“like some disconsolate prisoner”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Seven)
“disconsolate” (adjective) → presents Jekyll as very unhappy, shows how repression has disastrous effects
“prisoner” (simile/motif of prison) → Jekyll is prisoned by Hyde and societal pressures to be repressive
Gothic trope: rational protagonist → isolated protagonist, transformation caused by repression
“I concealed my pleasures”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Ten)
“concealed” (verb) → implies deliberate repression caused by societal pressures
“pleasures” (noun) → individuals have to suppress things they enjoy to fit the quintessential Victorian stereotype, reflects how Utterson stopped watching theatre as it was seen as too feminist
“delighted me like wine”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Ten)
“wine” (noun) → respectable upper class drink, Jekyll mocks how he can break out of the facade
“wine” (noun) → literally: intoxication causes you to lose control, reflects Jekyll’s addiction to liberation, symbolically: symbol of upper class, Marxist view of how class/privilege enabled Jekyll to become Hyde
“bonds of obligation”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Ten)
“bonds” (motif of prison) → Jekyll is a prisoner to the repression and facade of Victorian society
“obligation” (noun) → every member of Victorian society must repress
“shook the doors of the prisonhouse of my disposition”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Ten)
“shook” (violent verb) → reflects how the drug breaks down the strict moral constraints
“prisonhouse” (motif of prison) → reflects strict moral constraints caused by societal pressures
“disposition” (noun) → reflects Jekyll’s repressed personality, or Hyde, so drug didn’t create evil, it acted as a catalyst to unlock repressed desires
“my new power tempted me until I fell back in slavery”
(Jekyll, Repression → Chapter Ten)
“slavery” (noun) → reverted back to “bonds of obligation”, but this time caused by desires, not society, shows how being Hyde isn’t what he imagined
