit, went against God and every man descended carry original sin with us - born evil Don't believe in original sin - problem with things we enjoy doing, society says are evil Is society right? Or are humans acting human and natural? Want to change the way society views what is good and what is evil Theory of Evolution ● Darwin's theory of evolution about adaptation of species • portrayed as adapted from apes and so our desires are seen as animal-like Instead of being 'natural', Victorian said desires are part of the most evil character - fit with Christian interpretation. ● Theory of evolution fit Christianity evil is akin to what our ancestors would have desired when were Apes 'God bless me the man seemed hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say?" New discovery of fossil record of Neanderthals - Victorians thought humans replaced Neanderthals so we are better Evolve to greater and superior beings Stevenson points out theory is not that - theory is we evolve at each stage to gain genetic advantage to help us survive so could revert back to earlier stages of mankind if helps to survive and reproduce better In evolution, no idea of people being morally superior but people become better able to survive 'Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books' ● Suggesting that christianity is just a ridiculous story - why Hyde rights blasphemies on god in religious books that Jekyll is reading Allows christian reader to miss that point as 'ape-like tricks' evil character, further proof of evil and turning away from God - idea that Hyde is punished for going against God Stevenson kills Jekyll and Hyde but leaves Utterson a mixture of good and evil as all people are. Finished book deciding to protect friend and keep all confessions from Lanyon and Jekyll secret and locked away in his safe • 'Ape-like tricks' - suggesting evolving back to ape-like state, nothing evil within it and idea of Christianity something invented as we've become more sophisticated doesn't mean it's any more true Duality of Man Closely linked to theory of evolution When Jekyll first turns into Hyde without drugs, Jekyll sitting in park in the sun animal within me licking the chops of memory' • nothing inherently evil about Hyde he is just acting on natural instinct • Pointing out animal is within all of us as we've all evolved from a more primitive animal being Animal isn't linked with evil but it is in mind of christian reader At beginning, doesn't describe Hyde as evil says 'I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two' ● Idea that we all contain good and bad impulses and good and evil Stevenson asking mature understanding rather than condemnation of people who do things that they shouldn't "That in the agonised womb of consciousness these polar twins should be continuously struggling' ● Use of 'twins' cannot get rid of the evil inside, shouldn't try to and try to understand the evil Evil within Hyde: ● Portrayed as evil Never commited crime that can be confirmed, when tramples a little girl it's not his fault, he's walking quickly in the middle of night and the girl runs into him and he steps on her and walks on. Intense focus in activities so walks on - callous Others who arrive wish to kill him Enfield wants to kill him as well as doctor - want to murder Hyde Hyde being unjustly treated ● ● Stevenson refuses to tell us what Hyde actually does when left to own devices - might not be doing anything particularly evil, incorrectly seen as evil Question society to show that impulse we've got to give in to our desires is normal and not evil but society judges it to be evil Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew: ● Occurs after Hyde being locked up inside Jekyll for a year (solitary confinement when innocent) When let out, full of rage and he is deranged because of ways he has been treated 'I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but innocent freedom of the soul' Could do things society didn't approve of Able to give into sensual desires ● None of this is evil but society makes us giving into temptations appear evil ● No longer feeling tied to being to what society says 'unknown but innocent freedom of the soul' - Hyde innocent character as he was free Problems with society take away our own freedom to be ourselves by introducing moral rules - seen in Stevenson's life as he leaves Britain for good to find freer, more primitive societies in Pacific Islands. 'Braced and delighted me like wine' ● Show that natural pleasure All be allowed to enjoy pleasures Cannot upset christian readers - being Hyde like being addicted to alcohol therefore sinful Stevenson writes for many different audiences. Repression and homosexuality Historical record on Stevenson's sexuality unclear but had many homosexual friends. Infer from this that he believed society should be more tolerant. Main characters in novel are all male - why so many references to male friendship and friendship proxy for homosexuality. Tragedy is that Jekyll can't give in to homosexual passions and desires as society forbids it which causes him to create alter ego of Hyde to have these experiences and relationships - why Stevenson does not describe what Hyde does. Discreetly hints to something so horrific that it can't be described in society homosexuality viewed as this. 'The more it looks like queer street, the less I ask' ● Given to Enfield when first describing check from Dr Jekyll and won't tell Utterson who has written this check • Strong hint that everybody suspects that Hyde is in homosexual relationship with Jekyll Jekyll is being blackmailed because of this Homosexuality could be seen as main theme of novel when Stevenson wrote it. Utterson given bizarre dream sequence of Dr Jekyll - friendship contains sexual desire. Dreams about Jekyll being in bed 'where his friend lay asleep' • Hyde arriving and summoning Jekyll from bed 'he must rise and do its bidding' - sexually charged dream which Utterson has to repress. • Repress homosexual desires for Dr Jekyll just as Jekyll can't explore his homosexual desires in society. Main male characters of book are unmarried - all potentially homosexuals that cannot indulge in and cannot admit that sexuality as it's such a taboo - seen as a tragedy. Tragedy of our society is that we don't accept people as they are, we demonise them. 'The curtains of the bed plucked apart' Violent image of undressing Bed is undressed as same way Utterson wants to undress friend 'He must rise and do its bidding' • Hyde has control over Jekyll ● Euphemism for sexual activity 'Two phases haunted the lawyer all night' Not just in dream All night Utterson is imagining sexually charged setting and description Novel really about homosexuality 'Black-mail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth' Way that Utterson thinks suggests that he believes that all young man would have given into homosexual desires • Young were just 'capers' but are now considered evil • Strong clue Utterson will have had homosexual experiences when he was younger Sexual adventures only appropriate in youth and once become adult and world of respectability can no longer indulge in fantasies Blackmail over homosexuality within Victorian society Stevenson asking for greater tolerance in society and tragedy of novel is pointing out consequences of not tolerating homosexuality in society turns homosexuals from respectable 'Jekyll' to demonised 'Hyde'