Concetti Chiave
- The setting of the story reflects the duality of London, with Jekyll's house symbolizing the contrast between respectability and hidden darkness.
- The narrative employs a multi-narration structure with four narrators, creating suspense through varied perspectives.
- The novel blends genres, combining Gothic, detective, and science fiction elements to enrich the storytelling.
- The characters are all respectable professional men, highlighting the absence of women in the narrative.
- Themes include the duality of human nature, Victorian hypocrisy, and the dangerous pursuit of scientific power.
The strange case of Dr Jekyll e Mr Hyde
Setting:
-London, duplicity of the city (respectable West End vs disreputable East End, reminiscent of Edinburgh’s New Town and Old Town)
-Main inside setting: Jekyll’s house (double entrance: official part of the house opening on a wide, respectable street/ laboratory opening on a narrow dark alley)
-Time: mostly night, or stormy weather (dark, cold and fog, nightmarish atmosphere)
Narrators:
- oblique, multi-narration structure (4 narrators: Enfield, Lanyon, Utterson and Jekyll) effect: various points of view, suspense
Genre:
- multigenre novel: Gothic elements (the transformation, the night scenes), detective story (Mr Utterson as detective, playing “hide-and-seek), science fiction elements (the potion)
Characters:
- all “respectable” professional men, no women.
Themes:
- theme of the double ( Doppelgänger) – ( Jekyll as the whole man and Hyde as the unconscious side, the id)
-hypocrisy and double nature of the Victorian society
-function of science – sin of hybris – Jekyll as an overreaches (Faustian figure)
Other works with similar themes:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818); Edgar Allan Poe’s short story William Wilson (1839); Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891); Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899).
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