Jekyll and Hyde Chapter 4

Jekyll and Hyde Chapter 4

1. Hyde murders Danvers Carew

   • Chapter begins nearly a year later
     • Maid's account of Carew's murder is written like a police statement
       • Distances the reader from the event itself
       • Also limited to the maid's perspective - she's "romantically given" so it's hard to know how much we can believe
       • The maid's description is a shocking change of tone in her initially peaceful account
         • She faints - shows how shocking the murder was
   • Old man appears polite and full of "old-world kindness"
     • Emphasises his innocence and shows how evil Hyde is - attacks Carew for no reason
   • Hyde is described as trampling Carew with "ape-like fury"
     • Animalistic description shows how he's primal and savage
   • A lot of gruesome detail is given
     • Hyde "clubbed" Carew, "trampling" him and giving him a "storm of blows" so that his body "jumped upon the roadway"
     • Stevenson appeals to the reader's sense of hearing and sight by describing how Carew's bones were "audibly" shattered
       • Makes the attack more horrific and vivid as you imagine how terrible it would be to hear someone's bones breaking
   • Hyde leaves Carew "incredibly mangled" on the street - it's a brutal and shocking crime

2. Utterson and the police search for Hyde

   • Policeman's reaction to the indentification of Carew as the victim shows everyone has a double nature
     • Initially concerned but soon "professional ambition" to turn the situation to his advantage takes over
       • Stevenson shows that hypocrisy is widespread in Victorian Society
   • Utterson leads the Police to Hyde's house
     • Hyde lives down a "dingy street" in a "dismal quarter of Soho"
     • Utterson sees it as "some city in a nightmare" - it's a place of darkness and swirling fog - makes him feel uneasy
       • Contrasts with the comfortable house and respectable area that Jekyll lives in
     • Soho was an area associated with poverty and immorality
       • Located in the richer, more respectable West End of London
       • Reflects the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde - the immoral Hyde is located within the respectable Jekyll

3. Dual Nature of Man

   • Stevenson uses the minor character of Hyde's landlady to develop the idea that it's human nature to conceal our faults
     • She has an "evil face, smoothed with hypocrisy" but "her manners were excellent" - which shows that she's putting on a front of respectability