Collins Classroom Classics - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Introduction From early childhood, Stevenson was racked by hideous nightmares that woke him ‘strangling and screaming’ from his sleep. As he got older, the nature of these dreams transformed – while a student in Edinburgh, he began ‘to dream in sequence and thus to lead a double life – one of the day, one of the night’.

Describing himself ‘in his dream-life’, Stevenson wrote that ‘he passed a long day in the surgical theatre, his heart in his mouth, his teeth on edge, seeing monstrous malformations’.1 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the story that grew out of Stevenson’s fascination with the idea of leading a double life, and with the power of his own subconscious mind: he described his sleeping mind as an ‘unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret’. 2 The shadowy world of the novel, with its surgical rooms and foggy, lamp-lit streets, owes much to the ‘wet, haggard’ nights of Stevenson’s frightening dream world, and he attributed the image of Jekyll’s horrifying transformation directly to his subconscious: ‘on the second night I dreamed the scene at the window, and a scene ... in which Hyde, pursued for some crime, took the powder and underwent the change’.3 Stevenson’s nightmarish tale of monstrous duality has influenced books, film, drama and culture to the extent that many people today are familiar with the central idea. It is common for the media to describe someone who seems to live a double life as ‘a Jekyll and Hyde personality’, while the notion of evil or transforming twins has even featured in children’s TV shows such as Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde. Why iv

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

do you think this concept has enduring appeal? It is impossible for a reader today to feel the same horror and suspense as a Victorian reading the novel for the first time, but it is worth trying to approach the story with fresh eyes, since Stevenson’s narrative, and his portrayal of morality and duality, is more complex and interesting than might be supposed from the popular understanding of his idea.

Context The ‘shilling shocker’ and Gothic horror

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was first published for the Christmas issue of Longman’s Magazine in 1885. It was intended as a ‘shilling shocker’: a cheap, spooky story costing a ‘shilling’ (twelve pence). These ghost stories were very popular in late Victorian society and were often released at Christmas, when they were also known as ‘Christmas crawlers’ – A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens is one example.

Shilling shockers were influenced by traditional ghost stories as well as by Gothic fiction – a type of horror involving mystery and suspense, usually set in gloomy deserted places such as ruined castles. Gothic literature4 challenges rationalism, inviting us to explore a nightmarish world of curses, submerged desires and the unexplained – just as the logical reasoning of Utterson and Lanyon is challenged by Jekyll’s supernatural experiments. You might think about Jekyll’s laboratory as a Gothic setting, symbolic of ruin and hidden desires. As you read Jekyll and Hyde, consider the conventions of ghost stories and the extent to which the novel can be viewed as a ghost story or a Gothic horror. v

INTRODUCTION

Religion and morality

Like many middle-class Victorians, Stevenson was brought up in a conscientiously Christian household.

He was close to his nanny, Alice Cunningham, whose strong sense of good and evil made a deep impression on him. Alice’s Calvinism (a strict form of Christianity) warned against the dangers of worldly pleasures and of the horrifying consequences of sin, and her vivid descriptions of Hell contributed to the nightmares that haunted Stevenson’s childhood. Look out for how ideas of sin, hell and consequences are portrayed in the novel.

As a young man, Stevenson rebelled against the constraints of his Christian upbringing. Victorian standards of respectability, class and morality were strict, and focused on maintaining a good reputation.

Stevenson found these ideas hypocritical, since they were more concerned with the appearance of goodness than with goodness itself. Consider the behaviour of Utterson, Enfield, Carew and Jekyll in the novel in this light – why are respectable gentlemen so often roaming the city at night? Are they more interested in doing good or in avoiding negative opinion? Think about how Victorian gentlemen in the novel protect one another’s reputations through silence and discretion.

Science, religion and the Gothic

The Victorian period was a time of revolutionary scientific discoveries in fields such as chemistry, biology and medicine. Yet some Victorians saw science as dangerous, and a challenge to their religious beliefs.

Many Victorian writers tapped into these public fears about science. Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) was influenced by scientific experiments with electricity; her tale of an over-reaching student who vi

CHAPTER 1 Story of the Door Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; some­thing indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. ‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,’ he used to say quaintly: ‘I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.’

In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of down-going men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

No doubt the feat was easy to Mr Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even 1

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

his friendships seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature. It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer’s way.

His friends were those of his own blood, or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object. Hence, no doubt, the bond that united him to Mr Richard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town. It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common. It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull, and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend. For all that, the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.

