Jekyll and Hyde - Description of Soho Analysis

The author describes London as a very dark ‘dingy’ place. To achieve this description, he uses various descriptive techniques.

Firstly, his uses of languages are gothic and scary. For example, as Mr Utterson travelled through Soho, the author described it ‘like a district of some city in a nightmare’. This connotes that Soho is a very horrid place as we can relate nightmares to being very horrifying and also being part of the gothic genre. Furthermore his choice of a language technique was a simile, so the author is comparing the city to a nightmare which are very much disliked by people. Reading this description, it will give a clear imagery to the reader, and they can imagine how Soho looks like, as they might have experienced a nightmare. However, people have different ideas of a nightmare, so Utterson might see it as a nightmare due to the fact he lives in a nice part of London unlike residents that have grown up in Soho, might think otherwise. Also, the author uses pathetic fallacy to describe the mood. For example he described the morning like ‘the back-end of the evening’. This implies that even in the light morning, its still very dark and it reflects on the people’s attitude as they are described as ‘slatternly’.

Secondly, the author uses long sentence structures to describe Soho. While describing London, the author doesn’t use a lot of full stops but a lot of semi colons. An example of this is ‘Mr Utterson ……of twilight; for here………of evening; and here……………….swirling wreaths’. This connotes, that there is so much to see in Soho, and that is why the sentences are so long. Also, is the long sentences the author uses descriptive words such as adjectives to give the reader a detailed imagery to the reader. For example, ‘a haggard shaft of daylight would glance in between the swirling wreaths.’ This suggests that there could be a struggle between day and light due to the fact that wreaths are commonly used in funerals but also in Christmas. This are both different situations but with different meaning as we relate funerals to a sad time and Christmas to a happy time. Also, the word ‘haggard’ could possibly mean that the dark is winning over the light, which is similar to the case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as the evil wins in the end.

Furthermore, the author use of imagery enhances the description of Soho. For example ‘the first fog of the season’ could be linked to mystery and secrecy as in a fog it’s very had to see up ahead, so it’s a mystery on what you may see. Additionally, the use of fog throughout novel as a motif almost seems claustrophobic and aids sense of sinister unease. As the ‘fog lifted a little’ Mr Utterson saw salads, many ragged children huddled in doorways’. The fact that it described the salads as two penny one shows it cheap and of poor quality and impling that there is poverty in the city. Also, the ragged children in the dorways, suggest that in that period of time, there was a lot of people homeless and had no where to go. Also, the ragged children show that the children were neglected and in a wild state,probably their parents never wnted them.