Hyde
How does Stevenson present Hyde?
Stevenson presents Hyde as an accumulation of Victorian society’s fears, and the physical embodiment of
transgression and sin. Through primitive animalistic imagery, stevenson constructs hyde as a regression of humanity,
exposing the darwinian anxieties in victorian society. Ultimately, Hyde is presented as the consequence of repression,
suggesting that any attempts to purify oneself will only intensify corruption
This is why Hyde provokes such extreme aversion — Victorian society doesn't fear what is alien, they fear what is
recognisable. Hyde doesn't introduce evil, he reveals it, and that revelation is the true source of their
physiological terror.
Outward manifestation of inner sin, using religious imagery and language of possession to suggest that evil is not
merely committed but physically inscribed upon identity itself.
Satans signature on a face
Possessive noun as evil is personalised. Alliteration highlights how utterson cant stop looking at hyde and is transfixed
by his face, compares him directly to satan, barely even met him and feels like he’s a demon, signature= what utterson
values and the true way to verify someone, breaks down as identities change, its hydes fault. Evil is stamped and
binding, implies ownership. ‘Upon a face’ implies surface marking-like branding, face typically a marker of identity
becomes corrupted. However u can read this signature as this evil is not new to him, but one that he recognises,
showing his own immorality
“Icy pang and cold sweat” evokes reactions from both extremes, reflecting their own evil back onto them, particularly
unsettling
Alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil
Alone: isolation, paradoxically born from jekyll and mirrors jekylls loneliness later on, emphasizing his evil as he appears
to be the only creature like this. ‘Ranks’ conveys military order, ironic as hyde exists out of hierarchy and disregards
social order. Ironic absolute;purity usually positive but here the opposite as hyde continually subverts expectations.
Hyde is artificially purified evil-created by separation, absolute evil is unnatural, division creates monstrosity.
Like a damned juggernaut
Simile shows how it's uncanny and you can't quite place it, common theme, simile removes humanity. Damned shows
theological condemnation and how far removed he is from God. Juggernaut is an unstoppable crushing machine
paralleling hydes unchecked impulsive, and destructive behaviour. A hindu god, reinforcing his removal from christian
gods.heavy plosive consonants produce impact sounds. Moral restraint has collapsed, unnecessary.
Grew pale to the very lips and there came a blackness about his eyes
grew=gradual transformation, degeneration is progressive, very lips=speech and civility-morality drains from
communication itself. blackness=abstract noun, darkness as substance not colour, came=passive intrusion, evil enters,
eyes are the window to your soul, been blocked out by this, not able to see jekyll, syntax=blackness before eyes as evil
takes possession and is more controlling than his eyes
Through primitive and animalistic imagery, stevenson constructs hyde as a regression to humanity's ancestral savagery,
implying that beneath victorian refinement lies a dormant but irrepressible brutality that ultimatley engulfs the city itself
The fog rolled over the city
Definite article ‘the; suggest familiarity, almost expected, , corruption is habitual and familiar in victorian society. Fog is a
feature of industrial london so S roots the image in real life making it more threatening, creeps in unannounced.
‘rolled’=slow inevitable movement, moral decay is creeping and intruding. ‘Over’ = total coverage, society is engulfed.
Shows evil domineering over society, subverting victorian hierarchy as the primitive governs over all else. Soft fricative
of fog and smooth sounds almost gentle, as evil soothes its way in, showing corruption as something seductive and
imperceptible. syntactically fog comes first to show hydes overwhelming force. Corruption is not hydes alone, but
victorian societies
Ape-like
Hyphenated compound compresses human and animal into one disturbing form. ‘Ape’ direct evolutionary anxieties as
hyde resembles regression. Humanity is destabilised.
Something troglodytic
‘Something’ shows semantic vagueness, indefinite pronoun signals lexical failure, hyde exceeds vocabulary.
‘Troglodytic’ is a latinate adjective meaning cave-dwelling, describes primitiveness, civilization attempts to categorize
regression. Harsh consonant cluster ‘glod’ gives guttural weight. Hyde embodies Darwinian anxiety-regression beneath
refinement as savagery is dormant, not extinct.
