The Victorian Age
• The Victorian era, spanning from 1830–1901,
was a period of dramatic change the world
over, and especially in England, with the rapid
extension of colonialism through large
portions of Africa, Asia, and the West Indies,
making England a pre-eminent centre of
world power and relocating the perceived
centre of Western Civilization from Paris to
London.
• The Victorian early period (1830–48)
can be described as a time of dramatic
change, with the improvement of the
railroads and the country's first Reform
Parliament, but it was also a time of
economic distress.
• Although the mid-Victorian period
(1848–70) was not free of the previous
period's problems, it was a time of
overall prosperity and general social
satisfaction with further growth of the
empire improving trade and economic
conditions.
• The later period (1870–1901) was a
time of changing attitudes about
colonialism, industrialization, and the
possibility of making scientific
advancements.
• The conditions of publishing, including
the prominence of the periodical press,
dramatically shaped the form and
production of literature in the Victorian
era.
• We are interested in the era of 1870-1901
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There is an attitude of change:
Colonialism
Industrialization
Scientific advancements
The later period (1870–1901) was a time of changing attitudes
about colonialism, industrialization, and scientific advancement.
• Rebellions and war in the colonial territories made the public
increasingly more aware of the costs of empire.
• Various events challenged the sense of England's endless
prosperity as a world power, such as the emergence of
Bismarck's Germany and its threats to English naval and
military positions and the expansion of the American grain
industry, driving down the price of English grain.
• Socialist movements grew out of this discontentment, as well as
a melancholy spirit in the writing of the end of the century.
Oscar Wilde's making a pun of "earnest," a typical and sincerely
used mid-Victorian word, is typical of a dying Victorianism.
• In addition to social and economic changes,
dramatically affecting the content of literature
during the Victorian era, other technological
changes in publishing shaped literary
production in other ways.
• The conditions of publishing, including the
prominence of the periodical press, dramatically
shaped the form of literature.
• Serialization of novels, for example, allowed for
an author to alter the shape of his narrative
based on public response to earlier instalments.
• In the later years of the era, authors started
to position themselves in opposition to this
broad reading public and serialization gave
way to three-volume editions.
• The Victorian novel was primarily concerned
with representing a social reality and the
way a protagonist sought and defined a
place within this reality.
• The increased popularity of periodicals also
allowed non-fiction to become a widespread
and popular literary genre.
• Victorian poetry was also published in
periodicals and underwent its own dramatic
changes during the era, with Victorian poets
seeking to represent psychology in new
ways.
• Theatre, on the other hand, was a popular
form of entertainment, but did not flourish
aesthetically until the end of the Victorian
era.
• There was a rich connection in the Victorian period
between visual art and literature.
• Much Victorian aesthetic theory makes the eye the
most authoritative sense and the clearest indicator of
truth.
• Victorian poetry and the Victorian novel both value
visual description as a way of portraying their subjects.
• This emphasis on the visual creates a particularly
close connection between poetry and painting. Books
of fiction and poetry were illustrated, and the
illustrations amplified and intensified the effects of the
text.
• The texts, engravings, and paintings provide an insight
into the connection between the verbal and the visual
so central to Victorian aesthetics.
• "All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do
so at their own peril. Those who read
the symbol do so at their own peril."--by
Oscar Wilde, Preface, "The Picture of
Dorian Gray"
Very brief synopsis of ‘Dorian Gray
• The novel opens with Henry Wotton and his friend, Basil Hallward. The pair
are admiring a painting recently of ‘a young man of extraordinary personal
beauty.’ (Wilde, 1992, pg.5) The young man in question is Dorian Gray.
• One evening, Dorian realises that his beauty will soon wither and fade, and
makes a deal with the devil to retain his youth: ‘If it were only the other way!
If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow
old!’(Wilde, 1992, pg.24)
• Dorian and Sybil
• Dorian meets a young actress, Sybil Vane and spends his evenings
watching her perform at a local theatre. He woos her for a short time and
soon proposes marriage, which she accepts. Sybil’s brother James vows
that ‘if this man wrongs my sister, I will find out who he is, track him down
and kill him like a dog.’ (Wilde, 1992, pg.58)
• The next evening Dorian, Basil and Henry go to watch Sybil perform, but her
acting is appalling. After the performance Dorian breaks off his engagement
to Sybil, declaring that he cannot ever love her. Upon returning home Dorian
realises that the facial expression of his portrait has altered to reflect his
cruel treatment of Sybil.
