Chapter one

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  • Created by: Cat91
  • Created on: 26-10-18 12:09
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  • Chapter one
    • Characters
      • Mr Utterson
        • The narrator for most of the play
        • A lawyer
        • Reliable + rational
        • Stevenson shows that Utterson is the protagonist from the start and gives us a clear view straight away
          • He avoids the danger of the reader misinterpreting Utterson to be something he's not
          • He seems boring at first but then as the paragraph progresses he seems better, like how people see him
      • Mr Enfield
        • Old friend of Mr Utterson's
      • Edward Hyde
        • Only by mention
    • Mr Enfield tells Mr Utterson about Mr Hyde
      • Hyde is shown as a monster
        • He "calmly" tramples a girl and "left her screaming on the ground"
          • This is the first depiction of Hyde's evil nature
          • Stevenson has specifically done this to a child to increase the readers hate of Hyde
          • The oxymoron "trampled calmly" implies that Hyde is comfortable with violence
        • Outward appearance
          • "I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight"
    • Mr Enfield makes Hyde pay £100
      • "We screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child's family"
      • £100 was a lot of money
      • Hyde 'got' Dr Jekyll to pay the cheque
        • Enfield doesn't mention who actually paid for the cheque
          • But he does tell him who Hyde is
            • "I can't see what harm it would do"
          • He does mention that he thinks Hyde is blackmailing the person though
    • Key themes
      • Hyde's unnaturalness
        • His unnaturalness is the first mention of him as he trampled the girl
        • Enfield can't say what's unpleasant about him, just that it's something
          • "There is something wrong with his appearance, something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why"
          • Other people feel this way, indicating that there is something wrong with Hyde that is subconscious-sly recognised
        • Victorian readers would get more bible references than a modern audience
          • Utterson references the story of Cain and Able which implies that he doesn't worry about other people and isn't responsible for what happens to them
      • Medicine
        • The doctor that see's the trampled girl is the first of many medical professors in the book
          • Layon and Jekyll are both medical doctors too
      • Making mistakes
        • Enfield calls the house with the door blackmail house
          • He assumes that the only reason Jekyll is helping Hyde is because of blackmail
            • Utterson accepts this view and even acts on it later
            • As it turns out, this assumption is wrong
              • The first of many wrong assuptions
                • This helps Stevenson to keep suspense
    • Setting of London introduced
      • The first mention of 'the door' which becomes known as the back entrance to Dr J's lab
        • The prompt to get Enfield to tell the story about Hyde
          • Through Enfield's description it allows Stevenson to show us what it looks like
        • It stands out immediately  since it is ugly in comparison to the otherwise nice street
          • Commenting on how Hyde is not as respectable as the other gentleman of the time

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