Stevenson focuses upon Hyde's evil in order to expose the hypocrisy of middle-class men and undermine their Christian beliefs while, at the same time, giving his Christian audience a tale with Christian morals they can believe in. However, this was a dual narrative with a dual purpose, which will also undermine Christian beliefs because Stevenson is an atheist. We are first introduced to Hyde by Jekyll as “pure evil”. This, however, satisfies the Christian audience who are looking for a morality tale. However, Jekyll's next description of him is that when he was Hyde, he had a “livelier image of the spirit”. This implies that Hyde was possibly a superior experience to live in than Jekyll. Jekyll creates Hyde as a bravo in order to enjoy the pleasures of life. Stevenson could be suggesting that if we gave in to our natural human pleasures, our lives would be better. The Christian message is that we must repress our desires because they are inherently evil. Stevenson might disagree. We can explore this further when Jekyll describes being Hyde as “springing headlong into the sea of liberty”. This metaphor suggests that Jekyll feels liberated, released, perhaps his true self. If we consider “man's dual nature", perhaps Stevenson is suggesting that our true selves are pleasure-seekers, and seeking pleasure is not in itself “sinful”. It is only society's rules that force us to view them as evil, and those views in Victorian society are shaped by Christian belief, which we know Stevenson opposed. The next character to describe Hyde says he was like some “damned juggernaut”. This quote reveals the Christian prejudice of the time. Hyde is “damned” just on his appearance; he's being judged and sent to hell. He is described as a “juggernaut” because this was the British way of changing the pronunciation of Jagannath, the Hindu god. This description reveals Victorian prejudice against other cultures and religions, which is part of the dual narrative that Stevenson is writing. He is showing that the Christian tradition is only one possible moral construct for societies to follow. Other societies, much greater in numbers than our own, might choose different religions and belief systems. The prejudice towards Hinduism here is the same prejudice that the characters will have towards Hyde, reflected in the word "damned." In fact, we find out that when Hyde trampled on this young girl, she was not “much the worse”. In other words, all he had done was bump into her and carry on; she was not harmed, and there was no damage done. Therefore, seeing Hyde as “truly evil” is a hyperbolic reaction. Yes, he is unpleasant and hasn't stopped this girl, but this is not “evil”. When Utterson first sees Hyde and he's performed no evil act yet, he describes Hyde as having "Satan's signature upon his face," a phrase that is hyperbolic and prejudiced. It uses the language of Christianity to show how evil Hyde is. This satisfies a Christian reader who knows they're in for a morality tale and expects this satanic figure to be punished by the end of the novel. However, Stevenson's more subtle point is that there is nothing inherently evil and satanic about this character; it's only society's prejudice that makes it so. In fact, Enfield and the doctor immediately want to kill Hyde, and Stevenson shows us this because he wants to show that it is society that is evil for repressing natural human desires. Continued in comments...
Hyde, however, does commit a very “evil” act in killing Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll describes this as "my devil came out roaring," again using Christian symbolism of the devil suggests that this is a satanic figure who must be stopped, who must be punished by the end of the novel. However, Jekyll is an unreliable narrator. He has a vested interest in showing Hyde as the most evil character, but there is an alternative possibility. The “ape-like fury” that Hyde uses in killing Sedanva's crew suggests that Hyde is evil because the theory of evolution is evil. This plays with the real context of the time where Christians were worried that evolution threatened their religion because the Bible states that the world was created in seven days, including every animal in it. The theory of evolution suggests the opposite happened. Evolution took millions of years, and no being was created as it is now; it has evolved from earlier forms. This challenge to Christian belief upset many in society because their certainties were no longer trustworthy. Of course, Stevenson is very happy with these scientific discoveries because he is an atheist. However, he can't rub this atheism metaphorically in the face of his readers because he knows they are Christian, and so he still has to offer them Christian redemption in the novel while at the same time hinting that this is a fantasy. What we are never told is why Hyde kills Sir Danves Carew. This is a deliberate ambiguity. Some readers decide that it is because Stevenson is writing about homosexuality in 1885. This was the year in which homosexuality was outlawed. This perhaps explains why all the men in this novel are single and apparently attracted to each other. Whether or not we accept that the hidden secret of Hyde is homosexuality, we certainly don't know why he killed Carew. This introduces another possibility. Let's go back to why Hyde was created. He was created as a bravo for Jekyll. This means he existed “for his pleasures”. His being Jekyll's. Hyde was only created so that Jekyll can enjoy what Hyde enjoys without being exposed because he's doing it in the form of Hyde. This