Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer of the Victorian era. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson was a very poorly child who read a great deal about travel and adventure. A combination of his love of adventure and ill health led him to spend many years as a writer travelling the world in search of a climate that was healthier than Britain's. Stevenson was influenced by the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens and wrote in a range of genres including adventure, historical and horror. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Religion and science in the 19th century
Jekyll and Hyde was published in 1886, when Stevenson was 36. Like many writers of the late 19th Century, Stevenson was greatly influenced by Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species published in This groundbreaking book introduced the Theory of Evolution in which Darwin put forward the theory that all life, including humans, has evolved over millions of years. The book was (and still is) very controversial and many saw it as an attack on religion. This was a time when science and religion were beginning to appear very much at odds with each other and many people felt they had to choose between the two. There was also a concern amongst religious people that science was becoming dangerous and was interfering in matters which only God had control over. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde Dr. Jekyll is something of a maverick scientist keen to push the laws of nature to their limit and blur the boundaries between science and the supernatural. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Nature versus the supernatural
In the Victorian era there is not only the emerging conflict between science and religion but also the idea that humanity itself is in constant conflict. The idea that humans have a dual nature was (and still is) a widely held belief. On the one hand, people lead calm, rational, everyday lives but on the other, darker side of humanity, dwelt sexual fantasies, nightmares, violence and murder. It was the rational versus the irrational; nature versus the supernatural; good against evil. This duality of human nature is the main theme that the novel explores. The infamous Jack the Ripper murders occurred in London in 1880s which seemed to underlined the Jekyll and Hyde duality of human nature, especially as the evidence suggested that the murderer was an educated and ‘respectable’ man. Image: Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Victorian London Stevenson describes London as a place of great contrast. As Utterson and Enfield walk the streets we see both sides of the city. At first they pass through affluent busy streets which have an ‘air of invitation’ like ‘rows of smiling sales women’ and a ‘general cleanliness’. However as they turn the corner the scene changes dramatically. Here they pass buildings without windows which bore ‘the marks of prolonged and sordid neglect’ where ‘tramps slouched into the recess’ and unruly children vandalise the buildings. Stevenson uses contrast throughout the story to convey places and people and also to explore themes of duality and human nature. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

A Very Strange Case – Part 1
Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer, is walking through the streets of London with his relative Richard Enfield when they pass an odd-looking door. The door reminds Enfield of an incident involving the door which took place on a dark winter morning. Enfield tells Utterson how he saw a man trampling on a young girl. Horrified, Enfield chased after the man and brought him back to the scene of the crime. The sinister man offered to pay the girl compensation. He opened the door with a key and re-emerged with some money and a large cheque signed by respectable gentleman Dr. Henry Jekyll (a client and friend of Utterson's). Utterson is very curious about the incident and later that evening he takes the will of his friend Dr Jekyll from his safe. It contains a disturbing instruction: in the event of Dr Jekyll's disappearance, all his possessions are to go to Mr Hyde. Utterson decides to visit Dr Lanyon, an old friend of his and Dr Jekyll's, but Lanyon has never heard of Hyde, and has not seen Jekyll for years. Utterson, concerned about his friend Dr Jekyll decides to keep vigil outside the strange door which belongs to Dr Jekyll's old laboratory. Finally he sees Hyde unlocking the door and is shocked by the evil and hideous aura that seems to emanate from him. Utterson becomes convinced that Hyde is a danger to Jekyll and decides to warn his friend to stay away from Hyde. However he is told by the servant, Poole, that Jekyll is out and the servants have all been instructed by Jekyll to obey Hyde. Utterson is increasingly anxious and becomes convinced that Hyde is planning to kill Jekyll to benefit from the will. A couple of weeks later Utterson talks to Jekyll about the will at a dinner party. Jekyll makes light of Utterson's concerns and compares Utterson to Dr Lanyon. Indeed the two are similar - rational and respectable modern men - a stark contrast to the unconventional and rather unpredictable Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll refuses to tell Utterson the full story about Hyde and asks Utterson to make sure the will is carried out. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

