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Jekyll's Quotes

Chapter 2

"[In Jekyll's will] his possessions were to pass into the hands of his "friend and benefactor Edward Hyde""

  • Jekyll and Hyde relationship akin to a father-son relationship
  • Benefactor foreshadows the reveal of Jekyll = Hyde, Chapter 10 explores the idea of Hyde helping Jekyll with his repressed desires

Chapter 3

"he now sat on the opposite side of the fire"

  • The fire could relate to the imagery of Hell, relating to Hyde as Hell are where sinners reside
  • The fire could be tempting Jekyll to enjoy the liberty as being Hyde as described in Chapter 10 as fires have warm, welcoming embraces

"a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps"

Info

Some sources may say "slyish cast" or "stylish cast", be careful with that, for the source i have, it says "stylish cast"

  • The first part of the quote depicts Jekyll as a traditional Victorian gentleman
  • The second part shows Jekyll as sophisticated but something mysterious under that persona identified by the adverb "perhaps" making it less definite

"every mark of capacity of kindness"

  • Shows Jekyll as being capable and compassionate - sterotypical of a Victorian gentleman

"A close observer might have gathered that the topic was distasteful; but the doctor carried it off gaily"

  • Someone would have noticed that the topic was unpleasant however Jekyll plays it off light-heartedly, concealing something that he doesn't want anyone to know

"hide-bound pendant [Lanyon]"

  • Jekyll describes Lanyon as someone who obsesses over minor details about science who is unwilling to change due to conventions/tradition
  • Lanyon acts as Jekyll's foil

"scientific heresies"

  • Lanyon views Jekyll's science as wrong and "balderdash" - nonsense, considering his work heretical

"[Jekyll] grew pale to the very lips, and there came blackness about his eyes"

  • Jekyll is hiding something about Hyde that he does not want Utterson wanting to know therefore passing off the topic of his will containing Hyde gaily - lightheartedly

"the moment I choose to, I can be rid of Hyde"

  • This is ironic as we see in Chapter 10 that the drug that Jekyll had been taken to repress Hyde has stopped working, leading to Hyde completely overtaking Jekyll

Chapter 5

"[Jekyll] close up to the warmth sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick"

"I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed"

  • Hateful business is a euphemism in place for the murder of Carew which he chooses not to say
  • Shows Jekyll caring for his reputation in his own character

"there's a singular resemblance; the two hands are in many points identical; only differently sloped"

  • Raises suspicions - this foreshadows the reveal of Jekyll and Hyde being the same character
  • Suggests that Hyde is left handed - in Victorian times this was seen as an abnormality, being a sign of the devil

Chapter 6

"whilst he was known for charities, he was now no less distinguished for religion"

  • Jekyll had followed the path of the light and appeared as a new person, having repented for his actions

"he was much in the open air... his face seemed to open"

  • The repetition of open contrasts the previously secluded and less open Jekyll as seen in Chapter 3 and Chapter 5, this contrasts with the reoccuring theme of barriers

"the door was shut against the lawyer"

  • Contrasts the more open Jekyll seen previously, returned to his secluded life with the motif of barriers/secrecy

"I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion"

  • Jekyll is leading his life of seclusion again, reoccuring of barriers

"You must suffer me to go my own dark way"

"I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name"

  • Brought upon his fate by himself

"If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sinners also"

  • Juxtaposes each other, the parallels here invokes mystery due to the internal conflict has, respectable side and Hyde
  • Biblical reference, Paul the Apostle, described himself as the chief of sinners, reflects Jekyll's struggle with morals

"The doctor... now more than ever confined himself to the cabinet... where he would sometimes sleep; he was out of spirits, he had grown very silent, he did not read"

  • Jekyll's condition physically and mentally have been getting worse
  • Semantics of imprisonment, contrasting Utterson who prefers to speak to Poole outside of Jekyll's house

Chapter 7

"like some disconsolate prisoner"

  • Smile comparing Jekyll to a prisoner, stuck in his cell, the cabinet above his lab

"sighed... it is quite impossible; I dare not"

  • Jekyll is feeling hopeless, showing his gradual decline in health

"words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and suceeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair"

  • The verb struck is violent, shocking and unexpected
    • This also mirrors the verb used to describe Carew's murder, foreshadowing Jekyll = Hyde

"the window was instantly thrust down"

  • The verb thrust creates a sense of panic
  • This is a dramatic reaction akin to Hyde

Chapter 9

"Lanyon my life, my honour, my reason, are all at your mercy; if you fail me to-night, I am lost"

  • Jekyll demonstrates desperation and vulnerability and places responsibility on Lanyon

"I want you to postpone all other engagements for tonight, even if you were summoned to a bedside of an emperor; to take a cab... with this letter... and drive straight to my house"

  • Hyperbole enforces the importance of this task Jekyll gave Lanyon

"The door of my cabinet is then to be forced"

