Jekyll and Hyde key themes

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  • Created by: emcgold
  • Created on: 07-02-20 06:28
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  • JEKYLL AND HYDE- THEMES
    • SCIENCE
      • Fearful force
        • Stevenson explores ideas of death. destruction, and going against God
          • through theme of science
    • DUAL NATURE
      • Hypocrisy
        • = pretending you have higher standards/ more noble beliefs than you do
        • Stevenson wanted to show how Victorian society was hypocritical
          • and how their was a void between reality and appearance
            • why characters take a lot of pride in their reputation and prioritise appearance over honesty
    • RELIGION
      • Religious tendencies
        • all characters in novel display these
          • Jekyll reads religious texts, Utterson reads 'dry divinities'
      • Sin
        • Jekyll thinks of sin as 'burden of his life'
          • Jekyll= 'secret sinner'
      • Refrences
        • 'Babylonian finger'
          • As King Belshazzar didn't bow to the Israeli God
            • so a hand appeared and wrote out his death sentence on a wall with his finger
          • Jekyll alludes to this biblical scene
            • as it explains his mental state of conflct and how he has set himself up against God
              • also foreshadows jekyll's death and evokes feelings of doom
    • VIOLONCE
      • Hyde
        • gains pleasure from violence
          • shocking amount of pleasure from killing carew
            • 'glee' 'delight from every blow'
        • commits 2 crimes against innocent , helpless citizens
    • VICTORIAN GENTLEMEN
      • Class + professionalism
      • Perks
      • Repuataion
        • utterson= more concerned with preserving Jekyll's reputation than bringing Hyde to trial
          • U =wary of gossip tries to avoid talking to anyone of Hyde
        • 'if it came to trial your name might appear'
        • after Carew murder to Jekyll
  • Jekyll uses as a reference to his soul/body
    • shows he want to use his body for experimentation - as if experimenting with God
    • said to house god
  • oxymoron indicates lack of remorse
    • violence is such a habitual event he fulfils without much contemplation
    • 'trampled calmly over the child's body'
  • gentlemanly idea of supressing inner thoughts leads to Utterson's nightmares
    • Stev msg= reputations are only based on appearances

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