Interesting Literature

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Full Analysis and Themes

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The story for Jekyll and Hyde famously came to Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream, and according to Stevenson’s stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson wrote the first draft of the novella in just three days, before promptly throwing it onto the fire when his wife criticised it. Stevenson then rewrote it from scratch, taking ten days this time, and the novella was promptly published in January 1886.

The story is part detective-story or mystery, part Gothic horror, and part science fiction, so it’s worth analysing how Stevenson fuses these different elements.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: analysis

Now it’s time for some words of analysis about Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1886 novella. However, perhaps ‘analyses’ (plural) would be more accurate, since there never could be one monolithic meaning of a story so ripe with allegory and suggestive symbolism.

Like another novella that was near-contemporary with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , and possibly influenced by it ( H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine ), the symbols often point in several different directions at once.

Any attempt to reduce Stevenson’s story of doubling to a moral fable about drugs or drink, or a tale about homosexuality, is destined to lose sight of the very thing which makes the novella so relevant to so many people: its multifaceted quality. So here are some (and they are only some) of the many interpretations of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which have been put forward in the last 120 years or so.

A psychoanalytic or proto-psychoanalytic analysis

In this interpretation, Jekyll is the ego and Hyde the id (in Freud’s later terminology). The ego is the self in Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, while the id is the set of primal drives found in our unconscious: the urge to kill, or do inappropriate sexual things, for instance.

Several of Robert Louis Stevenson’s essays, such as ‘A Chapter on Dreams’ (1888), prefigure some of Freud’s later ideas; and there was increasing interest in the workings of the human mind towards the end of the nineteenth century (two leading journals in the field, Brain and Mind , had both been founded in the 1870s).

The psychoanalytic interpretation is a popular one with many readers of Jekyll and Hyde , and since the novella is clearly about repression of some sort, one can make a psychoanalytic interpretation – an analysis grounded in psychoanalysis, if you like – quite convincingly.

It might be significant, reading the story from a post-Freudian perspective, that Hyde is described as childlike at several points: does he embody Jekyll’s – and, indeed, man’s – deep desire to return to a time before responsibility and full maturity, when one was freer to act on impulse? Early infancy is the formative period for much Freudian psychoanalysis.

Recall the empty middle-class scenes at the beginning of the book: Utterson and Enfield on their joyless Sunday walks, for instance. Hyde attacks father-figures (Sir Danvers Carew, the MP whom he murders, is a white-haired old gentleman), which would fall in line with Freud’s concept of the Oedipus complex and Jekyll’s desire to return to a time before adult life with its responsibilities and disappointments.

However, one fly in the Oedipal ointment is that Hyde also attacks a young girl – almost the complete opposite of the ‘old man’ or father figure embodied by Danvers Carew.

Nevertheless, psychoanalytic readings of the novella have been popular for some time, and it’s worth remembering that the idea for the book came to Stevenson in a dream. Observe, also, the presence of dreams and dreamlike scenes in the novel itself, such as when Jekyll remarks that he ‘received Lanyon’s condemnation partly in a dream; it was partly in a dream that I came home to my own house and got into bed’.

essay on dr jekyll

An anti-alcohol morality tale?

Alternatively, a different interpretation: we might analyse these dreamlike aspects of the novel in another way and see the novel as being about alcoholism and temperance , subjects which were being fiercely debated at the time Stevenson was writing.

Here, then, the ‘transforming draught’ which Jekyll concocts represents alcohol, and Jekyll, upon imbibing the draught, becomes a violent, unpredictable person unknown even to himself. (This reading has been most thoroughly explored in Thomas L. Reed’s 2006 study The Transforming Draught .)

Note how often wine crops up in this short book: it turns up first of all in the second sentence of the novella, when Utterson is found sipping it, and Hyde, we learn, has a closet ‘filled with wine’. Might the continual presence of wine be a clue that we are all Hydes waiting to happen? Note how the opening paragraph informs us that Utterson drinks gin when he is alone.