• Dorian decides that the proper thing to do is to go back to Sybil and reaffirm
his love for her; however, the next day Dorian hears the news that the young
actress has killed herself in the night.
• The Altered Portrait
• After this incident and over the following years Dorian leads a life of
debauchery: the portrait alters each time a sin is committed. Dorian’s
debauchery is heavily influenced by an unnamed book given to him as a gift
by Henry.
• Many years later Basil goes to visit Dorian with the intention of confronting
him about the sinful life he has been living. Dorian does not deny the things
he has done and takes Basil to see the portrait that has always remained
hidden.
• Murder
• On seeing the altered portrait, Basil begs Dorian to repent his sins. Dorian,
in a fit of madness and resentment stabs Basil to death. He seeks out Alan
Campbell, an acquaintance, and blackmails him into destroying Basil’s
corpse.
• Following this incident, James Vane inadvertently catches Dorian leaving an
Opium den but releases him, believing him too young to have been the man
involved with his deceased sister. A passing woman reveals to James that
he is indeed the man in question. The following week, Dorian spots James
on the grounds; but the next day James is accidentally killed while Dorian
and his friends are out hunting.
• Dorian’s Final Act
• Dorian finally realises the error of his ways and reaffirms his desire to be
good, hoping that the portrait will change to reflect his new life. When he
inspects the painting he finds that there is no real change except that the
painting has ‘a look of cunning, and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the
hypocrite.’ (Wilde, 1992, pg.176)
• In a fit of rage, Dorian seizes the knife he used to kill Basil and stabs the
portrait with it. His servants hear a scream and call for the police. When they
arrive they find the portrait as it originally was and a corpse aged horribly
and unidentifiable: ‘it was only when they examined the rings that they
recognised who it was.’ (Wilde, 1992, pg.177)
• References:
• Wilde, O., 1992, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ Hertfordshire: Wordsworth
Editions Limited
What’s it all about?
• Homoerotic love?
• Homoerotic love is an underlying theme of the novel,
although it is never stated directly. Both Lord Henry
and Basil Hallward are deeply attracted to Dorian Gray
on account of his great physical beauty. Basil insists
that his love for Dorian is "noble and intellectual," and
there is no reason to doubt him. But he also speaks
about Dorian in terms that a man would normally
speak about a lover and about falling in love. "I
worshipped you," he says to Dorian. "I grew jealous of
every one to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you
all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you"
(chapter 9). Basil sublimates any erotic dimension to
his feelings about Dorian by pouring them into his art.
• Lord Henry prefers the company of Dorian to that of
his wife, and he consistently expresses misogynist
views. He worships youthful male beauty as embodied
in Dorian, and he encourages Dorian to give full rein
all his secret desires. When he says the following to
Dorian, he may well be suggesting that Dorian has a
previously unacknowledged sexual attraction to men:
"You have had passions that have made you afraid,
thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams
and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain
your cheek with shame-" The language here, and the
use of the word "shame," suggests that Dorian's
"sins," although they are never explicitly described,
may be of a sexual nature. One has to remember that
in the Victorian age, attitudes to homosexuality are
very different from what they are today.
Art vs. Life
• The novel presents a contrast between art and life. Art
possesses beauty and form; it is contrasted with the ugliness
and shapelessness of real life. Lord Henry encourages Dorian
to treat his own life as if it were a work of art. He must
experience it fully, as one would a piece of art, but at the same
time remain detached from it, in the way that one might
appreciate a great painting or a play. This involves a paradox:
he must be at once involved and uninvolved, fully participating,
not drawing back from anything, but always remaining a
spectator. Such is Lord Henry's notion. He is depicted as being
a connoisseur of all the arts and surrounds himself with objects
of beauty. He maintains the essential detachment that enables
him, or at least he claims it does, to avoid the pain of the world.
