Jekyll and Hyde essay plans based on themes

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Scientific Development (Duality, Curiosity)

  1. SETTING: Jekyll’s house has a lab connected to it

  • “Dingy windowless structure”

  • “Old dissection room”

  1. IDEA: The idea that Jekyll’s science is ridiculous

  • Lanyon’s dismissal of Jekyll’s Science “such unscientific balderdash” “i wish to see or hear no more of Dr Jekyll (...) whom i regard as dead”

  • Lanyon dies from the horrors of Jekyll’s science in chapter 6 as he “had his death warrant written legibly upon his face” and in “less than a fortnight he was dead” after his mind was “submerged in terror” after witnessing the transformation of Hyde into Jekyll

  1. EVENT: Lanyon is skeptical of the chemicals in Jekyll’s room and frightened by the transformation

  • “I loaded an old revolver (...) for self defense”

  • “Sprung” to his feet

  • “Leaped” back against a wall

  • “Arms raised to shield” himself

  • His “Mind submerged in terror”

  • Lanyon is left in the distressed state of some feeble animal

  1. SETTING; Jekyll was clearly up to some sort of experiment by the state of his room and belongings

  • Powders that were of “Jekyll’s private manufacturer”

  • A “pungent” “phial” filled with “blood red liquor”

  • In a ‘diary’ of Jekyll’s with “several hundred entries” the phrases “double” and “total failure!!!” were repeated throughout

  1. IDEA: Jekyll represents the outcast of society as he was experimenting with science to please his duality and to contribute to helping society to enquire against religious restrictions

  • His “scientific discoveries” and beliefs were that “man is not truly one, but truly two”

  • Despite having “risked death” and suffered “racking pangs” he was determined for his two sides to be “housed in separate identities”

  • Despite feeling “younger, lighter, happier” he knew that he had failed as his new self had not an “innocent freedom of the soul” as he had just created a man “tenfold more wicked” as he describes he “sold a slave to my original self”

Duality (Science, Repression, Appearance, Curiosity, Secrecy, Deceit, Violence)

  1. SETTING; duality of Jekyll’s house and Hyde’s house

  • The back of Jekyll’s house reflects the Hyde that he hides. It is described as a ‘dingy windowless structure’ with a ‘blistered’ door that promoted ‘sordid negligence’. This reflects hyde as being odd and out of place. The cabinet is described as ‘gaunt’

  • The front of jekyll's house represents the ‘Jekyll’ that he shows to society. It has a ‘great air of wealth and comfort’ being one of the most ‘pleasantest rooms’ in London’. This shows Jekyll’s personality and being welcoming. The fact that it has a great deal of ‘wealth’ shows Jekyll's position in society.

  • Hyde lives in Soho which is described as being poor with ‘many ragged children’ with being in a ‘dingy’ street. We associate hyde's personality as being dark, however his ‘furnished with luxury and good taste’ rooms juxtaposes the area he lives in and comes as quite a shock to us as the reader, which instantly causes skeptical about how he was able to afford all this wealth.

  1. IDEA,EVENTS; Jekyll plans to separate his

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