Door and Windows as Barriers and Passageways to Truth in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde” is a story about a successful and respected doctor who has a dual personality. He is Dr. Jekyll, a respected doctor with a stellar reputation. However, when he drinks a potion he created, he becomes an evil murderer. A major motif in the story is doors and windows. Doors and windows lead to new places. Doors are for hiding behind, and they also represent a passage, a geographical point of no return, and a journey into the unknown. Windows expose truth and reality. They let in the sun, vanquish the darkness and are hard to hide behind. Mr. Hyde is Dr. Jekyll’s dark side, and he tries to hide behind strong doors. The Mr. Hyde entrance to the back of Mr. Jekyll’s house is spooky because it has no windows, only a door. The maid saw the murder through her window. The narrator, Mr. Utterson has to cross many doors and even smash them open to learn more about his respectable friend Mr. Hyde. Throughout the story, doors are used as a symbol of darkness, isolation and fear. Mr. Hyde uses doors to hide away from society. There are also used to represent a hurdle and a passageway to learning truth.
“The Story of a Door” and “The Incident at the Window” frame the narrative. Mr. Enfield tell Mr. Utterson that the door to the spooky house without a window reminds him of “a very odd story” (Stevenson 2). Later, the maid sees the murder through the window. She was enjoying the evening from her window when saw the disgusting Mr. Hyde meet "an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair"; then suddenly, Mr. Hyde “broke out all bounds and clubbed him to the Earth” (Stevenson 17). Mr. Hyde can hide behind doors in his windowless house, but his murder is seen through the clarity of a window. Doors are also used to describe spooky, dark and deplorable situations. When Mr. Utterson is looking for Mr. Hyde, he “began to haunt the door in the by-street of shops” (Stevenson 10). There is a gothic tone to the story which uses doors to represent darkness:
little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating
house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads,
many ragged children huddled in the doorwaysThis was the home of Henry
Jekyll’s favourite; of a manwho was heir to a quarter of a million sterling.”
(Stevenson 28)
The climactic scene is when Mt. Utterson and Mr. Poole knocks down Dr. Jekyll’s door to discover his dead body. Mr. Utterson hears Mr. Hyde and demands that the door is knocked down, screaming “Ah, that’s not Jekyll’s voice it’s Hyde’s! cried Utterson. Down with the door, Poole! (Stevenson 38) Mr. Utterson wanted to finally know the truth about his friend. Therefore, the doors hiding Mr. Hyde had to be smashed. The medicine door was “very strong, the lock excellent; the carpenter avowed he would have great trouble and have to do much damage, if force were to be used; and the locksmith was near despair (Stevenson 43). Despite Mr. Jekyll’s sterling reputation he knew he needed to hide Mr. Hyde in order to protect his reputation. Dr. Jekyll tells Mr. Utterson that he “must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way (Stevenson 34). Dr. Jekyll knows that Mr. Hyde must not see the light of day. Indeed, Mr. Utterson does not like going through the doors that hide the dark side of Dr. Jekyll. He “preferred to speak with Poole upon the doorstep and surrounded by the air and sounds of the open city, rather than to be admitted into that house of voluntary bondage, and to sit and speak with its inscrutable recluse (Stevenson 28). He wants to stand on the doorstep, because crossing the threshold means entering dark and disturbing territory. As a dark story, the motif of windows is much less utilized. In Dr. Jekyll’s den there are “three dusty windows barred by iron” (Stevenson 21).This again represents Dr. Jekyll’s obsession with hiding his alter-ego. Windows are not good for hiding.
The purpose of the door motif in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is to create suspense and emphasize the element of darkness and hiding in the story. Throughout the story, Mr. Utterson encounters doorways. They are both barriers and passageways to the truth about Mr. Hyde and the duality of man. The passageways get darker and darker until he finally smashes the door and discovers the truth about his respectable friend.
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Work Cited
Stevenson, Robert L. "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."Free Ebooks Online 42.09 (2005): 42-5132. Web.
