Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Morality

immoral actions lead to punishment

Victorians believed in a punitive God

has a didactic purpose, teaches what is right and wrong

right: abstinence, being morally/socially upright, God-fearing and remaining within the acceptable boundaries of natural order

wrong: playing God (deicide), lascivious/carnal pursuits, sins of indulgence, violent acts

outwardly respectable but inwardly enjoying guilty and repressed desires

Darwinism

man evolved from apes, characterisation of Hyde

'a masked thing like a monkey'

'thing' dehumanises him

Hyde is of a lower form of life

Physignomy

Stevenson uses it to criticise his readers social prejudices

deliberately makes Jekyll look comparatively good to Hyde

Victorian notion that deformity or disfigurement meant a person was evil as their inner deformity was visible on the outside

'He must be deformed somewhere'

Stevenson

good and proper in his public life but battling inner desire in his private life

whilst ill he became aware of another person within him and called it 'myself and the other fellow'

Psychoanalysis

Sidmund Freud was the 'Father of psychoanalysis'

Id, Ego and the Superego

idea came to Stevenson in a dream - the nature of dreams revealing the truths of the subconscious

Duality

idea that everyone is capable of good and evil deeds

pious nature of Victorian society meant that many people suppressed their desires and feelings

Jekyll is an embodiment of goodness

Hyde is an embodiment of evilness

'haunting sense of unexpressed deformity'

'every mark of capacity and kindness - you could see by his looks he cherished for Mr Utterson'