“Jekyll Can No Longer Control Hyde”

1. “Jekyll Can No Longer Control Hyde” from “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) • What do you think was Dr Jekyll’s reaction when he discovered that he could no longer control Hyde? He got into panic.

2. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read paragraph 1 • A number of hints tell us that Mr Hyde is prevailing over Dr Jekyll. Highlight the corresponding words / phrases. • At the very beginning of the passage Dr Jekyll tells us that two months before his evil side (Hyde) killed Sir Danvers.. (l.1) he had returned home late after a night of adventures, obviously as Mr Hyde. (“I had been out for one of my adventures …. odd sensations. ll.1-3); • he continues by saying that when he woke up the following day he felt as if he were in Hyde’s shabby little room in Soho, even though he clearly recognised the elegant and sober furniture of his spacious bedroom (ll.3-6). This alludes to the fact that Hyde is gradually taking control over Jekyll. This also reveals his habit of spending the night in the Soho flat as Hyde (“in the little room … in the body of Edward Hyde” ll. 7-8). However, the real element of horror is that, when Jekyll looks at his hand , suddenly he realises that it is Hyde’s (“It was the hand of Edward Hyde” ll. 16-17). • A number of physical details about the two characters are given in the passage. List them. • The new element is the hand. Henry Jekyll’s hand is handsome: “professional in shape and size …. large, firm, white and comely” (l.13); Edward Hyde’s hand is ugly: “lean, corded, knuckly, of a dusky pallor, and thickly shaded with a swart growth of hair” (ll.15-16)

3. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read paragraph 2 Stevenson dwells on the terror that accompanies Jekyll’s discovery. What expressions, words, phrases show Jekyll’s horror? “I must have stared upon it for near half a minute, sunk as I was in the mere stupidity of wonder, before terror woke up in my breast as sudden and startling as the crash of cymbals” (ll.18-20). “At the sight that met my eyes , my blood was changed into something exquisitely thin and icy” (ll. 21-22); and then with another bound of terror – how was it to be remedied?” (ll. 22-24); “standing horror-struck” (ll. 27-28). • Read to the end. • From the third paragraph we understand that something has changed in Mr Hyde’s physical aspect. What change has he gone through and what does this mean? • Hyde’s body has “grown in stature” (l.39), as if he had been fed and had taken more exercise, which implies that he had indulged in his evil nature more and more. Dr Jekyll realises that while in the early times on a few occasions the power of the drug had not been enough for him to turn into Hyde, now it is just the opposite: it might prove impossible for him to revert back to his previous self.

4. GUIDED ANALYSIS • Read to the end. • What has Dr Jekyll become conscious of? • He has become conscious that the transformation from Jekyll into Hyde is beyond his control, which means that his personality will lose its balance, and evil will eventually triumph. (ll.50-52). • Explain how Stevenson’s novel strikes at the core of the Victorian compromise (maximum 100 words). “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” (1886) is Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece. Although the novel could be read as a horror story – following thus the Gothic tradition and Poe’s tales of horror – at a deeper level it casts serious doubts on human nature and scientific progress. Through the theme of “double personality” (a respectable person like Jekyll leads, in fact, a double life) and the dramatic conflict between good and evil, the novel strikes at the core of the Victorian compromise and exposes the fundamental duplicity of the age’s moral standards. (94words)