The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
What's covered
Key facts
Characters
Sir Danvers Carew is "an aged beautiful gentleman with white hair" whose face seems "to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition"; Utterson says "Carew was my client, but so are you" to Jekyll.
Context
The British Library describes Hyde as 'ape-like', 'troglodytic' and 'hardly human', sets this beside Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871), and says Stevenson's novella is one of several late-19th-century works exploring 'frightening devolution'; Hyde's 'squat, ape-like body' signals his 'primitive' state. The British Library adds that Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871) was the first of his published works to contain the word 'evolution' and applied the theory of evolution to the human species.
Key quotations: Jekyll and Hyde
The maid's account of the Carew murder (chapter 4): "with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot".
Key quotations: Utterson, Lanyon and London
Utterson (chapter 1): "I incline to Cain's heresy ... I let my brother go to the devil in his own way."
Language and form
Hyde is linked to animals: "with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot"; Poole says "that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals"; the British Library says he is 'ape-like', 'troglodytic' and 'hardly human'.
Plot and structure
In chapter 4, in October, a maid watching from her window sees Hyde club Sir Danvers Carew to death with a heavy cane; Utterson recognises the broken stick as one he gave to Henry Jekyll.
Themes
Jekyll promises "I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again" (chapter 5), though in chapter 3 he had said "the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde."
Characters
Utterson is Jekyll's lawyer and guardian of his will; Lanyon is a doctor and former friend who dies after a shock; Poole is Jekyll's butler of twenty years; Guest is Utterson's head clerk and an expert on handwriting.
Context
The National Library of Scotland says the story came from a dream and was 'conceived, written, re-written, re-re-written, and printed in just ten weeks'; Stevenson wrote 'I dreamed the scene at the window'.
Key quotations: Jekyll and Hyde
Jekyll's statement (chapter 10): "My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring."
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 62 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
Which character is Jekyll's lawyer and holds his will?
- •Dr. Lanyon
- •Mr. Enfield
- •Mr. Guest
- ✓Mr. Utterson
In which city was Robert Louis Stevenson born?
- •Bournemouth
- ✓Edinburgh
- •Glasgow
- •London
Who says of Hyde "something displeasing, something down-right detestable" in chapter 1?
- ✓Enfield
- •Lanyon
- •Poole
- •Utterson
In chapter 1, the bright street is compared to what, set against its dingy neighbourhood?
- ✓A fire in a forest
- •A flag on a tower
- •A jewel in a crown
- •A lamp in a window
Enfield says the women around Hyde were as wild as which mythical creatures?
- •Banshees
- •Gorgons
- ✓Harpies
- •Sirens
What does Enfield describe seeing at about three o'clock on a black winter morning?
- •A man breaking into a doctor's house at night
- •A man robbing a stranger in a foggy street
- •A man striking an old gentleman with a cane
- ✓A man trampling over a girl and leaving her screaming
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