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Jekyll and Hyde: quotations to learn
Twenty-eight quotations from across the novella, checked word for word against the text. Each one comes with who says it, where it is and what it shows.
The Jekyll and Hyde question on Literature Paper 1 prints an extract. Everything you say about the rest of the novella has to come from memory, because the exam is closed book: you cannot take your copy in.
These are the quotations to learn, grouped by character and theme. We have copied each one exactly from the text. Learn the exact words, who says or writes them and which chapter they come from. Exact words are worth the effort, and a close reference counts too. AQA’s examiners wrote in their 2024 report on Paper 1 that “this exam is not a memory test” and “If you can’t remember the actual moment word for word, that doesn’t matter.” If a line will not come, describe the moment precisely in your own words and analyse that.
Read the transcript
These are the key quotations from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, one from every lesson in our scheme that studies a moment closely. I’m Hannah, and I teach English. For each one we’ll do what the exam rewards: name the method, zoom in on one word, say what effect it has, and explain the writer’s purpose. Method, zoom in, effect, purpose. Try each one yourself before I explain it.
Pause the video when the quotation appears, and fill in the four boxes in your head or on paper. “the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask”. Enfield, Chapter 1. The method: A balanced sentence. “the more” is matched by “the less”, so Enfield’s habit sounds like a rule he lives by.
Zoom in: “Queer Street” is Victorian slang for trouble, often money trouble or shady dealing. It is a state of affairs, not a real street. The effect: Readers see that Enfield’s silence is a choice: the more suspicious something looks, the harder he looks away. The context: Gentlemen protected each other’s reputations by asking nothing. This polite silence also gives Hyde a place to hide.
And why it matters for the exam: The gentleman’s rule: the stranger a situation looks, the less you ask. Silence protects reputations. “like some damned Juggernaut”. Enfield, Chapter 1. The method: A simile.
Enfield cannot describe Hyde as a man, so he compares him to a crushing force. Zoom in: “Juggernaut” is a noun for a huge force that crushes whatever is in its path. The adjective “damned” adds hell to the image. The effect: Readers picture something heavy and unfeeling rolling over a child, which is more horrifying than anger would be. The purpose: Enfield says “It wasn’t like a man”.
From Hyde’s first act, Stevenson suggests he may not be fully human. And why it matters for the exam: Simile: Hyde is an unstoppable machine that feels nothing as it crushes a child. “a blind forehead of discoloured wall”. Narrator, Chapter 1. The method: Personification.
The building is given a face, but the face has no eyes. Zoom in: “blind” is an adjective for something that cannot see. A blind wall is also one with no windows, so no one can see in. The effect: Readers picture a face turned away from the world, so the building seems secretive and unfriendly. The purpose: In a street that shines “like a fire in a forest”, this building hides something sordid, like his respectable gentlemen.
And why it matters for the exam: Personification: the building has a face with no eyes, as closed and secret as the life behind it. “I shall be Mr. Seek”. Utterson, Chapter 2. The method: Wordplay.
Utterson makes a pun on the name Hyde and the children’s game of hide and seek. Zoom in: “Seek” is a verb that means to search for. Turned into a name, it makes searching who Utterson now is. The effect: The joke is grim and private. Readers see the careful lawyer turn into a detective who will not give up.
The purpose: Stevenson sets up the novella as a search. Readers follow Utterson, and like him they want to see Hyde’s face. And why it matters for the exam: Wordplay on hide and seek: the lawyer turns detective, and the novella becomes a search. “Something troglodytic”. Utterson, Chapter 2.
The method: A short fragment, followed by a question. Utterson grasps for a word and is not sure of it. Zoom in: “troglodytic” is an adjective meaning like a cave- dweller: Hyde seems a survivor from the earliest humans. The effect: Readers see Hyde as less evolved than the gentlemen around him, so he becomes an outsider to civilised society. The context: Darwin argued that humans had evolved from earlier animals.
Hyde gives shape to the fear that the beast was still inside. And why it matters for the exam: Adjective meaning cave-dwelling: Hyde seems a throwback to an earlier, less human stage, which fed fears after Darwin. “the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde”. Jekyll, Chapter 3.
The method: Dramatic irony. Jekyll claims a control that readers already doubt. Zoom in: The verb “choose” makes Jekyll sound like a free man making a decision, which is exactly what he is losing. The effect: The promise comes moments after he has gone “pale to the very lips”, so readers trust his face more than his words. The purpose: Stevenson plants a claim that Chapter 10 will destroy, so a first-time reader senses the lie before they can explain it.
