Context Flashcards
repression
In Victorian society, strict social codes dictated morality, suppressing desires and emotions. Individuals, particularly gentlemen, were expected to maintain a respectable outward appearance, leading to hidden, darker impulses.
“My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.” → Metaphor of a “caged” devil suggests how repression builds tension until it explodes.
“The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.” → Dramatic irony—Jekyll believes he controls his desires, but repression only strengthens them.
“The fog rolled over the city.” → Pathetic fallacy reflects moral ambiguity and hidden sins lurking beneath Victorian respectability.
“He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind.” (Lanyon about Jekyll) → Repetition emphasizes deviation from rational, socially acceptable behavior.
“I concealed my pleasures.” → Simple declarative sentence reflects repression’s necessity for a Victorian gentleman.
physiognomy
looks, Cesare Lombroso’s theory that criminals could be identified via their looks. Old theory about how ugly people had ugly personalities.
“Something troglodytic, shall we say?” → Darwinian allusion suggests Hyde’s primitivism, linking criminality to evolution.
“There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.” → Tricolon emphasizes Hyde’s unnaturalness and how his evil is visually apparent.
“Satan’s signature upon a face.” → Religious metaphor implies Hyde is inherently evil, linking sin to physicality.
“So ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.” → Hyperbole shows Hyde’s appearance triggers an instinctive, almost physical revulsion.
“Pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation.” → Ambiguity suggests Hyde’s evil transcends normal human deformity.
gentlemen
Gentlemen
The Victorian gentleman was expected to be respectable, rational, and restrained, adhering to strict social codes and avoiding scandal at all costs.
“The very pink of the proprieties.” → Idiom reflects the absurdly high expectations of gentlemen.
“He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind.” → Repetition emphasizes how intellectual deviation is considered a failure of gentlemanly conduct.
“No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene.” (Hyde) → Irony—Hyde mocks the social code, knowing gentlemen fear public scandal.
“I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed.” (Jekyll) → Euphemism for scandal reveals the priority of reputation over morality.
“The last good influence in the lives of downgoing men.” (Utterson) → Moral responsibility—gentlemen were expected to help each other maintain their reputations.
secrecy
The Victorian ideal of propriety led to hidden vices, with many indulging their darker impulses in secret.
“The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.” → Symbolism—Hyde’s house reflects secrecy and neglect.
“Windows barred with iron.” → Imagery of imprisonment suggests self-imposed secrecy.
“I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name.” → Omission of detail heightens mystery and fear.
“If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek.” (Utterson) → Wordplay reflects the theme of uncovering secrets, but also the difficulty in doing so.
“You must suffer me to go my own dark way.” → Metaphor of a “dark way” suggests self-destructive secrecy.
religion
Christianity was deeply embedded in Victorian society, with sin seen as a direct path to damnation. The fear of moral corruption was heightened by scientific developments.
“The spirit of Hell awoke in me and raged.” → Religious imagery suggests Hyde is a manifestation of damnation.
“Satan’s signature upon a face.” → Metaphor aligns Hyde with the Devil, reinforcing religious fears of innate evil.
“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again. → Repetition shows Lanyon’s horror, as though witnessing something blasphemous.
“If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.” → Paradox reflects Christian guilt and punishment for sin.
“The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll.” → Biblical allusion to sin strengthening as faith weakens.
geography
dodgy places like Soho, known for crime, are where gentlemen like Jekyll and Utterson are not expected to be seen.
“A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven.” → Pathetic fallacy and pollution imagery suggest moral decay.
“The street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood.” → Juxtaposition between respectability and squalor mirrors duality.
“The dismal quarter of Soho…like a district of some city in a nightmare.” → Simile presents Hyde’s domain as surreal and nightmarish.
“Fog rolled over the city.” → Symbolism of secrecy and moral ambiguity.
“Some city in a nightmare.” → Gothic imagery emphasizes urban horror and crime.
Science vs Religion
The 19th century saw a clash between scientific discovery and religious belief, particularly after Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) challenged traditional Christian ideas.
“The temptation of a discovery so singular and profound.” → Biblical allusion to temptation reflects the moral consequences of scientific ambition.
“Man is not truly one, but truly two.” → Definitive statement mirrors scientific hypotheses, reinforcing duality.
“Transcendental medicine.” → Neologism suggests Jekyll’s science defies natural laws.
“I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.” → Oxymoron (“profound duplicity”) links science with deception.
“The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine.” → Antithesis contrasts religious and scientific perspectives on Jekyll’s transformation.
The Uncanny
Victorian readers were fascinated by the eerie and supernatural, particularly in Gothic literature, where the “uncanny” blurred reality and horror.
“There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.” → Repetition and ambiguity create unease, making Hyde inexplicably disturbing.
“Ape-like fury.” → Animalistic imagery unsettles readers, implying regression to primal instincts.
“That masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals.” → Simile intensifies the grotesqueness of Hyde’s transformation.
“It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.” → Foreign imagery (Juggernaut as an unstoppable force) enhances fear of the unknown.
“You who have denied the virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors—behold!” → Imperative heightens dramatic tension and the horror of transformation.