invites us to suppose that he therefore wanted to enjoy the killing of Sir Danves Carew. The real evil is the civilized man. It is Jekyll, not Hyde. Hyde is acting on an instruction, but Jekyll keeps that from us or rather keeps it from Utterson in his confession at the end. We can infer it, however, from his description of how Jekyll reacted to the murder. Once Jekyll has escaped back into his own form due to using the potion again, he describes himself as "the animal within me licking the chops of memory." This sensual and animalistic imagery is not describing Hyde. It is describing Jekyll to show that he is the “true evil” in the novel. He is the one enjoying reliving the memory of having killed Crew. He is licking his own lips at the idea that he has extinguished this man's life in such a violent “ape-like” manner. This is not Hyde. So now we can clearly see the dual purpose of the narrative. Stevenson is suggesting that we are actually all inherently evil, but he's still not a Christian. He's saying this “devil came out roaring” not because we are all evil, but because Hyde has been repressed. If we return to the theme of homosexuality, Stevenson might be suggesting that if we repress natural desires, we automatically make people into hypocrites, we automatically make them less moral. However, if we did not repress those desires, metaphorically speaking, our inner “devils [would not] come out roaring” because they would not be treated as “devils”. We would simply be acting on our own pleasures and could make better moral choices without damaging others. Jekyll's rage would appear to be the result of having to repress his own desires in the form of Hyde. The next thing we need to consider is whether all middle-class men are being described as evil, and Stevenson achieves this by placing Jekyll's house in Leicester Square, adjacent to “Soho.” Soho was code for an area of debauchery and sin in Victorian times. However, this is where he places Hyde. To the Christian audience, this obviously signifies Hyde's “evil” and “sinful” nature. However, Stevenson's dual purpose is to point out that Soho only exists cheek by jowl and side by side with Leicester Square in order to satisfy the “sinful desires”, the immoral practices of the middle classes, and indeed the wealthy classes who live next door in Leicester Square. What he is suggesting is that this is a marriage of convenience. On the one hand, people like Jekyll have the facade of respectability, and this is reflected in where they live. But on the other hand, they make sure their access to “immorality” and the opportunity for sin exists just a hundred meters away. This is why Hyde lives almost next door to Jekyll, even though Leicester Square and Soho sound separate. Instead, they are intertwined. They reveal man's dual nature in the dual nature of their geography. There is another death in the novel which can also be ascribed to Hyde's evil. This is the moment when Lanyon is tempted. The idea of temptation is a Christian motif we are familiar with it from Jesus's temptation, spending 40 days and 40 nights in the desert being tempted by Satan. Jesus, of course, resisted temptation because he is the Son of God. However, Lanyon does not resist, and this leads to his death. The temptation is the proposition given to him by Hyde. He tells Lanyon that if he watches the transformation in front of him, he will receive a “new province of knowledge and fame.” He's inviting Lanyon to watch the results of Jekyll's science. Why is this important? Because Lanyon is the key figure in the novel who has dismissed Jekyll's science as “balderdash”. He is a scientific opponent to Jekyll. Therefore, Jekyll has a motive for revenge, and he seeks that revenge through his alter ego, Hyde. Hyde tempts Lanyon. Lanyon is exposed to this unchristian science that will create a separate being, a separate life, something only God is allowed to do. Because of this, Lanyon chooses to give up on life. He decides that Hyde's “evil” and Jekyll's science are so great that he would rather die than live in a society that is being polluted by this new scientific evil. This plays on Christian fears of scientific advance. However, Stevenson, at the time, was dying of tuberculosis. This was a long drawn-out but fatal process; nobody survived tuberculosis in Victorian England. Consequently, we know he clung on dearly to life, and he has absolutely no respect for Dr. Lanyon's position. In fact, he would view Lanyon's giving up on life as contemptible. This is a clue to the reader that the Christian morality in the novel is also contemptible, and it is a clue that Hyde's evil is a social construct, not a Christian truth. This is reinforced at the ending of the novel when Stevenson describes Hyde as “full of life”. He describes him as “his love of life is wonderful”. This reminds us of the “sea of liberty” which Hyde entered into at the beginning. It suggests that being Hyde is something to aspire to. For a novelist who is facing death, this love of life is real and powerful. This is why Jekyll says, "I find it in my heart to pity him." It doesn't just reveal Jekyll's corruption, which is what a Christian audience would pick up. It reveals Stevenson's actual viewpoint. We should “pity” Hyde because he is as human as the rest of us, but he cannot express our humanity because society won't allow it. Ultimately, this novel takes the view that human nature is a “sea of liberty”, and so long as we don't harm others, we ought to be allowed to express our full pleasures in life and enjoy everything that life has to offer.
