3.1.2.1The novel at a glance
The lawyer Utterson becomes concerned about his friend Dr Jekyll's connection to the repellent Mr Hyde, who has trampled a child and later murders Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll withdraws; Utterson and the butler Poole break into his cabinet and find Hyde dead. Lanyon's letter and Jekyll's own confession reveal that Jekyll created a drug that released a separate, evil self, and that the transformation eventually became involuntary.
Published in 1886. Victorian London combined strict public morality with a large and largely unspoken private underworld, which made the double life a real social phenomenon rather than a metaphor. Darwin's work had raised the fear of atavism, the idea that a more primitive self lay beneath the civilised one, and physiognomy held that character was legible in the face.
- atavism
- the reappearance of a more primitive ancestral type
- physiognomy
- the belief that a person's character can be read from their appearance
- epistolary
- told partly through letters and documents rather than continuous narration
3.1.2.1Characters
Utterson is deliberately unremarkable: dry, discreet and reliable, which makes him a witness the reader trusts. He also suppresses his own inclinations, so he is a milder version of Jekyll's problem rather than a contrast to it.
Jekyll is not a good man destroyed by a bad one. His confession admits that he wanted the freedom Hyde gave him, and his complaint is about being caught rather than about having sinned.
Hyde is described almost entirely through other people's revulsion. Nobody can say what is wrong with him, which is far more frightening than any description, and he is notably small, suggesting an underdeveloped part of a man rather than a monster.
3.1.2.1Themes
Duality is the novella's subject, but the more disturbing claim is that the two selves are not equal: Jekyll finds Hyde's freedom attractive.
Victorian respectability is what makes the arrangement possible. The gentlemen repeatedly agree not to discuss what troubles them, and that silence lets the horror continue.
Science is presented as transgressive: Lanyon dies of what he witnesses, and the drug is never explained, so the horror rests on consequence rather than mechanism.
Common mistake
Writing that Hyde is a separate person who takes Jekyll over. Jekyll's confession is explicit that Hyde is part of him and that he chose to release it.
3.1.2.1The writer's methods
The narrative is assembled from documents and second-hand accounts, so the reader learns what happened in the order Utterson does. Fog recurs throughout, obscuring vision and standing for the concealment the novella is about, and the architecture of Jekyll's house, respectable at the front and sinister at the back, externalises the same split.
Worked example
Answer:
- The narrative order withholds the explanation until the last chapter
- Jekyll wanted what Hyde gave him
- Fog and the two-faced house externalise the concealment
- The gentlemen's silence is what lets the horror continue
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 1, Section B. The question is worth 30 marks and an extract from the novel is printed, and the question asks you to start with that extract and then write about the novel as a whole. Allow about 50 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.