This thesis – that the novella is about alcohol and temperance – is intriguing, but has been contested by critics such as Julia Reid for being too speculative and reductionist: see her review of The Transforming Draught in The Review of English Studies , 2007.

The ‘drugs’ interpretation

Similarly, the idea that the ‘draught’ is a metaphor for some other drug, whether opium or cocaine . Scholars are unsure as to whether Stevenson was on drugs when he wrote the book: some accounts say Stevenson used cocaine to finish the manuscript; others say he took ergot, which is the substance from which LSD was later synthesised. Some say he was too sick to be taking anything.

You could purchase cocaine and opium from your local chemist in 1880s London (indeed, another invention of 1886, Coca-Cola, originally contained cocaine, as the drink’s name still testifies: don’t worry, it doesn’t any more).

This is essentially a development of the previous interpretation concerning alcohol, and arguably has similar limitations in being too restrictive an interpretation. However, note the way that Jekyll, in his ‘full statement’ becomes reliant on the ‘draught’ or ‘salt’ towards the end.

A religious analysis

essay on dr jekyll

As such, the story has immediate links with the story Stevenson would write sixty years later. Stevenson was an atheist who managed to escape the constrictive religion of his parents, but he remained haunted by Calvinistic doctrines for the rest of his life, and much of his work can be seen as an attempt to grapple with these issues which had affected and afflicted him so much as a child.

The sexuality interpretation

Some critics have interpreted Jekyll and Hyde in light of late nineteenth-century attitudes to sexuality : note the almost total absence of women from the story, barring the odd maid and ‘old hag’, and that hapless girl trampled underfoot by Hyde.

Some critics have suggested that the idea of blackmail for homosexual acts lurks behind the story, and the novella itself mentions this when Enfield tells Utterson that he refers to the house of Mr Hyde as ‘Black Mail House’ as a consequence of the girl-trampling scene in the street.

essay on dr jekyll

As such, the novella becomes an allegory for the double life lived by many homosexual Victorian men, who had to hide (or Hyde ) their illicit liaisons from their friends and families. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote to his friend Robert Bridges that the girl-trampling incident early on in the narrative was ‘perhaps a convention: he was thinking of something unsuitable for fiction’.

Some have interpreted this statement – by Hopkins, himself a repressed homosexual – as a reference to homosexual activity in late Victorian London.

Consider in this connection the fact that Hyde enters Jekyll’s house through the ‘back way’ – even, at one point ‘the back passage’. 1885, the year Stevenson wrote the book, was the year of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (commonly known as the Labouchere Amendment ), which criminalised acts of ‘gross indecency’ between men (this was the act which, ten years later, would put Oscar Wilde in gaol).

However, we should be wary of reading the text as about ‘homosexual panic’, since, as Harry Cocks points out, homosexuality was frequently ‘named openly, publicly and repeatedly’ in nineteenth-century criminal courts. But then could fiction for a mass audience as readily name such things?

A Darwinian analysis

Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species , which laid out the theory of evolution by natural selection, had been published in 1859, when Stevenson was still a child. In this reading, Hyde represents the primal, animal origin of modern, civilised man.

Consider here the repeated uses of the word ‘apelike’ in relation to Hyde, suggesting he is an atavistic throwback to an earlier, more primitive species of man than Homo sapiens . This reading incorporates theories of something called ‘devolution’, an idea (now discredited) which suggested that life forms could actually evolve backwards into more primitive forms.

This is also linked with late Victorian fears concerning degeneration and decadence among the human race. Is Jekyll’s statement that he ‘bore the stamp, of lower elements in my soul’ an allusion to Charles Darwin’s famous phrase from the end of The Descent of Man (1871), ‘man […] bears […] the indelible stamp of his lowly origin’?

In his story ‘Olalla’, another tale of the double which Stevenson published in 1885, he writes: ‘Man has risen; if he has sprung from the brutes he can descend to the same level again’.

This Darwinian analysis of Jekyll and Hyde could incorporate elements of the sexual which the previous interpretation also touches upon, but would view the novel as a portrayal of man’s – and we mean specifically man ’s here – repression of the darker, violent, primitive side of his nature associated with rape, pillage, conquest, and murder.

