dr jekyll and mr hyde critical essay

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert louis stevenson.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Introduction

Dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: plot summary, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: detailed summary & analysis, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: themes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: quotes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: characters, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: symbols, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: literary devices, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: quizzes, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde: theme wheel, brief biography of robert louis stevenson.

Historical Context of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Other books related to dr. jekyll and mr. hyde.

• Full Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• When Written: 1885
• Where Written: Bournemouth, England
• When Published: 5th January 1886
• Literary Period: Victorian
• Genre: Horror, Drama, Victorian Gothic
• Setting: The streets of London
• Climax: Utterson reads the narrative written by Lanyon before his death, which describes the horrific bodily transformation of Mr. Hyde into Dr. Jekyll, explaining everything that has happened so far in an absolutely incredible way.
• Antagonist: Mr. Hyde forms the antagonist of the tale until we realize that he is in fact the double of Dr. Jekyll.
• Point of View: A third person narrator tells the story with an omniscient view of characters but stays mostly with Mr. Utterson, which allows Stevenson to reveal things to the reader with suspense.

Extra Credit for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Strange Beginnings. Robert Louis Stevenson reportedly wrote the draft of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in an astonishing three days in a drug-induced fever.

Expensive Taste. Robert Louis Stevenson was known as “Velvet Jaket” as a young man because of his dandy-fied taste in clothes.

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Full Analysis and Themes

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The story for Jekyll and Hyde famously came to Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream, and according to Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson wrote the first draft of the novella in just three days, before promptly throwing it onto the fire when his wife criticised it. Stevenson then rewrote it from scratch, taking ten days this time, and the novella was promptly published in January 1886.

The story is part detective-story or mystery, part Gothic horror, and part science fiction, so it’s worth analysing how Stevenson fuses these different elements.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: analysis

Now it’s time for some words of analysis about Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novella. However, perhaps ‘analyses’ (plural) would be more accurate, since there never could be one monolithic meaning of a story so ripe with allegory and suggestive symbolism.

Like another novella that was near-contemporary with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and possibly influenced by it ( H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine ), the symbols often point in several different directions at once.

Any attempt to reduce Stevenson’s story of doubling to a moral fable about drugs or drink, or a tale about homosexuality, is destined to lose sight of the very thing which makes the novella so relevant to so many people: its multifaceted quality. So here are some (and they are only some) of the many interpretations of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which have been put forward in the last 120 years or so.

A psychoanalytic or proto-psychoanalytic analysis

In this interpretation, Jekyll is the ego and Hyde the id (in Freud’s later terminology). The ego is the self in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, while the id is the set of primal drives found in our unconscious: the urge to kill, or do inappropriate sexual things, for instance.

Several of Robert Louis Stevenson’s essays, such as ‘A Chapter on Dreams’ (1888), prefigure some of Freud’s later ideas; and there was increasing interest in the workings of the human mind towards the end of the nineteenth century (two leading journals in the field, Brain and Mind , had both been founded in the 1870s).

The psychoanalytic interpretation is a popular one with many readers of Jekyll and Hyde , and since the novella is clearly about repression of some sort, one can make a psychoanalytic interpretation – an analysis grounded in psychoanalysis, if you like – quite convincingly.

It might be significant, reading the story from a post-Freudian perspective, that Hyde is described as childlike at several points: does he embody Jekyll’s – and, indeed, man’s – deep desire to return to a time before responsibility and full maturity, when one was freer to act on impulse? Early infancy is the formative period for much Freudian psychoanalysis.

Recall the empty middle-class scenes at the beginning of the book: Utterson and Enfield on their joyless Sunday walks, for instance. Hyde attacks father-figures (Sir Danvers Carew, the MP whom he murders, is a white-haired old gentleman), which would fall in line with Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex and Jekyll’s desire to return to a time before adult life with its responsibilities and disappointments.

However, one fly in the Oedipal ointment is that Hyde also attacks a young girl – almost the complete opposite of the ‘old man’ or father figure embodied by Danvers Carew.

Nevertheless, psychoanalytic readings of the novella have been popular for some time, and it’s worth remembering that the idea for the book came to Stevenson in a dream. Observe, also, the presence of dreams and dreamlike scenes in the novel itself, such as when Jekyll remarks that he ‘received Lanyon’s condemnation partly in a dream; it was partly in a dream that I came home to my own house and got into bed’.

An anti-alcohol morality tale?

Alternatively, a different interpretation: we might analyse these dreamlike aspects of the novel in another way and see the novel as being about alcoholism and temperance , subjects which were being fiercely debated at the time Stevenson was writing.