It also means that he does not adopt moral positions on
anything, since that would mean taking life more seriously than
art. For Lord Henry, the purpose of life is not to exhibit one's
moral prejudices but to contemplate beauty.
• The contrast between art and life can be seen in the
chapters that describe Dorian's walk to the theater
where Sibyl Vane performs and on his ride to the
opium den. In both instances, the sordidness of these
parts of London is described. Dorian feels this keenly,
and he takes refuge in the art that Sibyl creates. Her
value to him is that she enables him to live out Henry's
creed. When she ceases to show an interest in art,
Dorian ceases to be interested in her. On the ride to
the opium den, Dorian's position has changed. He
now embraces the ugliness of life. He has forgotten
the creed that Henry taught him. He has exchanged
art for life-and that itself is a sin, in Oscar Wilde's
credo.
• Sensual Gratification
Lord Henry's philosophy of life, which is
adopted by Dorian, is that the senses should
be indulged to the full. In the fleeting sense
experience lies the intensity of life, and all life
is simply a series of these intense moments.
This is not intended as a mindless indulgence
for the sake of it, but is a conscious quest for
beauty.
• Dorian thus learns to cultivate all kinds of sense
experience, passions and sensations in the pursuit of
beauty. He studies exotic perfumes, he collects
musical instruments and precious stones. He once
went to a costume ball wearing an outfit covered with
560 pearls. Neither Henry nor Dorian believe in any
restrictions on desire, because desire is life itself,
whereas self-denial in the name of morality is exactly
that-a denial of life. Henry's belief is that selfdevelopment, not self-restraint, is the purpose of life.
He describes this philosophy as a new Hedonism. It is
a refined understanding and appreciation of life that
amounts to a form of spirituality.
• And so Henry's friend and disciple Dorian
believes that in indulging the senses he is
freeing them to be what are intended to be, a
channel for the experience of beauty. In
chapter 11, he states his belief that the
senses have never been properly understood
before: "they had remained savage and
animal merely because the world had sought
to starve them into submission or to kill them
by pain, instead of aiming at making them
elements of a new spirituality, of which a fine
instinct for beauty was to be the dominant
characteristic"
• 1. There is no such thing as a moral or an
immoral book. Books are well written, or
badly written. (Preface)
• 2. There is only one thing in the world worse
than being talked about, and that is not being
talked about." (Ch. 1, Lord Henry, to Basil.)
• 3. A man cannot be too careful in the choice
of his enemies. (Ch. 1, Lord Henry)
• 4. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to
yield to it. (Ch. 2, Lord Henry)
• 5. "To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It
is only shallow people who do not judge by
appearances." (Ch. 2, Lord Henry)
•
• 6. "I can sympathize with everything, except suffering."
(Ch. 3, Lord Henry at the lunch at Aunt Agatha's.)
• 7. "Men marry because they are tired; women,
because they are curious; both are disappointed." (Ch.
4, Lord Henry explains why he advises Dorian never
to marry.)
• 8. "A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure.
It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What
more can one want? (Ch. 6, Lord Henry.)
• 9. "It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But . . . it
is better to be good than to be ugly." (Ch. 17, Lord
Henry to the Duchess of Monmouth.)
• 10. "To get back my youth I would do anything in the
world, except take exercise, get up early, or be
respectable." (Ch. 19, Lord Henry to Dorian.)
. What are the mythic
elements in the novel?
• There are allusions to two myths: first, the story in the
book of Genesis about the garden of Eden, the
temptation of Eve by the serpent, and the fall of man;
and second, to the Faust legend.
• The second chapter of the novel strongly suggests a
temptation scene. It takes place in a garden. Basil
Hallward, the painter, is like God the creator; he has
just created the picture of Dorian in all his perfection.
• The tempter is Lord Henry, who wants to persuade
Dorian to ignore all the conventional rules of society,
just as the serpent wants Eve to disregard the
commandments from God. Dorian is like the first man,
Adam, innocent in his perfection, who is being told by
the serpent to taste of the forbidden fruit of sensual
experience. At various crises in Dorian's life, Henry
retains the role of the tempter. He is at Dorian's side
encouraging him to adopt an attitude toward life that
will cost him dear in the long run. For example, when
Dorian and Henry discuss the death of Sibyl, Henry
encourages him to view it from a detached point of
view, like an episode in a play. This means that Dorian
never develops the moral sense necessary to balance
his love of sensual experience. He "falls" and his soul
is blackened.
