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Analysis of Dr Jekyll as a character
AQA English Literature resource for GCSE A full 5 page character analysis on Dr Jekyll Includes quotes and analysis of Dr Jekyll from specific chapters
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Analysis of Dr Jekyll as a CharacterQuotes are in red.
Notations of where each quote is from are in purple.
Links to context are in blue.
Dr Jekyll Basics:
A prominent, popular London scientist
Well known for his dinner parties
Jekyll is a large, handsome man of perhaps fifty
He owns a large estate and has recently drawn up his will, leaving
his immense fortune to a man whom Jekyll’s lawyer, Utterson
disapproves of.
Jekyll’s own story of his life is recorded in his “statement”, which
comprises the entirety of Chapter 10.
He was born to a good family, had a good education and was
respected by all who knew him.
As a youth, he thinks that he was too carefree. He confesses to
many youthful indiscretions, which he says he enjoyed very much -
indiscretions which he was very careful to keep secret.
There came a time when he realized that his professional career
could be ruined if one of these indiscretions were to be exposed,
and so he repressed them.
He is now middle-aged and has been fascinated with the theory
that man has a “good” side and a “bad” side, and he has decided
to investigate the theory.
His investigations were successful: he creates a potion that could
release the “evil” in a person in the form of an entirely different
physical person, one who would take over one’s own body and
soul.
Then they could commit acts of evil and feel no guilt and one could
drink the same potion and be transformed back into one’s original
self.
Jekyll’s evil dimensions took the form of Edward Hyde, a man who
committed any number of crimes and performed acts of sexual
perversion. His most vicious crime is the murder of Sir Danvers
Carew.
Jekyll’s fascination with his “other” self became so obsessive that
he was finally no longer able to control himself. Edward Hyde
began appearing whenever he wanted to.
Jekyll became a recluse, trying to control Hyde but failing.
Finally, he hears Utterson and Poole breaking down his private
study door and he commits suicide, but just as he loses
, consciousness, Hyde appears and it is the body of the dying Hyde
which Utterson and Poole discover.
More Detail:
Stevenson uses the contrast between Jekyll and Hyde to make his
point that every human being contains opposite forces within him
or her, an alter ego that hides behind one’s polite facade.
Jekyll appears moral and decent and has a reputation as a
gentleman. However, he never fully represents pure good as Hyde
represents pure evil.
The experiment only separates Jekyll’s dark side.
The results of the potion are based on Jekyll’s state of mind.
When he first makes the potion his motivations are dark and this
results in the emergence of Hyde.
Hyde becomes the more dominant personality and Jekyll is unable
to control him.
Hyde is described as resembling a “troglodyte” or a primitive
creature; perhaps Hyde is actually the original, authentic nature of
man, which has been repressed by civilisation.
Is Stevenson suggesting that man’s true self is primitive?
Quotes showing Jekyll being respected/ a usual Victorian
gentleman from Chapter 10:
“Intelligent”
“Respectable”
“Every mark of capacity and kindness”
Gives us the impression straight away that Dr Jekyll is kind,
respected and intelligent.
“I was born in the year 18- to a large fortune,”
“Ever guarantee of an honourable and distinguished future”
Born to a very wealthy family, his future looks bright and
prosperous
“I concealed my pleasure”
“A profound duplicity of life”
Hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame”
We have a suggestion by Stevenson of this dual life, he has
to hide what he enjoys. His real self. “Duplicity” again shows
in his earlier life he was in a battle with the respectable
gentlemen and the not so respectable one he has had to
repress. “With an almost morbid sense of shame,” he knew
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