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Summary GCSE AQA Jekyll and Hyde grade 9 context
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Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is a Gothic novella (short novel) by Robert Louis Stevenson.First published in 1886, it tells the story of a scientific experiment which goes horribly wrong. In
attempting to split his personality, Dr. Jekyll creates an alter-ego, Mr. Hyde, who does terrible things
and becomes more and more out of control as the novella goes on. Over time, critics have wondered
whether Mr. Hyde might be symbolic of a number of things.
Reputation
In Victorian society in the nineteenth century, reputation was extremely important. People were
expected to keep to a certain moral code and value system. Throughout the novel, Jekyll aims to
preserve his reputation just as Hyde destroys his. The acceptable behaviour of Victorians could mask
hidden moral corruption. Victorians loved reading about shocking behaviour, and a genre of literature
called the ‘shilling shocker’ became very popular.
Science
The nineteenth century saw rapid scientific developments. In 1859, Charles Darwin published ‘On the
Origin of the Species,’ which introduced the idea of evolution for the first time. His work was
threatening to religion, because Christians believed that God made all human beings, and the idea that
humans had evolved from primitive animals was frightening to them as it challenged their entire world
view. In the novella, another scientist called Dr. Lanyon represents science as something which is
rational and explainable, while Dr. Jekyll’s science is seen as morally unacceptable.
Duality
At the centre of the novel we have one man split in two: Dr. Jekyll is also Mr. Hyde, though it takes
the characters some time to work this out. In many ways, the novella explores the idea that all
humans are essentially dual in nature: we all have good and evil within us, and often suppress one side
or the other. The narrator of the novella, Utterson, tries throughout the novella to explain the mystery
of Hyde, attempting to find a logical explanation. Yet his thirst for logic denies him realization of the
truth.
The concept of duality is also present in science. The psychologist Sigmund Freud had begun to
explore the theory of consciousness: the id, the ego and the superego. The ego is the man; the
superego the way he wishes to be seen by the world. The id is the hidden desires of man; man’s
subconscious, innermost feelings.
The Victorians were keenly aware of religious duality: in the Bible, Lucifer, God’s brightest and most
loved angel, begins a war against him and is cast down to hell to rule there as the Devil or Satan.
Victorian Christians recognized that all humans have both good and evil inside them, and they had to
make the decision to choose the good. In the novella, Jekyll refers to the soul as a battleground
between the angelic and fiendish sides of humans.
Crime
With London’s expanding population and the amount of people experiencing grueling poverty on the
rise, crime exploded. Previously, people had lived in close-knit communities where everyone knew each
other’s name. Now, though living physically close together, London provided a new anonymity.
Between August and November 1888,the impoverished Whitechapel area of London was the scene of
five brutal murders. The killer was dubbed ‘Jack the Ripper’. All the women murdered were prostitutes,
and all except for one were horribly mutilated.
There has been much speculation as to the identity of the killer. It has been suggested that he or she
was a doctor or butcher, based on the evidence of weapons and the mutilations that occurred, which
showed a knowledge of human anatomy. Jack the Ripper was never caught and he is not thought to
have killed again after November 1888. For Victorians, the possibility of a highly educated murderer
spoke to their fears of the dual nature of man: both good and evil.
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