How are Dr Jekyll's science experiments
presented mysteriously?
Dr Lanyons exploration of Dr
Jekyll's chemicals creates
mystery around his work.
Stevenson uses different sense when
describing the "blood-red liquor, which was
highly pungent to the sense of smell" but its
actual identity is kept unknown and the doctor
adds, "at the other ingredients, I could make
no guess". Dr Jekylls diary of experiments is
also obscure, ending "quite abruptly" and
including unusual notes such as "total failure!"
Stevenson engages the reader by only hinting the
unusual nature of Dr Jekyll's experiments and this
narrative hook is voiced by Dr Lanyon when he
comments "all this, though it whetted my
curiosity, told me little was definite."
A range of verbs and colours are used as Mr Hyde prepares
the potion, for example, just before the transformation
scene, to create a spell binding atmosphere: melted, brighten,
changed, faded; reddish, dark purple, watery green. The
"small fumes of vapour" and the descritption of the potion
bubbling also emphasises the eerie mood.
How is scientific discovery presented as dangerous?
In the final chapter of the novel Dr Jekyll
describe the danger of his experiments
"I knew well that I risked death".
Metaphor is used to describe the power
of his drugs "shook the very fortress of
identity" and the actual transformation
is made to sound extremely painful.
Dr Lanyon also describes the
transformation in a frightening way
"staring with injected eyes, gasping with
open mouth", using adjectives and verbs
to suggest a violent alteration of normal
physical features.
However the greatest danger is Dr Jekyll's inability to
control his transformation into Mr Hyde. Similes are
used, initially to suggest that his creation is not a
problem "Edward hyde would pass away like the stain of
breath on a mirro" , then to show Dr Jekyll's horro when
he changes involuntarily "terror woke up in my breast as
sudden and startling as the crash of cymbals.
How are Dr Jekyll's scientific discoveries presented as blasphemous?
Jekyll's experiments releases something diabolical in the shape of Mr Hyde. Stevenson
uses metaphors to describe him as "a child from hell" whose "evil was written broadly and
plainly on the face"
Meeting Mr Utterson after witnessing the transformation, Dr Lanyon refers to
Dr Jekyll as an "accursed topic". Later, exploring the laboratory, Mr Utterson is
shocked to find a religious book that Dr Jekyll has "annotated in his own hand
with startling blasphemies"