Jekyll

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  • Created by: me543
  • Created on: 04-05-17 21:44
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  • Henry Jekyll
    • Doctor and experimental scientist
      • Jekyll has been carrying out experiments to separate his personality
        • Came to realize the 'profound duplicity of life'
        • May not be to separate good from evil but separate deepest desires.
        • 'Man is not truly one, but truly two'
        • Even London itself has a dual nature,with it's respectable streets existing side by side with areas notorious for their violence.
      • Curious, interested in the paranormal
      • Potion meant he could commit acts of evil and feel no guilt
    • Wealthy and respectable
      • Known for his charitable work.'every mark of capacity and kindness'
      • Stereotypical Victorian gentleman
      • 'Born to a large fortune' and well educated
        • Guaranteed a good future
    • Sociable person in the past
      • Throws dinner parties where the main focus is on science, religion and literature,and the people are: 'all intelligent and reputable.'
    • During the course of the novel his behavior becomes increasingly erratic (unprdictable)
      • Also becomes hypocritical, which Stevenson believes to be his fatal flaw.
        • One of his old faults was an impatient certain gaiety (light-hearted) of disposition, which attempted to trivialize (make it seem less important)his indiscretions his youth.
          • How he hid his 'irregularities' with a morbid sense of shame.
            • Suggests his activities were sexual in nature.
              • Homosexuality a crime
    • Leaves everything to Hyde in his will
      • Utterson wants him to change his will
    • Can transform into his alter ego (Mr.Hyde)
      • Too weak to contain Hyde
        • Jekyll loses control- he just starts transforming into Hyde
          • Is Stevenson saying that if we give into our  darker side they will ultimately end up winning out of our good.
            • Or to repress and conceal this sides to ourselves is to hide who we are, to damage ourselves psychologically
          • 'I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self'
        • tried so hard to repress Hyde: 'my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring'
        • 'the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged' (personification)
      • 'Doctor Jekyll grew pale to the very lips and there came a blackness to his eyes'
    • He admits that within himself he often fights his desires and compulsions in order to conform to Victorian society
    • Horrified by his own actions when he transforms into Hyde
      • 'ordinary secret sinner'
    • At one point assure Utterson nothing is wrong and he wished Hyde would disappear and never return
    • Commits suicide, but before he dies he transform into Hyde
    • Stevenson uses the contrast between Jekyll and Hyde to show that every human being contains opposite forces within them

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