Character of in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Character of in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde

1. Dr Lanyon

   • He is a doctor like Jekyll.
     • Jekyll and Lanyon were close friends and went to medical school together.
   • He is respectable and follows the rules and doesn't break any laws.
     • Lanyon is much different to Jekyll as he has limits but Jekyll likes to live dangerously and experiments with the dark side of science.
       • Lanyon's viewpoint of Jekyll's experiments is "unscientific balderdash" (this means that he thinks it is not classed as science and what he is researching is a load of nonsense.) He also doesn't associate with Jekyll because he feelthat he is "wrong, wrong in the mind" (the repetition of the adjective wrong emphasises that Lanyon doesn't like this. if someone was wrong in the mind then youwould think that they are doing something dodgy and are up to no good, which is what Jekyll is doing but no one knows yet)
   • Lanyon is the only character to see Jekyll transform into Hyde and obviously that doenst fit in with the laws of science. When he sees the change, he feel that his "life has been shaken at the roots" (an explicit way of Lanyon saying that he is cared and his life will never be the same again.) After he sees this he is mentally and physically ill and, as a result dies.

2. Dr Jekyll

   • Dr Jekyll is a doctor and experiments with science.
   • He is wealthy and respectable
     • "The doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to some 5 or 6 old cronies, all intelligent reputable men, and all judges of good wine."
       • This shows that he is well liked and respected in the Victorian society of London. as al of the men are judges of 'good wine', it indicates to the reader their wealth and respectability.
   • He was sociable but all of that changed when he took the potion and couldn't control his inner-Hyde, so to speak
     • "He came out of seclusion" - (he did seclude him self from the public as it said he came out of stopped).
   • During the novel he becomes really erratic. This is because he is trying to hide Hyde from everyone. Hes trying to control his experiment but he is failing.
     • "the smile was struck out of his face."
       • This shows Jekylls behavious, because before the quotation he was talking to Uterson. Stevenson desibes the sudden change in Jekyls behavious. the verb 'struck' shows that hydes appearance has changed jekylls behaviour instantly.
   • Jekyll isn't interested in surgery as hes fascinated by medicine.
     • "his own tastes being chemical than anatomical"
       • This isn't a typical Victorian doctors belief as he was exploring the supernatural side of humans. this was frowned upon by other doctors like Lanyon.