He can barely contain his glee. Struggling with distance learning? Instant downloads of all 1360 LitChart PDFs The man who had written the cheque was a respected gentleman, leading Enfield to wonder what sort of hold this ugly trampling fiend has over such a well-regarded man.

As such, the story has immediate links with the story Stevenson would write sixty years later. Some have interpreted this statement – by Hopkins, himself a repressed homosexual – as a reference to homosexual activity in late Victorian London.

Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and what it means. The maid who answers the door at Hyde’s rooms has ‘an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy; but her manners were excellent’. Towards the end of the book, Hyde becomes the dominant side to Dr Jekyll's personality. He visits his friend Dr Lanyon, who is also a friend of Henry Jekyll’s, hoping to find out more. To avoid a scene, the man – who has something detestable about him – agrees to pay money to the family of the girl he trampled.

But anyway, on to the plot summary. Mr. Utterson gets to the point of, ...glad of this explanation from Dr. Lanyon because he thinks that his dispute with, ...obsessed with knowing what Mr. Hyde looks like.

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. 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. In this reading, Hyde represents the primal, animal origin of modern, civilised man. Jekyll’s butler, Mr. Poole, visits Utterson and says Jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory. He goes to the sinister building Enfield had shown him and, after waiting outside for some time, sees a small, plainly dressed man take out a key ready to go inside Jekyll’s house. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Jekyll's own story of his life is recorded in his "Statement," which comprises the entirety of Chapter 10. 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.

Utterson passes a troubled night of horrific dreams, and takes to walking the streets at all hours, hoping to find some clue to the mystery of Mr Hyde. Religious interpretations of Jekyll and Hyde have also proved popular: see the references to Hyde as a ‘devil’ and a ‘child of Hell’, but also the numerous Biblical allusions (and here the Luckhurst edition, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales (Oxford World’s Classics), is particularly useful).

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. "This is a matter I thought we had agreed to drop.". The drug caused him to change to Dr. Jekyll, while Dr. Lanyon watched the transformation in utter horror.

This leads Utterson to believe Jekyll forged the letter from Hyde, which shocks him. Mr. Utterson introduces himself as a friend of, Mr. Utterson explains to Mr. Hyde that they have mutual friends, naming, ...corner, in a square of elegant but old properties, and asks its servant if, ...to always obey him. Some say he was too sick to be taking anything. To get the money, he went through the door in the sinister building and got a cheque, which he (accompanied by his captors) then went to the bank first thing in the morning to cash. If Mr Stevenson had written his great masterpiece about 1590-1650, Dr Jekyll would have made a compact with the devil. On one of their rambles around the city, as they pass the door to a ‘sinister block of building’, Enfield tells Utterson about something that he witnessed one night concerning that door and that building: a man and a girl running through the street. He tells Utterson to leave Hyde alone. Teachers and parents! 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. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: plot summary, But anyway, on to the plot summary. 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 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 is also linked with late Victorian fears concerning degeneration and decadence among the human race. He thinks it might explain how, ...moment but answers to the name.

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). 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).

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. 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.

"I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done with him.

Stevenson then rewrote it from scratch, taking ten days this time, and the novella was promptly published in January 1886.

Like an addict, Jekyll resolved to stop transforming himself into Mr Hyde. This leads Utterson to suspect that this mysterious Mr Hyde is blackmailing Dr Jekyll over something. He found a way to transform himself into another, unrecognisable figure, using a special tincture he prepared in his laboratory, enabling him to indulge his vices without fear of detection. (This reading has been most thoroughly explored in Thomas L. Reed’s 2006 study The Transforming Draught.)

Dr Jekyll becomes more isolated and strange as the novel progresses. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. The letter is brought to Utterson, who goes to identify Carew’s body and then takes the police detective to Mr Hyde’s address, so they can apprehend the criminal. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! 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.

Jekyll's fascination with his "other" self became so obsessive that he was finally no longer able to control the metamorphosis process, and Edward Hyde began appearing whenever he wanted to — and not at the command of Dr. Jekyll. This is a more open-ended interpretation, and the novella does appear to be about repression of some sort. LitCharts Teacher Editions.

We begin in the first chapter, ‘Story of the Door’, with a conventional third-person narrator, telling us about Mr Utterson, a lawyer, and his friend and distant cousin, Mr Richard … 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. A summary of Part X (Section7) in Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: He was born to a good family, had a good education, and was respected by all who knew him. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. (See Showalter’s Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle.) 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. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.

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!". because he has been pre-selected for salvation (which is the Calvinist doctrine in which Stevenson himself was brought up). 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. 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. A psychoanalytic or proto-psychoanalytic analysis.

James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner n/e (Oxford World’s Classics) (1824) is an important precursor to Stevenson’s book in this regard. CliffsNotes study guides are written by real teachers and professors, so no matter what you're studying, CliffsNotes can ease your homework headaches and help you score high on exams. Jekyll grows pale when Hyde’s name is mentioned and refuses to discuss him. The man promptly trampled the girl underfoot, and then ran off; Enfield and others then chased after the man and detained him.

", "Poor Harry Jekyll," he thought, "my mind misgives me he is in deep waters!

This peace continues for two months. I shall be Mr. He shows Utterson a letter he received from Hyde, telling Jekyll not to fear for his safety. 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. For two months, he enjoyed the life of, The next day, the public anger at the murder of Carew becomes clear and, ...inn and, keeping as much undercover as possible, write to Dr. Lanyon (the letter from. However, during a moment of weakness, he relapsed, and took the serum, unleashing Hyde. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed. In January, ...if we were to know everything, we wouldn’t fear dying so much. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Mr. Resigned to the fact that he will eventually transform into Hyde permanently and be unable to become Jekyll again, he writes this letter as his last confession, and the novella ends with him bringing the life of Jekyll to a close: a hint that he is going to kill himself to prevent Hyde from causing any more damage.