In Jekyll and Hyde, Stevenson’s gothic novella, Stevenson uses a range of different gothic techniques and ideas to purposefully convey a dark and eerie atmosphere. He uses many different techniques, both language and structure, to convey an ongoing theme of mystery through the use of gothic conventions. For example, when Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew, a while after the main characters find out the news of Carew’s death and in the final few chapters. Stevenson uses the ideas of the gothic to purposefully create an atmosphere that makes the reader feel uneasy and keep them questioning what’s going to happen next. When Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew, the ‘moon shone’ on Carew’s face. This is one of the ideas of the gothic Stevenson uses which is …show more content…
The structural choice of using letters is an idea that is used a lot in gothic texts. This idea of an epistolary novel is not foreign to the gothic literature genre since many books, such as Dracula, use a similar structure. This is clever since it allows the reader a small insight into the character's minds yet it also doesn’t reveal the full story as it is just their perspective. With this idea that we can’t see the whole story further demonstrates this sense of secrecy. However Jekyll and Laynonn’s letters have an opposite effect. In Jeykll’s suicide note, it is almost like a exposé of Jeykll’s side of the story. He ends it with ‘I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’ and it shows the reader how life behind closed doors is very different to how they present themself in public. The use of the adjective ‘unhappy’ further emphasises my point. It also feels slightly intrusive to barge into someone’s personal life like that. The fact that Jekyll had this supposed perfect life as a Victorian gentleman yet feels so ‘unhappy’ about his life shows how they would feel in the Victorian era as their lives were so restrictive. With the reader having access to Jekyll’s suicide note, it creates an uneasy feeling as they shouldn’t really be reading such a personal thing which is what Stevenson was trying to create through exploring the ideas of the