Word Play

Genius & Genie

While painting his portrait, Rachel asks Jekyll:

“What have you buried in those shadows, Henry? Is that where the genius hides? David says you’re an authentic genius, you know. The only one he’s ever met. Is that it? A little genie lurking there in the dark, whispering secrets to you?”

GENI-us. GENI-e. Think about these words in the lines and their accompanying images. How are do they go together? How are they quite different? How can they both be applied to Jekyll?

Jekyll & Hyde

Stevenson meant for Jekyll’s name to be pronounced as if it were French—Je KILL. “Je” in French means “I”: I kill . . . Hyde’s name also can be seen as “hide”. What different kinds of meanings, intentions, and instances of foreshadowing in relation to the story can you come up with using these names?

Conscience & Science

In Jekyll’s confession in the novel he often refers to his conscience in response to his relations with Hyde:

“It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty. Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde. And thus his conscience slumbered.”

“I led a life of such severity as I have never before attained to, and enjoyed the compensations of an approving conscience. But time began at last to obliterate the freshness of my alarm; the praises of conscience began to grow into a thing of course; I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde struggling after freedom; and at last, in an hour of moral weakness, I once again compounded and swallowed the transforming draught.”

Conscience:

1. A moral sense of right and wrong especially as felt by a person and affecting behavior.

2. An inner feeling as to the goodness or otherwise of a person’s behavior.

Con:

1. To swindle; deceive
2. A reason against.
3. A convict.
4. With; together, jointly, altogether.

Science:

1. A branch of knowledge conducted on objective principles involving the systemized observations of and an experiment with phenomena, especially concerned with the materials and functions of the physical universe.

2. An organized body of knowledge on a subject.

3. Skillful technique rather than strength or natural ability.

It is interesting to note that the word conscience is made up of two other words: con and science. However, with all of the different definitions, many interpretations of the meaning of the word can be made. Develop your own interpretation of “conscience” and it’s meaning in the context of the story of Jekyll & Hyde. Use your knowledge of the novel and the play, as well as any word definitions, to find a way to unite the words and the meaning of the story.