This looks back to a psychoanalytic reading, with the ‘id’ being the home of primal sexual desire and lust. The girl-tramping scene may take on another significance here: it’s a ‘girl’ rather than a boy because it symbolises Hyde’s animalistic desire to conquer and brutalise someone of the opposite, not the same, sex.

There have been many critical readings of the novella in relation to sex and sexuality, but it’s important to point out that Stevenson denied that the novella was about sexuality (see below).

A study in hypocrisy?

Or perhaps not: perhaps there is something in the idea that hypocrisy is the novella’s theme , as Stevenson himself suggested in a letter of November 1887 to John Paul Bocock, editor of the New York Sun : ‘The harm was in Jekyll,’ Stevenson wrote, ‘because he was a hypocrite – not because he was fond of women; he says so himself; but people are so filled full of folly and inverted lust, that they can think of nothing but sexuality. The Hypocrite let out the beast’.

This analysis of Jekyll and Hyde sees the two sides to Jekyll’s personality as a portrayal of the dualistic nature of Victorian society, where you must be respectable and civilised on the outside, while all the time harbouring an inward lust, violence, and desire which you have to bring under control.

This was a popular theme for many late nineteenth-century writers – witness not only Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray but also the double lives of Jack and Algernon in Wilde’s comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). This is a more open-ended interpretation, and the novella does appear to be about repression of some sort.

In this respect, this interpretation is similar to the psychoanalytic reading proposed above, but it also tallies with Stevenson’s own assertion that the story is about hypocrisy. Everyone in this book is masking their private thoughts or desires from others.

Note how even the police officer, Inspector Newcomen, when he learns of the murder of the MP, goes from being horrified one moment to excited the next, as ‘the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition’. He can barely contain his glee. The maid who answers the door at Hyde’s rooms has ‘an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent’.

From these clues, we can also posit a reading of the novel which sees it as about the class structure of late nineteenth-century Britain, where Jekyll represents the comfortable middle class and Hyde is the repressed – or, indeed, oppressed – working-class figure.

Note here, however, how Hyde is repeatedly described as a ‘gentleman’ by those who see him, and that he attacks Danvers Carew with a ‘cane’, rather than, say, a club (though it is reported, tellingly, that he ‘clubbed’ Carew to death with it).

A scientific interpretation

The reference to the evil maid with excellent manners places Jekyll’s own duality at the extreme end of a continuum, where everyone is putting on a respectable and acceptable mask which hides or conceals the evil truth lurking behind it. So we might see Jekyll’s scientific experiment as merely a physical embodiment of what everyone does.

This leads some critics to ask, then, whether the novella about the misuse of science . Or is the ‘tincture’ merely a scientific, chemical composition because a magical draught or elixir would be unbelievable to an 1880s reader? Arthur Machen, an author who was much influenced by Stevenson and especially by Jekyll and Hyde , made this point in a letter of 1894, when he grumbled:

In these days the supernatural per se is entirely incredible; to believe, we must link our wonders to some scientific or pseudo-scientific fact, or basis, or method. Thus we do not believe in ‘ghosts’ but in telepathy, not in ‘witch-craft’ but in hypnotism. If Mr Stevenson had written his great masterpiece about 1590-1650, Dr Jekyll would have made a compact with the devil. In 1886 Dr Jekyll sends to the Bond Street chemists for some rare drugs.

This is worth pondering: the use of the ‘draught’ lends the story an air of scientific authenticity, which makes the story a form of science fiction rather than fantasy: the tincture which Jekyll drinks is not magical, merely a chemical potion of some vaguely defined sort. But to say that the story is actually about the dangers of misusing science could be a leap too far.

We run the risk of confusing the numerous film adaptations of the book with the book itself: we immediately picture wild-haired soot-faced scientists causing explosions and mixing up potions in a dark laboratory, but in fact this is not really what the story is about , merely the means through which the real meat of the story – the transformation of Jekyll into Hyde – is effected.

