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Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are the most important characters in the novella — and the most complex, because they are the same person. Understanding how Stevenson presents them, both individually and as two aspects of one identity, is essential for the exam.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Profession | Doctor and scientist |
| Social status | Wealthy, respected, upper-class gentleman |
| Appearance | "a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty" (3) |
| Key trait | A man who suppresses his darker desires |
| Motivation | To separate good and evil within himself |
Jekyll is a pillar of Victorian respectability — wealthy, charitable, sociable, and well-liked. But beneath this polished exterior, he has desires he considers shameful (Stevenson deliberately never specifies what these are).
Jekyll is not simply a good man who accidentally creates an evil alter ego. He is a man who has always been dual:
"I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest." (10)
This is crucial. Jekyll does not pretend to be good while secretly being evil. He genuinely is both good and evil — and the tension between these two sides is what drives the experiment.
Jekyll's fundamental error is not creating Hyde. It is his belief that he can control the experiment:
"the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde." (3)
This line is deeply ironic. Jekyll's confidence that he can manage his dual nature is his hamartia — the fatal overconfidence that leads to his destruction.
| Stage | Jekyll's state | Key quote |
|---|---|---|
| Before experiment | Respectable but tormented by suppressed desires | "I concealed my pleasures" (10) |
| Early experiment | Liberated — enjoys the freedom of being Hyde | "I felt younger, lighter, happier in body" (10) |
| Middle | Increasingly uneasy — tries to stop being Hyde | "I chose the better part" (10) |
| Loss of control | Terrified — transforms involuntarily | "I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde" (10) |
| Final stage | Desperate, trapped, hopeless | "this is my true hour of death" (10) |
| Quote | What it shows |
|---|---|
| "I concealed my pleasures" (10) | Victorian repression — Jekyll hides his true self |
| "man is not truly one, but truly two" (10) | Jekyll's central discovery — duality is fundamental |
| "I felt younger, lighter, happier in body" (10) | The seductive appeal of Hyde — freedom from conscience |
| "the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde" (3) | Fatal overconfidence |
| "I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger" (6) | Jekyll accepts responsibility for his actions |
| "this is my true hour of death" (10) | Jekyll knows he is finished — his identity is dissolving |
Examiner's tip: When writing about Jekyll, always address the complexity. He is not simply a victim — he chose to create Hyde because he enjoyed the freedom. A Grade 9 response would argue that Jekyll's tragedy is not that he became Hyde, but that he wanted to be Hyde without consequences.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Small, pale, dwarfish, deformed — but indescribably so |
| Age | Younger than Jekyll — evil is "less exercised" |
| Behaviour | Violent, cruel, remorseless, savage |
| Effect on others | Inspires instinctive hatred, disgust, and fear |
| Symbolism | Jekyll's repressed evil given physical form |
One of Stevenson's most effective techniques is the way he describes Hyde. No one can quite say what is wrong with him:
"Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation." (2)
"There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable." (1)
"He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance ... I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why." (1)
This deliberate vagueness is central to Stevenson's technique. Hyde's horror comes not from a specific deformity but from an instinctive, primal revulsion that people feel in his presence.
| Interpretation | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Degeneration / atavism | Hyde is "troglodytic" (cave-dwelling), "ape-like", smaller and more primitive |
| Physiognomy | Victorians believed physical appearance reflected moral character — Hyde's deformity reflects his evil nature |
| The uncanny | Hyde is almost-human but not quite — triggering instinctive unease |
| Repressed recognition | People sense that Hyde represents something they recognise in themselves — their own hidden evil |
Hyde's violence escalates through the novella:
Trampling a child (Chapter 1 — casual cruelty)
|
v
Murdering Sir Danvers Carew (Chapter 4 — savage, motiveless violence)
|
v
Growing dominance over Jekyll (Chapters 6-10 — psychological violence)
|
v
Suicide (Chapter 8 — self-destruction)
The escalation is significant. Hyde begins with an act of casual cruelty (trampling the child) and progresses to savage murder (Carew). This suggests that evil, once released, does not stay contained — it grows.
| Quote | What it shows |
|---|---|
| "with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim underfoot" (4) | Animalistic violence — degeneration imagery |
| "Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish" (2) | Small because evil was "less exercised" |
| "really like Satan" (2) | Biblical evil — Hyde as the Devil |
| "the man seems hardly human" (2) | Hyde exists on the boundary between human and animal |
| "particularly small and particularly wicked-looking" (8) | Physical smallness linked to moral corruption |
| "I never saw a man I so disliked" (1) | The instinctive, inexplicable revulsion Hyde inspires |
Examiner's tip: Hyde is not just Jekyll's opposite — he is what Jekyll has suppressed. The key insight is that Hyde was always inside Jekyll; the experiment merely gave him a separate body.
This is the central question of the novella, and the answer is deliberately ambiguous:
| Argument: Two separate beings | Argument: One person |
|---|---|
| They look different | They share the same body, memories, and house |
| Jekyll speaks of Hyde as "he" | Jekyll also says "both sides of me" |
| Hyde has his own handwriting | The handwriting is similar — just with a different slant |
| Hyde acts without Jekyll's conscience | Jekyll admits he felt pleasure as Hyde |
Jekyll's own language shifts between referring to Hyde as a separate being and as part of himself. This instability is the point — the novella refuses to give a simple answer because duality is not simple.
At first, Jekyll is in control. He can choose when to become Hyde and when to return. But over time, the balance shifts:
Jekyll in control → Balance shifts → Hyde dominant → Jekyll trapped
The turning point is when Jekyll transforms involuntarily:
"I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde." (10)
From this moment, Hyde is the default state — Jekyll must actively fight to remain himself. The implication is that the repressed self, once freed, will eventually overpower the respectable self.
Through Jekyll and Hyde, Stevenson explores several ideas:
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