And why it matters for the exam: Dramatic irony: Jekyll claims control he does not have. “with ape-like fury”. Narrator (the maid’s account), Chapter 4. The method: Animal imagery. Stevenson compares Hyde’s violence to an ape’s.
Zoom in: The compound adjective “ape-like” makes Hyde less than human, a creature from an earlier stage of evolution. The effect: Readers see the attack as savage and mindless: it is all “fury”, with no reason the maid can see. The context: After Darwin, some Victorians feared the beast was still inside civilised people. Hyde makes that fear real. And why it matters for the exam: Animal imagery: Hyde attacks like an ape, and the respectable Carew is beaten to death in the street.
“like a district of some city in a nightmare”. Narrator, Chapter 4. The method: A simile that turns a real part of London into a bad dream. Zoom in: The noun “nightmare” tells us the fear is Utterson’s own: the city looks the way his mind feels. The effect: Readers lose their footing.
Streets a reader might know become strange and threatening. The purpose: Stevenson moves the Gothic from castles to the modern city, so the horror is next door to his London readers. And why it matters for the exam: Simile: London in the fog becomes a dream world where respectable streets turn sinister. “I was thinking of my own character”. The method: A blunt confession in the first person.
Jekyll admits what worries him most. Zoom in: The noun “character” here means reputation. Jekyll fears for his good name more than for Carew or the law. The effect: Readers, like Utterson, are “surprised at his friend’s selfishness”: a man has been murdered, and Jekyll thinks of himself. The context: A Victorian gentleman lived by his reputation, and a scandal could end a career.
Fear of exposure is why Jekyll keeps his secret. “He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face”. The method: A metaphor. Lanyon’s face becomes a document that sentences him to death. Zoom in: “death-warrant” is the legal order for an execution.
The adverb “legibly” means anyone can read it: his fate is plain. The effect: Readers know Lanyon will die before he says so, and fear whatever could do this to a healthy man. The purpose: Lanyon, the man of reason, called Jekyll’s science balderdash. What he has learned is too much for reason to survive. “abject terror and despair”.
Narrator, Chapter 7. The method: Structure. A smile is “struck out of his face” mid- sentence and replaced by this noun phrase. Zoom in: The adjective “abject” means utterly wretched. Jekyll falls from politeness to hopelessness in a single sentence.
The effect: The look “froze the very blood” of the watchers, so readers feel the shock through them, yet never learn what caused it. The purpose: Stevenson lets the respectable mask slip before witnesses, but hides the transformation until Chapters 9 and 10. And why it matters for the exam: Jekyll’s face at the window: the respectable mask slips in a moment. “a pale moon, lying on her back”. Narrator, Chapter 8.
The method: Personification. The moon is a woman, knocked flat “as though the wind had tilted her”. Zoom in: The verb “lying” makes the moon helpless and out of place, and the adjective “pale” gives it a sick, bloodless look. The effect: Even the sky seems knocked out of order, so readers feel that something is wrong before anyone reaches the house. The purpose: Stevenson brings the Gothic storm into a London square: the natural order has broken inside Jekyll’s house.
And why it matters for the exam: Personification: even the moon looks unnatural on the last night, so the setting signals that something is wrong. “why did he cry out like a rat”. The method: A simile inside a rhetorical question. Poole cannot believe what he is describing. Zoom in: The concrete noun “rat” is vermin: it hides in the dark and runs from people, as the figure does.
The effect: The master of the house sinks to an animal that his own butler fears, and readers feel the household turned upside down. The context: After Darwin, some Victorians feared people could sink back towards the animal. Hyde is already “troglodytic” and “ape- like”. “sorely contorted and still twitching”. Narrator, Chapter 8.
The method: Juxtaposition: a twisted body at the centre of a calm, ordinary room. Zoom in: The adverb “still” means the body moves after life has gone, and “contorted” means twisted out of shape. The effect: Readers see a dead man who will not lie still, so the horror goes on after the door is down. The purpose: The body solves one mystery and opens another: Hyde lies in the doctor’s clothes, and Jekyll is gone. And why it matters for the exam: Hyde’s body in Jekyll’s clothes: the mystery is solved and deepened at once.
“the features seemed to melt and alter”. The method: Verbs of change. Stevenson describes a face as if it were wax held over a flame. Zoom in: “melt” turns something solid into liquid. A face, the thing that shows who you are, loses its shape.