Here, then, the ‘transforming draught’ which Jekyll concocts represents alcohol, and Jekyll, upon imbibing the draught, becomes a violent, unpredictable person unknown even to himself. (This reading has been most thoroughly explored in Thomas L. Reed’s 2006 study The Transforming Draught .)

Note how often wine crops up in this short book: it turns up first of all in the second sentence of the novella, when Utterson is found sipping it, and Hyde, we learn, has a closet ‘filled with wine’. Might the continual presence of wine be a clue that we are all Hydes waiting to happen? Note how the opening paragraph informs us that Utterson drinks gin when he is alone.

This thesis – that the novella is about alcohol and temperance – is intriguing, but has been contested by critics such as Julia Reid for being too speculative and reductionist: see her review of The Transforming Draught in The Review of English Studies , 2007.

The ‘drugs’ interpretation

Similarly, the idea that the ‘draught’ is a metaphor for some other drug, whether opium or cocaine . Scholars are unsure as to whether Stevenson was on drugs when he wrote the book: some accounts say Stevenson used cocaine to finish the manuscript; others say he took ergot, which is the substance from which LSD was later synthesised. Some say he was too sick to be taking anything.

You could purchase cocaine and opium from your local chemist in 1880s London (indeed, another invention of 1886, Coca-Cola, originally contained cocaine, as the drink’s name still testifies: don’t worry, it doesn’t any more).

This is essentially a development of the previous interpretation concerning alcohol, and arguably has similar limitations in being too restrictive an interpretation. However, note the way that Jekyll, in his ‘full statement’ becomes reliant on the ‘draught’ or ‘salt’ towards the end.

A religious analysis

As such, the story has immediate links with the story Stevenson would write sixty years later. Stevenson was an atheist who managed to escape the constrictive religion of his parents, but he remained haunted by Calvinistic doctrines for the rest of his life, and much of his work can be seen as an attempt to grapple with these issues which had affected and afflicted him so much as a child.

The sexuality interpretation

Some critics have interpreted Jekyll and Hyde in light of late nineteenth-century attitudes to sexuality : note the almost total absence of women from the story, barring the odd maid and ‘old hag’, and that hapless girl trampled underfoot by Hyde.

Some critics have suggested that the idea of blackmail for homosexual acts lurks behind the story, and the novella itself mentions this when Enfield tells Utterson that he refers to the house of Mr Hyde as ‘Black Mail House’ as a consequence of the girl-trampling scene in the street.

As such, the novella becomes an allegory for the double life lived by many homosexual Victorian men, who had to hide (or Hyde ) their illicit liaisons from their friends and families. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote to his friend Robert Bridges that the girl-trampling incident early on in the narrative was ‘perhaps a convention: he was thinking of something unsuitable for fiction’.

Some have interpreted this statement – by Hopkins, himself a repressed homosexual – as a reference to homosexual activity in late Victorian London.

Consider in this connection the fact that Hyde enters Jekyll’s house through the ‘back way’ – even, at one point ‘the back passage’. 1885, the year Stevenson wrote the book, was the year of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (commonly known as the Labouchere Amendment ), which criminalised acts of ‘gross indecency’ between men (this was the act which, ten years later, would put Oscar Wilde in gaol).

However, we should be wary of reading the text as about ‘homosexual panic’, since, as Harry Cocks points out, homosexuality was frequently ‘named openly, publicly and repeatedly’ in nineteenth-century criminal courts. But then could fiction for a mass audience as readily name such things?

A Darwinian analysis

Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species , which laid out the theory of evolution by natural selection, had been published in 1859, when Stevenson was still a child. In this reading, Hyde represents the primal, animal origin of modern, civilised man.

Consider here the repeated uses of the word ‘apelike’ in relation to Hyde, suggesting he is an atavistic throwback to an earlier, more primitive species of man than Homo sapiens . This reading incorporates theories of something called ‘devolution’, an idea (now discredited) which suggested that life forms could actually evolve backwards into more primitive forms.

This is also linked with late Victorian fears concerning degeneration and decadence among the human race. Is Jekyll’s statement that he ‘bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul’ an allusion to Charles Darwin’s famous phrase from the end of The Descent of Man (1871), ‘man […] bears […] the indelible stamp of his lowly origin’?

In his story ‘Olalla’, another tale of the double which Stevenson published in 1885, he writes: ‘Man has risen; if he has sprung from the brutes he can descend to the same level again’.

This Darwinian analysis of Jekyll and Hyde could incorporate elements of the sexual which the previous interpretation also touches upon, but would view the novel as a portrayal of man’s – and we mean specifically man ’s here – repression of the darker, violent, primitive side of his nature associated with rape, pillage, conquest, and murder.

