“Jekyll and Hyde may have all the hallmarks of a gothic horror story but it is much more besides; it criticises aspects of life in Victorian London and asks profound questions about the human condition at the same time”
...uld expect to meet criminals, beggars and prostitutes. The mortality rate was almost double the amount of Cavendish square. The class division in the Victorian era was very strong and depending on your class it would affect your status in society. There was an idea that the higher classed people were scared of the lower classed people because there were more of them and they believed in dark things. Weather in Soho is constantly horrible. “ The Dismal quarter of Soho seen under these changing glimpses with its muddy ways, slatternly passengers and its lamps which had never been extinguished” This quote suggests that the weather takes over the daily life of those who live in Soho because it is always dark and dirty. The weather is also used to put emphasis on certain places or events which are about to happen. Within the setting of the novel, the theme of secrecy is explored. The fog hides the secrets and this also creates tension. ”The fog would be quite broken, and a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths” Events take place in the morning or late at night, thus creating mystery. The fog described in the book is used to describe the surging masses of people. “It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first fog of the season. A great chocolate coloured pall lowered over heaven but the wind was continually charging and routing this embattled vapours.” Another characteristic of gothic horror is the supernatural characters that are in the book, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. The book explores the ideas of good and evil, many Victorians at this time struggled to believe the idea that one person could have two sides to them. This idea is used in the book describing the supernatural happenings of Dr Jekyll being two people, one good and one evil. There is an idea of him having a split personality. Hyde is not a completely separate person, but a projection of Jekyll's darker side. Although Jekyll seems to have no control over Hyde, once he has transformed, it is Jekyll's original attitude towards evil in the first place, which lands him in this trouble. Stevenson believed that every person had a good and an evil side but most people refused to believe that they had an evil side and that i...