Summary Context Notes on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - AQA English Literature GCSE
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Course
AQA English Literature GCSE
Institution
Fourth Year / 10th Grade
Book
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Stories
Grade 9 level notes on the context of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for English Literature AQA GCSE. The writer achieved a 9-9 in English (for both literature and language) using these notes. Includes summary of context of the era (Victorian), links to Christianity, the themes of the bo...
Background information:
● Written in 1886 (Victorian era) by Robert Louis Stevenson
● Set sometime in the 1800s in the Victorian era (quite religious Catholic
Christians)
● Genre: Gothic literature;
○ Places of imprisonment/abandonment
○ Contains change from how things were to the future - example includes
Jekyll's experimentation post vs. present (Lanyon even dies of shock
because of it)
■ Experimentation starts off exciting & pleasant but ends horrific and
with Jekyll’s entrapment
■ Explores the uncanny (eg. Hyde - repulsive but can't no one can
'specify a point')
■ Exposes fear of mainstream society (being seen as
evil/bad/unrespectable) through political commentary
■ Includes the supernatural/uncanny -
● Creates unease especially in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as
through linking the supernatural of Jekyll’s transformation to
scientific experimentation made people think it could be
possible - frightening to Stevenson’s contemporary audience
● Victorian era was;
■ Time of social & political reform/change (eg. Industrial era)
● Had lots of revolutionary science breakthroughs (reason
behind Jekyll's experimentation)
● Stevenson raises questions about nature of identity ('man is
not truly one but two') that contrast Victorian beliefs - setting
it in the heart of London high-society (using characters with
very respectable positions - doctors, lawyer). He explains to
audience that even those seen as respectable and rich are
disrupted by uncanny occurrences & humans are mixed
(good & evil - Freud) - their facade won't protect them
(helped by urban terror presentation))
● Freud's theory:
○ Suggests unconscious memories, thoughts & urges influence human
behaviour
○ Proposes psyche has 3 aspects: the id, ego, and superego
■ ID is entirely unconscious & 'evil' - represented by Hyde
■ Ego operates in the conscious mind (balances urges of both)
■ Superego is the moral conscience - represented - represented by
Jekyll
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