The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — Stevenson (1886)

Jekyll and Hyde is OCR's most popular 19th-century prose text. It is tested in Component 01, Section B. AO3 carries the highest weight here — examiners expect a sophisticated understanding of Victorian context. The novella works on multiple levels: Gothic thriller, scientific horror, and a critique of Victorian repression.

Context — essential for AO3

Victorian society (1880s):

• Strict moral codes — respectability was paramount; any deviation threatened social standing.
• Social Darwinism: belief that evolution applied to humans; fear of regression to a more "primitive" state.
• The duality of Victorian life: private immorality hidden beneath public respectability (prostitution, opium dens, poverty — all behind the facade of empire and progress).
• Science vs religion: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) had shaken religious certainty; science seemed capable of anything — and anything seemed dangerous.
• The British Empire: fear of the "other" (Hyde is repeatedly described in terms suggesting racial otherness); anxieties about the colonial project.

Stevenson wrote Jekyll and Hyde in 1886, six years before Jack the Ripper murders (1888) — which the novel seems to anticipate. The novella captures fin de siècle anxiety about what lurks beneath Victorian civility.

The duality of Jekyll/Hyde

Dr Henry Jekyll: respected scientist, philanthropist, pillar of society. Mr Edward Hyde: small, deformed, described as ape-like, inspiring instinctive disgust.

• Jekyll = the public, repressed, "civilised" Victorian man.
• Hyde = the repressed desires, the private self, the id (Freudian reading, though Freud's work came later).
• Crucially: Jekyll does not create Hyde — he reveals him. Hyde was always part of Jekyll.

Stevenson's key argument: the attempt to repress the darker side of human nature makes it more dangerous. The double life Jekyll creates eventually destroys him — repression leads to catastrophe.

Key characters

• Mr Utterson: lawyer; narrator figure; represents rational, conventional Victorian society. His investigation drives the plot and mirrors the reader's gradual discovery.
• Dr Lanyon: another scientist; represents orthodox science; his witnessing of Hyde's transformation kills him — suggests the truth is literally unbearable.
• Hyde: described as "aping" humanity, inspiring disgust without identifiable features. Stevenson deliberately avoids describing him clearly — readers project their own fears.

Gothic and Victorian conventions

Technique	Example	Effect
Gothic atmosphere	Fog, night, hidden alleys in London	Creates mystery, moral ambiguity
Doubled space	Jekyll's respectable front door vs Hyde's battered back door (same building)	Physical duality mirrors moral duality
Narrative structure	Multiple narrators (Utterson, Lanyon's letter, Jekyll's confession)	Creates gaps and unreliability — the truth is assembled in pieces
Repression	Jekyll cannot speak of Hyde; Utterson refuses to speculate	Victorian taboo: respectable men do not discuss such things

Key language analysis

• Hyde described as "ape-like" — Social Darwinism: regression to a primitive state; the civilised veneer is thin.
• Hyde "gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation" — Stevenson deliberately leaves Hyde indefinite so readers fill the gap with their own repressed fears.
• Jekyll's house has a "chocolate-coloured" front that is "well-polished" — respectability; compare with Hyde's door: "blistered and distained" — the physical dereliction mirrors moral dereliction.

Common OCR exam mistakes

1. Treating the novella as simply about good vs evil — Stevenson is more complex: Hyde is not evil separate from Jekyll; he is Jekyll's repressed self.
2. Using context as filler. "Victorian society was repressive" earns nothing alone — you must link specific context to specific language: "Jekyll's inability to name his desires reflects Victorian society's insistence on respectability: naming them would make them real and threatening."
3. Ignoring the narrative structure — the multiple-narrator frame is a deliberate technique with meaning.
4. Confusing Freud with Stevenson — Stevenson predates Freud's published work. The novella anticipates psychological theory; you should not say Stevenson was influenced by Freud.