Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published in 1886, is one of the most famous horror stories in the English language. The novella is set in the foggy streets of Victorian London and follows Mr. Gabriel Utterson, a respectable lawyer, as he investigates the disturbing connection between his old friend Dr. Henry Jekyll, a kind and distinguished scientist, and the sinister Mr. Edward Hyde, a small, deformed man of unspeakable cruelty who seems to appear from nowhere and vanish just as quickly.
Utterson grows increasingly alarmed as he learns that Jekyll has changed his will to leave everything to Hyde, and that Hyde has committed acts of shocking violence, including trampling a young girl and beating an elderly Member of Parliament to death with a cane. Jekyll insists that he has the situation under control and that he can be rid of Hyde whenever he chooses. But as the story progresses, Jekyll’s control begins to slip, and the transformations between his two identities become involuntary and terrifying.
The revelation at the heart of the story — that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person — was a genuine surprise to Victorian readers, though it is now one of the most well-known plot twists in literature. Jekyll has created a potion that allows him to separate the good and evil parts of his nature into two distinct physical forms. As Hyde, he is free to indulge every dark impulse without guilt. But the evil side grows stronger with each transformation until Hyde threatens to take over permanently.
For intermediate English learners, this novella is an excellent choice. At under a hundred pages, it is short enough to read in a few sittings, yet the prose is rich and atmospheric. Stevenson’s writing teaches vocabulary related to Victorian London, moral philosophy, and psychological suspense. The story’s central theme — that every person contains both good and evil — has become so deeply embedded in English culture that "Jekyll and Hyde" is now an everyday expression meaning someone with two very different personalities.
本书中的英语课程
1. ““I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll discovered through his experiments that every human being is not one person but two — a good self and an evil self living together.
📝 英语课: "Learned to recognise" means "came to understand over time." "Thorough" here means "complete" or "total." "Primitive" means "fundamental" or "deep-rooted." "Duality" means "the state of having two parts." This sentence introduces a core philosophical idea using precise vocabulary. The pattern "I learned to recognise that" is useful for sharing discoveries.
2. ““Man is not truly one, but truly two.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll’s central insight: human nature is not unified. Every person is actually composed of two opposing natures.
📝 英语课: "Not X, but Y" is a correction pattern. "Truly" is used twice for emphasis and parallel structure. The simplicity of this sentence makes it powerful — a complex idea in just ten words. In English, short declarative sentences often carry more weight than long ones because they are harder to argue with.
3. ““All human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil.””
这意味着什么: Every person we encounter is a mixture of good and bad qualities blended together.
📝 英语课: "As we meet them" means "as we encounter them in life." "Commingled" means "mixed together" — a more literary word than "mixed." "Out of" means "from" or "made from." This sentence uses an elevated vocabulary to describe a universal truth. "Commingled out of X and Y" is a formal way to describe any blend.
4. ““With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth.””
这意味着什么: Day by day, using both his moral sense and his scientific mind, Jekyll moved closer to understanding the dual nature of humanity.
📝 英语课: "With every day" means "as each day passed." "From both sides of my intelligence" splits the mind into two parts. "Drew steadily nearer to" means "gradually approached." "The moral and the intellectual" are adjectives used as nouns. The sentence shows how to describe a gradual process of discovery using careful, measured language.
5. ““I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll is losing control of his good identity and merging with his evil one. The transformation is becoming permanent.
📝 英语课: "Losing hold of" means "losing control over" or "losing grip on." "Incorporated with" means "merged with" or "absorbed into." "Original and better" versus "second and worse" creates a clear contrast between the two selves. The repetition of "slowly" emphasizes the gradual, terrifying nature of the change.
6. ““It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll tries to convince himself that only his Hyde persona is responsible for the crimes, not his Jekyll self.
📝 英语课: "After all" means "when everything is considered." "And X alone" adds emphasis: "only X." "That was guilty" is a relative clause. This is a cleft sentence for emphasis: "It was X that did Y." Jekyll uses this grammar to separate himself from responsibility — but the reader knows he is deceiving himself.
7. ““The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll admits that what he did as Hyde was shameful and degrading, but he refuses to describe it in stronger terms.
📝 英语课: "Made haste to seek" means "hurried to find." "In my disguise" means "while appearing as Hyde." "Undignified" means "lacking in dignity" or "shameful." "I would scarce use a harder term" means "I would barely use a stronger word" — this is understatement, a classic British rhetorical technique where you say less than you mean.
8. ““I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory.””
这意味着什么: Jekyll sat peacefully in the sunshine while his evil side savoured the memory of past pleasures, like an animal licking its lips after a meal.
📝 英语课: "The animal within me" is a metaphor for Hyde or Jekyll’s dark side. "Licking the chops of memory" combines two images: an animal licking its mouth after eating, and the act of remembering. "Chops" means jaws or mouth. This vivid metaphor teaches how English can layer images to create a single, powerful picture.
Stevenson’s prose in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is Victorian, atmospheric, and psychologically penetrating. These quotes demonstrate how to express inner conflict through contrasts, metaphors, and understatement. The vocabulary around duality, morality, and transformation is particularly valuable for intermediate learners building literary English skills.
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