This looks back to a psychoanalytic reading, with the ‘id’ being the home of primal sexual desire and lust. The girl-tramping scene may take on another significance here: it’s a ‘girl’ rather than a boy because it symbolises Hyde’s animalistic desire to conquer and brutalise someone of the opposite, not the same, sex.

There have been many critical readings of the novella in relation to sex and sexuality, but it’s important to point out that Stevenson denied that the novella was about sexuality (see below).

A study in hypocrisy?

Or perhaps not: perhaps there is something in the idea that hypocrisy is the novella’s theme , as Stevenson himself suggested in a letter of November 1887 to John Paul Bocock, editor of the New York Sun : ‘The harm was in Jekyll,’ Stevenson wrote, ‘because he was a hypocrite – not because he was fond of women; he says so himself; but people are so filled full of folly and inverted lust, that they can think of nothing but sexuality. The Hypocrite let out the beast’.

This analysis of Jekyll and Hyde sees the two sides to Jekyll’s personality as a portrayal of the dualistic nature of Victorian society, where you must be respectable and civilised on the outside, while all the time harbouring an inward lust, violence, and desire which you have to bring under control.

This was a popular theme for many late nineteenth-century writers – witness not only Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray but also the double lives of Jack and Algernon in Wilde’s comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). This is a more open-ended interpretation, and the novella does appear to be about repression of some sort.

In this respect, this interpretation is similar to the psychoanalytic reading proposed above, but it also tallies with Stevenson’s own assertion that the story is about hypocrisy. Everyone in this book is masking their private thoughts or desires from others.

Note how even the police officer, Inspector Newcomen, when he learns of the murder of the MP, goes from being horrified one moment to excited the next, as ‘the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition’. He can barely contain his glee. The maid who answers the door at Hyde’s rooms has ‘an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent’.

From these clues, we can also posit a reading of the novel which sees it as about the class structure of late nineteenth-century Britain, where Jekyll represents the comfortable middle class and Hyde is the repressed – or, indeed, oppressed – working-class figure.

Note here, however, how Hyde is repeatedly described as a ‘gentleman’ by those who see him, and that he attacks Danvers Carew with a ‘cane’, rather than, say, a club (though it is reported, tellingly, that he ‘clubbed’ Carew to death with it).

A scientific interpretation

The reference to the evil maid with excellent manners places Jekyll’s own duality at the extreme end of a continuum, where everyone is putting on a respectable and acceptable mask which hides or conceals the evil truth lurking behind it. So we might see Jekyll’s scientific experiment as merely a physical embodiment of what everyone does.

This leads some critics to ask, then, whether the novella about the misuse of science . Or is the ‘tincture’ merely a scientific, chemical composition because a magical draught or elixir would be unbelievable to an 1880s reader? Arthur Machen, an author who was much influenced by Stevenson and especially by Jekyll and Hyde , made this point in a letter of 1894, when he grumbled:

In these days the supernatural per se is entirely incredible; to believe, we must link our wonders to some scientific or pseudo-scientific fact, or basis, or method. Thus we do not believe in ‘ghosts’ but in telepathy, not in ‘witch-craft’ but in hypnotism. If Mr Stevenson had written his great masterpiece about 1590-1650, Dr Jekyll would have made a compact with the devil. In 1886 Dr Jekyll sends to the Bond Street chemists for some rare drugs.

This is worth pondering: the use of the ‘draught’ lends the story an air of scientific authenticity, which makes the story a form of science fiction rather than fantasy: the tincture which Jekyll drinks is not magical, merely a chemical potion of some vaguely defined sort. But to say that the story is actually about the dangers of misusing science could be a leap too far.

We run the risk of confusing the numerous film adaptations of the book with the book itself: we immediately picture wild-haired soot-faced scientists causing explosions and mixing up potions in a dark laboratory, but in fact this is not really what the story is about , merely the means through which the real meat of the story – the transformation of Jekyll into Hyde – is effected.

It’s only once this split has been achieved that the real story, about the dark side of man’s nature which he represses, comes to light. (Compare Frankenstein here .)

All of these interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde can be – and have been – proposed, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the popularity of Stevenson’s tale may lie in the very polyvalent and ambiguous nature of the text, the fact that it exists as a symbol without a key, a riddle without a definitive answer.

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , novella by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson , published in 1886. The names of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , the two alter egos of the main character, have become shorthand for the exhibition of wildly contradictory behaviour, especially between private and public selves.