It’s only once this split has been achieved that the real story, about the dark side of man’s nature which he represses, comes to light. (Compare Frankenstein here .)

All of these interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde can be – and have been – proposed, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the popularity of Stevenson’s tale may lie in the very polyvalent and ambiguous nature of the text, the fact that it exists as a symbol without a key, a riddle without a definitive answer.

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

By robert louis stevenson, dr. jekyll and mr. hyde essay questions.

Discuss Jekyll's progression throughout the novel and his fall from grace. What key moments and decisions determine Jekyll's fate? Identify these specific moments and analyze the aspects of Jekyll's character that force him to continue with his experiments.

Discuss the physical descriptions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and their respective homes (Jekyll's main house vs. Hyde's neglected laboratory cabinet) as they relate to major themes of the novel.

Stevenson creates a balance of realism and the supernatural. How does he integrate these concepts?

Discuss the concept of control in regard to Jekyll's relationship with Hyde. Is absolute control possible? Can one choose when to be completely good or evil? What does Stevenson's conclusion appear to be?

Discuss the novel's most violent events, including the trampled girl, Carew's murder, and Jekyll/Hyde's ultimate demise. What if any progression arises here and how does it parallel the progression of the novel?

Discuss the role of the city throughout the novel, both during the day and at night. How does the city contribute to the novel's progression? What role does it play?

Clearly, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an examination of the duality of human nature. Discuss the duality expressed in not only Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but also Utterson, Poole, and the city of London.

How does the notion of loyalty contribute to the novel? Discuss this in reference to Utterson, Lanyon, and Dr. Jekyll. Upon close examination, does loyalty help prevent or expedite violence and tragedy?

Discuss the possible meanings and relevance on the names Utterson, Jekyll, and Hyde in the context of the novel.

Compare and contrast Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll's approaches to scientific pursuits and manipulation of natural laws.

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is the story of Cain and Abel? What does it mean that Mr. Utterson says he inclines to Cain’s heresy in his dealings with others? Explain why you agree or disagree with this way of dealing with your acquaintances.

In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain murders his brother. In the above line, Utterson is citing his belief that one should stay out of other people's business.

3. Look back at chapter 3 (pg 26) – how has Jekyll changed since then?

Jekyll has become unsure of himself, sickly, faint, and desperate. He is not the self-assured, smooth faced man we met at the dinner party in the third chapter.

Sequence the events that happened in Chapter 8 “The Last Night” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

You can check this out in chapter 8 summary below:

https://www.gradesaver.com/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde/study-guide/summary-chapters-7-8

Study Guide for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde study guide contains a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Summary
  • Character List

Essays for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Frankenstein
  • The Collective Mr. Hyde
  • The Limitations of Language in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • The Supernatural and Its Discontents in Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  • The Good Mr. Hyde

Lesson Plan for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  • About the Author
  • Study Objectives
  • Common Core Standards
  • Introduction to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • Relationship to Other Books
  • Bringing in Technology
  • Notes to the Teacher
  • Related Links
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Bibliography

E-Text of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde E-Text contains the full text of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  • Chapters 1-3
  • Chapters 4-6
  • Chapters 7-10

Wikipedia Entries for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  • Introduction
  • Inspiration and writing
  • Analysis of themes

essay on dr jekyll

essay on dr jekyll

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert louis stevenson, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Science, Reason and the Supernatural Theme Icon

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde creates a tension between the world of reason and science and the world of the supernatural, and seems to suggest the limits of reason in its inability to understand or cope with the supernatural phenomena that take place. Jekyll confesses at the end of the novel that he has been fascinated by the duality of man and has taken to both chemical and mystical methods to try to get to the truth. This inclusion of a spiritual side to Jekyll’s philosophy shows his to be a mind unlike those of the lawyers and doctors of his society, who restrict themselves to traditional reason. The result of Jekyll's explorations— Mr. Hyde —is something beyond reason, which shocks and overwhelms the sensitive intellectual dispositions of the other characters and leaves Dr. Jekyll permanently removed from his educated, medical self.

