How does Stevenson use Gothic imagery in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

The 18th century revival of Gothic medieval architecture brought a renewed focus onto the eeriness of setting in popular literature, providing a tool for writers to use their writings to describe the structure of the mind. On page 19, Stevenson introduces Hyde’s house with the oft-used motif of strange fog, presenting an uncanny setting to examine repression in the Victorian era. The fog is a “chocolate coloured pall [that] lowered over heaven”. This Dickensian register is dream-like, with the fog’s intangible qualities providing imagery of liminality. Within this sensory, ethereal environment, Stevenson embeds his metaphor with a destructive semantic field - the wind is “continually charging” with “embattled vapours”. This heightens the juxtaposition, offering imagery of two warring sides. While the setting is in the familiar London, Hyde’s house is shown to be within a “dismal quarter”, “like a district … in a nightmare”. “Dismal”, derived from Medieval Latin for “evil days”, combined with the simile comparing London to “a nightmare”, creates an ominous, and distinctly Gothic quality. Stevenson develops his conceit, populating the setting with “slatternly passengers”, “a dingy street” and “a gin palace”, linking sexual and decadent imagery with a lexical field of disgust. This alludes to the 19^th Century idea of the demi-monde – where gentleman and ‘undesirables’ would mingle in the pursuit of pleasure in response to the Victorian culture of repression. This interpretation is supported by Stevenson’s upbringing in Edinburgh, which was at the time divided into Old Town - the medieval sections housing criminal activity, and New Town - the modern area of the gentry. Having created a Gothic world for his characters to inhabit, Stevenson’s uses his setting to make a parallel Jekyll’s divide, commenting on Victorian hypocrisy as true attitudes and instincts are repressed. Stevenson uses his text to draw attention to the irony of condemning animalistic desires while simultaneously partaking in them. Therefore, the Gothic enables Stevenson to physicalise his society’s fears of the hidden desires within the human mind.