Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.
The start of a written confession, looking back on youth.
- In plain words
- I was already living a deeply double life.
- What it shows
- “Duplicity” means two-sidedness and deceit. Long before the potion, Jekyll was already split between a respectable face and hidden pleasures.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Reputation and respectability · Repression
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame.
The start of a written confession, explaining how youthful pleasures were treated.
- In plain words
- I hid my faults with an almost unhealthy amount of shame.
- What it shows
- The problem is less the sins than the shame. Victorian pressure to look respectable made Jekyll hide, and it is the hiding that splits him.
Themes Repression · Reputation and respectability · Secrecy and silence
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man;
A written confession, explaining a theory about human nature.
- In plain words
- I came to see that people have always been made of two sides.
- What it shows
- “Primitive” means basic and ancient. Jekyll sees duality not as his own problem but as the nature of every human being.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Science and religion
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
that man is not truly one, but truly two.
A written confession, explaining a theory about human nature.
- In plain words
- A person is not one single self, but two.
- What it shows
- The heart of the novel in one balanced line. The repeated “truly” makes it sound like a scientific law.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Science and religion
Techniques Antithesis · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
in the agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling.
A written confession, describing good and evil inside one person.
- In plain words
- Inside the mind, these opposite twins are always fighting.
- What it shows
- Good and evil are twins fighting in the womb, which may remind readers of Jacob and Esau in the Bible. “Polar” means opposite, like the ends of a magnet.
Themes Duality: good and evil
Techniques Metaphor
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil;
A written confession, describing the first moments in a new body.
- In plain words
- From the first moment, I knew I was far more wicked, enslaved to the evil I was born with.
- What it shows
- “Original evil” echoes original sin in Christian teaching. Jekyll is not set free: he is “sold a slave” to evil.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Science and religion
Techniques Repetition · Metaphor
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other.
A written confession, comparing two faces.
- In plain words
- Goodness glowed on one face, and evil was clearly written on the other.
- What it shows
- The balanced sentence sets good shining on one face against evil written on the other. Faces are open books in this novel.
Themes Duality: good and evil
Techniques Antithesis
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
And yet when I looked upon that ugly idol in the glass, I was conscious of no repugnance, rather of a leap of welcome. This, too, was myself.
A written confession, describing the first look in a mirror after the change.
- In plain words
- When I saw that ugly figure in the mirror, I did not feel disgust but welcome. This was me too.
- What it shows
- Instead of horror, Jekyll feels welcome: he accepts Hyde as part of himself. “Idol” suggests something worshipped wrongly.
Themes Duality: good and evil
Techniques Metaphor · Symbolism
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.
A written confession, explaining why everyone recoiled from a certain man.
- In plain words
- Hyde was the only person who was completely evil.
- What it shows
- Everyone else is a mix of good and evil, so Hyde is unique and unnatural. This explains why every witness felt disgust.
Themes Duality: good and evil · The supernatural
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty.
A written confession, explaining the freedom of having two bodies.
- In plain words
- I could walk around in public carrying my good reputation, then throw it off and dive into freedom.
- What it shows
- Respectability is a heavy “load” to “plod” with, and freedom is a sea to dive into. It shows how much Victorian respectability weighed on gentlemen.
Themes Reputation and respectability · Repression · Duality: good and evil
Techniques Metaphor · Simile · Juxtaposition
Editions differ: Some editions print “could thus plod”.
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone.
A written confession, describing the being called up from within.
- In plain words
- He took pleasure, like an animal, from hurting others, and showed no pity, like a stone statue.
- What it shows
- “Bestial” makes Hyde an animal, and “a man of stone” makes him heartless. He enjoys cruelty, which is worse than simply being violent.
Themes Violence · Duality: good and evil
Techniques Simile · Animal imagery · Metaphor
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty.
A written confession, describing how conscience was quietened.
- In plain words
- It was only Hyde who was to blame, after all.
- What it shows
- Jekyll is reporting the excuse he told himself, and the irony shows he no longer believes it. Blaming Hyde let his conscience sleep.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Repression
Techniques Irony · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.
A written confession, about a morning when a hand on the bedclothes looked wrong.
- In plain words
- I went to sleep as Jekyll and woke up as Hyde.
- What it shows
- For the first time the change happens without the potion. The balanced sentence shows Jekyll losing control: Hyde can now take over.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Science and religion
Techniques Antithesis · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.
A written confession, after changing in bed without any potion.
- In plain words
- I was gradually losing my good self and turning into my worse one.
- What it shows
- The repeated “slowly” makes the change feel creeping and certain, like an addiction taking hold.
Themes Duality: good and evil
Techniques Antithesis · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.
A written confession, about giving in to the potion after two months without it.
- In plain words
- My evil side had been locked up for a long time, so it burst out wildly.
- What it shows
- Repression makes evil stronger: the longer it is caged, the louder it roars. Hyde is both devil and wild beast.
Themes Repression · Violence · The supernatural
Techniques Metaphor · Animal imagery
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
With a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow;
A written confession, describing a night on which an old man was killed.
- In plain words
- With huge joy, I savaged the body, which did not fight back, enjoying every hit.
- What it shows
- “Glee” and “delight” next to “mauled” are horrifying. “Mauled” is what wild animals do, and here Jekyll admits it was “I”.
Themes Violence
Techniques Juxtaposition · Animal imagery
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
I locked the door by which I had so often gone and come, and ground the key under my heel!
A written confession, after deciding never to change again.
- In plain words
- I locked the back door I had used so often and crushed the key.
- What it shows
- The door stands for the way into Hyde’s life. Breaking the key is meant to end it for ever, but it is only a gesture.
Themes Repression · Secrecy and silence
Techniques Symbolism
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
the animal within me licking the chops of memory;
A written confession, sitting on a bench in Regent’s Park on a fine January day.
- In plain words
- The animal side of me was hungrily enjoying memories of past pleasures.
- What it shows
- Jekyll’s own side, not just Hyde, now has an animal inside. Remembering sin is like a beast licking its lips.
Themes Duality: good and evil · Repression
Techniques Animal imagery · Metaphor
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
That child of Hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred.
A written confession, describing a long night waiting to reach a friend’s house.
- In plain words
- That devil had nothing human in him; he was only fear and hate.
- What it shows
- “Child of Hell” makes Hyde devilish, though he was born from Jekyll. Jekyll now cannot bear to call Hyde “I”.
Themes The supernatural · Duality: good and evil
Techniques Metaphor · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
that the slime of the pit seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned;
A written confession, describing how one self thinks of the other.
- In plain words
- It was as if the slime of hell could speak, and shapeless dust could move and sin.
- What it shows
- Hyde is shown as something not even alive, like slime or dust, that still acts. “The pit” means hell, and the dust echoes the Bible’s teaching that people are made from dust.
Themes The supernatural · Science and religion
Techniques Metaphor · Repetition
Chapter 10Dr Jekyll, in writing
Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.
The very last sentence of the novel.
- In plain words
- As I put down my pen and seal this confession, Henry Jekyll’s life ends.
- What it shows
- Jekyll writes about himself in the third person, as if already gone. Sealing the confession is the last act of a man whose life was built on secrets.
Themes Secrecy and silence · Duality: good and evil
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