Could you also argue that Stevensons’ message isn’t that Hyde is degenerating but in fact we are as a society. In Darwin’s evolution theory, he said that we evolve at each stage in order to get a genetic advantage and be able to live on adapting into the greater and superior. However, what Stevenson is trying to say and warn us, is that Victorian culture and society were ignorant and unaccepting of anything outside of the ‘norm’, whether this be due to the influence of Christianity or not, it shows how unaccepting and naive we are; that we are numb to the prospect of growth and unable to think using our own minds. Interestingly, for modern readers we can see the truth to these words as today people are becoming number as we become more conditioned as a society to just accepting what is told to us, whether this be through school or technology like google, the answer is always there and therefore we have lost our interest and knowledge is discovering for ourselves. As a consequence, Stevenson flips the mirror to highlight that we are in fact the ones regressing not Hyde. Hyde is a new creation, one that brings new discovery and hopeful interest into our identity as humans and by not accepting this and seeing it as ‘ugly’ and ‘wrong’, we are thoughtless and failing to adapt to our new and ever changing world. Alternatively, some readers could also suggest that Stevenson just wants us to be aware of these things and that we are causing our own demise. Through our knowledge and power in creating such technology have we only been able to make life easier for us, meaning we are not living by the natural world are losing our sight of reality. Not only this, but as our advances on medicine and clean living conditions only make us weaker humans. Our bodies condition to the supposed advanced life now so that when placed back in nature, our bodies our more susceptible to disease and eventual death. Readers could argue that due to this, it explains why Stevenson after moved to Africa to live the remainder of his life there, away from all the technology and mind destroying stuff that isn’t natural. Moreover, Hyde isn’t even natural, he is a chemical formulation made from science, supporting my point, and proving how we create our own demise. The Story of Jekyll and Hyde was purely our own fault and is a reflection of our society; therefore we need to suffer the consequences whilst attempt to get out of this vicious cycle that will continue if nothing changes. A sad but honest truth.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 A well-deserved round of applause for Mr Salles for all the effort he puts into teaching his students and giving them the best chance at success. Thank you very much Sir.
the argument in the video is that Hyde is presented as evil for the Christian reader but Stevenson subtly uses Hyde as a construct to convey that society would be better if it was freer and less suppressive. Talking about both interpretations gets u more marks but u would have to suggest why Stevenson has contrasting descriptions.
Your videos make me feel so much more confident! I’ve got AQA English Literature Paper 1 on Monday and honestly English is the only one I’m actually scared for rather than simply nervous, because you have to remember so much yet they only give you one question! So thank you! ❤
Would I loose marks for talking about different interpretations of the novel eg Stevenson satisfying Christian readers by making it a Christian tale but also at the same time subtly criticising Christian society ?