Audibly cracked + storm of blows
Sensory immediacy; we hear brutality, cracked is fracture imagery, echoes divided identity. ‘Storm’ pathetic fallacy, hyde
is a natural force, the sibilance in storm creates a hissing violence. Hyde acts instinctively, not rationality, without
conscience, man resembles destructive nature.
Something wrong, something displeasing something downright detestable
“Something’ repetition creates rhythmic instability, like E is searching but cant find the correct word, highlights the
ambiguity as people can’t make out Hyde, he exists beyond rational categorisation, uncanny, recognisably human but
,linguistically ungraspable. “Wrong” shows Hyde as fundamentally flawed. He appears different to everyone and shows
their own evil, a mirror who projects people's own anxieties onto them. The repetition of ‘something’ exacerbates his evil
and the number of problems with him. Alliteration of ‘d’ is a harsh sound, blunt impact sounds, harsh consonants vs
breathy ‘something’ as it alternates between uncertainty vs violence. crescendo moves from mild unease to absolute
rejection. Hyde affects moral judgement and instinctive reaction.
Stevenson ultimately presents hyde not as an external monster, but as the intoxicating and destructive consequence of
prolonged repression, suggesting that attempts to purify the self only intensify and concentrate corruption.
“Sold a slave to my original evil”
Sold implies transaction, making jekyll aware and willing, repression was a deliberate bargain, making corrupt not just
inevitable but self-authored. Past tense=fate is sealed
“Salve” j positions his as enslaved yet paradoxically is the one who sold himself, repression creates the allusion of
control, but is actually the opposite. The longer J suppressed, the more power H accumulated, intensifying corruption
Original echoes original sin + also shows how its within everyone, always latent, repression never eliminated corruption,
only delayed it
evil= intentionally ambiguous, is it acc or is it what victorians consider evil, v rebranding it
j=victim and perpetrator simultaneously
Late in the novel, earlier h was unknown, here he has been revealed, mirroring repression and how it always comes out
“Ripe for the conception of the day”
Religious connotations, his creation is perceived as almost an act of divine conception. Alludes to Hyde's blasphemous
nature, grotesque perversion of natural order. ripe=organic metaphor like moral decay can mature, but also rot.
‘Conception’ birth imagery, he is conceived, ‘of the day’ usually symbolises clarity, here evil is born in daylight,
undermining the idea that darkness alone houses corruption. Hyde is the natural product of long repression
Icy pang and sweat
Oxymoronic temperature contrast, icy connotes paralysis and shock, pang=sudden pain, like fear internalised, sweat is
a physical manifestation of anxiety as the body betrays the mind. The body immediately reacts to sin, transgression is
psychologically and physically destabilising. All of the repressed, emotionless victorian men immediately react to hyde
The reactions he emits reached both extremes + different to every new person he encounters, creates a sense of
unease and ineffability, no clear or consistent description of him, everyone feels different about his evil, links to typical
gothic trope of the ‘unknown’ hydes evil is so deep it cant be explained.
I felt younger, lighter, happier
Comparative tricolon- rhythmic liberation. Soft liquid consonants create euphoria, hyde is experienced as freedom from
repression, social rigidity makes immorality seductive.
Great flame of anger
flame=fire imagery of destruction and uncontrollable spread, fire also echoes hellfire-theological judgment, hyde is
emotional extremity
Jekyll How does stevenson present jekyll?
Stevenson presents Dr Jekyll as a fundamentally divided man whose downfall stems not from the existence of evil, but from his
arrogant attempt to isolate and control it. While he initially appears as the model of Victorian respectability, his confession
reveals indulgence, repression and intellectual hubris at the core of his experiment. Through imagery of imprisonment, disease
and moral transaction, Stevenson suggests that human nature cannot be purified through division; instead, fragmentation
intensifies corruption and ultimately destroys identity.
Stevenson first presents Jekyll as the embodiment of victorian propriety, yet subtly destabilises this image by suggesting
that his polished exterior conceals internal moral instability.