The laboratory is the main setting of the mysterious events in the story, but far from being a place of science and medicine, the lab is deserted and strange, more Gothic than a place of science. In this setting the novel seems to hint at the insufficiency or even obsolescence of science. Jekyll, once a man of science, is leaving all that behind, leaving it unused, as he seeks new, unknown knowledge and truth. Jekyll's goals frighten and disgust the men of science, such as Lanyon, with whom he used to friends. Lanyon, in fact, is so shocked, overwhelmed, and unable to process what Jekyll has done that he dies soon after learning of it. He can’t bear the destruction of his stable, rational worldview. Utterson, meanwhile, is also unable to comprehend what is going on between Jekyll and Hyde—he thinks the relationship something criminal but comprehensible, such as blackmail—until the truth is revealed to him.

Hyde is described, quite literally, as being beyond rational description—his most noticeable trait is an unexplainable air of evil or deformity, which can neither be described concretely nor ascribed to any medical cause. This idea of deformity, both of the body and of the mind, fuels the power of the supernatural over the natural. And behind all the action of Jekyll and Hyde in the novel, a fear lurks for all the characters –the threat of madness and the threat of a new world, of new science, new traditions, new disorders that traditional science and reason can't comprehend or deal with.

Science, Reason and the Supernatural ThemeTracker

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde PDF

Science, Reason and the Supernatural Quotes in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

"I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others…”

Reputation, Secrecy and Repression Theme Icon

"He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point.”

The Duality of Human Nature Theme Icon

“He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake's sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such unscientific balderdash," added the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, "would have estranged Damon and Pythias."

"Poor Harry Jekyll," he thought, "my mind misgives me he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace…”

The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes. "I do not care to hear more," said he. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop."

And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman.

An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were excellent.

"I have had a shock," he said, "and I shall never recover. It is a question of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I used to like it. I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away."

"O, sir," cried Poole, "do you think I do not know my master after twenty years? Do you think I do not know where his head comes to in the cabinet door, where I saw him every morning of my life? No, sir, that thing in the mask was never Dr. Jekyll--God knows what it was, but it was never Dr. Jekyll; and it is the belief of my heart that there was murder done."

"Lanyon, you remember your vows: what follows is under the seal of our profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors--behold!"

What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer.

With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.

I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde.

I am careless; this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.

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Analysis of Jekyll and Hyde Duality in Stevenson's Novel

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  • Edley, N., & Wetherell, M. (2001). Jekyll and Hyde: Men's constructions of feminism and feminists. Feminism & Psychology, 11(4), 439-457. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353501011004002)
  • Doane, J., & Hodges, D. (1989, October). Demonic Disturbances of Sexual Identity: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr/s Hyde. In NOVEL: a Forum on Fiction (Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 63-74). Duke University Press.(https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345579)
  • Rose, B. A. (1996). Jekyll and Hyde Adapted: Dramatizations of Cultural Anxiety (No. 66). Greenwood Publishing Group. (https://www.worldcat.org/title/jekyll-and-hyde-adapted-dramatizations-of-cultural-anxiety/oclc/32921958)
  • Becchio, C., Sartori, L., Bulgheroni, M., & Castiello, U. (2008). The case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a kinematic study on social intention. Consciousness and cognition, 17(3), 557-564. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810007000207)
  • Lacey, N. (2010). Psychologising Jekyll, demonising Hyde: The strange case of criminal responsibility. Criminal Law and Philosophy, 4, 109-133. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11572-010-9091-8)

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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COMMENTS

  1. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Full Analysis and Themes

    In this interpretation, Jekyll is the ego and Hyde the id (in Freud's later terminology). The ego is the self in Freud's psychoanalytic theory, while the id is the set of primal drives found in our unconscious: the urge to kill, or do inappropriate sexual things, for instance. Several of Robert Louis Stevenson's essays, such as 'A ...

