Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - AQA GCSE English Literature Revision

Topic overview

What you need to know

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde investigates reputation, repression, duality and the danger of unchecked experimentation. Stevenson's fragmented viewpoints make truth difficult to access until the final confessions.

Exam tip

Use the novella's delayed revelations. Explain how setting, narrative perspective and recurring descriptions shape the reader's judgement.

Revision notes

Core ideas

Secure these ideas first. Say each definition in your own words, then connect it to the topic overview.

Duality: The idea that opposing capacities for respectability and wrongdoing coexist within a person.
Repression: The suppression of desires to preserve social respectability, which can intensify secrecy and conflict.
Atavism: A Victorian fear of regression to a more primitive state, reflected in descriptions of Hyde.

Revision notes

Apply it in the exam

The exam will rarely ask for an isolated definition. Practise selecting the right idea and using it as part of a complete explanation or method.

Gothic setting: Dark streets, fog, doors and divided buildings make ordinary London threatening and secretive.
Unreliable perspective: Limited or biased accounts delay certainty and force the reader to assemble evidence.
Science and transgression: Jekyll's experiment crosses moral and natural boundaries without accepting responsibility for the risk.

Core knowledge

Key facts for Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

6 essentials

Duality

The idea that opposing capacities for respectability and wrongdoing coexist within a person.

Repression

The suppression of desires to preserve social respectability, which can intensify secrecy and conflict.

Atavism

A Victorian fear of regression to a more primitive state, reflected in descriptions of Hyde.

Gothic setting

Dark streets, fog, doors and divided buildings make ordinary London threatening and secretive.

Unreliable perspective

Limited or biased accounts delay certainty and force the reader to assemble evidence.

Science and transgression

Jekyll's experiment crosses moral and natural boundaries without accepting responsibility for the risk.

Active recall

Close the notes and answer these

1.Without looking, explain duality and give one example or consequence.
2.Without looking, explain repression and give one example or consequence.
3.Without looking, explain atavism and give one example or consequence.
4.Without looking, explain gothic setting and give one example or consequence.

Content reviewed 23 July 2026 against the current linked specification.

Finished learning?

Mark the notes complete, then test what you can recall.

Previous topicA Christmas Carol

Official AQA specification