A year later, an elderly gentleman is brutally clubbed to death in the street by Hyde, who is recognised by a witness. A letter addressed to Utterson is found on the body and the police contact him. He recognises the murder weapon as the broken half of a walking cane he gave to Jekyll years earlier. Utterson takes the police to Hyde's house where they discover the other half of the murder weapon and signs of a hurried exit. Utterson visits Jekyll and finds him 'looking deadly sick'. He asks again about Hyde. Jekyll assures him that Hyde has gone for good and he shows Utterson a letter from Hyde to prove it. Utterson asks Guest, his head clerk, to compare the handwriting on the letter to that on an invitation from Jekyll. There is a resemblance between the two, though with a different slope. Utterson believes Jekyll has forged the letter in Hyde's handwriting to cover his escape. Time passes and the police are unable to find Hyde. In contrast, Jekyll initially seems happier and healthier, however, he soon becomes depressed and refuses to see Utterson. Utterson visits Dr Lanyon to discuss their friend's health, but is shocked to discover Lanyon ill and dying. Lanyon blames Jekyll for his illness but refuses to explain further. Soon after Lanyon dies and leaves a letter for Utterson in an envelope marked 'not to be opened till the death or disappearance of Dr Henry Jekyll'. Utterson places it, unopened, in his safe. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Utterson tries to revisit Jekyll several times, but his servant, Poole, says he will not see anyone. However, one evening, Jekyll's servant visits Utterson and asks him to come to Jekyll's house. They go to the laboratory, but the door is locked. The voice from inside does not sound like Jekyll's and both men believe it is Hyde. Poole says the voice has for days been crying out for a specific chemical to be brought, but the chemicals given have been rejected as 'not pure'. Poole says that earlier he caught a quick look at the person in the lab who looked barely human. They smash down the door and inside find a body. In its hand are the remnants of a test tube. The body is smaller than Jekyll's but wearing clothes that would fit him. On the table is a will dated that day which leaves everything to Utterson, with Hyde's name removed. There is also a package containing Jekyll's 'confession' and a letter asking Utterson to read Dr Lanyon's letter which he left after his death and is now in Utterson's safe. Utterson tells Poole he will return before midnight, when he has read all the documents. Chapter nine reveals how Lanyon received a letter from Jekyll asking him to collect a drawer containing chemicals, a vial and a notebook from Jekyll's laboratory and to give it to a man who would call at midnight. Lanyon says he was curious, especially as the book contained some bizarre entries. At midnight a man appears. He is small and grotesque, wearing clothes that are too large for him. The man (Hyde) drinks the potion and, before Lanyon's eyes, transforms into Dr Jekyll. In horror at what he has witnessed, Lanyon becomes seriously ill. In the final chapter Jekyll tells the story of how he transformed himself into Hyde. It began as scientific inquisitiveness into the good and evil of human nature and his attempt to destroy the evil side. However, Jekyll became addicted to the character of Hyde, who increasingly took over and destroyed him. The novel does not return to Utterson who, at the end of Chapter 8, left to return to Jekyll's house. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Henry Jekyll Henry Jekyll is a doctor and experimental scientist and, on the surface, he is wealthy and respectable. He has a reputation for being a friendly and sociable person with a group of friends which include the lawyer, Utterson, and another doctor, Hastie Lanyon. He was born to a respectable family and was well educated but from an early age had engaged in many ‘youthful indiscretions’ which he enjoyed but was careful to keep them a secret. As an aspiring doctor and respectable gentleman Jekyll realised that he risked professional ruin and scandal unless he modified his behaviour, so he repressed his darker side and led a regular life of respectability. When we meet him in the story he is a middle-aged man fascinated with the theory that every man has a "good" side and a "bad" side, and he has decided to investigate the theory, hoping to rid himself of his dark impulses forever. His investigations are successful and he creates a potion which personifies the "evil" in a person in the form of an completely different human being. This new, monstrous creation has no goodness or moral code and can commit acts of evil without