I have one question sir are you allowed to compare Jekyll with any novel like Macbeth because when i watch the videos of Mr everything english, I just have a thought whether you can compare it if you don't have any points
@@rnssalt4300 bro do you understand what I am asking don't you what i am saying is if we can although the question doesn't tell us to you guys are useless I will tell him when he is live
i've been told to avoid it because macbeth has different audience and different message altogther to jekyll and hyde so not much to compare between the two
Hi, This is my most recent essay: Robert Louis Stevenson explores the idea of duality in the novella 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' through good and evil, happiness, and gaining benefits. Stevenson explores the idea of duality through good and evil as Jekyll acknowledges that 'man is not truly one but truly two". The repetition of 'truly' symbolises that Jekyll believed every person had good and evil within them and Jekyll wanted to unleash this evil side of him. Jekyll's illnesses are Hyde's actions and he enjoys the evilness within him. This is further enhanced from the quote in the extract: "my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery' . The juxtaposition of 'power' and 'slavery' implies the duality nature between Jekyll and Hyde is being triumphed by evil over good as Hyde is taking over due to the desires of evil acts and enjoyment within them. The audience believes that To Jekyll, Hyde is 'my second character' and the possessive pronoun 'my' proves that the evil side, Hyde, is so important to him that Jekyll is accepting this evil side of him, Hyde is taking over and Jekyll seems to be ok with that. This leaves the contemporary audience shocked, and Stevenson has deliberately done this to link with the serial killer Jack the Ripper, Jack the ripper was an unknown killer to be serious in the daytime, but bloodthirsty in the nighttime, therefore this is one idea Stevenson explores duality through. Stevenson explores the idea of duality through happiness, Jekyll admits that he ‘felt younger, lighter, happier’ as Edward Hyde, the asyndetic list of ‘younger, lighter, happier’ suggests he feels thrilled because he can express his pleasures through a different person without worrying about Hyde’s appearance, and consequences, this further links to the metaphor his ‘reputation sat under shelter’, the metaphor ‘sat under shelter’ expresses Jekyll's feelings that he is judging others who commit pleasures through hiring people, whereas Jekyll can do it for free through science, this makes Jekyll feel proud and happy as he ‘was the first that ever did so for his pleasures’ the pronoun ‘his pleasures’ again shows ambition to be in the ‘ugly’ state of Hyde, he feels no guilt or sympathy for the actions he's created and his only happy for his own joy and mental health, this leaves the Victorian audience panicking because Jekyll feels proud of his own immorality as Jekyll is going against his religion by committing evil acts and feeling proud, knowing killing and feeling no shame is one of the biggest sins in Christianity, therefore may be punished in hell, this is another way Stevenson explores duality through the idea of happiness. Stevenson finally explores the idea of duality through receiving benefits. Jekyll mentions that he is ‘the chief of sinners, [he is] the chief of sufferers also’ the repetition of ‘chief’ separated by a caesurae represents importance, how Jekyll is the leader of ‘sinners’ and ‘sufferers’ and that he is again benefitting from it, many people would want to volunteer being leader in fun activities but to Jekyll, the idea of sins and suffering is fun to him. This is further explored as Jekyll ‘profit[s] by the strange immunities of [his] position’. The imagery of money implies that he is benefitting from duality and is continuing to express his pleasures without punishment, ‘immunity’ displays that he is immune from consequences and is happy being immune, this presents to the contemporary audience that duality is beneficial due to the variety of decisions you can make without any fear. Stevenson intentionally did this through the character Hyde: Hyde is a homophone for hide as if you can hide your true natural self and unleash the evilness within duality through another character this would be beneficial for you to explore evil intentions, this is another way Stevenson explores the idea of duality. Therefore, Stevenson explores the idea of duality of Jekyll and Hyde through good and evil, happiness and benefits. Please give feedback!
You have great analysis but I would expand a bit more in the intro maybe? Bring in context and why the whole novel is based on duality, and u can then reference this through the whole thing :)
Stevenson focuses upon Hyde's evil in order to expose the hypocrisy of middle-class men and undermine their Christian beliefs while, at the same time, giving his Christian audience a tale with Christian morals they can believe in. However, this was a dual narrative with a dual purpose, which will also undermine Christian beliefs because Stevenson is an atheist.
We are first introduced to Hyde by Jekyll as “pure evil”. This, however, satisfies the Christian audience who are looking for a morality tale. However, Jekyll's next description of him is that when he was Hyde, he had a “livelier image of the spirit”. This implies that Hyde was possibly a superior experience to live in than Jekyll. Jekyll creates Hyde as a bravo in order to enjoy the pleasures of life. Stevenson could be suggesting that if we gave in to our natural human pleasures, our lives would be better. The Christian message is that we must repress our desires because they are inherently evil. Stevenson might disagree.
We can explore this further when Jekyll describes being Hyde as “springing headlong into the sea of liberty”. This metaphor suggests that Jekyll feels liberated, released, perhaps his true self. If we consider “man's dual nature", perhaps Stevenson is suggesting that our true selves are pleasure-seekers, and seeking pleasure is not in itself “sinful”. It is only society's rules that force us to view them as evil, and those views in Victorian society are shaped by Christian belief, which we know Stevenson opposed.