The effect: Readers feel the horror of a body that will not stay fixed. “seemed” shows even a doctor can hardly trust his eyes. The purpose: Lanyon trusts only “narrow and material views”, so readers cannot dismiss the change he witnesses as fantasy. “man is not truly one, but truly two”. Jekyll, Chapter 10.
The method: Antithesis: a balanced sentence that sets “one” against “two”. Zoom in: The adverb “truly” is repeated. Jekyll sounds certain, as if he has proved a law of science. The effect: The neat balance makes a disturbing idea sound calm and reasonable, so readers almost accept it. The context: Stevenson grew up in a strict Presbyterian faith that taught all people are sinful.
Jekyll turns that idea into science. And why it matters for the exam: Jekyll’s theory of human nature: every person is a divided self. “I felt younger, lighter, happier in body”. Jekyll, Chapter 10. The method: A tricolon of comparative adjectives, with no “and” between them.
Zoom in: “lighter” suggests a weight lifted: the burden of being a respectable gentleman. The effect: After the “racking pangs”, the short, quick list feels like relief, so readers understand why Jekyll wants it again. The purpose: Stevenson makes evil feel pleasant at first. Hyde is tempting, and that is how addiction begins. And why it matters for the exam: Tricolon of comparatives: becoming Hyde is a release, which is what makes it so dangerous.
“my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery”. Jekyll, Chapter 10. The method: A metaphor of slavery, in a sentence that moves from power to its opposite. Zoom in: The verb “fell” suggests a moral fall, as in the Bible, and a loss of control: no one chooses to fall. The effect: “power” and “slavery” sit at either end of the sentence, so readers watch control turn into its opposite in a few words.
The purpose: Hyde is an addiction. Victorians knew the ruin of drink, and Jekyll later compares himself to “a drunkard”. And why it matters for the exam: Metaphor of addiction: Jekyll’s freedom becomes slavery. “knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an eye”. The method: Two comparisons, with “closer than” repeated.
Zoom in: “knit” is a verb of weaving threads together: Hyde cannot be unpicked from Jekyll. The effect: A wife and an eye are the closest things a man has, so readers feel the horror of an enemy who is that close. The purpose: Stevenson shows that Jekyll’s plan to separate good and evil has failed: the two are more tightly bound than ever. “You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone.”. The method: A simile that grows into a short story: one stone rolls down a hill and knocks others loose.
Zoom in: The repeated verb “starting” shows that one question sets off more, and nobody can stop them once they move. The effect: Asking seems more dangerous than the crime: the innocent “bland old bird” is hit, and his family “have to change their name”. The purpose: Stevenson shows the gentleman’s code protecting reputations through silence, and the same silence lets Hyde go unchecked. “shook the very fortress of identity”. The method: A metaphor: identity is a fortress, a strong building made to keep enemies out.
Zoom in: The concrete noun “fortress” suggests the self should be solid and defended. The verb “shook” shows the drug attacking its walls. The effect: Readers feel a risk worse than death: the drug could break down the thing that makes Jekyll himself. The context: After Darwin, many Victorians feared the human self was less fixed than they had believed, with an animal past underneath. “if you cannot keep clear of this accursed topic”.
The method: Lanyon speaks in a conditional sentence that ends on a religious adjective. Zoom in: The adjective “accursed” means damned by God. Lanyon, a doctor who trusted reason, now reaches for the language of religion. The effect: Readers sense that what Lanyon knows is too terrible to say, so the mystery deepens. The purpose: Stevenson shows Jekyll’s science breaking a man of reason, and saves the explanation for Lanyon’s own narrative in Chapter 9.
Pick the five you find hardest and write a What–How–Why paragraph on each this week: a point, the quotation with its method and one word zoomed in on, and the writer’s purpose. Every quotation and explanation here comes from our Jekyll and Hyde scheme of learning for schools. If you’re a teacher, Lesson 3 of every scheme is free at btl.education. If this helped, give the video a like and subscribe for more quotation videos and full revision guides. There’s another video on screen now to watch next.
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Test yourself
28 quotations from this page. For each one, choose who says it and where it comes from. Ten at a time, in a new order every round.
Who says it, and where? Open each quotation to check your answer.
“lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable”
The narrator, Chapter 1
“I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.”
Utterson, Chapter 1
“the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.”
Enfield, Chapter 1
“I shall be Mr. Seek.”
