Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Secret

Analysis: 

Main idea: The author describes Mr. Hyde’s house consistent with the characteristics of the character.  

Paragraph:

Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point, a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged sordid negligence. The door was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained. Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages. (pg 32)

Annotation:

1. “Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east, the line was broken by the entry of a court;”

·      “Two doors” – portray Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

·      “The Line was broken by the entry of a court”- the metaphor of the broken line portrayed the “dualism” of the characters.

 2. “Just at that point, a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street.”

·      “A certain sinister block of building” - the diction “sinister” talks about the sinister character of Mr. Hyde

3. “It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper;”

·      “showed no window”- no window shows the discrete life that Mr. Hyde lived in due to his circumstances.

·      “A blind forehead of discolored wall on the upper”- the imagery of the “discolored wall”, again shows the negligent nature of Mr. Hyde.

4. “And bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged sordid negligence.”

·      “marks of prolonged sordid negligence”-  again emphasized on the fact that there was seldom activity in the house.

5. “The door was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained.”

·      “neither bell nor knocker”-  shows that Mr. Hyde had a secret thus the discrete life.

·      “was blistered and distained”- refers to Mr. Hyde’s physical descriptions but also again gives better characterization of the type of person Mr. Hyde was.  

 6. “Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.”  

·      The “tramps”, the “children” and the “schoolboy”, show the type of neighborhood My. Hyde lived in. 

·      “no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages”-

Main idea: Dr. Jekyll due to his moral sense felt that Mr. Hyde was pure evil

Paragraph:

Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, the evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other. Evil besides (which I must believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay. And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass. I was conscious of no repugnance, rather a leap of welcome. In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance I had been hitherto accustomed to call mine. (pg 81)

Annotation:

1.“Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, the evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other”

·      “ Evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other”- “broadly and plainly” shows the depth of the evilness. And also explains that Mr. Hyde was pure evil in the eyes of Dr. Jekyll.

2. “Evil besides (which I must believe to be the lethal side of man) had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay.”

·      “Imprint of deformity and decay” -Parallels with the description of the door. Also gives a physical description of Mr. Hyde.

3. “ugly idol”- Dr. Jekyll’s view of My. Hyde’s physical attributes

4. “imperfect and divided countenance”- comments of the imperfectness of the dualism.

Even though due to his illness Dr. Jekyll grew comfortable in Mr. Hyde’s body, the diction he used shows his hatred towards the Mr. Hyde.

Main idea: The Secret that Dr.Jekyll hid from everyone was Mr. Hyde. He believed that he had to hide Mr. Hyde due to the cruel pleasures of the degenerate side.

Paragraph:

Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life. Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities, as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame. (pg  78)

Annotation:

1.”Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures;”

·      “Concealed my pleasures” – did not want to show them to society

2. “I reached years of reflection… I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.”

·      “reflection”- in order to understand the particulars of his situation

3. “Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities, as I was guilty of;”

·      “I was guilty of”- felt as if the duplicity was his fault and also felt that he had to take responsibility for it.

4. “but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame”

Thesis:

Dr. Jekyll was ashamed and scared of his dual nature, as he believed that Edward Hyde was pure “evil”. The lead into this, the author in the beginning of the chapter uses the door to foreshadow that described Mr. Hyde and also foreshadows the fact that Mr. Hyde had a secret to hide. However, this secret was hidden by Harry Jekyll to protect his secret and the secret being his duplicity.

Argument 1: The author foreshadows Dr. Jekyll’s secret by describing Mr. Hyde’s door.

“Two doors”

“The Line was broken by the entry of a court”

“A certain sinister block of building”- sinister because it paralleled with Mr. Hyde’s characteristics

“It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper;”

“was blistered and distained”

“neither bell nor knocker”- portrayed the fact that someone or something was hidden inside the house.

Argument 2: Dr. Jekyll believed that Mr. Hyde was pure evil, but due to his condition he felt that Mr. Hyde was a part of him that he could not get rid of.

“Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other”

Further described the evil as

“Evil besides had left on that body an imprint of deformity and decay”

“Imperfect and divided countenance”

Argument 3: Dr. Jekyll was ashamed of his duplicity thus hid his secret

“I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life”

“A man would have even blazoned such irregularities, as I was guilty of”

“I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame”

  

Thus because Dr. Jekyll through his experiments was desperate to find a cure for himself he created an environment to study Mr. Hyde in order to eradicate the “evil”. Thus the house only had a door and did not have any windows in order to protect the secret from society. 

Citation:  

1.  Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jykell and Mr.Hyde. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2005. 