remorse; furthermore, upon drinking the same potion it could then be transformed back into the original person. Edward Hyde is the personification of Jekyll’s “bad” side, a man capable of committing a number of crimes including the violent abuse of a child and the vicious unprovoked murder of the elderly Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll's obsession with Hyde grows out of his control and Hyde begins appearing whenever he wants to — and not at the command of Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll cuts himself off from the outside world and lives in his laboratory in a constant state of anxiety, trying but failing to control Hyde. Finally, traumatised by guilt, anxiety and a lack of sleep he commits suicide just as Utterson and Poole break down the laboratory door. As Jekyll is dying, Hyde appears, and it is the body of Hyde which Utterson and Poole discover. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Edward Hyde Hyde, as his name indicates, represents the hidden dark side of mankind. Hyde represents the embodiment of pure evil; When we first encounter him, he tramples a young girl in the street. His presence creates feelings of fear, antagonism, and loathing in other people. In the scene where he pays compensation to the girl (and in other times in the story) people react with horror. Just the sight of him seems to stir within people a feeling of terror and a deep desire to commit violence. Indeed, the mere presence and appearance of Edward Hyde brings out the very worst evil in other people. As Hyde represents the evil in man (or in Dr. Jekyll), he is, therefore, symbolically represented as being much smaller than Dr. Jekyll — Jekyll's clothes are far too large for him — and Hyde is also many years younger than Jekyll. This could suggest that the good in humanity outweighs the bad or that the evil side of Jekyll did not develop until later in life. As the story unfolds, Hyde's acts become increasingly horrific climaxing in the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Hyde clubs Carew to death for absolutely no reason other than the fact that Sir Danvers appeared to be a good and kindly man — and pure evil despises pure goodness. Since Hyde symbolises the evil or perverse side of Jekyll, and since Jekyll does, vicariously, get pleasure from the degradations which Hyde commits, Hyde gradually begins to take control of the good Dr. Jekyll. A conflict within Jekyll erupts which ultimately results in Jekyll’s suicide – his final desperate act to get rid of Hyde. As Jekyll dies he transforms once again into Hyde, and it is the body of Hyde that is discovered by Utterson and Poole when they break down Jekyll’s laboratory door. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Gabriel Utterson Mr Utterson is an old friend of Jekyll, and his lawyer. He is calm and logical and as a lawyer he believes in the rational world rather than the supernatural one. Like a scientist or a police investigator Utterson gathers evidence throughout the story. He attempts to solve the mystery by weighing up the evidence and coming to a reasonable conclusion. Utterson is 'a lover of the sane and customary sides of life’ and he is employed by Stevenson to represent the attitudes and viewpoints of the average Victorian man. However Utterson is not immune to irrational feelings and impulses. When he first meets Hyde he reacts in an irrational way: 'not all these points together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr Utterson regarded him.’ However for the majority of the time Utterson is clear headed and scientific in his deductions and ideas. Utterson is a good man. He spends a lot of time and effort attempting to help and advise Jekyll. Jekyll recognises that he is a good friend, but rejects all his offers of help as he realises that his problems are of the sort that Utterson would not be able to understand or help to resolve. Utterson is observant and inquisitive but at no point does he suspect Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. His rational view of the world makes such a conclusion preposterous which is why, even when he discovers that Hyde's and Jekyll's writing is strangely similar, Utterson draws a reasonable but wrong conclusion: that Jekyll has forged Hyde's handwriting to cover for him. In Chapter 8, Utterson disappears from the story as he goes home to read the documents found in Jekyll's laboratory. The novel ends with two chapters containing the two documents he goes home to read. The reader never discovers how Utterson reacts to the shocking news that the documents contain. We don’t know if he is taken ill like Lanyon or if changes his previously held beliefs or whether he refuses to believe what would be an incredible story in his rational eyes. He is left as an uncompleted character. Maybe Stevenson does this to suggest that reason and logic cannot provide us with all the answers to life’s mysteries. