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The concealment in doctor jekyll and mister hyde

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Par   •  30 Octobre 2018  •  Commentaire d'oeuvre  •  917 Mots (4 Pages)  •  1 176 Vues

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CONCEALMENT

Concealment is definitely one of the main themes that compose the Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Since the global issue for Jekyll is to do all he can to hide his dark side. His obsession was to divide Evil and Good that remain inside his personality, but once his achieves that, his new obsession is to preserve society from Hyde and to contain him. Concealment may cover many fields in the novel: one can think about the concealment of Hyde by Jekyll, obviously, therefore it’s already a psychological and a material work for Jekyll, trying to restrain his ego to take control over his id. But we can also see that sometimes, concealment is willingly circumvented, to let the story to keep going (in fact, by allowing Utterson to lead his investigation).

Therefore, one may wonder how the concealment reaches to become a central aspect of the novel.

The first part of this essay will deal with the progressive disclosure that takes place during all the novel, which in fact corresponds to the guiding thread of it. Then we will focus on the embodiment of concealment : the houses, as they have a central place in the settings, and provide the special atmosphere that characterizes this novel and that allow the reader to have a precise idea of the victorian respectability.

The progressive disclosure

Concealment is firstly used by Jekyll, and he uses it during the entire novel, to hide Hyde -> when he says to Utterson that his relationship with Hyde is over. Like shameful, while it’s a part of his personality. He knows it’s dangerous for him and for the population.

Jekyll also tries to contain his fear and his anxiety to Utterson, but also to the people in general (like when he goes out to buy some salt for his potion, acting like all was normal) -> he tries to remain natural but unfortunately, Utterson knows him well and with Lanyon and the help of Pool, they can easily see that something goes wrong.

In this way, we can link concealment to the notion of repression, inhibition. Because Jekyll has to provide an effort to contain Hyde into him, and to restrain him when Jekyll is transformed into Hyde.

BUT! some aspects of the novel seem to exist in order to let the investigation going and provide to Utterson the elements he needs to find the truth. Concealment is sometimes circumvented, such as at the first time Utterson and Hyde meet: Hyde tries to hide his face but a short time later, he accepts to give his address to the lawyer. Understandable because he may know that Utterson will have to come to see him for the will but questionable because he knows that he is a murderer and that it would facilitate the work of the police to know where he lives to arrest him (that is exactly what happened)

In fact, the relation with the settings in general and the buildings in particular is noticeable. The streets, the houses form a kind of urban context that square with the Victorian context.

The houses of the Victorian characters as an embodiment of concealment

During the Victorian Era, all the houses were closed to each other, the living condition were very elementary. But more of that, the notion of Victorian respectability urges everyone to observe, scrutinize his neighbour, whereas the anonymity was the norm. The doors play a role in the novel as they can represent the entrance in the private life of people. Many doors are quoted, the house is the area where the individuals can hide their secrets. For Hyde for example, it’s his laboratory

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