![]() The meaning of ‘hidebound’ originates from starving cattle being only covered with a thin layer of skin to hold them together there is no flesh, no muscle, no sinew, no substance underneath. One might reasonably claim that Jekyll’s guilt leads him lash out at Lanyon – instead of looking to himself. Jekyll praises Lanyon as being ‘an excellent fellow’ he may mean to see more of him but significantly he never does. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.” ![]() Oh, I know he’s a good fellow-you needn’t frown-an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him but a hide-bound pedant for all that an ignorant, blatant pedant. I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies. The tension is thereby raised, although perhaps not on first reading. One must ask whether he is always a reliable narrator in his accounts of events. Whether he is deceiving others, himself or both, is for the reader to decide but his character is not entirely good and he is not to be entirely trusted. ![]() He taps into the association in the common mind that attractive features indicate goodness, integrity, kindness etc whereas disability, disfiguration and departure from physical norms indicate the criminal and untrustworthy.Įven so, Jekyll is given an unexpected ‘slyish cast’ to suggest a deceitful nature. Jekyll with refined physical attributes with view to directly contrasting them with the troglodytic appearance of Mr. Jekyll is a substantial man, also having a ‘large handsome face’ and later, in the words of Poole, is said to have a hand which ‘ was professional in shape and size: it was large, firm, white, and comely.’ Stevenson provides Dr. Dr Jekyll’s physical appearance is contrasted with Mr Hyde’s. People have done this for centuries and still can’t help but judge others from their physical attributes. Faces and heads were regarded as being particularly useful in divining a person’s character and this pseudo science has the name ‘physiognomony’. In the nineteenth century there was a popular belief that one could identify a person’s nature from his/her external appearance. Jekyll … a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness. You may wish to compare Jekyll with Frankenstein: both ambitious men of science who obsessively seek to break into new realms.ĭr. Might one therefore say that the symbolic actions of drinking wine and drinking the potion are used to draw a further contrast between what is acceptable practice in society and what is not? Note the deluded Jekyll implicitly seeks to justify his actions by comparing one to the other. Ironically, good wine, at the beginning of the novella, facilitates ‘something eminently human’ to shine from Utterson. When Poole visits Utterson to recount recent disturbing events, he leaves the wine ‘untasted on his knee’ – and it remains untasted as a measure of the seriousness and urgency.įinally, Jekyll writes that his new-found wickedness delighted him ‘like wine’ by liberating him. ‘The glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside vineyards was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London.’ It is even implied that a venerated wine will help to remove evil from the city: A ‘particular old wine’ stands companionably between Utterson and Guest while they try to unravel the mystery. ![]() Lanyon is a picture of contentment when alone with his wine and wine is an indicator of Hyde’s good taste. Firstly, a love of good wine is a signifier of the finer sensibilities of the bourgoisie (the conventional, respectable middle class). Chapter 3Īll intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine You will also find character profiles on the site. I deal with themes, characterisation, tone, authorial purpose and context, as well as how the text’s form, structure and language create tension and meaning. My blue annotations of quotes are comments, explanations, interpretations and analysis. ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson Key Moments and Extracts Page Introduction Here are some more extracts, usually in the order that they appear in the text they are printed in black with sections, for discussion and analysis, being underlined.
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