“Well-made smooth faced man of fifty”
‘Well-made’ implies construction and social fabrication. ‘Smooth-faced’ shows a polished exterior; smoothness suggest
concealment. ‘Fifty’ maturity-he should be morally stable, description contrasts violently with hydes deformity,
respectability is all a facade. asyndetic listings creates a rapid seamless rhythm presenting j as well-formed, perfection
at duplicity
“Grew pale to the very lips and there came a blackness about his eyes”
‘Grew pale’ is a passive transformation, no agent, evil doesn’t make him pale, it emerges from within, also physical
response. The verb ‘grew’ implies organic development, this is not sudden shock- it is growth, evil develops like an
infection. ‘Pale’ signifies fear or weakness, the lips are associated with speech and civility: language itself is drained,
social respectability is losing value. Eyes = perception, conscience, the soul, blackness of vision and morality. ‘About his
eyes’ like encirclement, possession, mirrors the fog encircling london. Blackness is before suggesting it has taken
control of the eyes.
The very pink of the proprieties
Pink is ironically delicate soft colour, contrasts with violence later
Plural proprieties emphasizes rigid social codes
Alliteration of p creates a light almost mocking tone
Jekyll initially embodies victorian ideal, hyde emerges from the most respectable source
Respectability does not eliminate corruption, it conceals it
, Stevenson presents Jekyll’s experiment as the product of intellectual arrogance, exposing the danger of reducing complex
human nature to a simplistic binary of good and evil.
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil”
Commingled implies inseparable fusion and chemical fusion, molecular integration, mirrors jekylls scientific framing but
also undermines it, if elements are chemically bonded, separation destabilises structure. Universalising statement,
transforms personal failure into anthropological theory. Statement is correct, but the conclusion is flawed, he believes
separation is the solution, Stevenson implies integration is the solution. Duality is natural, fragmentation is catastrophic
“Man is not truly one, but truly two”
Repetition of truth is defensive, insists on the truth. Structure resembles genesis phrasing, mimics scripture, jekyll
elevates his theory to doctrine, he replaces religion with self-made philosophy. One vs two is false human psychology is
not binary, it is layered. Novel ultimately disproves him, he doesnt become two balanced beings, he bcomes one
consumed by the other, the tragedy is not that man is two, jekyll tries to make him two, the attempt to categorise
morality into clean halves is unnatural. Stevenson presents jekyll as a man who mistakes division for purification, but
instead creates concentrated evil, in his attempt to externalise it, he internalises destruction.
“Sold a slave to my original evil”
Selling implies transaction, choice. Verb exposes jekylls agency, not a victim, a merchant of his own morality. Slave has
no autonomy, but he enslaves himself willingly, he is both master and captive. Original sin echo, jekyll implies evil was
always there, the potion didn't create it. He commodifies his conscience, showing evil is not accidental, it is often chosen
in exchange for freedom from restraint
Past tense=fate is sealed
“Salve” j positions his as enslaved yet paradoxically is the one who sold himself, repression creates the allusion of
control, but is actually the opposite. The longer J suppressed, the more power H accumulated, intensifying corruption
As the narrative progresses, stevenson presents jekyll as increasingly imprisoned by the very instincts that he sought to
control, suggesting that regression magnifies what it attempts to suppress
“My devil had long been caged, he came out roaring”
Possessive ‘my’, ownership as hyde belongs to him, shift of pronouns shows shift of blame. ‘Devil’ has a biblical
connotation of innate evil, not created but released. ‘Caged’ has repression imagery, Victorian society suppresses
desire. ‘Roaring’ shows animalistic, violent sound; suppression intensified the explosion. Jekyll and stevenson blame
repression for hydes force, the more violently you suppress instinct, the more violently it returns.
“Delighted me like wine”
Simile: wine intoxicates and removes restraint. The comparison implies hyde feels intoxicating. ‘Delighted; is a joyful
verb, jekyll isn't coerced into evil, he enjoys it. Early in his confessional narrative, reveals complicity, hyde is not an
accident, he is indulgence. Sin is pleasurable- this is precisely why it is dangerous.
“More wicked, tenfold more wicked”
Second clause goes from comparison to exponential growth. Tenfold implies magnification, concentration, hyde is
concentrated evil. Repeated plosive sounds create harshness, sound reflects brutality. Jekylls theory fails because
morality cannot be separated without distortion, division intensifies what is isolated. If you attempt to remove guilt from
sin, you remove restraint, hyde has no conscience and is tenfold.