The next character to describe Hyde says he was like some “damned juggernaut”. This quote reveals the Christian prejudice of the time. Hyde is “damned” just on his appearance; he's being judged and sent to hell. He is described as a “juggernaut” because this was the British way of changing the pronunciation of Jagannath, the Hindu god. This description reveals Victorian prejudice against other cultures and religions, which is part of the dual narrative that Stevenson is writing. He is showing that the Christian tradition is only one possible moral construct for societies to follow. Other societies, much greater in numbers than our own, might choose different religions and belief systems.
The prejudice towards Hinduism here is the same prejudice that the characters will have towards Hyde, reflected in the word "damned." In fact, we find out that when Hyde trampled on this young girl, she was not “much the worse”. In other words, all he had done was bump into her and carry on; she was not harmed, and there was no damage done. Therefore, seeing Hyde as “truly evil” is a hyperbolic reaction. Yes, he is unpleasant and hasn't stopped this girl, but this is not “evil”.
When Utterson first sees Hyde and he's performed no evil act yet, he describes Hyde as having "Satan's signature upon his face," a phrase that is hyperbolic and prejudiced. It uses the language of Christianity to show how evil Hyde is. This satisfies a Christian reader who knows they're in for a morality tale and expects this satanic figure to be punished by the end of the novel. However, Stevenson's more subtle point is that there is nothing inherently evil and satanic about this character; it's only society's prejudice that makes it so. In fact, Enfield and the doctor immediately want to kill Hyde, and Stevenson shows us this because he wants to show that it is society that is evil for repressing natural human desires.
Continued in comments...
Hyde, however, does commit a very “evil” act in killing Sir Danvers Carew. Jekyll describes this as "my devil came out roaring," again using Christian symbolism of the devil suggests that this is a satanic figure who must be stopped, who must be punished by the end of the novel. However, Jekyll is an unreliable narrator. He has a vested interest in showing Hyde as the most evil character, but there is an alternative possibility.
The “ape-like fury” that Hyde uses in killing Sedanva's crew suggests that Hyde is evil because the theory of evolution is evil. This plays with the real context of the time where Christians were worried that evolution threatened their religion because the Bible states that the world was created in seven days, including every animal in it. The theory of evolution suggests the opposite happened. Evolution took millions of years, and no being was created as it is now; it has evolved from earlier forms. This challenge to Christian belief upset many in society because their certainties were no longer trustworthy.
Of course, Stevenson is very happy with these scientific discoveries because he is an atheist. However, he can't rub this atheism metaphorically in the face of his readers because he knows they are Christian, and so he still has to offer them Christian redemption in the novel while at the same time hinting that this is a fantasy.
What we are never told is why Hyde kills Sir Danves Carew. This is a deliberate ambiguity. Some readers decide that it is because Stevenson is writing about homosexuality in 1885. This was the year in which homosexuality was outlawed. This perhaps explains why all the men in this novel are single and apparently attracted to each other.
Whether or not we accept that the hidden secret of Hyde is homosexuality, we certainly don't know why he killed Carew. This introduces another possibility. Let's go back to why Hyde was created. He was created as a bravo for Jekyll. This means he existed “for his pleasures”. His being Jekyll's. Hyde was only created so that Jekyll can enjoy what Hyde enjoys without being exposed because he's doing it in the form of Hyde. This invites us to suppose that he therefore wanted to enjoy the killing of Sir Danves Carew.
The real evil is the civilized man. It is Jekyll, not Hyde. Hyde is acting on an instruction, but Jekyll keeps that from us or rather keeps it from Utterson in his confession at the end. We can infer it, however, from his description of how Jekyll reacted to the murder. Once Jekyll has escaped back into his own form due to using the potion again, he describes himself as "the animal within me licking the chops of memory." This sensual and animalistic imagery is not describing Hyde. It is describing Jekyll to show that he is the “true evil” in the novel. He is the one enjoying reliving the memory of having killed Crew. He is licking his own lips at the idea that he has extinguished this man's life in such a violent “ape-like” manner. This is not Hyde. So now we can clearly see the dual purpose of the narrative. Stevenson is suggesting that we are actually all inherently evil, but he's still not a Christian. He's saying this “devil came out roaring” not because we are all evil, but because Hyde has been repressed.
