Think about the purpose of this theatrical ‘stagey’ document. The note left for Utterson is signed by the ‘unhappy’ and ‘unworthy’ companion and ‘friend’ Henry Jekyll, so we are positioned to expect a confession from the fallen doctor. However, we may find the ‘final statement’ far more ambiguous than we expect. Indeed it underlines Jekyll’s frequent pride in his creation of Hyde and his sense of heroism and courage. Remember this is the final chapter of the novel: it grants access to Jekyll’s authentic voice as a first-person narrator and yet Utterson’s only response is silence.
1) ‘I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life.’ Jekyll here acknowledges his predilection for deception. Even before the invention of Hyde, Jekyll has transgressed gentlemanly behaviours through his pursuit of pleasures unnamed. Look at the pronounced emphasis communicated by the adjective ‘profound’ and the level of focus suggested by the verb ‘committed.’ We could suspect that in a way, Jekyll is already Hyde even from the beginning. He certainly has elements of Hyde he is hiding!
2) Jekyll dismissed his transgressions as ‘irregularities.’ This diminishment of his moral lapses underlined the readiness of Jekyll to deceive himself and the reader. Remember that reference to Jekyll’s ‘slyish cast’ made by the observant Utterson earlier in the text where Jekyll is ‘quite at ease’? Ironically preceding the fourth chapter where Danvers Carew is brutally bludgeoned to death by Hyde?
3) Jekyll is guilty of excessive pride. Think of hubris. And think about his ‘morbid sense of shame.’ He does not wish to lose his status in respectable society yet he yearns to experience its underbelly. How ‘full’ is Jekyll’s statement of the case we wonder?
4) Jekyll makes his creation of Hyde seem a happy accident: it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies.’ Is this seeming randomness possible or even credible? Surely this experimentation is deliberate? Like his predecessor Dr Frankenstein, Jekyll is endeavouring to create new life; to become a god.
5) ‘man is not truly one ‘ but ‘truly two.’ Look at the passion invested in this revelation. Jekyll is advertising his brilliance even his genius. Does this fit with the ‘full statement’ as he knows he will have to commit suicide to avoid the ignominy of the scaffold? Hyde even talks of the ‘shipwreck’ of his life’s discovery again underlining his sense of his heroism. He sees himself as an adventurer. Like Macbeth we witness the protagonist moving between revelation and pride. The Temptation is too strong to be resisted. Yet the ill-fitting garments of Hyde resemble the falsity of Macbeth’s garments when he assumes the throne through regicide.
6) ‘Fortress of identity.’ This implies that identity is fixed and inviolable. A fortress protects as well as traps those inside too. This metaphor works very well for the problem facing Jekyll because any liberation from the grinding monotony of his public role as a Victorian gentleman erodes his reputation and safety too.
7) ‘ One accursed night’ he gives birth to Hyde through the potion. This mirrors Frankenstein’s unhappy and doomed creation of the creature who becomes the unnamed monster. The use of the Gothic adds dramatic intensity and fateful foreshadowing to this theatrical dramatic night. It also implies regret and yet how far do we feel this regret stems from knowing he is cornered rather than remorseful?
The rebirth is very painful and shows how far the transformation tampers with nature and even religion.
