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‘Stevenson’ presentation of Dr Jekyll allows the reader to feel sympathy…
‘Stevenson’ presentation of Dr Jekyll allows the reader to feel sympathy for him.'
“I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity”
Horrified and obsessed
The verb “plunged” suggests lack of control and a sense of the unexpected.
Happening in jekyll’s full statement.
Basic meaning: Jekyll is hugely fascinated and possibly shocked by his own behaviour.
The abstract noun “depravity” suggests that Hyde is pure evil and Jekyll cannot escape from him.
Comes at the end of the novella, after we have been encouraged to like Jekyll.
Author’s intentions:
To encourage us to feel that Jekyll is not fully responsible for what he did.
Audience response:
Despite the fact that we are now aware of Jekyll’s evil acts we tend to forgive him.
Alternative interpretation:
The abstract noun “wonder”, suggests that Jekyll sees something amazing and exciting in Hyde that spurs him on to continue with his scientific experimentation. Consequently, we feel Jekyll is the driving force behind Hyde (could refer to Padnick’s article).
Context: Duality/gothic hero/drugs
Link to Question: Helps us to sympathise with him to degree, but at this point in the novella we might be beginning to recognise that it is Jekyll who is responsible for the hideous crimes Hyde commits.
‘I still hated and feared the thought of the brute that slept within me’
The verb ‘slept’ refers to the fact that Hyde is buried away in Jekyll and that Jekyll is the same person as Hyde- all his memories are shared with Jekyll (Hyde may be beconning him to take the drug and turn into his dark side).
There is contrast between ‘hated and feared’ and ‘slept’. This is because it describes how Jekyll is scared and afraid of Hyde, so is constantly worried,whereas using ‘slept’ to describe Hyde inside him shows the evil side being calm, completely different to how Jekyll is feeling.
The noun ‘Brute’ presents Hyde as a bully, he is showed as someone who scares Jekyll, someone who goes out of their way to ruin his life. It represents the evil side of Jekyll, and shows how he doesn’t like him, how he is afraid to even think of him.
Basic meaning:
Jekyll is afraid of the evil side of him - Hyde, he even hates the thought of him.
Stevenson presents Jekyll’s struggle to resist turning into Hyde
Author’s intentions:
To show how afraid and terrified Jekyll is of Hyde, how ashamed he is of his bad side
Audience response:
The audience is made to feel bad for Jekyll, making us sympathize with him.
“Smooth faced man of fifty… Every mark of capacity in kindness - you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr Utterson a sincere and warm affection”
Basic meaning:
To show that Jekyll has a kind affectionate side.
Warm - shows Jekyll was enthusiastic and kind towards Utterson.
At the beginning of the novella.
This is the first time we are introduced to Jekyll so it is setting a first impression so we have an idea of who he is continuing thought the novella, however during it our view is influenced by what he does.
Author’s intentions:
To influence the audience into having incorrect assumptions about Jekyll, and not pick up on the fact that he is the same person as Hyde.
In the time when Jekyll and Hyde is set, people believed the shape of peoples faces determined their personality. By saying Jekyll is a “smooth faced man”, the writer is implying that Jekyll is a good person.
“The doctor seemed seized with a qualm of faintness; he shut his mouth tight and nodded”
The noun ‘Qualm’ suggests that he had an uneasy feeling of doubt.
‘Seized’ shows how his body reacts to the situation
Basic meaning:
It suggests that he is shocked and horrified and that he made himself ill by knowing what Hyde has done
Near the beginning of the play after the murder of carew, and this shows how he feels about carew
Author’s intentions:
At this point in the novella the author makes us feel sorry for Jekyll as he makes him seem quite vulnerable