The tale—told largely from the perspective of Mr. Gabriel John Utterson, a London lawyer and friend of Dr. Henry Jekyll—begins quietly, with an urbane conversation between Utterson and his friend Mr. Richard Enfield. The latter tells how, returning home in the early hours of the morning, he witnessed a “horrible” incident: a small girl, running across the street, was trampled by a man named Mr. Edward Hyde, who left her screaming on the ground. After being caught, Hyde, who has a face that inspires loathing, agreed to pay the child’s family, and he retrieved from a dilapidated building a check from the account of a respected man. Enfield assumes that Hyde is blackmailing that man, whom Utterson knows to be his client Jekyll.

Utterson has in his files a will in which Jekyll bequeaths everything to Hyde. Troubled, the lawyer visits Dr. Hastie Lanyon, a longtime friend of both Jekyll and Utterson. Lanyon says that he has seen little of Jekyll for more than 10 years, since Jekyll had gotten involved with “unscientific balderdash,” and that he does not know Hyde. Utterson waylays Hyde at the old building and introduces himself and then goes around to Jekyll’s house (the neglected building is a laboratory belonging to the house), only to learn from the butler , Poole, that Jekyll is not at home and that his servants have orders to obey Hyde.

Almost a year later a maid witnesses Hyde beating to death a prominent gentleman who is also a client of Utterson’s. Utterson leads the police to Hyde’s home. Though he is absent, evidence of his guilt is clear. Utterson goes to see if Jekyll is harbouring Hyde, and Jekyll gives Utterson a letter from Hyde, in which Hyde declares that he will be able to escape. However, Utterson’s clerk notices that Jekyll and Hyde appear to have the same handwriting. Jekyll seems healthier and happier over the next few months but later starts refusing visitors. Utterson visits a dying Lanyon, who gives Utterson a document to be opened only after Jekyll’s death or disappearance. Weeks later, Poole requests that Utterson come to Jekyll’s home, as he is fearful that Hyde has murdered Jekyll. When Poole and Utterson break into the laboratory office, they find Hyde’s body on the floor and three documents for Utterson from Jekyll.

Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s documents reveal that Jekyll had secretly developed a potion to allow him to separate the good and evil aspects of his personality. He was thereby able at will to change into his increasingly dominant evil counterpart, Mr. Hyde. While the respectable doctor initially had no difficulty in returning from his rabid personality, he soon found himself slipping into Mr. Hyde without recourse to his drug. He temporarily stopped using his potion, but, when he tried it again, Mr. Hyde committed murder. After that, it took a vast amount of potion to keep him from spontaneously becoming Mr. Hyde. Unable to make any more of the drug because of an unknown but apparently crucial impurity in the original supply, Jekyll soon ran out of the drug. Indeed, he took the last of it to write a confession before becoming Hyde permanently.

The notion of the “double” was widely popular in the 19th century, especially in German literary discussions of the doppelgänger . Fyodor Dostoyevsky ’s The Double (1846) dealt with this very subject, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ’s classic Frankenstein tale (1818) can be read in this light. The theme was explored explicitly by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and by H.G. Wells in both The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and The Invisible Man (1897). In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Stevenson suggested that the human propensities for good and evil are not necessarily present in equal measure. Hyde is quite a bit smaller than Jekyll, perhaps indicating that evil is only a small portion of Jekyll’s total personality but one that may express itself in forceful, violent ways. The story has long been interpreted as a representation of the Victorians’ bifurcated self. Jekyll is in every way a gentleman, but just beneath the surface lie baser desires that remain unspoken; he is the very personification of the dichotomy between outward gentility and inward lust. Stevenson’s tale took on new resonance two years after publication with the grisly murders perpetrated by Jack the Ripper in 1888, when the psychological phenomenon that Stevenson explored was invoked to explain a new and specifically urban form of sexual savagery.

An adaptation of the tale for the stage was first performed in 1887, with Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde, and several popular films highlighted the novella’s horrific aspects, from a 1920 version starring John Barrymore to a 1971 B-movie , Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde , featuring a female alter ego. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), starring Fredric March , and a later adaptation starring Spencer Tracy (1941) were also notable. Stevenson’s story continued to inspire adaptations into the 21st century. It also spurred debate over whether its main character exhibits dissociative identity disorder , a form of psychosis , or some other psychopathology.

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Dr jekyll and mr hyde sample class essay.

Choose a novel which explores an important theme. Show how the author has explored this theme.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a novel which explores the theme of good versus evil. We can look at how Stevenson develops this theme through his characters Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde and Mr Utterson.

