Good and Evil

Duality of places

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Nice street for a walk

• “the street was small and… quiet but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays” = duality = during victorian era, London went through great economic growth
• “shop fronts…like rows of smiling saleswomen” - attractive, inviting
• “the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighborhood like a fire in a forest” - fire in a forest symbolises destruction, contrast between shone and dingy, shone implies it’s shining with goodness

Blackmail House

Negative language contrasts other houses + the distinctness and strangeness of this house builds mystery

• “two doors from one corner” - illustrates proximity
• “a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable” = sinister connotates evil within, thrust is violent and invasive
• “discoloured wall”, “marks of prolonged and sordid negligence”, “knocker was blistered and distained” contrasts “freshly painted shutters” of the nice street
• Blackmail house neighbourhood (violent semantic field = aggressive neighbourhood)
• “tramps struck matches on the panels… the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings”
• “no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or repair their ravages” = alliteration of ‘r’ sound is harsh like a growl which reflects the violence

Jekyll’s front house

• “ancient, handsome houses, now for the most part decayed” reflects Jekyll’s dual nature
• neighbourhood occupied by “shady lawyers and the agents of obscure enterprises - shows that Jekyll lives on the edge of evil and secrecy
• “Jekyll’s front house wore a great air of wealth and comfort” = displaying prosperity but hiding the backhouse
• “plunged in darkness except for the fanlight” </aside>

Duality of motifs

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Duality in light and dark

“the lamp…drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow” - duality between light and dark foreshadowing duality of Jekyll’s personality

“Utterson’s nightmare - “great, dark bed”, mind “toiling in mere darkness and besieged by questions”, “great field of lamps of a nocturnal city” “labyrinths of lamplighted city” lamps are used as a motif in the novella to create an unsettling tone, hinting at a lurking danger (Hyde is mostly only seen during the night). The lamps provide a fractured landscape of light and shadow reflecting the fractured truths in the novella and duality. Unnatural for light during the night Trampling of the child was during a “black, winter morning” where there was “nothing to be seen but lamps” “the lamps… drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow”

Duality in Fire

23 REFERENCES TO FIRE

1. Fire for Hyde is his uncontrollable rage and passion which causes destruction
   • "great flame of anger” = uncontrollable rage
   • Lanyon describes Hyde as “on fire with sombre excitement”
   • “the cheval glass… was so turned as to show them nothing but the… fire sparkling in a hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses = The repetition suggests something overwhelming and uncontrollable, almost like the fire is multiplying on its own, creating unease
2. Fire for Jekyll is a hidden evil representing Hyde
   • “seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight”, “uneasy starting of the shadow” = where there is light, there is darkness close behind + hidden evil
   • Jekyll “sat on the opposite side of the fire” = fire representing Hyde and they are opposites?
3. Utterson at first uses the fire as comfort, sees the fire in Jekyll’s house as welcoming
   • Utterson sits “close by the fire” - provides warmth, comfort
   • “bright open fire” in Jekyll’s hall = welcoming, transparency of truth
4. Then Utterson sees the hidden evil
   • “Like a fire in a forest” - meant to show that the street is shining and pleasant, but fire in a forest connotes destruction (duality)
   • “seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight”, “uneasy starting of the shadow” = where there is light, there is darkness close behind + hidden evil </aside>