Utterson, Chapter 2
“like some damned Juggernaut”
Enfield, Chapter 1
“Something troglodytic”
Utterson, Chapter 2
“Satan’s signature upon a face”
Utterson, Chapter 2
“with ape-like fury”
The narrator, Chapter 4
“the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.”
Jekyll, Chapter 3
“If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.”
Jekyll’s letter, Chapter 6
“like some disconsolate prisoner”
The narrator, Chapter 7
“abject terror and despair”
The narrator, Chapter 7
“man is not truly one, but truly two”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“I concealed my pleasures”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“I felt younger, lighter, happier in body”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“This, too, was myself.”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”
Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10
“Such unscientific balderdash”
Lanyon, Chapter 2
“He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face.”
The narrator, Chapter 6
“I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it”
Lanyon’s narrative, Chapter 9
“a blind forehead of discoloured wall”
The narrator, Chapter 1
“like a district of some city in a nightmare”
The narrator, Chapter 4
“a pale moon, lying on her back”
The narrator, Chapter 8
“that thing was not my master”
Poole, Chapter 8
Stevenson writes “Mr.” and “Dr.” with a full stop, so the quotations below keep it. In Chapters 9 and 10 the speaker is a written document, Lanyon’s narrative or Jekyll’s statement, because that is how the story reaches us.
Utterson and the gentleman’s code
- “lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable” (the narrator, Chapter 1). The first description of Utterson is a list of dull adjectives, and the alliteration on l and d makes it plod. Then “lovable” turns it round. He is dry on the outside and kind underneath, which is a small version of the novella’s idea of two sides.
- “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.” (Utterson, Chapter 1). Utterson’s motto. The idiom means he will not interfere in his friends’ lives. The word “devil” warns us that this tolerance could let real evil go unchecked.
- “the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.” (Enfield, Chapter 1). Queer Street meant trouble or shady dealings. The balanced sentence, “the more … the less”, sets out the gentleman’s rule: the stranger something looks, the less you ask. This silence is how Hyde stays hidden.
- “I shall be Mr. Seek.” (Utterson, Chapter 2). A pun on hide and seek, the children’s game. The lawyer turns detective, and the novella becomes a search. The playful word “Seek” contrasts with the danger he is walking into.
Hyde
- “like some damned Juggernaut” (Enfield, Chapter 1). A simile. A Juggernaut is a huge force that crushes everything in its path. Hyde is small, yet he tramples the girl like an unstoppable machine that feels nothing. “damned” adds a hint of hell.
- “Something troglodytic” (Utterson, Chapter 2). A troglodyte is a cave-dweller. The adjective makes Hyde seem like a throwback to an earlier, less human stage, which fits the fears raised by Darwin’s ideas about evolution.
- “Satan’s signature upon a face” (Utterson, Chapter 2). A religious metaphor. Utterson reads Hyde’s face like a document signed by the Devil. The lawyer’s word “signature” suggests that evil can be seen on the body.
- “with ape-like fury” (the narrator, Chapter 4). Animal imagery. The maid sees Hyde beat Carew to death like a wild animal. The compound adjective “ape-like” links Hyde to the beast that civilised people hoped they had left behind.
Jekyll
- “the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.” (Jekyll, Chapter 3). Dramatic irony: the reader later learns that Jekyll has no such control. The verb “choose” shows how sure he is of his own power.
- “If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.” (Jekyll’s letter, Chapter 6). Parallel phrases balance sin against suffering. “chief of sinners” echoes the Bible, so Jekyll speaks of himself in religious terms while still hiding the truth.
- “like some disconsolate prisoner” (the narrator, Chapter 7). A simile. Disconsolate means unable to be comforted. Jekyll sits at his window as if his own house were a prison cell, and in a way it is.
- “abject terror and despair” (the narrator, Chapter 7). The moment the change begins at the window, Jekyll’s smile is struck off his face. Abject means utterly hopeless. The respectable mask slips in front of witnesses.
Duality
- “man is not truly one, but truly two” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). The novella’s central idea, in Jekyll’s own words. The repetition of “truly” makes it sound like a scientific law. Jekyll believes everyone has two sides, and he tries to split them.
- “I concealed my pleasures” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). Jekyll admits that his double life began before the drug. The verb “concealed” shows that secrecy, born of a wish to look respectable, was the real problem.
