Jekyll and Hyde Main Themes
Key themes in the novel Jekyll and Hyde and some quotations
- Created by: ssammyp123
- Created on: 19-12-20 14:58
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- Main Themes in Jekyll and Hyde
- Duality of Human Nature
- Utterson - opening paragraph. Utterseen is seen to have desires which he controls and supresses, but acts on this by being around other respectable men who do act on these desires
- split up into two people
- temptation
- "horror of my other self" - scared of what he himself is capable of
- "man is not truly one, but truly two" - Jekyll's final statement
- Atavism / Degeneration
- Fear of the 19th century after Darwin published the Origin of The Species
- Hyde is often portrayed in book covers and in film adaptations as an "ape-like" creature, and this quote appears many times throughout the book
- "seen the full deformity of that creature"
- Humans are seen to be above animals - hierarchy
- Hyde - animal hide?
- "ape-like fury" "instincts"
- Respectibility / Reputation / Hypocrisy
- The men in the book are all respectable, high in society people, but there is no reason for why they are out at such late times of night
- "every guarantee of an honourable and distinguished future"
- appearence VS reality (we see this with London and the men in the novel), public VS private.
- split up into two people
- shows that everyone had a private life - even the most respectable and high class of people
- 'kill' hidden within Jekyll's name
- irony, doctor killing someone - hippocratic oath
- There was a general public desire to be respectable and in a high-class at the time
- "dethroned"
- Morality - Good and Evil
- split into two people - devil and the angel, biblical
- Jekyll is purely good and Hyde is purely evil
- Hyde - "like Satan"
- hyperbole
- Hyde - "like Satan"
- there is a message to the story - two sides to everyone
- dark impluses - internal conflict
- Cain / Able reference made by Utterson - first murder.
- Secrecy / Hiddenness / Mystery
- Hyde's name sounds likethe word 'hide' which shows how hidden he was as a person and how well Jekyll managed to cover his secret
- "private room" - Jekyll isolating himself from other people
- surpression of alter-ego / dark-side
- 'case' - in title, concealing, briefcase
- concealed and hidden pleasures
- Friendship
- The respectable men are all friends, however some are closer than others, for example he had an argument with Lanyon about the most recent scientific experiment - "Scientific balderdash" - Lanyon
- no women in play, possible link to homosexual behavior - Jekyll
- Duality of Human Nature
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