The first time we see the theme of good versus evil is in the first chapter when a mysterious figure, Hyde, tramples a child in the street and shows no remorse. The text tells us that ‘the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground’. The word ‘trampled’ tells us how he walked over the child, the word ‘calmly’ makes this seem evil though because he is not bothered about his actions, even worse he ignores her ‘screams’ – a clear sign that she is in pain. This shows us Hyde is evil as a normal person would react to the injured child and help her and apologise – Hyde does none of this showing he is bad.

Another way in which the theme of good versus evil is explored is through the setting of Dr Jekyll’s house – the front represents Jekyll and the back Hyde. We are told Jekyll’s house has a ‘comfortable hall… warmed … by a bright open fire, and furnished with costly cabinets of oak’ whereas we are told the lab is a ‘certain sinister block of building’. Jekyll is quite a jolly person and we see this in his house – it is ‘comfortable’ meaning relaxed, it is ‘warmed’ suggesting it is inviting, and it is ‘open’ which bears connotations of an open personality. Hyde on the other hand is secretive and deformed which is encapsulated in the adjective ‘sinister’ to describe the lab. The front of the house represents Jekyll and therefore goodness and a good reputation and the lab represents Hyde and evil.

A third way in which we see good versus evil developed as a theme is when Hyde brutally murders Carew in public and in cold blood. We are told Hyde behaved ‘like a madman’ and we get a graphic description of Hyde with ‘ape-like fury’ ‘trampling his victim underfoot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which bones were audibly shattered’. The simile at the start, ‘madman’ tells us he is psychotic and uncontrollable. This is reinforced with the second simile of ‘ape-like fury’ – he is animalistic. The description at the end is nauseating, we can easily picture and hear what is happening. The strength of the attack is given in the word ‘storm’ – Hyde is raging at Carew. This develops the theme of evil as Hyde’s attack was unprovoked, his reaction is instinctive and spurred by frustration, he does not think he merely acts on his whims.

Mr Utterson contributes to the theme of good versus evil as he attempts to protect Jekyll’s reputation through investigating Mr Hyde – there are several points where he should involve police but hides the truth instead. Mr Utterson realises Hyde and Jekyll have the same handwriting and he says ‘Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!’ before his ‘blood ran cold’. This tells us that Utterson is scared for his friend, Jekyll’s compliance in faking Hyde’s writing shows he sides with the murderer. This shows us good versus evil as Jekyll has made the wrong decision in siding with Hyde and we see him sliding down the spectrum of behaviour towards evil.

The final way in which good versus evil is explored is Jekyll’s suicide at the end which kills both himself and Hyde showing the triumph of good. We are told in Jekyll’s own words that ‘I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’ and we know that Utterson and Poole discover the body of Hyde from whom ‘life was quite gone’. Both characters are dead and at Jekyll’s decision, he concedes that his life has not been fun because of Hyde. We can see then that Jekyll in killing himself also kills Hyde, the symbols of good and evil are both dead for the greater good of ridding the world of Hyde.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Duality in “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”

Analysis of Jekyll and Hyde Duality in Stevenson's Novel

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Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 2426 | Pages: 5 | 13 min read

• Edley, N., & Wetherell, M. (2001). Jekyll and Hyde: Men's constructions of feminism and feminists. Feminism & Psychology, 11(4), 439-457. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353501011004002)
• Doane, J., & Hodges, D. (1989, October). Demonic Disturbances of Sexual Identity: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr/s Hyde. In NOVEL: a Forum on Fiction (Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 63-74). Duke University Press.(https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345579)
• Rose, B. A. (1996). Jekyll and Hyde Adapted: Dramatizations of Cultural Anxiety (No. 66). Greenwood Publishing Group. (https://www.worldcat.org/title/jekyll-and-hyde-adapted-dramatizations-of-cultural-anxiety/oclc/32921958)
• Becchio, C., Sartori, L., Bulgheroni, M., & Castiello, U. (2008). The case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a kinematic study on social intention. Consciousness and cognition, 17(3), 557-564. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810007000207)
• Lacey, N. (2010). Psychologising Jekyll, demonising Hyde: The strange case of criminal responsibility. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 4, 109-133. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11572-010-9091-8)

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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When reading literature and viewing movies much of the important messages and ideas can fly right by the audiences head without their knowledge. The best way avoid this is by entering the art we view with a purpose. The [...]

Stevenson uses many motifs in the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One of them that stands out the most is duality and opposites which are used throughout the novel in every chapter. Duality comes from the [...]

In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson employs Utterson as the narrator and voice of the novella, as well as the investigator or detective figure that allows the story to be ‘discovered’ dramatically by the reader. Utterson [...]

