Ragged London portrayed in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Through metaphorical imagery, the authors Sala and Booth portray a sinister version of London. Both show that hypocrisy and aristocracy leave the poor to fend for themselves while the rich steal from them. To show the situation in the back slums, Sala uses the metaphor of a maze to portray, while Booth uses the metaphor of Africa. With the help of these metaphors, both authors criticize the hierarchical order. 

Both Sala and Booth start with a contrast of London in order to criticize the aristocrats. Sala writes: “The trapezium of streets enclosed within it’s boundary are not, by any means of an aristocratic description” (Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, pg 169). Thus through the diction such as ‘trapezium’ and ‘boundary, the author gives the reader the image of a ‘trap’ and ‘suffocating place’. The ‘trapezium of streets’ also shows the isolation of the space. Sala also in another sentence repeats the fact that ‘No lords or squires of high degree live in this political Alstia’(Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, pg 169). The sarcastic tone of the repetition shows the annoyance of the author about the situation of the ‘back slums’. However, compared to Booth the description that Sala gives is comparatively less hyperbolic. Booth compares London to the ‘Darkest Africa’, which was described by Mr. Stanley, to be a place where ‘the rays of the sun never penetrate’ (The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 174). Through a rhetorical question "the ivory raiders who brutally traffic in the unfortunate denizens of the forest glades, what are they but the publicans who flourish on the weakness of our poor?” (The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 174) the comparison of ivory raiders and the publicans conveys the intensity of the situation for the author.  

The author shows people who have a very distorted way of living to portray the lifestyles of the inhabitants in those areas. Sala describes the lifestyle as a ‘a maze of sorry thoroughfares, a second-rate butcher’s meat and vegetable market, two model lodging houses, a dingy church, and some ‘brick barns’ of dissent are within the boundaries’(Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, 169). The metaphor of ‘the maze’ connects with the trap of the trapezium. The ‘second- rate butcher’, the parenthesis, ‘two model dingy houses” illustrates the second-hand lifestyle that the people in the slums can afford. The diction tells the reader about the severity of the lifestyle in the slums. The metaphors show the intricacy of the lifestyle. In the end of the essay Sala also mentions ‘the grave dog… waiting for the door to be opened, as-in this region of perpetual beer-fetching”(Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, 169). The authors show a very depressed scene in:  ‘The public-house doors are always on the swing; the baker’s shop (they mostly sell seconds) are always full so are the cook-shops, so are the coffee-shops: step into one, and you shall have a phase of Patmos before you incontinent’. The author here portrays a very gloomy scene where most people pour their sorrows into the alcohol they drink. Therefore the author depicts the trapped lifestyle of the middle class.(Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, 169)

Through the diction and imagery he uses, Booth shows a greater severity. The author writes ‘As in Africa, it is all trees, trees, trees with no other world conceivable; so it is here-it is all vice and poverty and crime’(The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 175), the trees here are compared to the vice, poverty and crime. By comparing the ‘trees’ are something that acts as a barrier for a man in the same way ‘poverty’ does the same. Therefore this shows the reader is the extremity of the ‘trap’ in the slums. The author compares the area to ‘the Workhouse as an intermediate purgatory before the grave’(The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 175). Again the hyperbole of the lifestyle of the people in the slum amplifies the constant struggle of the workforce. Eventually the author compares the slums to ‘Dante’s hell’(The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 176). The amplification again helps emphasize the severe conditions of the slums. ‘Often and often, when I have seen the morass, tramples underfoot by beasts of prey in human shape that haunt these regions, as if God were no longer in His world, but that in His stead reigned a fiend merciless as Hell ruthless as the grave’(The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 176). By involving ‘God’ and his criticizing His ‘incompetence’ the author expresses the helplessness of the people that live in poverty. Thus Booth gives a harsher description than Sala does. However, both make the same point on the lifestyle of the people: that the second-hand, monotonous life of the people that are preyed on by the rich. Booth makes his point clearly when he mentions ‘tangled of monotonous undergrowth’. Sala makes his point by alcohol acting a trap and monotonous way of life in the slums.

These descriptions of the city give the reader the feel of the city. Both give vivid imagery to explain the lifestyle in the slums. They also play with the reader’s senses. Sala mentions ‘sallow, cabbage stalk and fried fish’(Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon, 170), which gives off a distinct stink in the area. On the other hand Booth describes the smell as ‘foul and fetid’(The Darkest England and The Way Out, pg 176). Most writers portray Victorian London as a depressed and very dark city where there is an obvious divide between the middle-class, the lower class and the rich people.



























Citations: 

1. Booth,William. "The Darkest England and The Way Out". In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005

2. Sala, George. "Gaslight and Daylight with Some London Scenes they Shine Upon".In The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005