This adds a sense of foreboding as we know something is going to happen the streets are too physically quiet of people as if something bad is about to happen. In the final chapters of the novel the fog becomes a horrible storm, rain lashes and the streets are empty. It hides Hyde literally and cloaks the shady characters of the night. We are often told about the ‘rolling fog’ in the streets of London. Setting is also important as Stevenson often uses dramatic epithet to show a change in the mood of a scene to show that something is about to happen. Setting then becomes a metaphor for the playground of evil. You never know when the minotaur or Hyde might appear to hurt you. London’s twisting medieval streets and fogged new streets become the maze in which the minotaur was kept. Hyde similarly terrorises the occupants of London as he will trample and destroy any who get in his way – the little girl and Sir Carew. This image is built up further with his comparison to the minotaur, a monstrous beast that was used to control and terrorise the Greek town of Minos. We have already had descriptions of Hyde as a ‘juggernaut’ something huge and threatening. Setting is important in the initial chapters where Utterson’s dream makes the minotaur and his maze a metaphor for Hyde and his London. The setting is important here because it is what forces Jekyll’s hand into making an alternative persona for himself. Jekyll is repressed by his lifestyle as a rich doctor, it is only as Hyde that he can do what he actually wants and so he creates Hyde. It is far easier to explain Jekyll’s actions against the backdrop of London society than Edinburgh’s. However, in high London society a man’s reputation was everything and he had to behave. Stevenson had apparently considered setting his tale in Edinburgh, with its sordid, poverty-stricken old town and glossy, illustrious new town making clear allusions to Jekyll and Hyde’s personalities again. The Victorian London setting is important because it is what pushes Jekyll into making Hyde. ![]() Setting here, in the form of the house, serves to reinforce the characters of Hyde and Jekyll and further highlights the theme of good versus evil. The text also describes the lab as a ‘sinister block of buildings’ – there is something off about them, just like we are told there is something off or ‘deformed’ about Hyde’s appearance. The untidiness of the doorway similarly keeps people from visiting. The lack of a knocker shows he doesn’t want or expect guests. The windows emulate Hyde’s private nature, he doesn’t want people prying into his business. Unlike the main house it juts out on an alley street, its windows are covered and the door bears no knocker and hasn’t been cleaned for entry. The lab door sums up his character perfectly. He doesn’t hide from other people but he doesn’t really interact with them either, or encourage interactions. Hyde on the other hand is a secretive creature who doesn’t so much lurk in the shadows as lives only in the night. This is in keeping with Jekyll’s character as we know he is concerned with his reputation and making himself look good to other people which his house certainly does. We are also told that the street on which his house sits is filled with similar houses – his though is the only one kept clean and tidy and whole, the rest have become slightly messy. Again it is a symbol for the man himself. The fact that he can build a fire in his front hall and not just his main rooms suggests he is wealthy and likes to display his wealth. This represents Jekyll as it is warm and inviting and hugely welcoming – all things that match Jekyll’s character. The town house is described as having an ‘open fire’ in the front hall. Jekyll owns a fancy town house with a tumble down lab on the back. Setting is most important as a symbol for the characters of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The novel is set in London but draws heavily on Stevenson’s knowledge of his hometown Edinburgh to create a chilling setting which emphasises the themes of good and evil. In the book Dr Jekyll represents good and Mr Hyde represents evil, yet they are technically the same person and come to symbolise the good and evil in all of us. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is a novel in which setting plays an important feature.
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