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Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: Themes ( AQA GCSE English Literature )

Revision note.

English Senior Content Creator

Exam responses that are led by ideas are more likely to reach the highest levels of the mark scheme. Exploring the ideas of the text, specifically in relation to the question being asked, will help to increase your fluency and assurance in writing about the novella.

Below are some ideas which could be explored in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This list is not exhaustive and you are encouraged to identify other ideas within the novella.

Good and Evil

Secrecy and reputation, science and religion.

The theme of duality is one of the most prevalent themes in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Although the theme does not become fully evident to the reader until the final chapter, Stevenson presents clues and references to this duality throughout the narrative.

Knowledge and evidence:

Stevenson presents the theme of duality primarily in the character of Jekyll as his inner sinister desires and his outward respectable persona are in conflict with each other, leading to his creation of Hyde:

Hyde appears in the narrative before Jekyll which reinforces the reader’s perception that he is a separate entity  rather than merely the alter-ego of Jekyll

Jekyll admits in the final chapter of the novella, that without Hyde, Jekyll lives a life of “profound duplicity”

While Jekyll is presented as a respectable gentleman, Stevenson hints at his cunning, secretive and deceitful nature by the manner in which he is first described, further alluding to the dual aspect of his character:

Jekyll is not simply portrayed as a purely good character, which reinforces Stevenson’s idea that human nature itself is both complex and multifaceted

Throughout the novella, Jekyll finds himself living a double life and he is unable to reconcile  the two sides of his character:

He wishes to be a respected doctor adhering to the highest moral standards. However, he also yearns to engage in malevolent  acts

Duality is further revealed in the novella’s setting of London:

Stevenson presents the city of London with contrasting descriptions where affluent streets exist next to areas of degradation  and poverty

The description of Jekyll’s house is also used to reveal a duality:

Stevenson presents the door at the front as having a “great air of wealth and comfort” leading to the reputable Jekyll; while the door at the back, which has an impression of “sordid negligence” leads to the repungant  Hyde

The door is used as a metaphor for the inner struggles between their two identities:

Stevenson uses this to comment on the deceptive outward appearance of upper Victorian society

Stevenson also hints at the concept of duality in other characters:

Utterson is described as a man having “a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile”, but also a man of “soundness of mind and ease of manner”

Stevenson hints that Enfield has all the exterior of a gentleman, though may also have sinister secrets of his own

By the end of the novella, Jekyll acknowledges "the thorough and primitive duality of man"

Stevenson continually uses contrasts to further underscore the aspect of duality throughout the novella: for example, rich/poor; light/dark; honesty/secrecy; night/day; inside/outside; respectability/ notoriety

What is Stevenson’s intention?

Stevenson is concerned about the duality of human nature and society in general and considers the idea that everyone is capable of good and evil deeds

Stevenson may also have used the dualities in the novella to reflect a society rapidly moving from the past into a new modern world

The theme of good and evil is closely linked to ideas about duality. Stevenson explores the tension which exists between good and evil and presents the temptation and allurement   of evil within the novella.

Jekyll is presented as a man with a reputation and a respected member of society representing good, while Hyde is depicted as a manifestation  of evil:

In Jekyll’s view, “man is not truly one, but truly two” and while he is aware of his good side, he also acknowledges there is evil within him

Jekyll believes that it is the “curse of mankind” that good and evil are bound together within him and the two parts are in direct conflict with one another:

Stevenson aims to highlight this idea of an innate  duality and the implications of giving in to one’s own evil side

Hyde’s sinister presence and actions are a constant reminder of the power of evil throughout the novella:

He invokes terror in other characters and again this may hint at the possibility of the inner evil and depraved  nature that resides within each person

Stevenson depicts Hyde as an inherently violent character and he displays no remorse for his crimes:

Both of Hyde’s victims are presented as innocent and vulnerable which elicits sympathy from the reader and makes them horrified at the wickedness of Hyde’s actions

All of the characters who encounter Hyde are repulsed by the sense of evil that he exudes:

For example, Stevenson uses contrasting imagery to describe Carew and Hyde to highlight the difference between what we could infer is the “good” character of Carew and the “evil” character of Hyde:

The imagery associated with Carew is linked to lightness and innocence: for example, “an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair” while Hyde is depicted as having an “ape-like fury”

Hyde is described in terms of animalistic imagery which strengthens as the novella develops: for example, “savage”, “snarled”, “ape-like fury” and “hardly human” all allude to his aggressive, predatory and primitive  nature:

Stevenson’s deliberate use of animal imagery is used to suggest Hyde’s separateness from human society and his unrestricted nature