• In the Faust legend, Faust sells his soul to the
devil in order to gain knowledge and power.
Dorian is a Faustian figure because he wants
to obtain eternal youth, something that under
normal circumstances no human being can
obtain. He enters into a Faustian bargain
when he prays that he might be able to
remain forever young while the process of
aging is confined to the picture. When the
woman at the opium den says that "Prince
Charming" sold himself to the devil for a
pretty face, she is unconsciously referring to
the Faust myth.
2. Wilde was condemned by his critics for writing an "immoral" book; he claimed
it was a very moral work. What justification is there for either view?
•
On publication, The Picture of Dorian Gray met with a storm of
hostile reviews which condemned the book for its alleged
immorality. The tone of the reviews was often virulent. The critic
for the Daily Chronicle wrote, "It is a tale spawned from the
leprous literature of the French Decadents-a poisonous book,
the atmosphere of which is heavy with the mephitic odours of
moral and spiritual putrefaction." Others suggested that the
authorities should consider prosecuting Wilde for the content of
the book. Wilde replied, in letters to literary magazines, that the
novel had a moral message that "all excess, as well as all
renunciation, brings its own punishment." He points out that
Dorian, "having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure, tries
to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself." Wilde also
claimed that Basil worshiped physical beauty too much and
instilled vanity into Dorian, and that Henry suffered because he
sought merely to be a spectator of life.
• Wilde is correct in the sense that Dorian does meet a bad end,
and one could find passages where he is explicitly condemned,
such as when he leaves the opium den, "Callous, concentrated
on evil, with stained mind and soul hungry for rebellion." But the
novel is far from being a simple moral parable that sin meets
with punishment. There is a discrepancy between the moral
framework and the overall tone of the novel. Wilde takes such
relish in the luxurious sensual descriptions of Dorian's life that it
can sound as if he approves of it. His heart is more in the
varieties of sensation that he gives to his protagonist than in his
moral condemnation of him. There is perhaps a parallel here
with Milton's Paradise Lost. Many readers feel that the hero of
the epic is not Christ but Satan, because Milton seems to put so
much more energy and life into his devil than in his God. The
poet William Blake once famously said of Milton that he was "of
the devil's party without knowing it." Perhaps it might be said
that Wilde was of Dorian's party-and only succeeded in partially
disguising the fact.
The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde – brief synopsis
• Mr. Utterson is a London lawyer who is a friend of Dr.
Jekyll. Jekyll gave up his regular practice to experiment
with non-traditional medicine. Utterson is concerned
because Jekyll has written a will that leaves all his
money to his new partner Mr. Hyde. Utterson has heard
bad things of Hyde and disliked him at first sight. The
lawyer thinks his friend is being blackmailed.
• One day, the lawyer is asked to identify the body of a
murdered man, Sir Danvers Carew, one of Utterson’s
clients. Hyde is suspected of the murder, but he has
disappeared. Jekyll swears that he has not seen Hyde
and has broken with him forever. The case remains
unsolved and Jekyll becomes more sociable than he
had been.
• Suddenly, though, he locks himself into his laboratory,
yelling to the servants through the door, directing them
to gather chemicals for him. The servants recognize a
change in his voice and think that their master has
been murdered; another man has taken his place in the
lab. They call Utterson who breaks down the door. On
the floor lies Hyde, who has killed himself with poison.
Sadly, Utterson assumes Hyde returned and killed
Jekyll, but the doctor’s body is nowhere to be found.
• He does find, however, a letter in which Jekyll explains
his relationship to Hyde. Jekyll had sometimes indulged
in debauches which, if discovered, could have ruined
his reputation and of which he is ashamed. Pondering
this split in his personality, he decides to find a way to
separate his two beings. Jekyll creates a potion that
releases his evil side, Mr. Hyde. Hyde is shorter and
smaller than Jekyll, having not had as much exercise.
