Analysis Flashcards
Story of the Door
- literal reference to the incident with Hyde disappearing through a door to retrieve a cheque to placate the girl’s family.
- metaphorical allusion to the journey on which the reader, led by Utterson, is now about to embark (1stchapter). That is a journey into the heart of darkness, where the truth of the beast that lies within us all will be revealed.
Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court… The door…was blistered and distained.
- periodic structure heightens tension as Hyde’s residence is explored.
- “Blistered and distained”, this rear door represents the id, the hidden self, Darwin’s beast, the private face.
- Jekyll’s front entrance, by contrast, represents the ego, the public face of respectability presented as a doctor of medicine.
The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground… It was like some damn juggernaut.
- scene more horrific by the juxtaposition the brutality of Hyde’s actions with complacency of his reactions.
- figurative language likening Hyde to a large chariot, emphasises his strength.
I never saw a circle of such hateful faces; and there was the man in the middle, with a kind of black sneering coolness…carrying it off, sir, really like Satan.
- vivid imagery, with the satanic Hyde surrounded by an intimidating crowd, conveys the evil of Hyde.
- simile reminds us that Hyde is an embodiment of Freud’s id and Darwin’s beast –both very popular theories at the time.
It was his custom of a Sunday, when his meal was over, to sit close by the fire, a volume of some dry divinity on his desk, until the clock of the neighbouring church rang at the hour of twelve, when he would go soberly and gratefully to bed. On this night however…he took up a candle and went into his business room.
- long and complex sentence, laden with adverbial clauses, reference to midnight of the gothic qualities in the book
- highlights the dry and dull life overly controlled by the ego of Utterson
- real reason he is so drawn to Hyde and the heart of darkness.
It is more than ten year’s since Henry Jekyll’s became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind…and I have seen devilish little of the man.
- Lanyon explains his estrangement from Jekyll.
- Repetition of the word “wrong” helps to convey his sense of concern - heightens the reader’s the sense of anticipation in terms of Jekyll and the truth behind his strange behaviour.
…still he was digging at the problem…his imagination also was engaged, or enslaved.
- reference to “digging” reminds us of the uncovering of the reader’s journey into the heart of darkness.
- Utterson’s is “enslaved” by the heart of darkness, just like Jekyll formerly and Lanyon later in the novel.
…in spite of the low growl of London from all around.
- London is personified as a dystopian and satanic hell.
- Jack the Ripper was at large at the time the novel was published and believed by many to be a gentleman of high estate like Carew
Mr Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of breath….snarled aloud into a savage laugh
- demonic imagery and words such as “hissing” and “savage” remind us of Darwin’s beast
- help to present Hyde as an evil entity.
- sibilance makes this worse
Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming PEDE CLAUDO.
- Utterson concludes that Jekyll is being blackmailed into bequeathing his possessions to Hyde.
- repression, speculate that perhaps Jekyll has a sexual history, possibly homosexual, that he wants to keep a secret.
- metaphor also alludes to the fact that Hyde may be the illegitimate son of Jekyll, which in a sense he is in that he created him illegally.
Although a fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the night was cloudless, and…brilliantly lit by the full moon.
- references to “fog” and “moon” remind us of the gothic qualities of the novel.
Mr Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And the next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim underfoot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered…
- imagery suggests a release of the power of the beast within
- reference to “clubbed” and “ape-like fury” remind us of Jekyll’s regression into Darwin’s beast.
- metaphorical “storm of blows” helps to highlight the terrifying power of Hyde.
- “audibly shattered” - very onomatopoeic
A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven…and there would be a rich lurid brown…like a district of some city in a nightmare.
- use of colours to show confusion + rapidity in the scene
- London is presented as a demonic and dystopian hell - evil has free reign and God or the city’s relationship with God is dead.
…whilst he had always been known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion.
- In an attempt to regain control, Jekyll engages in goodly and Godly acts in order to turn his back on the heart of darkness
- fears God, tampering
Incident at the window.
- like The Story of the Door, it chapter offers a glimpse, to the reader and Utterson and Enfield, into the heart of darkness.’window’ ‘door’ small openings
