Front
Back
How is Dr Jekyll introduced in the novella?
A respected upper‑class doctor with a hidden past; implied youthful ‘rambunctious’ behaviour and possible taboo relationships. (Chapter 3)
What does Jekyll symbolise in the novella?
He represents repression and insatiable curiosity, torn between social respectability and forbidden desires. (Throughout)
What motivates Jekyll to create Hyde?
He wants to separate ‘good’ and ‘evil’ within himself, freeing his repressed desires. (Chapter 10)
What does Jekyll mean by ‘concealed my pleasures’?
He hid immoral desires due to Victorian expectations, showing repression as a societal force. (Chapter 10)
What does ‘committed to a profound duplicity of life’ reveal?
He acknowledges living a double life, foreshadowing Hyde’s creation. (Chapter 10)
How does Jekyll’s relationship with religion shape his character?
He is ‘distinguished for religion’ yet later ‘lifted his clasped hands to God’, showing guilt and desire for redemption. (Chapter 6 / Chapter 10)
How does Jekyll link to Freud’s theory of the mind?
He represents the ego balancing moral conscience and instinct, with Hyde as the unleashed Id. (Context)
How does Jekyll reflect Marxist ideas?
As bourgeoisie, his violence through Hyde critiques upper‑class hypocrisy and exploitation. (Throughout)
How does Stevenson use Brodie as inspiration for Jekyll?
Brodie lived a double life—respectable by day, criminal by night—mirroring Jekyll’s duality. (Context)
How does John Hunter influence Jekyll’s house?
Hunter’s respectable front and grim back rooms inspire Jekyll’s divided home, symbolising duality. (Context)
What does Jekyll’s sociability reveal?
He hosts ‘pleasant dinners’ and is ‘charitable’, showing his respectable public persona. (Chapter 3)
What does Jekyll’s inventiveness show?
His scientific curiosity drives him to dangerous experimentation, symbolising Victorian anxieties about science. (Chapter 10)
How does Jekyll become erratic?
He isolates himself and loses control as Hyde begins to appear uninvited. (Chapters 5–7)
What happens in Jekyll’s key moment in Chapter 3?
He refuses to explain his will to Utterson, showing secrecy and early signs of Hyde’s influence. (Chapter 3)
What happens in Chapter 5 that reveals Hyde’s power?
Jekyll appears ‘on the brink of death’, and handwriting similarities suggest Hyde’s growing control. (Chapter 5)
What is the significance of Jekyll’s confession in Chapter 10?
He explains Hyde’s creation, revealing his philosophical struggle with morality, science, and identity. (Chapter 10)
How does Jekyll’s relationship with Lanyon develop?
They fall out over ‘unscientific balderdash’, showing ideological conflict between material and metaphysical science. (Chapter 2)
How does Jekyll’s relationship with Utterson drive the plot?
Utterson’s loyalty and curiosity push the investigation forward despite Jekyll’s secrecy. (Throughout)
How does Jekyll’s relationship with Hyde shape the narrative?
Hyde gains increasing control, blurring boundaries until ‘two become one’ again. (Chapter 10)
What does ‘my devil had long been caged, he came out roaring’ reveal?
Religious allusion and animalistic imagery show Hyde as Jekyll’s unleashed evil. (Chapter 10)
What does ‘I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs’ show?
Hyde’s body reflects moral degeneration; the ‘hairy’ hand symbolises loss of respectability. (Chapter 10)
What does ‘younger, lighter, happier in body’ reveal about Hyde?
Hyde frees Jekyll from social obligations; tricolon shows intoxicating liberation. (Chapter 10)
What does ‘fortress of identity’ suggest?
Jekyll’s experiments threaten the stability of the self, encroaching on divine territory. (Chapter 10)