If we return to the theme of homosexuality, Stevenson might be suggesting that if we repress natural desires, we automatically make people into hypocrites, we automatically make them less moral. However, if we did not repress those desires, metaphorically speaking, our inner “devils [would not] come out roaring” because they would not be treated as “devils”. We would simply be acting on our own pleasures and could make better moral choices without damaging others. Jekyll's rage would appear to be the result of having to repress his own desires in the form of Hyde.
The next thing we need to consider is whether all middle-class men are being described as evil, and Stevenson achieves this by placing Jekyll's house in Leicester Square, adjacent to “Soho.” Soho was code for an area of debauchery and sin in Victorian times. However, this is where he places Hyde. To the Christian audience, this obviously signifies Hyde's “evil” and “sinful” nature. However, Stevenson's dual purpose is to point out that Soho only exists cheek by jowl and side by side with Leicester Square in order to satisfy the “sinful desires”, the immoral practices of the middle classes, and indeed the wealthy classes who live next door in Leicester Square.
What he is suggesting is that this is a marriage of convenience. On the one hand, people like Jekyll have the facade of respectability, and this is reflected in where they live. But on the other hand, they make sure their access to “immorality” and the opportunity for sin exists just a hundred meters away. This is why Hyde lives almost next door to Jekyll, even though Leicester Square and Soho sound separate. Instead, they are intertwined. They reveal man's dual nature in the dual nature of their geography.
There is another death in the novel which can also be ascribed to Hyde's evil. This is the moment when Lanyon is tempted. The idea of temptation is a Christian motif we are familiar with it from Jesus's temptation, spending 40 days and 40 nights in the desert being tempted by Satan. Jesus, of course, resisted temptation because he is the Son of God. However, Lanyon does not resist, and this leads to his death. The temptation is the proposition given to him by Hyde. He tells Lanyon that if he watches the transformation in front of him, he will receive a “new province of knowledge and fame.” He's inviting Lanyon to watch the results of Jekyll's science. Why is this important? Because Lanyon is the key figure in the novel who has dismissed Jekyll's science as “balderdash”. He is a scientific opponent to Jekyll. Therefore, Jekyll has a motive for revenge, and he seeks that revenge through his alter ego, Hyde.
Hyde tempts Lanyon. Lanyon is exposed to this unchristian science that will create a separate being, a separate life, something only God is allowed to do. Because of this, Lanyon chooses to give up on life. He decides that Hyde's “evil” and Jekyll's science are so great that he would rather die than live in a society that is being polluted by this new scientific evil. This plays on Christian fears of scientific advance. However, Stevenson, at the time, was dying of tuberculosis. This was a long drawn-out but fatal process; nobody survived tuberculosis in Victorian England. Consequently, we know he clung on dearly to life, and he has absolutely no respect for Dr. Lanyon's position. In fact, he would view Lanyon's giving up on life as contemptible. This is a clue to the reader that the Christian morality in the novel is also contemptible, and it is a clue that Hyde's evil is a social construct, not a Christian truth.
This is reinforced at the ending of the novel when Stevenson describes Hyde as “full of life”. He describes him as “his love of life is wonderful”. This reminds us of the “sea of liberty” which Hyde entered into at the beginning. It suggests that being Hyde is something to aspire to. For a novelist who is facing death, this love of life is real and powerful. This is why Jekyll says, "I find it in my heart to pity him." It doesn't just reveal Jekyll's corruption, which is what a Christian audience would pick up. It reveals Stevenson's actual viewpoint. We should “pity” Hyde because he is as human as the rest of us, but he cannot express our humanity because society won't allow it. Ultimately, this novel takes the view that human nature is a “sea of liberty”, and so long as we don't harm others, we ought to be allowed to express our full pleasures in life and enjoy everything that life has to offer.
You are a marvellous person! Thank you so much.
Absolute legend thanks you
thank you for using this time to help us really appreciate your help
You absolutely saved my grade, this was the question!!!