  • Relates to Chapter 8 when Hyde was revealed to be in there

"At midnight"

  • Represents the end of the day, foreshadows the death of them both

"labouring under a blackness of distress"

  • Metaphor: Jekyll is struggling with something

"Jekyll's private manufacture"

  • Attempts to play God, relates to Frankenstein

Chapter 10

"fond of the respect of the wise and good among my fellowmen"

  • Respected gentleman of wealth

"and thus... with every guarantee of an honourable and distinguished future"

  • Others sought respect

"Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was gulity of"

  • Jekyll's arrogance about his willpower
  • Victorian repression

"served in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature"

  • Already living a double life

"I was no more myself when I laid restraint and plunged in shame than when i laboured... at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering"

  • Struggles to resist temptations

"that man is not truly one, but truly two"

  • Repeats truly to enforce Jekyll's discovery about nature of man

"primitive duality of man"

  • Darwinism
  • Victorian anxiety
  • Arrogance

"Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll"

  • Symbolises his physical manifestation of his inner darkness

"I was conscious of no repugance, rather of a leap of welcome... it seemed natural and human"

  • Embraces his other side - the "id"

"Hence, although I had two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll"

  • Hyde is evil and Jekyll is himself
  • His experiment had failed and did not seperate the evil side

"I had not conquered my aversions to the dryness of a life of study"

  • Forced

"It was on this side that my new power tempted me until I fell into slavery"

  • Jekyll is a prisoner to himself, tempted by youthful freedom and indulgence as Hyde

"I began to profit by the strange immunities of my position"

  • Enjoyed the benefits of being Hyde

"Like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty"

  • Being Hyde was freeing to Jekyll as if being a child, without any responsibility

"The situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience. It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was gulity"

  • Does not take responsibility of the actions of Hyde

"And thus, his conscience slumbered"

  • Hyde is a seperate part of Jekyll
    • Crimes as Hyde doesn't affect Jekyll

"It was the hand of Edward Hyde"

  • Jekyll is involuntarily turning into Hyde in his sleep, losing control over himself

"That part of me which I had the power of projecting, had lately been much exercised and nourished"

  • Hyde is growing evil which is affecting Jekyll as well

"the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown, the power of voluntary change be forfeited, and the character of Edward Hyde become irrevocably mine"

"that I was slowly losing hold of my original and beter self and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse"

  • Jekyll is losing control over Hyde, Hyde is gaining more power over the body

"Between these two, I now felt I had to choose"

  • Reflects Stevenson choice on religion

"I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it"

  • Stays as Jekyll
  • Resisting temptation to go back to being Hyde

"I began to be tortured with throes and longings"

  • Victimises himself
  • Drug addiction - reflects on Stevenson

"My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring"

  • Metaphor with hellish language
  • Came out roaring links to Victorian repression, desires were repressed to look good in the public eye

"ecstasy of mind, gloating on my crime, light-headly devising others in the future"

  • Hyde takes a form of pleasure from crimes, sadism from Carew's murder

"Hyde was thenceforth impossible; whether I would or not, I was now confined to the better part of my existence; and O, how I rejoiced to think of it"

  • Jekyll has good reason to remain as himself
    • Hyde is wanted for murder
  • Only drops the act when it threatens his safety

"no, it was in my own person that I was once more tempted to triffle with my conscience; and it was an ordinary secret sinner that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation"

  • Hyde has corrupted Jekyll, Jekyll falls into temptation

"I was once more Edward Hyde"

  • Jekyll has involuntarily transformed in Hyde, showing his loss of control

"It took on this ocassion a double dose to recall me to myself"

  • Jekyll is loosing control quicker

"as I sat looking sadly into the fire, the pangs returned"

  • Sibilance announces Hyde's presence

"only under the immediate stimulation of the drug, that I was able to wear the countenance of Jekyll"

  • Metaphor - suggests Jekyll is the clothing and Hyde is the true self after corrupting Jekyll

"a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind"

  • Powerless - contrasts the beginning of the trials
  • Ambiguous language to himself, loosing control

"The powers of Hyde seemed to grown with the sickness of Jekyll"

  • Survival of the Fittest

"His terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide, and return to his subordinate station of a part instead of a person"

  • For Hyde, suicide means hiding in Jekyll, for Jekyll it means death

"When I know how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, I find it in my heart to pity him"

  • More pity in his Hyde than his victims, corrupted by Hyde
  • Father-Son relationship

"I am now persuaded that my first supply was impure and that it was that unknwon impurity which lent efficacy to the draught"

  • Jekyll realises that the drug doesn't have the impurity and cannot replicate it.
  • His fate is sealed for attempting to play God

"Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? Or will he find courage to release himself at the last moment... this is my true hour of death"

  • Uncertainty, loses control.
  • Sought knowledge beyond man (cautionary tale)