Stevenson associates Hyde with Christian ideas about Hell and Satan and Jekyll repeatedly refers to him as “my devil”

Further, Stevenson presents evil through Hyde’s manner and appearance but he deliberately chooses to make that evil to remain somewhat undefined:

This lack of a clear definition of evil in the novella makes it appear more pervasive and more terrifying

Stevenson presents good and evil as a constant duality throughout the novel and portrays it as a natural facet of the individual, which results in an ongoing battle between the two

Stevenson proposes that the inherent evil aspect of man is merely suppressed by society and he attempts to explore the consequences of attempting to separate one from the other

Stevenson’s narrative explores the uncovering of Jekyll’s secret and the mystery of Hyde’s actions and identity. Other characters also display hints of secretive behaviour and the lengths they are determined to go to in order to preserve and protect their reputation and those of others.

The deepest secret in the novella is the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde which Stevenson uses to create tension and suspense

Jekyll is depicted as a respectable, model gentleman: he is courteous, has a wide circle of acquaintances, is charitable and supports the Church:

Underneath this veneer of respectability, Jekyll retains his dark secret, for if exposed to society, it would result in his utter ruination  

Stevenson also presents other characters who appear to retain secrets or fail to disclose information about their behaviour:

Lanyon refuses to tell Utterson as to why he had a disagreement with Jekyll; Enfield and Carew do not disclose why they are out walking the London streets late at night:

This heightens the sense of secrecy and suspicion within the novella, as characters withhold information in order to protect their reputation or the reputation of others 

As a character, Utterson attempts to only do good though he desperately tries to avert any form of scandal which could impair Jekyll’s reputation

All the way through the novel, Utterson does not share his suspicions about Jekyll because he wants to protect his friend’s reputation:

For example, when he suspects Hyde’s letter has been forged or believes Jekyll is hiding Hyde, he keeps it a secret in order to shield Jekyll from any public disgrace

Further, Utterson is motivated to maintain the appearance of respectability and propriety even though he is aware of the depravity  of Hyde’s actions

Even at the conclusion of the novella, Utterson remains steadfast in his belief that Jekyll’s reputation must be upheld: for example, “I would say nothing of this paper. If your master has fled or is dead, we may at least save his credit”

Ideas relating to secrecy are also revealed through descriptions and events within the narrative:

Stevenson continually references locked doors and windows, and letters with information that must not be read, which all heighten the sense of mystery of what is not being revealed to the reader:

In Chapter I, “The Story of the Door” Stevenson uses the door and lock to suggest how it can prevent the true nature of a person from being revealed

For example, “The door was very strong, the lock was excellent” underscores how deeply hidden and protected Jekyll’s secret appears to be that it cannot be easily penetrated

Further, pathetic fallacy  and the descriptions of the fog are used to create an atmosphere of concealment

Stevenson conveys how reputation is based merely on one’s appearance to society, rather than one’s actual conduct and this leads to ideas about hypocrisy

Stevenson demonstrates the extent to which the characters place reputation and respectability above responsibility

As science was considered new and unpredictable in the Victorian period, this led to increased anxieties about it. Stevenson uses the Victorians’ fear and uncertainty of science to make Jekyll’s experiment appear more frightening to his readership. 

Stevenson uses fear of the unknown to create anxiety and terror in the novella:

Victorian concerns about the progress of science makes Jekyll’s experiment even more terrifying as they would have feared his experiment might have been possible 

Jekyll is presented as a highly intelligent scientist with an inquiring mind:

His motivation for creating Hyde demonstrates his ability to question societal beliefs about science and religion

Jekyll’s experiments lead to a feud with his friend, Lanyon, as he believes Jekyll’s experiments are morally objectionable  and should not be conducted:

Lanyon is a respectable and conventional scientist and stands in contrast to Jekyll, as he views Jekyll’s experiments as dangerous and describes them as “scientific balderdash”

He is also established as one of Jekyll’s “oldest friends” and as his “colleague and old-school companion”:

Stevenson does so in order to depict how repulsed Lanyon is about Jekyll’s experiments, as he distances himself completely from his former friend

Lanyon is unable to reconcile his opposition to Jekyll’s experiments and as a result, their friendship ceases to exist

Lanyon is presented as conservative and traditional in his approach to science:

Stevenson positions Lanyon as the only character to witness Jekyll’s transformation, as his belief in the laws of science does not enable him to comprehend what he has witnessed: for example, he states “My life is shaken to its roots"

Lanyon’s shock at Jekyll’s experiment is so great that it leads to his own physical and mental deterioration and subsequent death

