Chapter 8 Key Quotations

Question 1

Poole’s description of the events:

Answer 1

“Foul play”

Question 2

Eerie description of the night:

Answer 2

“It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March”

Question 3

Suggests supernatural, otherworldly forces are at work:

Answer 3

“a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her”
- “Pale” suggests the sense of penetrating fear that permeates the setting; perhaps this reflects Utterson’s own fear.

Question 4

Furthers the idea of the eerie, gothic depiction of the supernatural with the clouds:

Answer 4

“a flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture”
- Creates a highly abnormal, otherworldly atmosphere.

Question 5

Utterson’s sense of fear:

Answer 5

“crushing anticipation of calamity”
- “crushing” and “calamity” create a semantic field of destruction, furthering the feelings of fear and unexplained apprehension
- Perhaps the fact that the rational Utterson feels this way implies that the setting is truly frightening

Question 6

Hostile weather:

Answer 6

“biting weather”
- Animalistic, ruthless description; the hostility of the weather intensifies the fear that Poole and Utterson feel, creating more mystery and suspense for the reader.

Question 7

Foreshadowing of death:

Answer 7

“flecked the blood into the face”

Question 8

Theme of suffering/punishment - foreshadows Jekyll’s own death:

Answer 8

“the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing”
- “Lashing” exemplifies the hostility of the setting, powerfully foreshadowing a dramatic event, intensifying the horror of the setting and therefore the gothic fear felt by Utterson.

Question 9

Servants’ anxiety:

Answer 9

“huddled together like a flock of sheep”
- “Huddled” perhaps depicts their insecurity, “sheep” suggests their vulnerability, exemplifying the atmosphere of extreme tension.

Question 10

Hyde’s animalistic/dehumanising depiction:

Answer 10

• “digging among the crates”
• “cry out like a rat”
• “that thing was not my master”
• “that masked thing like a monkey jumped”

Question 11

Poole’s sense of inherent fear upon witnessing Hyde:

Answer 11

• “the hair stood upon my head like quills”
• “it went down my spine like ice”

Question 12

London echoing the extreme tension and suspense:

Answer 12

“London hummed solemnly all around”
- “hummed” creates a sense of ominous monotony that furthers the sense of tension hanging in the atmosphere.

Question 13

Hyde/Jekyll’s suffering:

Answer 13

“Weeping like a […] lost soul”

Question 14

Dying body of Hyde:

Answer 14

“sorely contorted and still twitching”
- “Contorted” and “twitching” exemplifies a sense of deformation, depicting the horrifying scene in the cabinet, intensified by “sorely”.