The thumbnail is amazing 😂
SIR THE SAME QUESTION CAME UP 🎉🎉
In the exam I was grinding and feeling so confident because of you. I hope you have a great summer 👑👑
I certainly will! Thank you
You got it right omg
Could you also argue that Stevensons’ message isn’t that Hyde is degenerating but in fact we are as a society. In Darwin’s evolution theory, he said that we evolve at each stage in order to get a genetic advantage and be able to live on adapting into the greater and superior. However, what Stevenson is trying to say and warn us, is that Victorian culture and society were ignorant and unaccepting of anything outside of the ‘norm’, whether this be due to the influence of Christianity or not, it shows how unaccepting and naive we are; that we are numb to the prospect of growth and unable to think using our own minds. Interestingly, for modern readers we can see the truth to these words as today people are becoming number as we become more conditioned as a society to just accepting what is told to us, whether this be through school or technology like google, the answer is always there and therefore we have lost our interest and knowledge is discovering for ourselves. As a consequence, Stevenson flips the mirror to highlight that we are in fact the ones regressing not Hyde. Hyde is a new creation, one that brings new discovery and hopeful interest into our identity as humans and by not accepting this and seeing it as ‘ugly’ and ‘wrong’, we are thoughtless and failing to adapt to our new and ever changing world. Alternatively, some readers could also suggest that Stevenson just wants us to be aware of these things and that we are causing our own demise. Through our knowledge and power in creating such technology have we only been able to make life easier for us, meaning we are not living by the natural world are losing our sight of reality. Not only this, but as our advances on medicine and clean living conditions only make us weaker humans. Our bodies condition to the supposed advanced life now so that when placed back in nature, our bodies our more susceptible to disease and eventual death. Readers could argue that due to this, it explains why Stevenson after moved to Africa to live the remainder of his life there, away from all the technology and mind destroying stuff that isn’t natural. Moreover, Hyde isn’t even natural, he is a chemical formulation made from science, supporting my point, and proving how we create our own demise. The Story of Jekyll and Hyde was purely our own fault and is a reflection of our society; therefore we need to suffer the consequences whilst attempt to get out of this vicious cycle that will continue if nothing changes. A sad but honest truth.
very interesting point, but you might need to condense it in an exam and also use more quotations to support your answer
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
A well-deserved round of applause for Mr Salles for all the effort he puts into teaching his students and giving them the best chance at success. Thank you very much Sir.
Thank you!
Mr Salles your so blessed. Love you. If I get a 9 in my gcse it’s solely down to you.
Omg it came up
He can speak in essay💀
I don’t really understand that in your thesis u say that Hyde is evil but your main point is that he is not. Can u pls explain mr salles
Also can u say that Hyde is both presented as evil and not evil, or is that contradictory and will mess up my argument
the argument in the video is that Hyde is presented as evil for the Christian reader but Stevenson subtly uses Hyde as a construct to convey that society would be better if it was freer and less suppressive. Talking about both interpretations gets u more marks but u would have to suggest why Stevenson has contrasting descriptions.
@@mongooseman6707 thx
Your videos make me feel so much more confident! I’ve got AQA English Literature Paper 1 on Monday and honestly English is the only one I’m actually scared for rather than simply nervous, because you have to remember so much yet they only give you one question! So thank you! ❤
Good luck Natasha, let me know how it goes.
Hi sir, are you going to do a prediction for Romeo and Juliet?
if we write the exam like how you have, with the same quotes and analysis, is that consider PLAGIARISM?
great vid btw
Not plagiarism
thanks mate 7 in every mock and i got a 4
I hope you have asked for a remark
This saved me so badly today, thank you so much Mr Salles!
Sir can you mention mental illness and link it to Jekyll and Hyde For example they both could potentially have split personality disorder
It’s a hard sell!
@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish just like the rest of ur ideas
@@anamzakir-gi3zc that’s just english as a subject, mr salles is a great teacher
Pretty much used this for the real thing
romeo and juliet prediction??
Would I loose marks for talking about different interpretations of the novel eg Stevenson satisfying Christian readers by making it a Christian tale but also at the same time subtly criticising Christian society ?