  2. Sample Answers

    The concept of the 'double' is central to 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. There are several types of duality - the most important is the mix of good and evil in human nature. Other types of duality include appearance and reality, and science and the supernatural. This passage focuses most on the duality of 'good and ill ...

  3. Essays on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    When it comes to writing an essay on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, choosing the right topic is crucial. A good essay topic should be thought-provoking, unique, and analytical. It should also allow for in-depth exploration of the themes, characters, and symbolism in the novel. To brainstorm and choose an essay topic, start by ...

  4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Study Guide

    Full Title: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde When Written: 1885 Where Written: Bournemouth, England When Published: 5th January 1886 Literary Period: Victorian Genre: Horror, Drama, Victorian Gothic Setting: The streets of London Climax: Utterson reads the narrative written by Lanyon before his death, which describes the horrific bodily transformation of Mr. Hyde into Dr. Jekyll ...

  5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    Essays and criticism on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  6. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    Essays and criticism on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Critical Essays Select an area of the website to search The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ...

  7. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

    ISBN. 978--553-21277-8. Text. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at Wikisource. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [1] is an 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry ...

  8. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Questions

    Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde study guide contains a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  9. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Essay Writing Guide for GCSE (9-1)

    This is a very good study guide and beneficial for students and teachers. This new guide from Accolade Press will walk you through how to plan and structure essay responses to questions on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. By working through seven mock questions, these essay plans will show you how to go about ...

  10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    Below you will find the important quotes in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde related to the theme of Science, Reason and the Supernatural. Chapter 1 Quotes. "I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment. You start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill ...

  11. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

    That means you have approximately 52 minutes to plan, write and check your Jekyll and Hyde essay. Paper 1 is worth 64 marks and accounts for 40% of your overall GCSE grade. The Jekyll and Hyde essay is worth 30 marks in total. Section B of Paper 1 contains the Jekyll and Hyde question and you are required to answer the one available question on ...

  12. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: Themes

    Knowledge and evidence: Jekyll is presented as a man with a reputation and a respected member of society representing good, while Hyde is depicted as a manifestation of evil: In Jekyll's view, "man is not truly one, but truly two" and while he is aware of his good side, he also acknowledges there is evil within him.

  13. Themes Friendship Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Grades 9-1)

    Friendship. Friendship is a minor theme in the novella. There are several pairs of friends: Enfield and Utterson are friends, though 'It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other' (p. 2). Utterson, Lanyon and Jekyll are friends who dine together. Jekyll and Lanyon are long-standing professional friends, though they ...

  14. Essay Topics for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

    Essay Topics for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Dr. Rachel Tustin has a PhD in Education focusing on Educational Technology, a Masters in English, and a BS in Marine Science. She has taught in K-12 for ...

  15. Duality in "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde": [Essay

    Introduction: Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde is a novel which is arguably entirely about duality. The most obvious example is of course that of Jekyll and Hyde duality discussed in this essay, but underneath that is a multitude of smaller oppositions, such as dark and light; private and public; and animal and man, which collectively underline and ...

  16. PDF Candidate Style Answers ENGLISH LITERATURE

    This response is written in a convincing critical style with some insightful understanding. It is an informed personal response to both text and task. The candidate begins by correctly placing the passage and understanding both its narrative context and Stevenson's use of Dr Lanyon's perspective. There is clear understanding that Mr Hyde ...

  17. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: Key Quotations

    A fantastic way to do this is to include quotations from elsewhere in the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that show a connection, contrast, or character development. However, it is equally valuable to include your own "paired quotations": two quotations that might not feature in the extract but show these connections, or changes.

  18. Jekyll and Hyde essay plans Flashcards

    P1- Stevenson uses language associated with battle to present Dr Jekyll as a conflicted character in the novel, reflecting his dual nature to the 19th century reader. 'At a perennial war' 'the two natures that contended in the field' 'dual nature'. P2- Stevenson presents the theme of duality by using the setting of London to reflect conflict ...

  19. GCSE English Literature questions

    Revise the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for your GCSE English Literature exams with Bitesize interactive practice quizzes covering feedback and common errors.