“I was slowly losing control of my older better self”
Slowly suggest gradual decline, creeping corruption,
comparative ‘better’ implies moral hierarchy within himself, how strong victorian social standards are.
‘Losing control’ is diminishing agency and hinst towards addiction,
jekyll realises transformation is no longer voluntary, you can begin in control of sin; you rarely end that way.
“I had gone to bed henry jekyll, and awakened edward hyde”
Parallel sentence structure mirrors transformation whilst full proper names emphasise two distinct identities. ‘Awakened;
suggest hyde was always sleeping inside of him and part of him. Loss of potion dependency, duality is natural not
chemical also showing hyde as intrinsic not artificial.
“Like a disconsolate prisoner, with an infinite sadness of mien”
Simile, prisoner is confined, punished, and deprived of freedom: reverses earlier power- jekyll is no longer in control of
hyde; incarcerated by his own creation. disconsolate= prefix dis intensifies loss. He cannot be consoled because
problem is internal. ‘Infinite’ suggest boundlessness- his suffering has no measurable limit, the hyperbole reflects
psychological despair. ‘Mien’ archaic word meaning expression or bearing, emphasises outward appearance-even his
face no reveals inner torment. Appearance and inner state are collapsing into one. Jekyll is trapped, not by society but
by himself, repression does not free you, it eventually imprisons you.
“If i am the chief of sinners, i am the chief of sufferers also”
Parallel structure creates balance- he equates guilt with victimhood. Superlative ‘chief’, he elevates him morally even in
confession. Alliteration links to ‘s’ words suggests cause and consequence are inseparable. Jekyll frames himself as
tragic, he refuses full accountability, self-pity is a form of moral evasion.
“A creature eaten up and emptied by a fever, languidly weak”
‘Creature’ is a dehumanising noun, jekyll is reduced to something less than fully human. ‘Eaten up’ internal destruction
imagery, suggests corrosion from within-moral decay manifesting physically. ‘Emptied’ loss of substance, identity, vitality.
‘Fever’ connotes illness, obsession, uncontrollable heat-like ‘great flame’. ‘Languidly weak’ soft dragging consonants
How does Stevenson present Hyde?
Stevenson presents Hyde as an accumulation of Victorian society’s fears, and the physical embodiment of
transgression and sin. Through primitive animalistic imagery, stevenson constructs hyde as a regression of humanity,
exposing the darwinian anxieties in victorian society. Ultimately, Hyde is presented as the consequence of repression,
suggesting that any attempts to purify oneself will only intensify corruption
This is why Hyde provokes such extreme aversion — Victorian society doesn't fear what is alien, they fear what is
recognisable. Hyde doesn't introduce evil, he reveals it, and that revelation is the true source of their
physiological terror.
Outward manifestation of inner sin, using religious imagery and language of possession to suggest that evil is not
merely committed but physically inscribed upon identity itself.
Satans signature on a face
Possessive noun as evil is personalised. Alliteration highlights how utterson cant stop looking at hyde and is transfixed
by his face, compares him directly to satan, barely even met him and feels like he’s a demon, signature= what utterson
values and the true way to verify someone, breaks down as identities change, its hydes fault. Evil is stamped and
binding, implies ownership. ‘Upon a face’ implies surface marking-like branding, face typically a marker of identity
becomes corrupted. However u can read this signature as this evil is not new to him, but one that he recognises,
showing his own immorality
“Icy pang and cold sweat” evokes reactions from both extremes, reflecting their own evil back onto them, particularly
unsettling
Alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil
Alone: isolation, paradoxically born from jekyll and mirrors jekylls loneliness later on, emphasizing his evil as he appears
to be the only creature like this. ‘Ranks’ conveys military order, ironic as hyde exists out of hierarchy and disregards
social order. Ironic absolute;purity usually positive but here the opposite as hyde continually subverts expectations.
Hyde is artificially purified evil-created by separation, absolute evil is unnatural, division creates monstrosity.
Like a damned juggernaut
Simile shows how it's uncanny and you can't quite place it, common theme, simile removes humanity. Damned shows
theological condemnation and how far removed he is from God. Juggernaut is an unstoppable crushing machine
paralleling hydes unchecked impulsive, and destructive behaviour. A hindu god, reinforcing his removal from christian
gods.heavy plosive consonants produce impact sounds. Moral restraint has collapsed, unnecessary.