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Dr Hastie Lanyon In contrast to Jekyll, the "metaphysical" and experimental scientist, Lanyon is a "traditional" scientist — completely uninterested in the supernatural. As young men, Lanyon and Jekyll were close friends, but when Jekyll became obsessed with the darker aspects of science, the friends disagreed and fell out — about ten years before the story begins. Utterson questions Lanyon about Jekyll but Lanyon is very reluctant to reveal too much, only stating that Jekyll is interested in the ‘perverse’ aspects of science, and for that reason, he no longer speaks to him. As Jekyll’s decline takes hold he decides to reveal himself to Lanyon. This may be done to prove to Lanyon that Jekyll’s experiments were not ‘scientific balderdash’ or to punish Lanyon for his priggish condemnation of Jekyll. Whatever the reason, Hyde arranges a transformation to occur before the good doctor Lanyon. Lanyon is so horrified at what he see that he falls ill. He cannot cope with the fight between his common-sense view of the world and what Jekyll's experiments reveal. "I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken to its roots." A few weeks later, the doctor is dead of shock. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

The Duality of Human Nature
The title of the novel is now a part of our common language and can be found in any dictionary. Encarta defines ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ as ‘Someone seeming to have two different personalities. someone who seems to have two different characters, one good and one bad’ and it is often used to describe a person with a dual personality. In Chapter 10, Jekyll writes about the dual nature of human beings. He says that, as a young, educated man from a respectable family, he maintained an appearance of good behaviour at all times. But he says this was a fraud - no one suspected his true nature, which was at times extremely immoral. Jekyll's experiments began in an attempt to separate the two sides of human nature and destroy the evil one. He discovered that the evil part of his nature was, indeed, part of himself, and therefore, in some sense, natural and part of the whole. Jekyll was unable to destroy the evil side of his nature, instead he indulged it and it destroyed the good in him. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Science and the Supernatural
The story contains two doctors, each the complete opposite to the other and each representing different viewpoints and beliefs. Throughout the Victorian era traditional scientific thought and philosophy explained the real world through experiment and observation. Scientists are usually dismissive of the supernatural, and Lanyon has avoided Jekyll for ten years because of his 'fanciful' and 'wrong minded' ideas. Jekyll is an unconventional scientist reminiscent of Mary Shelley’s Dr Frankenstein, a major influence on the themes and characters of Jekyll and Hyde. Jekyll’s experiments are ‘mystic’ and ‘transcendental". He is fascinated by the secrets and enigmas of life and the universe and is more philosophical and mystical than traditional 19th-century science. It is significant that both Jekyll and Lanyon die in the story, each one destroyed by their unshakable beliefs. Lanyon by his incapacity to accept a world beyond the rational and scientific; Jekyll by accepting and unleashing the evil within his soul. Stevenson does not come down on one side or the other but instead asks us to consider for ourselves which is closer to the truth. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Reason and the Unexplained
Utterson is a lawyer and therefore he represents the rules and regulations of conventional society and the law. He is more like Lanyon than Jekyll and does not believe in the supernatural. Uttersons scepticism is the main reason why Jekyll cannot confide in him, even though they are old friends. Utterson is a good and well meaning man but his rationalism blinds him to the truth. Every time Utterson uncovers a fresh piece of evidence he comes to the wrong conclusions. As a lawyer he constantly suspects Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll or has some other criminal purpose. The ultimate failure of Utterson (and therefore the law of reason) is evident at the end of the novel. At the end of Chapter 8, The Last Night, Utterson states that "I shall be back before midnight, when we shall send for the police." But neither he nor the police (another symbol of the law) are heard of again. The law cannot explain the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Setting and Style The story is set in London at the time it was written – 1886 and Stevenson uses the city to create mood and to explore themes. In the opening chapter as Enfield and Utterson walk through the London streets we see the two contrasting sides of the city; one is modern, affluent and respectable whereas other parts of the city are filthy, poverty stricken and dens of criminality and violence. Edward Hyde lives in Soho, a poor and dangerous part of the affluent West End of London, while Jekyll’s house looks respectable from the front it has a hidden back door which opens onto a dark alley where Hyde comes and goes. This represents Jekyll himself – presenting a façade of middle class respectability which hides the immoral activity that happens when he slips out of the back door as Hyde. Stevenson uses vivid description of the misty, dreary London to enhance the dark mood of the story and to add tension into certain scenes. Indeed The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was something of a pioneer of modern urban gothic fiction which continues to be popular today in books (Iain Rankin), films (Batman) and TV dramas (Whitechapel). Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Symbolism – Keys, Doors and Windows
