Science, religion and the supernatural in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — theme analysis

How science, religion and the supernatural works in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Jekyll is a scientist who crosses into what Lanyon calls 'unscientific balderdash' — what Hyde in Chapter 9 calls 'transcendental medicine'. The drug works by salts and a tincture, measured and mixed, yet its effects are described in the vocabulary of sin, devils and damnation. When the original salt runs out, Jekyll discovers the first supply was impure and cannot be replaced: the miracle depended on an accident, which is a pointed comment on scientific mastery.

“If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.” — Jekyll (letter), Chapter 6, Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon

The scientist describes himself in the language of Christian confession — and turns it, characteristically, into a claim for pity.

Methods: religious allusion · parallel structure

Religion appears at every crisis: Utterson's 'God forgive us' at the window, the pious book in the cabinet scrawled with blasphemies, Lanyon's repeated cry. Yet religion saves nobody. Jekyll's religious phase in Chapter 6 lasts two months.

Context that changes the reading. Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) had made humanity part of nature and raised the fear of 'throwing back' to an animal past. The ape and monkey images for Hyde draw on that anxiety. Stevenson's Calvinist upbringing, which he later rejected, supports a reading of Jekyll in terms of sin and a fallen nature — offered here as a reading.

Use this in an essay. Frame: 'Stevenson uses science to make the transformation possible and religion to make it terrible; neither can undo it.'

The characters who carry science, religion and the supernatural

An essay on science, religion and the supernatural is built from the characters. Each line below is from that character's own study — follow it for the full analysis.

• Dr Henry Jekyll — the drug is science, his language of sin is religion, and Stevenson lets neither save him.
• Edward Hyde — the transformation in Lanyon's study is the only time the experiment is seen working, and it is in Hyde's hands.
• Dr Hastie Lanyon — he is the orthodox scientist set against Jekyll.

Quotations on science, religion and the supernatural, analysed

Each of these is analysed in full in the character's own study, where it belongs.

Edward Hyde

“if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.” — Utterson (thinking of Jekyll), Chapter 2, Search for Mr Hyde

The metaphor joins physiognomy (reading character in a face) with religion (Satan) and with law ('signature', the lawyer's word). Utterson can only describe Hyde by reaching for the devil, and 'your new friend' is addressed in thought to Jekyll, the one person who knows what the signature means.

Methods: metaphor · religious imagery · legal register

More science, religion and the supernatural quotations, from the The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde quote bank

Each is analysed in full — speaker, scene, techniques, structure, context and essay use — on the The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde key quotes page; the line here is what the words are doing.

“I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it.”

His relapse explained as weakness. Full analysis →

“Something troglodytic”

Utterson sees Hyde as like a primitive cave-dweller. Full analysis →

“Satan's signature upon a face”

Evil written on Hyde's face. Full analysis →

“I incline to Cain's heresy”

He does not judge other men. Full analysis →

“God forgive us, God forgive us”

Utterson answers the face at the window with prayer, not description. Full analysis →

“a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman”

Lanyon is introduced full of confident health and vigour. Full analysis →

“such unscientific balderdash”

Lanyon dismisses Jekyll's work as nonsense outside true science. Full analysis →

“I shall never recover”

Lanyon knows that the shock he has suffered will kill him. Full analysis →

Essays on science, religion and the supernatural in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Thesis statements that argue it

• Science in the novella opens the door, but the language of sin and damnation describes what comes through it.

Carry on through The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

• Previous: Reputation, secrecy and respectability
• Next: Violence and the beast within
• Grade 9 Notes: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — every character and theme, context, craft, theses and full essay plans on one page.
• The Complete Guide to Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — the whole text, chapter by chapter.
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde key quotes — every quotation in the bank analysed, by character and theme.
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde · All set texts · The 4ET1 specification

Every study of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

• Dr Henry Jekyll — character
• Edward Hyde — character
• Gabriel John Utterson — character
• Dr Hastie Lanyon — character
• Enfield and Poole — character
• Duality and the divided self — theme
• Reputation, secrecy and respectability — theme
• Violence and the beast within — theme
• London: the city, the door and the fog — theme
• Narrative, testimony and the unspeakable — theme