It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the week-days. The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed, and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their gains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thorough­fare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

2

Glossary Chapter 1 1 drank gin ... to mortify a taste for vintages: gin was, at the time, a cheap alcohol, commonly drunk by the lower classes. Vintages are fine, expensive wines. Utterson is practising self-denial (mortifying his taste) by drinking the less pleasant drink.

1

approved: proven

1 Cain’s heresy: in Judeo-Christianity, in the Old Testament when God asks Cain where his murdered brother is, Cain denies his responsibility, replying ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (Genesis 4:9) 1

chambers: the offices of a barrister or lawyer

2

catholicity: breadth; inclusiveness

2 Hence: from this; in consequence 3

distained: discoloured

4 Juggernaut: a destructive, unstoppable force. The meaning derives from the Hindu temple cars of Jagannath Temple in Puri, India, which were falsely understood by midnineteenth-century English writers such as Dickens and Stevenson to crush blindly devoted worshippers beneath their wheels.

4

gave a view halloa: a shout made by a hunter sighting prey

4

Sawbones: slang for a surgeon

4 apothecary: person who dispenses medicines, remedies and medical advice 5 harpies: in Greek and Roman mythology, harpies were dangerous monsters, half-woman, half-bird 5 cheque for the balance on Coutts’s: Coutts is a wellrespected private bank for wealthy clients, founded in 1692.

Hyde appears to have been given a cheque for the money demanded of him by a wealthy, respectable person.

5 often printed: appearing frequently in newspapers and society columns about the rich and powerful 88

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE

5

apocryphal: doubtful; unlikely to be true

6

the very pink of the proprieties: most respectable

6 day of judgement: in Christianity, God’s final eternal judgement determining whether a person is to be punished in Hell or glorified in the Kingdom of Heaven 6 Queer Street: colloquial term meaning in a difficult situation; usually refers to financial problems such as debt Chapter 2 9

dry divinity: religious text

9 the cloth was taken away: the tablecloth removed and the table cleared 9 holograph: a manuscript handwritten by the author and bearing their signature 9 M.D., D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S.: Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Civil Law, Doctor of Laws and Fellow of the Royal Society: Jekyll’s degrees and professional awards 10 presentment of a fiend: presentment is the formal presenting of information to a court of law, usually by a jury.

Here, the image is of Hyde being presented as information to be judged in the strange case of Jekyll’s will. Utterson judges Hyde as fiendish, devilish.

10 Cavendish Square, that citadel of medicine: at the time, Cavendish Square in West London was home to several medical practices 11 Damon and Pythias: in Greek legend, Damon and Pythias are a symbol of perfect friendship: when Pythias is condemned to death, Damon offers to take his place in prison, so that Pythias can return home one last time.

Damon stakes his life on Pythias coming back to honour his death sentence and allow Damon’s release, which indeed he does.

11

little spirit: spurt

11 conveyancing: in law, the process of transferring the ownership of a property 12 scroll of lighted pictures: the image here is of peep shows 89

GLOSSARY

and magic lanterns. A peep show was pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass.

A magic lantern was an early form of projector, which was increasingly popular at the time.

13 bowels of mercy: pity. The phrase refers to the historical idea that emotions originate in parts of the body – sympathy being ‘seated’ in the bowels.

14

from home: away from home; not at home

15

à propos: appropriate

16

troglodytic: cave-dwelling; stunted

16 Dr Fell: Refers to a nursery rhyme: ‘I do not like thee, Doctor Fell, / The reason why – I cannot tell; / But this I know, and know full well, / I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.’

16

fan-light: window above a front door

17 fender: protective barrier around an open fireplace to shield against falling coals 17 my mind misgives me he is in deep waters: ‘I am worried he is in deep trouble’ 18 statute of limitations: laws that set a time limit on how long after an event legal proceedings can be started.

18 pede claudo: Latin for ‘on limping foot’. It suggests vengeance is catching up with Jekyll for his past deeds, as it refers to a line from a Roman poem by Horace (65–8 BC): ‘rare is it that Vengeance, lame of foot, fails to overtake the wicked fleeing ahead’ (The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace, Princeton University Press, 1999, p.97).

18 Jack-in-the-Box of an old iniquity should leap to light there: a Jack-in-the-box is a toy where a handle is turned until a figure on a spring leaps out. Utterson is wary of past sins (iniquities) catching him by surprise.

Chapter 3 20 hide-bound pedant: hide-bound means wrapped in animal hide – how books were bound in the past. A pedant is someone who insists on precise details and rules, usually to display their own knowledge. The phrase suggests someone who is inflexible and restricted by petty rules.

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