Symbolism is evident throughout the story, from the London streets to the characters themselves many elements of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde have significant meanings. As we have already discussed, Stevenson used the London cityscape to convey themes of respectability and criminality, good and evil and wealth and poverty living side by side and he uses the characters of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde to personify the two very different sides of human nature. However, there are many more symbols evident in the story. Images of keys, windows and doors appear throughout the story. In Chapter One the key used by Hyde is emphasised by Stevenson when he enters the hidden doorway, and we often are presented with locked doors, characters looking through windows and hidden entrances. Such images symbolise transformation and most are connected with the fate of Henry Jekyll. In Chapter One Hyde has a key to Jekyll’s house which allows him to leave and enter the property without being seen. Utterson is constantly ‘locked out’ by Jekyll both metaphorically and physically when he refuses to see him and hides in the laboratory. Jekylls’ will and Lanyon’s letter – both providing clues to the mystery are locked away in Utterson’s safe and in Chapter 7 Jekyll, detatched from his friends only speaks to them through the upstairs window or from behind a door. The only person in the story with a key is Hyde – who is himself the key to the mystery - the mystery which Utterson only solves when he breaks down the door of Jekyll’s laboratory. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Symbolism – Place and Weather
Just as Jekyll’s house symbolises the man himself with its pleasant front façade but ugly and derelict rear other places tell us more about characters, add drama to the story and explore and reinforce themes. Utterson and Lanyon’s houses are neat, clean and ordered whilst Jekyll’s laboratory is described as neglected and chaotic and Hyde’s Soho house is filthy and unloved. Again these images reveal character but also emphasise the themes of contrast and the duality of humanity. A dark and brooding atmosphere is set by the use of pathetic fallacy in which Stevenson describes the weather. It is often cold, dark or foggy. This not only sets an appropriate atmosphere for an urban gothic story but also reiterates the darkness that Jekyll and Hyde dwell in and the fog that Utterson cannot see through as he tries to solve the mystery. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Narrative methods Stevenson doesn’t use the distancing techniques of traditional Gothic literature but brings evil more immediately into reader’s lives. The characters are respectable and middle class – doctors and a lawyer – here evil isn’t some terrible creature that lurks in a windswept graveyard and howls at the moon. In Jekyll and Hyde evil is more real and it lurks in the darkness of the hearts of all men. Stevenson uses a range of techniques to add suspense and emotional impact. The story is told from a range of perspectives and the mystery is only gradually revealed. Two chapters take the form of letters while chapter four reads like a newspaper report. These techniques have two important functions. Firstly, the use of documents such as letters adds a sense of reality to the tale making it more credible and therefore more frightening. Secondly, it is significant that each character only reveals a part of the story. The only character that has anything like an overview of the case is Gabriel Utterson but at the end of the novel he disappears without trace and is never heard of again. This lack of omnipotence is central to one of the themes of the story – that by the limits of their powers of perception human beings are unable to see and comprehend the deep mysteries of the universe. Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Extension and Exam Questions
How does Stevenson explore human nature in the story? What is the importance of Utterson in the novel, and how does Stevenson present him? How does Stevenson use symbolism in the story? How does Stevenson present Victorian London in the story? Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

Links BBC Bitesize notes on plot, character, context and theme
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Wiki Copyright 2015 Online Teaching Resources Ltd

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