Theme Of The Upper Class In The Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

In the opening chapters of ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, not only does Stevenson portray Mr. Hyde through his descriptions, but he also creates juxtaposition between Mr. Hyde and his descriptions, making the reader feel confused about the character of Mr. Hyde as is Mr. Utterson during the first few chapters. For example, in ‘The Carew Murder Case’, the interior of Mr. Hyde’s house is described as “... furnished with luxury and good taste.” This shows juxtaposition between Mr. Hyde’s house and himself, as Mr. Hyde would never be described as ‘luxurious’ or a man with ‘good taste’. Also, I think that Stevenson wrote this intending to give the reader a feeling of annoyance towards Mr. Hyde just as Mr. Utterson would be feeling at this point. The fact that Mr. Hyde’s house is being described as ‘luxurious’ makes the reader feel that it’s unjust that someone as horrid as Mr. Hyde could be so easily concealed by the interior of his house to a stranger. Stevenson’s intentions here were to have the reader feel more resent and hate for Mr. Hyde and to, again, show a different form and method of mankind’s dual personality being concealed. There is a saying that keeping your secrets or real thoughts bottled up for too long will only cause agitation and will result in the bottle exploding and leaving nothing but destruction

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel written by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886. It concerns a lawyer, Gabriel Utterson, who investigates the strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the reclusive Mr. Edward Hyde. This novel represents an ideology in Western culture; the perpetual conflict between humanity’s virtuosity and immorality. It is interpreted as an accurate guidebook to the Victorian era’s belief of the duality of human nature. This essay will explore Mr. Edward Hyde and whether Stevenson intended for him to be a mere character in the novel or something of wider significance.

Within the Novella – The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson depicts moments of graphic horror in order to convey the chilling story of duality and the ordeals of Dr Jekyll. The two moments where the theme of horror is particularly prominent are in the Carrew Murder Case and Dr Lanyon’s Narrative, where the character of Mr Hyde succeeds in being the epitome of evil in the reader’s eyes. Stevenson uses descriptive imagery, intense behavior (especially for Victorian circumstances) and the senses, of which I am going to be focusing on sound in order to instill this terror onto the readers. This combination of devices combined with the plot during these moments makes them so frightening and memorably so.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one long social commentary. One of its main themes is breaking down the façade of perfection created by the upper class, and examining what lies underneath. In fact, the whole story is about a man in high society, whose private life is rather an opposite of his public one. In Dr. Jekyll’s letter, Stevenson writes, “I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold slave to my original evil… I was suddenly aware that I had lost in stature,” (Stevenson page 2273). The idea of a “loss in stature” holds a double meaning. Stature, meaning size, can allude to Hyde’s height which is understood to be much less than Jekyll’s own. Yet, stature, meaning stance in society, can also imply that Jekyll, when transformed, no longer hold’s his prominence in his culture. This speaks to the Victorian society’s habit of only portraying the high society as impeccable which Stevenson battles throughout this mysterious case. Another parallel of appearance is described by Nabokov as he states, “The relations of the two are typified by Jekyll’s house, which is half Jeykyll and half Hyde,” (Nabokov 186). The side facing the street filled with others in the upper class is neat, tidy, and welcoming; this is Jekyll’s half. The side facing a dimmer and more dangerous street is dark, looming, and mysterious; similar to Hyde’s

The events of the play reveal that most people in the upper-middle class (Mr and Mrs Birling and Gerald) look down on the lower class with derision (‘girls of that class’) and the only middle class person in the play (the Inspector) seems to detest the upper-middle class because he believes in socialism.

This attitude that the wealthy class has for those in the book ignites the resentment felt by the poor class that resounds in the rest of the story.

The Importance of the House in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

His appearance was just like the door “blistered” and “distained” as this diction symbolizes Hyde’s character has a sense of ambiguity of being disliked by others or discoloured. Here, the door symbolizes the gateway to the more evil world; it is the access point for violence and unpleasantness feelings. For example, the door was not equipped with “neither bell nor knocker” means that they weren’t expecting any visitors, which portrays the secretive world behind the door. With this, the setting of the door is being highlighted as the gateway to the dark elements of the human soul metaphorically. In fact, the door creates a distinction between what lies beyond the door and the truth of what happened to Dr. Jekyll in this lab. This also links to the name of Hyde which is pronounced as “hide” here it gives the impression to the reader of the secretive nature of Dr. Jekyll. However, the knocking down of the door later in the novel puts an end between the two contrasting worlds. With this, it reveals to the reader about the truth of the character Jekyll and Hyde. Therefore the settings play a major role in stirring up the characters in the novel and foreshadows sinful elements further in the

in 1885. It is said that the idea for the novel came to Stevenson in a

Penny Fielding highlights his point of view on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that the novel paints ‘a damning portrait of society defined by repression and its inevitable twin, hypocrisy’. Fielding also insists later that the relation between repression and hypocrisy is one theme of this novel that cannot be overlooked. This opinion can be approved of a truth after reading the novel. Repression and hypocrisy run through the whole story which reflect on descriptions of every character. In this essay, I will focus on the repression and hypocrisy that appear to be connected in the novel by analyzing the background and main characters. Especially, I will quote some fragments from the novel to discuss in

In addition to this, Stevenson splits up the locations to symbolise the good and evil. The main house shows a typical, Victorian structure. However, the laboratory and the cabinet represent the evilness behind the shield of normality. The cabinet is very significant in the novel, as it is locked until the final chapter, when Mr Utterson and Poole break down the door. It is found to contain the ‘cheval-glass’ (the mirror), in which Jekyll would watch himself transform into the repulsive figure of Hyde.

One Victorian sentiment was that a civilized individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This notion was readily adopted by the upper classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the lower classes, who certainly appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may have (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lower-class status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal lower class. Although poverty could be found almost anywhere in Victorian London (one could walk along a street of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class

Jekyll’s outward actions may disguise his internal disarray, but it is clearly depicted in his environment. The habitations of Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde parallel the arrangement of his mind state. While Jekyll’s home is open for all to view and enter, every abode highly associated with Hyde is kept locked and off-limits. Hyde’s residence, or the nether-side of Jekyll’s, is an impenetrable fortress with no windows and which showed every sign of “prolonged and sordid negligence” (8). Jekyll’s private cabinet, which contained the chemical components for bringing about his transformation into Hyde, had a door that was “very strong, the lock excellent,” and which required “two hour’s work” by a locksmith to allow admittance (43). The most obvious representative residence is that of Jekyll’s last refuge in the inner sanctum of his scientific research building. The door had to be repeatedly axed to allow forced entry as “the wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship” (38). This area proved to be the most revelatory of Jekyll’s unconscious, containing many “closets” that

It is evident while reading Hamlet, that there are distinct social classes within the play. Examples of the bourgeois would be Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude, the ones with the most power and the royal status. Directly beneath these characters are the middle class which includes Polonius, Laertes, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The bourgeois use these characters throughout the book for their own personal gain. At the bottom of the social ladder are the proletariats such as the grave diggers who are not seen significant enough to be given names.

When it comes to the subject of social class, this story reminded me of just about every other book we’ve read this semester, in the way they decided to depict the lower class. Both Holmes and Doyle come from a very privileged and educated background, and had a very bad attitude towards anyone from even a slightly lower class, even though they relied on the lower classes to do a lot of things for them. They treated the lower classed people as second class citizens and it really speaks to the time period. For some reason all of our stories have read include upper-middle class people who seemed perfect normal on the outside, but had some really weird supernatural or crazy thing happen. It makes me think that one thing I could take from these books is “mo money, mo problems.”