• For a while Jekyll enjoys his two bodies; he
can do whatever he likes without fear of
discovery. His pleasure is stunted when Hyde
kills Carew in a nonsensical fit, and he
resolves never to take the potion again. Hyde
is now strong, however, and emerges whether
Jekyll will have him or not. Indeed, Jekyll must
use the potion to be rid of him if only for a
moment. Jekyll knows that it is only by killing
his body that Hyde’s body, too, will die.
Commentary
• The story has a complex view of the
relationship between body and mind. The mind
and body are intricately linked. Indeed, the
mind can make a body different. Thus, Hyde
must have his own distinct body; he does not
merely "take over" Jekyll’s body. On the other
hand, before the experiment, Hyde and Jekyll
both live in one body. Or, perhaps they are not
two minds, then, but two aspects of one mind.
Stevenson does not try to resolve these
complexities so much as make them available.
His story is primarily a critique of non-rational
science.
How Does Robert Louis Stevenson Challenge and Criticise
Victorian Ideals Through the Story of Jekyll and Hyde?
• http://bookstove.com/book-talk/how-does-robertlouis-stevenson-challenge-and-criticise-victorianideals-through-the-story-of-jekyll-and-hyde/
• The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in 1885 by Robert
Louis Stevenson. Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist
andtravel writer who is best known for two of his novels, Treasure Island and
the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
• The novella was published toward the end of the Victorian era, a period that
was a time of change for England. It was the time of the industrial revolution
and a lot of new technology came about, most people moved to the big cities
and developed new lifestyles, and a lot of ideas in science also came about.
During this period the lifestyles depended on personal wealth and status.
Everyone was divided into social classes and communities. The society was
very patriarchal but things were changing.
• The Victorian society preferred not to acknowledge the rational and prized
reputation and decorum above all. If something threatened to upset the
social society they preferred to repress the truth and this led to a lot of the
upper classes being blackmailed by lower classes because if the word got
out that they had done wrong their reputation would be soiled and for this
reason the lower classes made the upper classes pay them to keep quiet
about bad things.
• The Victorians often feared the Unknown, the Uncanny, a concept
developed by Sigmund Freud where something can be familiar yet foreign at
the same time leading to uneasiness, and also the Supernatural.
• Jekyll and Hyde challenges several Victorian values by showing several of
the flaws that were ‘brushed under the carpet’ to make it seem as if nothing
was wrong and to make it seem like everything was perfect. Jekyll and Hyde
is written in the genre of gothic fiction, often called gothic horror, which is a
literature genre that combines horror and romance. The genre is believed to
have been created by Horace Warpole, an English author, in 1764 in the
novel ‘the castle of Otanto’. The features in the novella that are gothic are
the setting and the way it’s described, supernatural, doubles and death, and
also the reaction to Victorian values, the way it exposes the fears of main
society and the elements of detective fiction, e.g. “if he be Mr Hyde, I shall
be Mr Seek”, which shows how they wish to find out about particular things
in life. The features of romanticism are the way it asserts emotion and
intuition over rationalism, strong examples of fear and a slight fascination
with death.
• Stevenson used the character of Jekyll to criticise and challenge Victorian
values. He does this as Jekyll lives in a nice house, is quite wealthy, is well
respected and has a good background. This reputation led to repression, a
Freud theory which means ‘the unconscious hiding of uncomfortable
thoughts’, of certain urges such as to do wrong and to be Hyde. His house is
described as being in “a square of ancient, handsome houses” which shows
that he is well off in life, Jekyll himself is described as “well known”. These
things show that he is upper class and the contrast shown with his
experimentations and creation of Hyde shows that not everyone is how they
seem on the outside. His scientific experiments are done with a particular
drug, whose name is not mentioned, and Jekyll is determined to find a way
to unlock his second side, “man is not truly one, but truly two”. This shows
how he was asserted that humans have a dual nature, this challenges
Victorian ideals as they believed that dualism was a theory that was not
possible and they believed it to be unacceptable, and it was this that led to
his experimentations with a drug that he knew risked his life. When he first
becomes Hyde he says that he “felt younger, lighter, happier in body” which
shows how he initially enjoys being Hyde and that he feels better within
himself, he also says later in this chapter that he was “tasting delight from
every blow” which shows how he likes beating people and also reveals his
‘guilty pleasures’ as it shows what, deep down, he really wants to do at
times and he uses Hyde as an emotional outlet.
