Chapter 9 Key Quotations

Question 1

Jekyll perhaps desperately tries to manipulate Lanyon:

Answer 1

• “my life, my honour, my reason, are all at your mercy”
• charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of my reason”

Question 2

Semantic field of science:

Answer 2

• “phial, […] half full of a blood-red liquor” (“blood-red” perhaps foreshadows death and creates mystery)
• “volatile ether”

Question 3

Lanyon’s uncertainty about Jekyll’s scientific equipment (theme of conflicting scientific views):

Answer 3

“a phial of some tincture, a paper of some salt”
- Repetition of “some” depicts a sense of uncertainty.

Question 4

Hyde’s deformation (Lanyon’s perspective):

Answer 4

“great apparent debility of consitution”

Question 5

Hyde’s universally uncanny appearance that invokes automatic feelings of repugnance and hatred in Lanyon:

Answer 5

• “something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature” (creature also alludes to atavism, since Hyde is dehumanised and portrayed as an animal)
• “something seizing, surprising and revolting” (triadic phrase exemplifies disgust)

Question 6

Tactile imagery to describe Hyde’s touch:

Answer 6

“a certain icy pang along my blood”
- “Blood” suggests that the presence of Hyde penetrates deep within others; “pang” exemplifies his shocking unpleasantness.

Question 7

Hyde making the potion (theme of mystical vs conventional science):

Answer 7

• “red tincture” (alludes to blood)
• “effervesce audibly”
• “small fumes of vapour”
• “ebullition” (mysterious, eerie presentation of mystical science, exemplifying its supernatural nature)

Question 8

Hyde tempting Lanyon (theme of evil temptations):

Answer 8

“has the greed of curiosity too much command of you?”

Question 9

Conflict between different scientific views - Hyde prepares to disprove Lanyon:

Answer 9

• “bound to the most narrow and material views”
• “denied the virtue of transcendental medicine”
• “derided your superiors” (links to Jekyll “playing God” by separating the dual sides of man)

Question 10

Gothic representation of the transformation - invokes tremendous fear:

Answer 10

“face became suddenly black, and the features seemed to melt and alter” (“melt” creates an abnormal, uncanny sense of horror, especially in the context of a body)

Question 11

Lanyon’s immediate reaction to the transformation:

Answer 11

• “my mind submerged in terror”
• “O God!”
• “like a man restored from death” (defies natural science, depicting the victory of supernatural science over his “narrow and material views”)
• “soul sickened”

Question 12

Long-term effect on Lanyon (gothic convention):

Answer 12

• “My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me”
• “deadliest terror sits by me at all hours”
• “I must die” (reflects the extreme extent to which the transformation has traumatised Lanyon, leaving him completely deteriorated)