This deep dive covers Stage 2: ADDICTED (Chapters 4-9) within Jekyll (character) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Jekyll (character) in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for GCSE English Literature with 13 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 3 of 17 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.

🔍 Stage 2: ADDICTED (Chapters 4-9)

Jekyll believes he is in control. Stevenson systematically dismantles this belief. The transformations begin as deliberate choices — Jekyll drinks the potion, becomes Hyde, acts, drinks again, returns. Then the interval shortens. Then, waking in Regent's Park, he discovers he has become Hyde without drinking anything. The drug designed to give Jekyll control has instead removed it.

Stevenson uses the language of addiction throughout Jekyll's statement: "a solution of this salts" becomes a compulsion Jekyll cannot reason his way out of. The pleasures "which I had long secretly indulged" are now the mechanism of his imprisonment. Stevenson's structural argument is precise: repression creates the addiction it was meant to prevent. The harder Jekyll tried to cage Hyde across decades of respectability, the more explosive Hyde's emergence became.

Practice questions for Jekyll (character)

In which chapter of the novella does Jekyll directly narrate his own story for the first time?

A. Chapter 1 — he introduces himself to Utterson
B. Chapter 5 — he explains the potion to Dr Lanyon
C. Chapter 10 — his Full Statement of the Case
D. Chapter 8 — he shouts through the locked door of the cabinet

1 markfoundation

Identify ONE technique Stevenson uses in the following extract, and explain its effect on the reader: "I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life."

2 marksstandard

Quick recall flashcards

What are the three stages of Jekyll's arc?

REPRESSED → ADDICTED → ERASED. Repressed: decades of Victorian respectability drive desires underground; the experiment is planned, not impulsive. Addicted: control fails; transformations become involuntary; the potion that was meant to separate becomes the trap. Erased: one final act of authorship — Jekyll writes the truth knowing Hyde will take over permanently before anyone reads it. Stevenson gives Jekyll the last word, then takes it away.

Mnemonic for Jekyll's arc: what does R-A-E stand for?

REPRESSED → ADDICTED → ERASED. R: Repressed — Victorian life drives desires underground; the experiment is planned. A: Addicted — transformations become involuntary; the drug meant to separate becomes the trap. E: Erased — Jekyll writes the truth knowing Hyde takes over permanently. Remember: each stage is Stevenson's structural argument about the cost of compartmentalisation, not just a sequence of events.

Stage 1: REPRESSED (Chapters 1-9, background)

Stage 3: ERASED (Chapter 10)

Stage 2: ADDICTED (Chapters 4-9)