The Top 10 Most Important Quotations in Jekyll and Hyde – Analysed – Part 1.

1. ‘The packet slept in the innermost corner of his private safe.’ – Description of Jekyll’s will in Utterson’s safe.

Jekyll and Hyde is rooted in concealment. The novella itself is a mystery and this quotation from chapter one demonstrates Stevenson highlighting the theme. Firstly, let’s focus on the verb ‘slept’. When we are sleeping there is the potential for us to wake up at any moment, here the verb is being used in relation to Jekyll’s will, something that may not be needed for a long time but ‘slept’ suggests it could ‘wake’ sooner than we think. This could also allude to the beast (Hyde) asleep inside all of us, not just Jekyll. We all have a ‘Hyde’ inside of us, it’s what happens if we let it out.

Consider also that the packet is in the ‘innermost corner’ of Utterson’s ‘Private safe’ – the will is buried towards the back, it is essentially hidden from view – much like Hyde. Zooming in on the adjective ‘private’ we could ask ourselves why Stevenson feels the need to include this here, we presume a safe is private don’t we? Perhaps then this safe is ‘private’ to Utterson, it isn’t a safe that he regularly uses for his cases it is instead separate; perhaps indicating his closeness to Jekyll and his desire to keep his dealings with his friend separate from regular work.

2. ‘My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.’ – Dr Jekyll describes turning into Hyde after keeping him away for so long.

The final chapter of the novella acts as a denouement. The narrative voice switches to that of Jekyll, after all he is the only one who can finally provide us with all the answers we need to solve the mystery of his connection to Hyde. It is therefore unsurprising that a lot of ‘key quotations’ can be taken from this chapter.

Here let’s first focus on the phrase ‘my devil’. Jekyll clearly views Hyde as his own personal devil. Having been obsessed with the idea of separating the two sides of his personality and finally managing it, we know by this point that Hyde was much stronger than Jekyll ever imagined him to be, essentially it could be argued that Hyde now ‘owns’ Jekyll. Also take into account the implications of having associations with the devil. Knowing that the devil played a vital role in Victorian belief systems, Stevenson’s frequent comparisons of Hyde to the devil wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by Victorian audiences.

Add to this the verbs ‘caged’ and ‘roaring’ and Jekyll presents Hyde as animalistic, something uncontrollable and untamable which, by this point in the novella we know Hyde is. Jekyll has no power over Hyde in the end. Links could also be made here to the theme of ‘Repression’; Jekyll is repressed, Hyde is repressed, so was a lot of Victorian society, something Stevenson fought against.

3. ‘Edward Hyde would pass away like the stain of breath upon a mirror.’ – Jekyll recalling how easy it was to pretend that Hyde wasn’t real.

Continuing with chapter 10 and ‘Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case’ – and one of my favourite quotations. At this point in the chapter Jekyll describes how exciting it was to be Hyde, how Hyde provided him with endless opportunities to behave in ways well-respected Henry Jekyll never would. Finally, the repression that Jekyll felt he was drowning in was lifted by becoming Hyde. What I love about this quotation is the phrase ‘like the stain of breath upon a mirror’ – the biggest draw of being Hyde is that technically he doesn’t exist. Jekyll can commit any crime, any deviance he wants and no-one will be able to trace him – this is hugely alluring to Jekyll as he himself admits earlier in the chapter when he says, ‘the pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified’.

Looking more closely at this phrase it could also be suggested that Hyde was considered insignificant by Jekyll at the beginning of his creation, he wasn’t something that Jekyll had to worry about, he simply became him when it suited and eliminated him just as easily until Hyde began to gain more control and power, something Jekyll never considered. A contextual reading here might suggest that Stevenson is offering a critique of the privilege and entitlement of the middle classes affording Jekyll an alibi. Nobody would suspect a wealthy and influential doctor would they?

4. ‘The fog slept over the drowned city.’ –  Description of the London smog

Stevenson has been critcised in the past for not setting Jekyll and Hyde in Edinburgh when the streets of the city were of such inspiration to him, instead choosing to set it in London but when we consider the poverty ridden streets of the capital, with it’s constant smog and filthy back streets it seems the fitting choice for Stevenson’s tale.

Stevenson continues the motif of concealment through his descriptions of Victorian London, the ‘fog’ is so thick that it hides wickedness and evil deeds. The verb ‘slept’ is used again by Stevenson and there are several connotations to make here: Much like the packet in Mr Utterson’s safe the fog is personified as ‘sleeping’ suggesting it won’t be around forever but whilst it is it conceals everything, similarly to Mr Hyde; who also won’t be around forever. If we stretch this even further and include the verb ‘drowned’ we could interpret this is a comment about the suppressed nature of London and Stevenson’s argument against the repression of mankind.

5. ‘With ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot.’ – Hyde killing Sir Danvers Carew

A well-known quotation but an important one nonetheless. Prior to this we have only heard about Hyde’s violence via the Mr Enfield in chapter 1, the reader hasn’t actually witnessed it themselves. Ahead of the attack on Sir Danvers Carew we are treated to a dinner party with the pleasant and well-liked Dr Jekyll and there is not a hint of violence. It is important to note that the beginning of chapter 4 informs us that this is ‘nearly a year’ later – consider the timeline – Jekyll discourages Utterson from discussing his connection to Hyde any further in chapter 3, referring to him as ‘poor Hyde’ and insisting that he has a ‘very great interest’ in him – at this point it’s possible that Jekyll is only at the beginning of his dalliances with Hyde and is still enjoying the thrill.

Then comes Hyde’s unprovoked (as far as we know) attack on Sir Danvers. Once again Stevenson uses animalistic adjectives in ‘ape-like’, a frequent occurrence throughout the novella suggesting Hyde isn’t truly human, he is wild and untameable (something which we know to ultimately be true). Perhaps here Stevenson is drawing on public anxieties about science and the ethics of discovery. We know that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was published in 1859 and unsettled religious Victorian society, tie this in with the fact that the attack takes place in a London street under the cover of darkness and this contributes to the sense of urban terror.

By definition the verb ‘trampled’ means ‘to tread on and crush’. Hyde doesn’t kill Sir Danvers simply, it is a deeply violent attack that demonstrates his wild, untameable strength and force. It also suggests indulgent abandon, Hyde enjoys the killing. Stevenson presents Hyde as a ‘creature’, a threat to humanity, utterly at home in the darkness of London.

Classroom Approach: It’s important to explain that I chose these quotations based on a few key factors: I wanted the quotations to be short and therefore easy to recall, I wanted the quotations to be flexible and applicable to most questions that could come up on the exam paper and I wanted the quotations to be ‘juicy’, ones that I knew pupils would be able to analyse with confidence and in detail.

Part 2 coming soon…