- “I felt younger, lighter, happier in body” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). A list of three comparatives. Becoming Hyde feels like freedom, and the word “happier” explains why Jekyll keeps going back.
- “This, too, was myself.” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). Jekyll looks at Hyde in the mirror and feels welcome, not horror. The short sentence admits that Hyde is part of him and not a stranger.
- “Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). Everyone else is a mixture of good and evil. The adjective “pure” makes Hyde unique, and it leaves Jekyll as the mixed one.
Losing control
- “my new power tempted me until I fell in slavery” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). A metaphor of addiction. The noun “slavery” shows that the freedom Jekyll wanted has turned into its opposite.
- “My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring.” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). Jekyll pictures Hyde as a wild animal let out of a cage. After two months of holding back, the violence is worse, and it ends in Carew’s murder. The verb “roaring” makes it sound like a lion.
- “I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). The two halves of the sentence mirror each other, like the two sides of the man. The full names make the change sound final and official.
- “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.” (Jekyll’s statement, Chapter 10). The last line of the novella. Jekyll writes about himself in the third person, as if he were already someone else. The adjective “unhappy” is a quiet ending to a violent story.
Science and Lanyon
- “Such unscientific balderdash” (Lanyon, Chapter 2). Balderdash means nonsense. Lanyon is a traditional scientist who rejects Jekyll’s ideas. The irony is that the “balderdash” turns out to be real, and the truth kills him.
- “He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face.” (the narrator, Chapter 6). A metaphor. A death-warrant is the order for an execution. What Lanyon has seen is killing him, and “legibly” shows that anyone could read it on his face.
- “I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it” (Lanyon’s narrative, Chapter 9). Repetition, “I saw what I saw”, shows Lanyon insisting that his eyes did not lie, even though he can hardly believe it. The verb “sickened” shows the horror attacking his soul as well as his body.
The city and the last night
- “a blind forehead of discoloured wall” (the narrator, Chapter 1). Personification. The building by the door has a face with no eyes, as closed and secret as the life behind it. “discoloured” suggests decay and neglect.
- “like a district of some city in a nightmare” (the narrator, Chapter 4). A simile. In the fog, Soho looks like a place in a bad dream. London’s respectable streets turn sinister, just as respectable men hide sinister lives.
- “a pale moon, lying on her back” (the narrator, Chapter 8). Personification. Even the moon looks wrong on the last night. The setting tells the reader that something unnatural is about to be found.
- “that thing was not my master” (Poole, Chapter 8). The butler calls the figure in the cabinet a “thing”, not a man. The noun takes away Hyde’s humanity, and Poole’s certainty after twenty years of service makes the reader trust him.
Using them in the exam
Learn each quotation with its speaker and its chapter, so you can say where it fits in the story. Then look for pairs that answer each other across the novella. “the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde.” in Chapter 3 is answered by “I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde.” in Chapter 10. “I shall be Mr. Seek.” in Chapter 2 is answered by what Utterson finds on the last night. Pairs like these show the examiner that you know the whole text.
You can use part of a longer quotation, as long as every word you use is exact. For a method that makes them stick, see How to learn quotations so they stay learned. For the whole plot, see Jekyll and Hyde: the story, chapter by chapter, and for the exam question itself, How to answer the extract question.
Frequently asked questions
How many Jekyll and Hyde quotations do I need to learn?
This page has twenty-eight, grouped by character and theme, and many of them work for more than one question. Short quotations are easier to remember. If one will not come in the exam, AQA’s examiners say you can describe the moment precisely in your own words and analyse that.
Do I have to quote Jekyll and Hyde word for word?
Exact words are best, and every word you put in quotation marks should be exact. A close reference to a moment also counts. You can use part of a longer quotation as long as the words you use are correct.
What is the most useful Jekyll and Hyde quotation for duality?
“man is not truly one, but truly two” from Jekyll’s statement in Chapter 10 sums up the novella’s main idea. It works for questions on Jekyll, Hyde, duality and secrecy.
Who says “Satan’s signature upon a face” in Jekyll and Hyde?
Utterson says it in Chapter 2, after he meets Hyde for the first time. He feels that Hyde’s evil is written on his face, like a signature.
Do I need quotations if the exam gives me an extract?
Yes. The question asks about the extract and about the novella as a whole, and the rest of the novella is not printed. You need quotations from other chapters to write about the whole text.
Sources
- Project Gutenberg, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886; ebook 43)
- AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702 specification
- AQA, Report on the examination: Paper 1, June 2024