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A bottle of a particular old wine.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Language

Explore how Stevenson’s language in Jekyll and Hyde builds tension, suggests hidden evil and turns an ordinary city into a place of horror and unease.

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Fascinating Fact:

Similes and metaphors describing the transformation, like “like a man restored from death,” make the physical change vivid while also suggesting spiritual and moral collapse.

In GCSE English Literature, you must explain how language choices shape meaning. This Jekyll and Hyde quiz helps you spot powerful words and images and link them clearly to exam questions.

Key Terms

Simile: A comparison using the words “like” or “as” to create a clear image for the reader.
Metaphor: A direct comparison that says something is something else to suggest deeper meanings.
Pathetic fallacy: When weather or setting seems to reflect a character’s mood or the story’s atmosphere.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How does Stevenson use language to create horror in Jekyll and Hyde?

Stevenson uses dark adjectives, violent verbs and disturbing images to create horror, often combining them with night time streets and fog to make the reader feel uneasy.

What language techniques should I mention in a GCSE Jekyll and Hyde answer?

You can comment on similes, metaphors, personification, repetition, contrast and sensory description, as long as you link each technique directly to the exam question.

How can I analyse a quotation about transformation in Jekyll and Hyde?

Pick out a key word or image in the quotation, explain what it suggests about the change taking place and then connect that idea to character, theme or context.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

"I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of those elements." What is implied by the use of the word "elements" here?

Dr Jekyll views his very being as a compound, made up of different elements

Dr Jekyll has no other language besides that of chemistry

Dr Jekyll is referring to the chemical elements of which his physical body is made

All of the above

Dr Jekyll is using a metaphor for the makeup of the human psyche. Rather than a whole, he perceives himself as made up of various substances, somewhat like his own potion. Mr Hyde is one of those elements

2 .

"Next, in the course of their review of the chamber, the searchers came to the cheval glass, into whose depths they looked with an involuntary horror. But it was so turned as to show them nothing but the rosy glow playing on the roof, the fire sparkling in a hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and their own pale and fearful countenances stooping to look in." Which of the following statements is correct?

The sparkling reflections of the fire contrast with its bright glow

The sparkling reflections and the cosy glow of the fire contrast sharply here with the shocked faces of Poole and Utterson

The reflections of the mirror hold the answer to the mystery

The rosy glow of the fire corresponds to the excited expressions on the faces of Poole and Utterson

With the exception of Mr Hyde's twitching body, everything in the cabinet is as cosy and inviting as normal

3 .

Which of the following lines juxtaposes imagery drawn from both urban and rural environments?

"As he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr Enfield's tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures"

"He would be aware of the great field of lamps of a nocturnal city"

"Then of the figure of a man walking swiftly"

"Then of a child running from the doctor's"

The streetlamps of the city are here imagined as a "great field", as if these man-made objects grew in nature

4 .

"The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town's life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind." Which of the following types of imagery are present in this sentence?

Metaphor

Simile

Onomatopoeia

All of the above

There are many examples of each of these. For metaphor: the arteries of the city are its streets, and the fog drowns the city, while also being a bird resting in flight above the city. For simile: lamps are like carbuncles and the sound of the city's life is like a wind. "Smother" and "muffle" are examples of onomatopoeia

5 .

"'This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man,' said Mr Utterson, biting his finger. 'Suppose it were as you suppose, supposing Dr Jekyll to have been — well, murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won't hold water; it doesn't commend itself to reason.'" Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

The reference to "reason" hints that Mr Utterson is clinging to his usual way of understanding the world, even as he begins to doubt that he is dealing with the explicable

The repetition of variations on the word "suppose" refers to Mr Utterson's profession as a lawyer, where a fact might be temporarily supposed to be true in order to test a point

Mr Utterson's appeal to reason emphasises the novella's presentation of reason as paramount, with every event entirely explicable by science

Mr Utterson's behaviour, in biting his finger, demonstrates his unease with the very words he says

Mr Hyde represents the aspect of Dr Jekyll's character which is furthest from reason, acting instead out of passion and desire. Science and reason make much of the world more explicable, without being able to fathom the mystery of the human psyche

6 .

"And all the time, as we were pitching it in red hot, we were keeping the women off him as best we could, for they were as wild as harpies." What is the effect of the language in this sentence?

It reinforces the view held by Dr Jekyll, that of the dual nature of humanity

It reminds the reader that London was an orderly, civilised place in the late nineteenth century

It hints that the novella will be a mystery

It hints that the novella will be about science

The reader is presented early in the text with an image of women as "wild as harpies", a reminder of the passions and violence beneath a civilised surface. The women are raging at Mr Hyde because he trampled a young girl without stopping

7 .

"Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house." What is meant here by "unsunned"?

The bottle of wine has been kept for a while on a sunny windowsill

The bottle of wine is from a country which does not receive much sunshine

The bottle of wine is made from grapes grown in the dark

The bottle of wine has been stored in the dark

The rich wine has been brought up from the dark cellar in which it has been long kept. In the novella, not everything dredged up from the darkness is as good!

8 .

"Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and the frame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship; and it was not until the fifth, that the lock burst in sunder and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet." Which language choices create a sense of violent movement in this sentence?

Up, crashed, bounded

Blow, fell, burst

Sunder, wreck, fell

All of the above

The language creates a powerful sense of violent motion; it is easy to picture the swinging axe, the resistant door frame, the breaking of the lock and the final fall of the door

9 .

"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. It seemed natural and human. In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance." Which of the following descriptions applies to Dr Jekyll's perception of his own appearance?

"Ugly idol in the glass"

"It bore a livelier image of the spirit"

"It seemed more express and single"

"The imperfect and divided countenance"

Dr Jekyll's view is subjective. Whereas others view Mr Hyde as unnatural and misbegotten, he sees his alter ego as pure and undivided

10 .

"And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman." Which of the following words presents anger as a natural phenomenon?

Sudden

Broke

Flame

Brandishing

Hyde is associated simultaneously with the unnatural, as when his misshapen appearance is described, and the natural, as when he is compared to an animal. His anger arises naturally, like a flame

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Form, structure and language

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)