Grew pale to the very lips and there came a blackness about his eyes
grew=gradual transformation, degeneration is progressive, very lips=speech and civility-morality drains from
communication itself. blackness=abstract noun, darkness as substance not colour, came=passive intrusion, evil enters,
eyes are the window to your soul, been blocked out by this, not able to see jekyll, syntax=blackness before eyes as evil
takes possession and is more controlling than his eyes
Through primitive and animalistic imagery, stevenson constructs hyde as a regression to humanity's ancestral savagery,
implying that beneath victorian refinement lies a dormant but irrepressible brutality that ultimatley engulfs the city itself
The fog rolled over the city
Definite article ‘the; suggest familiarity, almost expected, , corruption is habitual and familiar in victorian society. Fog is a
feature of industrial london so S roots the image in real life making it more threatening, creeps in unannounced.
‘rolled’=slow inevitable movement, moral decay is creeping and intruding. ‘Over’ = total coverage, society is engulfed.
Shows evil domineering over society, subverting victorian hierarchy as the primitive governs over all else. Soft fricative
of fog and smooth sounds almost gentle, as evil soothes its way in, showing corruption as something seductive and
imperceptible. syntactically fog comes first to show hydes overwhelming force. Corruption is not hydes alone, but
victorian societies
Ape-like
Hyphenated compound compresses human and animal into one disturbing form. ‘Ape’ direct evolutionary anxieties as
hyde resembles regression. Humanity is destabilised.
Something troglodytic
‘Something’ shows semantic vagueness, indefinite pronoun signals lexical failure, hyde exceeds vocabulary.
‘Troglodytic’ is a latinate adjective meaning cave-dwelling, describes primitiveness, civilization attempts to categorize
regression. Harsh consonant cluster ‘glod’ gives guttural weight. Hyde embodies Darwinian anxiety-regression beneath
refinement as savagery is dormant, not extinct.
Audibly cracked + storm of blows
Sensory immediacy; we hear brutality, cracked is fracture imagery, echoes divided identity. ‘Storm’ pathetic fallacy, hyde
is a natural force, the sibilance in storm creates a hissing violence. Hyde acts instinctively, not rationality, without
conscience, man resembles destructive nature.
Something wrong, something displeasing something downright detestable
“Something’ repetition creates rhythmic instability, like E is searching but cant find the correct word, highlights the
ambiguity as people can’t make out Hyde, he exists beyond rational categorisation, uncanny, recognisably human but
,linguistically ungraspable. “Wrong” shows Hyde as fundamentally flawed. He appears different to everyone and shows
their own evil, a mirror who projects people's own anxieties onto them. The repetition of ‘something’ exacerbates his evil
and the number of problems with him. Alliteration of ‘d’ is a harsh sound, blunt impact sounds, harsh consonants vs
breathy ‘something’ as it alternates between uncertainty vs violence. crescendo moves from mild unease to absolute
rejection. Hyde affects moral judgement and instinctive reaction.
Stevenson ultimately presents hyde not as an external monster, but as the intoxicating and destructive consequence of
prolonged repression, suggesting that attempts to purify the self only intensify and concentrate corruption.
“Sold a slave to my original evil”
Sold implies transaction, making jekyll aware and willing, repression was a deliberate bargain, making corrupt not just
inevitable but self-authored. Past tense=fate is sealed
“Salve” j positions his as enslaved yet paradoxically is the one who sold himself, repression creates the allusion of
control, but is actually the opposite. The longer J suppressed, the more power H accumulated, intensifying corruption
Original echoes original sin + also shows how its within everyone, always latent, repression never eliminated corruption,
only delayed it
evil= intentionally ambiguous, is it acc or is it what victorians consider evil, v rebranding it
j=victim and perpetrator simultaneously
Late in the novel, earlier h was unknown, here he has been revealed, mirroring repression and how it always comes out
“Ripe for the conception of the day”
Religious connotations, his creation is perceived as almost an act of divine conception. Alludes to Hyde's blasphemous
nature, grotesque perversion of natural order. ripe=organic metaphor like moral decay can mature, but also rot.
