The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde · GCSE English Literature

Plot

Mr Utterson, a lawyer, hears from his distant relative Mr Enfield how a sinister man, Mr Hyde, trampled a young girl and paid her family with a cheque signed by the respectable Dr Jekyll.
Utterson is worried by Jekyll's will, which leaves everything to Hyde. Later, Hyde brutally murders Sir Danvers Carew, an MP, with a cane. Jekyll claims Hyde is gone for good.
Dr Lanyon sees something terrible, falls ill and dies, leaving a letter to be opened after Jekyll's death.
Jekyll's butler, Poole, fetches Utterson. They break into Jekyll's laboratory and find Hyde dead, apparently by suicide, wearing Jekyll's clothes.
Lanyon's letter reveals he saw Hyde drink a potion and turn into Jekyll. Jekyll's 'Full Statement' explains that he made a potion to separate his good and evil sides, but Hyde grew stronger, until Jekyll began turning into Hyde without the potion.

The duality of human nature, good and evil, science and religion, reputation and secrecy, violence, and repression.

Published in 1886. Respectable Victorian gentlemen were expected to control their desires and protect their reputations, but many led hidden lives.
Darwin's theory of evolution (1859) led some people to fear that humans could 'degenerate' into more primitive, ape-like forms. Rapid scientific progress worried many religious people.
London had a respectable West End and a poor, dangerous East End. Stevenson's fog-bound London reflects secrecy and confusion.

'Like Satan' and 'trampled calmly over the child's body' (Enfield about Hyde).
'If ever I read Satan's signature upon a face' and 'troglodytic' (Utterson about Hyde). 'Ape-like fury' (the account of the Carew murder).
'Man is not truly one, but truly two' and 'the thorough and primitive duality of man' (Jekyll).

Duality: Having two sides, such as good and evil.
Gothic: A style of fiction with mystery, horror and dark settings.
Novella: A short novel.
Repression: Holding back feelings or desires.
Reputation: The way other people see someone.
Degeneration: The idea that humans could slide back into a more primitive form.
Narrator: The person who tells a story.