Summary GCSE English Jekyll & Hyde - analysis of all characters
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
This document has quotes, notes, and analysis of all the characters in Jekyll and Hyde. It is a great resource and can be used as plans for almost all essay questions. It is detailed and is easy to revise from to get a grade 9.
Characte How are Key quotes Analysis
r they
presente
d
Jekyll Ambitious ‘I do sincerely take a great, a very great interest in Dr Jekyll is determined as he wants his experiment to succeed. He is so
that young man’ determined that he risks losing everything in order for him to succeed -
‘every guarantee of an honourable and distinguished his friendships, reputation, and wealth. The repetition of 'great'
future’ emphasises how determined Jekyll is and illustrates how he feels about
‘unscientific balderdash’ (Lanyon) Mr Hyde. The use of 'sincerely' shows that his determination and
passion are real.
Respectabl ‘well known and highly considered’ Dr Jekyll is respected due to his wealth, reputation as a charitable man
e ‘every mark of capacity and kindness’ and his discoveries in science. He wants to be respected in society, so
he puts on a false face to appear as a Victorian gentleman.
Secretive He shows a ‘more than commonly grave However, Jekyll is very secretive and only appears respectable as he
countenance before the public’ hides his desires. This causes him to feel very guilty and he builds a
‘I concealed my pleasures’ ‘deeper trench’ between his good and evil side. In the end he finds
He hides his desires with an ‘almost morbid sense of himself committed to living a double life, and that is why he created
shame’ Hyde.
‘profound duplicity of life’
Do we feel Yes We feel sympathy for Jekyll because he is regarded as a respectable
sympathy ‘he began to be tortured’ man - a Victorian gentleman. As a result, we sympathise with him
for him? ‘no one has ever suffered such torments’ because we respect him as a person. He also says that he was tortured.
‘well known and highly considered’ This suggests that he is an ordinary man dealing with challenging issues
‘every mark of capacity and kindness’ of human nature.
However, we don’t feel sympathy for him because he enjoyed being
Hyde. He says in chapter 10, that he found being Hyde a time of
No
freedom and he also said that he enjoyed being evil. Therefore, we do
‘rather a leap of welcome’
not feel sympathy for him.
‘sea of liberty’
Hyde Strange ‘hissing intake of breath’ Stevenson, here, uses zoomorphism to describe Hyde as strange and
‘I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce animalistic. Everybody Hyde meets in the novel is afflicted with his
know why’ 'nightmarish' appearance. He is other-worldly and doesn't belong in
‘he gives a strong feeling of deformity’ the reputable society of Victorian London. He is described as
‘ape-like fury’ deformed, yet people can’s work out why they think he is deformed.
‘dwarfish and pale’
‘so ugly that it brought the sweat on me like running’
Embodime ‘clubbed him to the earth’ Hyde is all evil and doesn’t care about anything. He seems to be violent
nt of evil ‘he broke out in a great flame of anger’ just for the sake of it. He seems to do evil acts unprovoked, and he
‘trampled calmly over the child’s body’ enjoys doing it. He is described as animalistic which suggests that even
‘left her screaming on the ground’ his appearance reflects his evil nature. His behaviour and actions are
‘ape-like fury’ violent and evil.
It means a hugely overwhelming, destructive force. The further theme
of sacrifice implied by the word “Juggernaut” may reference the
‘damned juggernaut’
sacrifice Jekyll makes to Hyde in exchange for indulging in decadent
and inappropriate behaviour. This suggests Hyde is controlled solely by
impulse.
Yet the ‘man is not truly one, but truly two’ However, Hyde is the inclination of evil that lives inside all of us.
symbol of ‘his eyes lighted up with professional ambition Perhaps Hyde is the representation of Jekyll’s evil side. Stevenson is
duality (about police officer) saying that we all have evil within us, and Hyde is a representation of
‘he let his brother go to the devil in his own way’ that. This is evident as we see the police inspector and Utterson – two
(about Utterson) very respectable men- have moments of evil desires throughout the
novel.
Utterson Respectabl ‘lover of the sane and customary things in life’ He is a typical Victorian gentleman. He is obsessed with protecting his
e He drank ‘wine alone’ reputation. He represses his desires and doesn’t allow himself to have
‘never lighted by a smile’ any pleasures. Also, he is a lawyer, and he approaches the mystery in
‘though he enjoyed the theatre, he had not crossed the same way he would approach a case – he weighs up the evidence
the doors of one for 20 years’ and tries to reach a balanced and unbiased evaluation of the facts. He
He thinks ‘plain and natural’ is unwilling to accept any explanation which threatens his rational way
of thinking – he thinks ‘plain and natural.’
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