‘Conception’ birth imagery, he is conceived, ‘of the day’ usually symbolises clarity, here evil is born in daylight,
undermining the idea that darkness alone houses corruption. Hyde is the natural product of long repression
Icy pang and sweat
Oxymoronic temperature contrast, icy connotes paralysis and shock, pang=sudden pain, like fear internalised, sweat is
a physical manifestation of anxiety as the body betrays the mind. The body immediately reacts to sin, transgression is
psychologically and physically destabilising. All of the repressed, emotionless victorian men immediately react to hyde
The reactions he emits reached both extremes + different to every new person he encounters, creates a sense of
unease and ineffability, no clear or consistent description of him, everyone feels different about his evil, links to typical
gothic trope of the ‘unknown’ hydes evil is so deep it cant be explained.
I felt younger, lighter, happier
Comparative tricolon- rhythmic liberation. Soft liquid consonants create euphoria, hyde is experienced as freedom from
repression, social rigidity makes immorality seductive.
Great flame of anger
flame=fire imagery of destruction and uncontrollable spread, fire also echoes hellfire-theological judgment, hyde is
emotional extremity
Jekyll How does stevenson present jekyll?
Stevenson presents Dr Jekyll as a fundamentally divided man whose downfall stems not from the existence of evil, but from his
arrogant attempt to isolate and control it. While he initially appears as the model of Victorian respectability, his confession
reveals indulgence, repression and intellectual hubris at the core of his experiment. Through imagery of imprisonment, disease
and moral transaction, Stevenson suggests that human nature cannot be purified through division; instead, fragmentation
intensifies corruption and ultimately destroys identity.
Stevenson first presents Jekyll as the embodiment of victorian propriety, yet subtly destabilises this image by suggesting
that his polished exterior conceals internal moral instability.
“Well-made smooth faced man of fifty”
‘Well-made’ implies construction and social fabrication. ‘Smooth-faced’ shows a polished exterior; smoothness suggest
concealment. ‘Fifty’ maturity-he should be morally stable, description contrasts violently with hydes deformity,
respectability is all a facade. asyndetic listings creates a rapid seamless rhythm presenting j as well-formed, perfection
at duplicity
“Grew pale to the very lips and there came a blackness about his eyes”
‘Grew pale’ is a passive transformation, no agent, evil doesn’t make him pale, it emerges from within, also physical
response. The verb ‘grew’ implies organic development, this is not sudden shock- it is growth, evil develops like an
infection. ‘Pale’ signifies fear or weakness, the lips are associated with speech and civility: language itself is drained,
social respectability is losing value. Eyes = perception, conscience, the soul, blackness of vision and morality. ‘About his
eyes’ like encirclement, possession, mirrors the fog encircling london. Blackness is before suggesting it has taken
control of the eyes.
The very pink of the proprieties
Pink is ironically delicate soft colour, contrasts with violence later
Plural proprieties emphasizes rigid social codes
Alliteration of p creates a light almost mocking tone
Jekyll initially embodies victorian ideal, hyde emerges from the most respectable source
Respectability does not eliminate corruption, it conceals it
, Stevenson presents Jekyll’s experiment as the product of intellectual arrogance, exposing the danger of reducing complex
human nature to a simplistic binary of good and evil.
“All human beings are commingled out of good and evil”
Commingled implies inseparable fusion and chemical fusion, molecular integration, mirrors jekylls scientific framing but
also undermines it, if elements are chemically bonded, separation destabilises structure. Universalising statement,
transforms personal failure into anthropological theory. Statement is correct, but the conclusion is flawed, he believes
separation is the solution, Stevenson implies integration is the solution. Duality is natural, fragmentation is catastrophic
“Man is not truly one, but truly two”
Repetition of truth is defensive, insists on the truth. Structure resembles genesis phrasing, mimics scripture, jekyll
elevates his theory to doctrine, he replaces religion with self-made philosophy. One vs two is false human psychology is
not binary, it is layered. Novel ultimately disproves him, he doesnt become two balanced beings, he bcomes one
consumed by the other, the tragedy is not that man is two, jekyll tries to make him two, the attempt to categorise
morality into clean halves is unnatural. Stevenson presents jekyll as a man who mistakes division for purification, but
instead creates concentrated evil, in his attempt to externalise it, he internalises destruction.