Not at all
@@MrSallesTeachesEnglish ok thank you so much for replying (I know you get told this a lot but you are truly the best teacher on RUclips ❤️)
I have one question sir are you allowed to compare Jekyll with any novel like Macbeth because when i watch the videos of Mr everything english, I just have a thought whether you can compare it if you don't have any points
you dont compare the novels only the poetry is compared
@@katygrace yes but Mr Everything English said you can if you want but you do get marks but i am also concerned that's why i am asking Mr Salles
nothing in the question asks you to compare why on earth would you be that silly
@@rnssalt4300 bro do you understand what I am asking don't you what i am saying is if we can although the question doesn't tell us to you guys are useless I will tell him when he is live
i've been told to avoid it because macbeth has different audience and different message altogther to jekyll and hyde so not much to compare between the two
should have done live today i needed the help i was going to revise jekyll and hyde tomorrow
yay
Hi,
This is my most recent essay:
Robert Louis Stevenson explores the idea of duality in the novella 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' through good and evil, happiness, and gaining benefits.
Stevenson explores the idea of duality through good and evil as Jekyll acknowledges that 'man is not truly one but truly two". The repetition of 'truly' symbolises that Jekyll believed every person had good and evil within them and Jekyll wanted to unleash this evil side of him. Jekyll's illnesses are Hyde's actions and he enjoys the evilness within him. This is further enhanced from the quote in the extract: "my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery' . The juxtaposition of 'power' and 'slavery' implies the duality nature between Jekyll and Hyde is being triumphed by evil over good as Hyde is taking over due to the desires of evil acts and enjoyment within them. The audience believes that To Jekyll, Hyde is 'my second character' and the possessive pronoun 'my' proves that the evil side, Hyde, is so important to him that Jekyll is accepting this evil side of him, Hyde is taking over and Jekyll seems to be ok with that. This leaves the contemporary audience shocked, and Stevenson has deliberately done this to link with the serial killer Jack the Ripper, Jack the ripper was an unknown killer to be serious in the daytime, but bloodthirsty in the nighttime, therefore this is one idea Stevenson explores duality through.
Stevenson explores the idea of duality through happiness, Jekyll admits that he ‘felt younger, lighter, happier’ as Edward Hyde, the asyndetic list of ‘younger, lighter, happier’ suggests he feels thrilled because he can express his pleasures through a different person without worrying about Hyde’s appearance, and consequences, this further links to the metaphor his ‘reputation sat under shelter’, the metaphor ‘sat under shelter’ expresses Jekyll's feelings that he is judging others who commit pleasures through hiring people, whereas Jekyll can do it for free through science, this makes Jekyll feel proud and happy as he ‘was the first that ever did so for his pleasures’ the pronoun ‘his pleasures’ again shows ambition to be in the ‘ugly’ state of Hyde, he feels no guilt or sympathy for the actions he's created and his only happy for his own joy and mental health, this leaves the Victorian audience panicking because Jekyll feels proud of his own immorality as Jekyll is going against his religion by committing evil acts and feeling proud, knowing killing and feeling no shame is one of the biggest sins in Christianity, therefore may be punished in hell, this is another way Stevenson explores duality through the idea of happiness.
Stevenson finally explores the idea of duality through receiving benefits. Jekyll mentions that he is ‘the chief of sinners, [he is] the chief of sufferers also’ the repetition of ‘chief’ separated by a caesurae represents importance, how Jekyll is the leader of ‘sinners’ and ‘sufferers’ and that he is again benefitting from it, many people would want to volunteer being leader in fun activities but to Jekyll, the idea of sins and suffering is fun to him. This is further explored as Jekyll ‘profit[s] by the strange immunities of [his] position’. The imagery of money implies that he is benefitting from duality and is continuing to express his pleasures without punishment, ‘immunity’ displays that he is immune from consequences and is happy being immune, this presents to the contemporary audience that duality is beneficial due to the variety of decisions you can make without any fear. Stevenson intentionally did this through the character Hyde: Hyde is a homophone for hide as if you can hide your true natural self and unleash the evilness within duality through another character this would be beneficial for you to explore evil intentions, this is another way Stevenson explores the idea of duality.
Therefore, Stevenson explores the idea of duality of Jekyll and Hyde through good and evil, happiness and benefits.
Please give feedback!
You have great analysis but I would expand a bit more in the intro maybe? Bring in context and why the whole novel is based on duality, and u can then reference this through the whole thing :)
caesura is used in poems not in novel writings