Stevenson presents Utterson as a highly moral and devout Christian and he is depicted as a model Victorian gentleman:

He is described as being “austere with himself” and that he restricts his pleasures: for example, he enjoys attending the theatre though had not frequented one for twenty years, due to their somewhat poor reputation

Jekyll could be viewed as using science to access the supernatural and could be viewed as ‘playing God’ by interfering with it

Further, the threat of the modern world of science is evident in the depiction of Carew as he is described as “innocent” and having an “old-world kindness of disposition”:

Carew’s world of tradition, politeness and decorum could be seen to be under threat by Jekyll’s scientific experiments and its alignment with modernity

Stevenson could be viewed critiquing the dangers of science 

Alternatively, Stevenson could also be suggesting that repressing natural urges and instincts will eventually lead to harm and injury

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson

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Jekyll and Hyde: Character Breakdown / Analysis - Study Guide

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

1 September 2024

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This 18-page downloadable digital + printable PDF + PPT + worksheet resource provides a detailed look into each of the characters in Jekyll and Hyde, including references to their key moments and explorations of common debates and interpretations. Suitable for GCSE, iGCSE and A Level students; a perfect revision resource for teaching and studying!

If you’re studying this particular piece, you’ve come to the right place. This is a massively in depth document that goes through everything you need to know to get absolutely top marks on exam papers, essays and coursework.

Characters included:

*Dr Henry Jekyll *Mr Edward Hyde *Gabriel Utterson *Dr Hastie Lanyon *Inspector Newcomen *Sir Danvers Carew *Enfield *Poole *Messrs. Maw *Mr Guest

Reasons to love this resource:

• A full breakdown of key characters
• Guided study questions to support different interpretations
• Perfect for expanding students’ knowledge of characterisation
• Help students to achieve higher grades in essays
• Suitable for students of all levels!
• Extra contextual details, literary device analysis and quotations provided for support with more difficult concepts
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This bundle contains everything you need to teach or study Stevenson's novella 'The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' in the form of digital and printable PDF documents. It’s perfect for students aged 14+. **This bundle is currently available at a 50% discount! ** Preview this document for free, to check whether it’s right for you [Jekyll and Hyde: Character Breakdown / Analysis](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13110830) With this bundle, students will be able to: * Understand the structural elements and key moments of the plot * Deepen their knowledge of characters, including understanding the deeper messages behind each one * Integrate the significance of the setting into their analyses and interpretations of the play as a whole * Memorise a range of carefully chosen key quotations for use in essays and analysis * Develop their language, structure and form analysis skills, with guided support and examples * Identify and analyse the thematic and contextual details * Learn approaches to a range of essay question types: discursive, argumentative, close reading * Become confident with extract interpretation and analysis * Develop their knowledge of tragic conventions and apply them to the novella * Expand their critical aptitude via exposure to key critical frameworks and critics’ quotations (for higher-level students) * Write their essays on Jekyll and Hyde, after support with planning help and example A* / top grade model answers Reasons to love this bundle: * Downloadable PDF documents, graphically designed to a high level, PowerPoints (ppts) and worksheets * Visual aids (photographs and drawings) to support learning * Organised categories that simplify the text for students * Print and digital versions - perfect for any learning environment * The unit has everything you need to start teaching or learning - starting with the basic story summary, going right up to deep contextual and critical wider readings * Lots of tasks and opportunities to practice literary analysis skills - students will be guided through writing a literary analysis response to the novella This is what you’ll get with this bundle: (each document includes digital + printable revision guide + PowerPoint + worksheet) THE COMPLETE JEKYLL AND HYDE COURSE: 1. Character Analysis / Breakdown (FREE!) 2. Plot Summary / Breakdown 3. Context Analysis 4. Genre 5. Key Quotations 6. Narrative Voice 7. Setting 8. Themes 9. Critical Interpretation / Critics' Quotations 10. Essay Help 11. Essay Planning 12. PEE Paragraph Practise 13. Essay Practise (Gothic Atmosphere) 14. L9 / A* Grade vs L7 / A Grade Example Essays + Feedback (Frightening Outsider) 15. L9 / A* Grade Essay Example (Tension and Mystery) 16. L8 / A Grade Essay Example + Feedback (Unnatural and Threatening) 17. L6 / B Grade Essay Example + Feedback (Suspicious Atmosphere) 18. L4 / C Grade Essay Example (Secrecy and Reputation) 19. Study Questions / Exercises 20. Essay Questions + Passage-based Questions Please review our content! We always value feedback and are looking for ways to improve our resources, so all reviews are more than welcome. Check out our [shop](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Scrbbly) here.

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