The Secret Agent: Ragged London

In Victorian times, the image of London was a very dark one. Thus, Charles Dickens and Ford Madox Hueffer used grotesque imagery to portray the dark side of London. Charles Dickens to show the dark side used the metaphor of the Fog to show the confusion in the Lord Chancellor’s office. Ford Madox Hueffer explains routine lifestyle of the workforce to portray the same.

The authors set the scene by describing the weather of London. Both examined the weather through the mud that collected in the city. Charles Dickens describes the scene as “ As much mud in the streets as if the waters has but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Meglosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling, an elephantine lizard up the Holborn Hill.” (Bleak House, pg 255) The hyperbole “Meglosaurus” emphasizes the amount of mud that was collected on the street. The description “elephantine lizard” also helps describe the shape of Holborn Hill, and the length of the hill. Ford Hueffer describes the mud as “sticky mud” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257), the diction portrays the inevitableness of the situation. Through the mud the authors convey the way mud is almost immortal. In addition, it adds to the problems that are prevalent in the city. Charles Dickens also uses the personification of the “smoke lowering down the chimney-pots” (Bleak House, pg 255) that have “gone into mourning” to show sympathy for the situation in the city. On the other hand, Hueffer uses the personification of the “weeping sky” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257), which not only portrays the rain but also makes the reader sympathize for London.

Furthermore, the authors explain the chaos in the streets of London through the “horses” in the city and the people. The description Charles Dickens painted was “Horses scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers” (Bleak House, pg 255). The description of “splashed to their very blinkers” conveyed the fact that every inch of the horses was completely soaked. It emphasized on the fact that even horses were stuck in the bleak situation. Ford Hueffer added a more darker image of the horses: “of the monstrous figure of a horse ‘down’ in the sticky streets with its frantic struggles…and then its lying still” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257). The horses also act like

Dickens explained the situation of the people as “Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street corners” (Bleak House, pg 255). The “general infection” showed that the anger of the people was “contagious” due to their struggle. The “jostling” of umbrellas emphasized on the struggle that the people endured. Furthermore, the author adds “ and loosing their foot-hold at street corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257).  The author emphasizes the frustration through ‘tens of thousands of other foot passengers’ that face the same issue. Ford Hueffer describes the crowd as a “chaotic crowd”, the alliteration draws attention to the chaos created. The author continues with “like that of baggage wagons huddled together after a great defeat”. The simile of “baggage wagons” emphasizes on the number of people on the streets, and the diction “great defeat” conveys the reason behind the chaos. Thus this phrase helps the reader picture the intensity of the chaos.

            

Charles Dickens, through the description leads to the symbolism of the Fog. Through antithesis statements the author adds depth and length to the fog. He starts with “Fog everywhere” (Bleak House, pg 255). The general statement asserts the stretch of the “fog”. Further Dickens adds “ Fog up the river, where it flows among the green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollution of a great city” (Bleak House, pg 255). The personification of the fog gives more depth to the fog. While “Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights” (Bleak House, pg 255), adds to the length of the fog. Furthermore, through the fog the author describes different parts of the city conveying his cynical view. Moreover, the “fog” acts as a symbol of the tension throughout the city, and adds to the monotonous life of the Londoners. To emphasize on the confusion and tension in the Chancellor’s office the author wrote, “The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is the densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest” (Bleak House, pg 256) and “ the very heart of the Fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery” (Bleak House, pg 256).

           

Ford Hueffer explains the business wheel to portray the monotonous life of London’s workforce. He begins the paragraph with an opening statement: “All work in modern London is almost necessity routine work: the tendency to specialize in small articles, in small parts of a whole, insures that” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257). Here the author explains that the routine is a “necessity” because of the fact that each part of the expertise is a part of a bigger whole. However, after Hueffer explains this he further argues that “In the mind of the workers, work itself becomes an endless monotony” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257) and thus it “crushes out the individuality” (The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City, pg 257). Everyone due to industrialization becomes a small fish of the big pond. There is no respect left for the craftsman who creates a product from start to end.

Thus, both the authors put forward a pessimistic view of London through their descriptions. Both explain that the chaos itself is extremely monotonous because it is a part of the routine. The description of London still is the same due the increase in industrialisation and the continuous rain. However, instead of horses there are cars. In conclusion, Dickens and Hueffer give the reader a thought to ponder about through the views that the authors put forward.

           

           

Citations: 

1. Dickens  Charles , "Bleak House". In The Secret Agent. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press,2009. 

2. Hueffer Ford, "The Soul of London: A survey of a Modern City". In The Secret Agent. Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press,2009.