• After Hyde murders Carew, Jekyll starts to hate Hyde and says “it was the
horror of being Hyde that racked me”, which suggests torture, and also “I,
who sicken and freeze at the mere thought of him” which shows his
complete transformation from loving Hyde to hating Hyde and also shows
how Hyde makes him feel sick. At first Jekyll feels no guilt about being Hyde
and of the bad deeds he is doing which suggest he is quite shallow and also
that he doesn’t really think about his actions and what would come of them
which show him to be quite hypocritical. Jekyll eventual complete
transformation into Hyde suggests that eventually evil will prevail over good
if society represses individuals. For this many Victorians would have seen
Jekyll as mentally ill and would view him as an outcast and also a
degenerate.
• The novella shows the disintegration of Jekyll as it shows how he was very
friendly and sociable and how he slowly changed to locking himself away
and speaking to no-one, it is said that he would “write his orders on a sheet
of paper and throw it on the stair”. This shows how he wanted no-one to see
or hear him because of unexpected transformations into Hyde.
• Hyde is described by several people throughout the novella and none have
anything good to say about the way he looks. Enfield states “there is
something wrong with his appearance, something displeasing, something
downright detestable” which shows he is a very unpleasant looking man
who doesn’t have to do much to scare you. Jekyll says “his every act and
thought centred on self” which shows selfishness. Throughout the novella
quite a lot of animalistic expressions are used to describe Hyde, “my devil
had long been caged, and he came out roaring”, and the word ‘devil’
suggests that he is not very nice, the word ‘caged’ is a comparison to
animals which show how Hyde was ‘locked’ away and the word ‘roaring’
suggests anger and demonstrates his want to do evil. When Jekyll describes
the murder of Carew in the last chapter he says that Hyde was “tasting
delight from every blow” which once again shows his selfishness, it also
shows how he gets pleasure and enjoyment from this act, it also challenges
Victorian values as this would have been seen as outrageous.
• Hyde’s house is described as being in a “dismal quarter of Soho” and is
described as “a district of some city in a nightmare” which shows the bad
aura the place gives and also suggests something of Hyde’s personality as
it is dark and unknown and is quite an ugly place which represents the less
respectable side of London which challenges Victorian values as they
wanted everything to seem perfect.
• Early in the novella Utterson thinks that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll as Hyde
seems to be lower class and it was quite common for lower class members
blackmailing higher classes. Many people believe Hyde to be uncanny, a
theory developed after the novella was originally published. Hyde has a
tendency toward the repetition of criminal behaviour, also called recidivism,
as first there is the trampling of the little girl and then the murder of Carew
and this suggests that he may have a mental disorder. Victorian people
believed strongly in the theory of physiognomy and when they read the
description of Hyde they would have thought he was a criminal because of
his demeanour as he represents the common criminal who has a disorder.
• Stevenson’s description of London makes it sound like a dark, scary place
and this was done as it challenges Victorian ideals as they wanted London
to be seen as a nice respectable place. Stevenson also uses pathetic fallacy
to emphasise the gloom and crime going on in London, such as Hyde’s
crimes. The character of Hyde is used to show what was really happening in
London and to imply that London wasn’t as perfect as it seemed.
•
Early in the novella Utterson dreams of Hyde storming around London like a “human
juggernaut” who just knocked people down and carried on walking. The fact that it is
set in London suggests that London, like Hyde, has a deep, sinister inside and that
once you looked past the appearance you found a dark, bad place. The description
as they travel to Hyde’s house also suggests that London’s a bad place and the
weather also mirrors the eeriness of the situation as it says that “a great chocolate
coloured pall lowered over heaven”. A good example of London being described as a
bad place is “some city in a nightmare” which makes it sound very scary and quite
gloomy.
