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Jekyll and Hyde: Science and Religion - Coggle Diagram
Jekyll and Hyde: Science and Religion
The characters are interested in science and religion
Jekyll and Lanyon are scientists - their profession relies on rational methods and hard evidence.
Jekyll and Lanyon both live in a Christian society. Jekyll is fond of religious texts and often calls on God to help him.
Lanyon and Jekyll have very different approaches to science and religion
Lanyon keeps science and religion separate. He deals with the science of the material world and cannot cope with Jekyll using scientific research to experiment with spiritual matters, which he describes as 'unscientific balderdash'
Jekyll combines science and religion, his scientific work leading 'wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental', using science to deal with 'that hard law of life, which lies at the root of religion'. The 'hard law' is the idea that all humans are sinful.
The tension between science and religion was a source of conflict in Victorian society
At the start of the 19th century most people believed the explanation from the Bible that the earth was created by God. However, throughout the nineteenth century, scientists began to disprove this theory - they believed that plants and animals developed by the process of evolution.
Many Victorians thought that this view was dangerous because it suggested that science had the power to create life, challenging their religious view of the world.
Religion is a social issue as well as a personal one
Christianity teaches that everyone is sinful. Hyde was created because Jekyll was so troubled by his sins, even though they weren't actually that bad. When he was younger, he 'regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame'
Being seen to do good or charitable deeds, on the other hand, is another sign of respectablility, After Hyde murders Carew, Jekyll becomes 'distinguished for religion' for a few months - he's known for doing good deeds.
Stevenson criticises the act of being religious in public and sinful in private, by presenting Jekyll's actions as hypocritical.
Jekyll finds it easy to put on a show of doing good deeds, but doesn't deal with his guilty conscience because he thinks it's 'Hyde alone, that was guilty'. This allows Hyde to gain in strength, and in the end Jekyll is destroyed.
Stevenson reminds the reader that Jekyll's actions are sinful by using religious language, for example Jekyll is a 'secret sinner' and Hyde is 'the spirit of hell'
Jekyll's science goes against religious beliefs
It is the 'temptation of a discovery so singular and profound' that motivates Jekyll to create Hyde. He tries to change human nature, which Christians see as God's creation.
Jekyll meddles with human nature for his own selfish reasons. He doesn't have good intentions - this means that Jekyll creates an evil, rather than good, alter ego.
Despite this, Jekyll has still made a scientific breakthrough. He repeats the phrase 'I was the first...' showing how proud he is of himself. He starts to think he is 'beyond the reach of fate'.
But this is not the case. By the end Jekyll is the 'chief of sufferers' and experiences 'torments' as Hyde grows in strength.
The language of torment that Jekyll uses links to the Christian idea of Hell - a place in the afterlife of constant suffering.
Science is sometimes portrayed as unsettling
Stevenson presents Jekyll's scientific work as mysterious and disturbing. The transformation of Hyde to Jekyll is hideous. Lanyon finds it sickening and Jekyll describes fis first transformation as provoking 'racking pangs', 'deadly nausea' and 'a horror of the spirit'.
Jekyll's cabinet is full of curious objects that Utterson and Poole don't understand. There are 'traces' pf chemicals, 'various' measures of 'some white salt', and they decide the cheval glass has seen 'some strange things'. Stevenson uses this vague language to present science as mysterious.
Science is shown to be powerful
Jekyll's science causes death and destruction. This shows how powerful science can be when it is used to upset the conventional order of Victorian life.
Jekyll says that the details of his experiment cannot be shared for 2 reasons: he says he won't 'deeply' describe his experiment because it caused his evil side to return with a 'more awful pressure', this acts as a warning about the power of science. His experiment was also 'incomplete' - even Jekyll, a respected scientist, failed to achieve his aims, and he couldn't control the power of the evil he unleashed.
Jekyll's drugs 'shook the doors of the prisonhouse of [his] disposition'. This strong language shows that Jekyll feels the sinful side of his personality was trapped by the more respectable side.