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The Presentation Of Science In Stevenson`s `jekyll And Hyde`

Starting with a given extract, this is a sample essay which explores how science is presented in the novel - at first in the extract and then in the wider novel.

Date : 17/12/2020

Author Information

Vickie

Uploaded by : Vickie
Uploaded on : 17/12/2020
Subject : English

Extract

Right in the middle there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its back and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far to large for him, clothes of the doctor`s bigness the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone: and by the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.

"We have come too late," he said sternly, "whether to save or punish. Hyde is gone to his account and it only remains for us to find the body of your master."

Question

Examine the presentation of science here and elsewhere in the novel

The Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 and explores - amongst other topics - the development of science within a society that saw itself as deeply religious. Whilst many would class the novella as a horror story, this - like Frankenstein - could also be classed as early science-fiction.

The obvious scientific descri ption within the extract depicts a dead Hyde with the crushed phial in the hand . Stephenson s use of the verb crushed to describe the vial has negative connotations since it it not just broken, it is beyond repair. This also reflects the crushed state of Jekyll s life, career and reputation at this point in the narrative - it has been crushed because of his dangerous experimentation.

The purpose of the phial also highlights the dangers of science. This is evident when we learn that because of it Hyde had become a self-destroyer - that is, he committed suicide. The noun self-destroyer describes someone who has reached a hopeless state, standing ready to commit a sin that the Victorians would have viewed as worse than murder. To them, Hyde would be condemned to hell for his actions. This all presents Jekyll s scientific experimentation in the most negative of lights.

Furthermore, with the scientific reference being at the centre of the extract, the reader could interpret all of the surrounding negative descri ptions as resulting from scientific experimentation. The body is sorely contorted as a result of Jekyll s heresies , suggesting through the verb contorted that his work and the result was wrong or unnatural since a contortion is a descri ption of something being in a twisted state. This could reflect the fact that whilst science was seen as a perfectly respectable hobby for a gentleman of the time, Jekyll s interest - and that of others like him - in the transcendental was contorted creating deep fear within society about the result of taking science to such a level.

To reinforce this idea, the body of Hyde is described as still twitching - a particularly disturbing image for the reader as well as Mr Utterson who felt the need to approach the body on tiptoe this adverbial phrase suggests he saw the corpse as unpredictable and blurs the lines in our minds between horror and science since it suggests that Utterson expected the body to come back to life in a ghostly zombie-like way. Linking this to science, this could all contribute to the message of science and its results being horrific, unpredictable and untrustworthy.

Elsewhere in the novel, Dr Jekyll s science is presented as dangerous. This is evident in chapter 9 when Lanyon describes the blood-red liquor which he collected from Jekyll s house. The adjective blood clearly links this chemical with violence and death, but this is further emphasised with the colour adjective red to intensify our understanding that this drug is dangerous and, as Lanyon later states, unpredictable . Its highly pungent nature would also disgust the reader by using the sensory descri ption to create in the reader a natural distaste for it and therefore science.

However, not all science is bad in the novella. Traditional science and medicine is seen as good and - as previously stated - a respectable hobby. This acceptance of traditional or conventional medicine, can be seen through the character of Dr Lanyon who is hearty, healthy and red faced. His goodness, depicted through the positive adjectives, suggests to the reader that he is to be trusted - he has no secrets, which is why he is red faced - he doesn t need to Hyde indoors. Thus, by association his hidebound scientific methods are also good and to be trusted. At the end of the novella, the reader sees his wisdom in naming Jekyll s experimentations as heresies because they clearly had an evil conclusion.

To conclude, the message of this book is not that Jekyll s experimentation is balderdash as Lanyon originally thought it clearly wasn t balderdash since it was real enough to kill Jekyll in the end. The Victorians - like us - saw the potential of science and where it can take us. However, unlike modern society, the Victorians were scared about where science would take them. A society that was still coming to terms with scientific theories that called humans ape-like clearly saw this new-found knowledge as dangerous and confusing. Thus, the concern of the book is not whether or not scientific advancement is possible, it is whether in pursuing them we are committing heresies that will ultimately leave the human race at best contorted and at worst crushed .

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