“Sold a slave to my original evil”
Selling implies transaction, choice. Verb exposes jekylls agency, not a victim, a merchant of his own morality. Slave has
no autonomy, but he enslaves himself willingly, he is both master and captive. Original sin echo, jekyll implies evil was
always there, the potion didn't create it. He commodifies his conscience, showing evil is not accidental, it is often chosen
in exchange for freedom from restraint
Past tense=fate is sealed
“Salve” j positions his as enslaved yet paradoxically is the one who sold himself, repression creates the allusion of
control, but is actually the opposite. The longer J suppressed, the more power H accumulated, intensifying corruption
As the narrative progresses, stevenson presents jekyll as increasingly imprisoned by the very instincts that he sought to
control, suggesting that regression magnifies what it attempts to suppress
“My devil had long been caged, he came out roaring”
Possessive ‘my’, ownership as hyde belongs to him, shift of pronouns shows shift of blame. ‘Devil’ has a biblical
connotation of innate evil, not created but released. ‘Caged’ has repression imagery, Victorian society suppresses
desire. ‘Roaring’ shows animalistic, violent sound; suppression intensified the explosion. Jekyll and stevenson blame
repression for hydes force, the more violently you suppress instinct, the more violently it returns.
“Delighted me like wine”
Simile: wine intoxicates and removes restraint. The comparison implies hyde feels intoxicating. ‘Delighted; is a joyful
verb, jekyll isn't coerced into evil, he enjoys it. Early in his confessional narrative, reveals complicity, hyde is not an
accident, he is indulgence. Sin is pleasurable- this is precisely why it is dangerous.
“More wicked, tenfold more wicked”
Second clause goes from comparison to exponential growth. Tenfold implies magnification, concentration, hyde is
concentrated evil. Repeated plosive sounds create harshness, sound reflects brutality. Jekylls theory fails because
morality cannot be separated without distortion, division intensifies what is isolated. If you attempt to remove guilt from
sin, you remove restraint, hyde has no conscience and is tenfold.
“I was slowly losing control of my older better self”
Slowly suggest gradual decline, creeping corruption,
comparative ‘better’ implies moral hierarchy within himself, how strong victorian social standards are.
‘Losing control’ is diminishing agency and hinst towards addiction,
jekyll realises transformation is no longer voluntary, you can begin in control of sin; you rarely end that way.
“I had gone to bed henry jekyll, and awakened edward hyde”
Parallel sentence structure mirrors transformation whilst full proper names emphasise two distinct identities. ‘Awakened;
suggest hyde was always sleeping inside of him and part of him. Loss of potion dependency, duality is natural not
chemical also showing hyde as intrinsic not artificial.
“Like a disconsolate prisoner, with an infinite sadness of mien”
Simile, prisoner is confined, punished, and deprived of freedom: reverses earlier power- jekyll is no longer in control of
hyde; incarcerated by his own creation. disconsolate= prefix dis intensifies loss. He cannot be consoled because
problem is internal. ‘Infinite’ suggest boundlessness- his suffering has no measurable limit, the hyperbole reflects
psychological despair. ‘Mien’ archaic word meaning expression or bearing, emphasises outward appearance-even his
face no reveals inner torment. Appearance and inner state are collapsing into one. Jekyll is trapped, not by society but
by himself, repression does not free you, it eventually imprisons you.
“If i am the chief of sinners, i am the chief of sufferers also”
Parallel structure creates balance- he equates guilt with victimhood. Superlative ‘chief’, he elevates him morally even in
confession. Alliteration links to ‘s’ words suggests cause and consequence are inseparable. Jekyll frames himself as
tragic, he refuses full accountability, self-pity is a form of moral evasion.
“A creature eaten up and emptied by a fever, languidly weak”
‘Creature’ is a dehumanising noun, jekyll is reduced to something less than fully human. ‘Eaten up’ internal destruction
imagery, suggests corrosion from within-moral decay manifesting physically. ‘Emptied’ loss of substance, identity, vitality.
‘Fever’ connotes illness, obsession, uncontrollable heat-like ‘great flame’. ‘Languidly weak’ soft dragging consonants
