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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.
Theme: Secrecy. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is shrouded in secrecy, from Jekyll’s hidden experiments to Hyde’s unknown origins and crimes. This is a reflection of the dual nature of man’s character as portrayed in the book.
- Jekyll’s House and Laboratory
- Doors
- Hyde’s Physical Appearance
Dr. Jekyll lives in a well-appointed home, characterized by Stevenson as having “a great air of wealth and comfort.” His laboratory is described as “a certain sinister block of building … [which] bore in every feature the marks of profound and sordid negligence.” With its decaying facade and air of neglect, the laboratory quite neatly symbolizes th...
Stevenson includes a number of significant doors throughout the text, and collectively, they work to symbolize the Victorian Era’s preoccupation with the separation of public life and private life. The front door of Jekyll’s house and the back door of the laboratory, for example, represent physical barriers between the curious eyes of the public an...
According to the indefinite remarks made by his overwhelmed observers, Hyde appears repulsively ugly and deformed, small, shrunken, and hairy. His physical ugliness and deformity symbolizes his moral hideousness and warped ethics. Indeed, for the audience of Stevenson’s time, the connection between such ugliness and Hyde’s wickedness might have bee...
- "He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.
- “He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake's sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man.
- The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care to hear more," said he.
- And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Much of the suspense associated with the mysteries of the novel are suspenseful solely because they are deliberately kept secret or repressed by the characters.
Get everything you need to know about Science, Reason and the Supernatural in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Analysis, related quotes, theme tracking.
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Hyde “came out roaring” after having been suppressed for so long and, with unprecedented strength and menace, “mauled the unresisting body” of Sir Danvers Carew. This act satisfies Hyde’s inherent urge for evil but leaves Jekyll distraught and in tears as he prays to God for forgiveness.
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