• Stevenson seems to suggest that Hyde is a man free from the restraints of
society. He proves this in the last chapter as Jekyll, who is Hyde, says “I did
not even exist” which is how he shows how he was so confident as Hyde
and this was why he didn’t care what he did. He also says “Jekyll was now
my city of refuge” which shows that after his crimes he could just take the
drug, turn back to Jekyll and no-one would figure out that it was really him, it
also shows a self confidence knowing he could do what he wanted and
never be discovered. Jekyll frees himself through Hyde as the things he
wishes to do he cannot do himself as it would ruin his reputation.
• Lanyon represents the common Victorian who tries to blend into the
background and keep secrets quiet to uphold the perfect world view. He
seems to have a problem revealing the truth, “never refer to this again”
which shows how he wishes to not speak about things that threaten the
worldly view. Lanyon is, like Jekyll, a scientist, but believes in material
science and because of this he says that Jekyll’s experiments are
“unscientific balderdash”. This shows that he doesn’t believe in what Jekyll
does and that he thinks he’s a bit psychotic. Later in the novella when he
sees Hyde transform into Jekyll he has such a shock that he eventually dies.
This is because it goes against everything he believes and has believed for
most of his life. When he sees the transformation he reacts by screaming “O
god!” repeatedly which shows his fear and shock. He also says “I must die”
and this is because of what he saw with Hyde’s transformation into Jekyll.
• He writes this into a letter which is to be opened when he and Dr Jekyll are
both dead which again suggests his problem of revealing the truth if it
threatens the perfect worldly view. This is common of Victorian times as they
never told the truth when it threatened to upset the perfect worldly view.
Stevenson may have chosen to finally reveal the secret of Jekyll and Hyde
in Lanyon’s narrative as it shows it from a view where he can explain how
everything happens. This would also shock the Victorian reader as it’s from
a normal person’s point of view.
• Utterson represents the common upper class man who wishes to hide the
truth if it threatens the conventional world view. If something without
explanation that is shocking occurs he makes up a story that makes it sound
reasonable, for example in ‘the last night’ he says that Jekyll has been
“plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and deform the
sufferer” which shows how he tries to make a bad situation seem
reasonable and to push the truth ‘under the carpet’. In the novella he is a
key character as he is Jekyll’s lawyer, Carew’s lawyer, Enfield confides in
him and Lanyon trusts in him immensely. I think Stevenson chose to show
most of the story as Utterson because he is a well respected man who
represents the common Victorian.
• He prizes reputation above all and even when he suspects Jekyll of criminal
behaviour he still tries to save his reputation, “we may at least save his
credit”, he says this at the end of the novella when they discover the truth
about Jekyll and although he has committed something outrageous he still
wishes to save his reputation, this also shows how much he prizes
reputation and that he wishes to save it no matter what. Another example is
of Jekyll’s association with Hyde where he says “if it came to a trial your
name might appear” which shows his concern for his friends reputation and
how he wishes Jekyll to disassociate himself from Hyde to save his
reputation, when he discovers they are no longer friends he says he is
“relieved by it”. He doesn’t seem to want to see the truth which portrays him
as narrow minded.
• In conclusion Stevenson challenges and criticises Victorian ideals mainly
through the characters of Jekyll, Hyde, Lanyon and Utterson. Jekyll because
it shows that someone upper class could be dark and have a deeper side,
which wasn’t expected in Victorian times. Hyde because he shows what
London was really like and also because the way he acts is different to what
was expected of people. Utterson because of the way he is so naive and
investigates the Jekyll-Hyde saga and doesn’t realise the truth. People in
modern times would read the novella differently because twists such as a
double personality are expected at the end of a book, whereas in Victorian
times they weren’t.
• Nowadays because of things like TV most people know the
story of Jekyll and Hyde so they would know what to expect. It
would also be read differently in modern day because things like
repression of certain feelings and psychic splitting are a lot more
common in the modern day. People in modern day would also
read it differently because of the Jekyll-Hyde expression in the
dictionary. Because of things like this people know bits about
Jekyll and Hyde and know what occurs with the two of them.
People also know a lot because it is popular culture, there have
been books, TV programmes, films, cartoons and merchandise
about Jekyll and Hyde.