27756112
Description
Jekyll and Hyde Context
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Born and raised in Edinburgh giving
him the dual identity of being both
Scottish and British.
- Edinburgh was a city of
duality as well.
- Stevenson was raised in the
wealthy New Town but spent his
childhood exploring the darker,
more sinister side of the town
linking to the theme of duality.
- Stevenson wrote 'The Strange Case
of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1886.
- Born: 13th November 1850
Died: 3rd December 1894
- Born and raised in Edinburgh giving
him the dual identity of being both
Scottish and British.
- Victorian London
- Population grew
significantly from 1
million in 1800 to 6.7
million in 1900.
- It became a very wealthy city but
poverty in the city also grew.
- There was a very thick dark fog in
London which Stevenson used to
create a gloomy and dark atmosphere.
- The city became full of crime and it happened all
the time. This links to the crimes that Hyde
committed.
- Population grew
significantly from 1
million in 1800 to 6.7
million in 1900.
- Victorian Values
- Victorians displayed very high values which
included sexual restraint, low tolerance to
crime and a strict code that they lived by.
- They also showed very high morals.
- Victorian gentlemen had to live by
these code and high morals and
had to repress any desires they had
or they would be seen as immoral
and have a damaged reputation.
- Men such as Enfield and Utterson were to
avoid all gossip as it was seen a destroyer
of reputation.
- Victorians were viewed as respectable, moral,
proper, restrained and repressed.
- Victorians displayed very high values which
included sexual restraint, low tolerance to
crime and a strict code that they lived by.
- Darwin and Evolution
- The thought of the Theory of
Evolution haunted Victorians.
- Believing that humans evolved from apes went
against God and religion which horrified
Victorians as they believed that God was the sole
creator of the universe.
- Due to the Victorians interest in religion,
people were afraid of scientific developments
and what it would do to mankind.
- Victorians started to worry that
there was a possibility that
humans could return the
primitive state of apes.
- Stevenson shows these worries by telling us
that Hyde is 'ape-like' and 'troglodytic'
showing that Hyde is uncivilised and brutal
which is a change to the more primitive
stage of human development.
- The thought of the Theory of
Evolution haunted Victorians.
- Physiognomy
- Italian criminologist Cesare
Lombroso, introduced a theory
that a criminal could be
recognised by their physical
characteristics.
- These characteristics included
asymmertical facial features, long arms
and a sloping forehead.
- This theory was later dismissed as
it was completely unscientific.
- Hyde's appearance marks him as
criminal and as someone who is
unacceptable in Victorian society.
- Italian criminologist Cesare
Lombroso, introduced a theory
that a criminal could be
recognised by their physical
characteristics.
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