Language

Style of writing

The language of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson might seem old-fashioned and difficult, simply due to the age of the text. The style and tone are formal, which is in-keeping with the upper-middle class style of speaking used by the characters: “Mr Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.” (p. 5)

This quotation also shows how the author frequently uses long sentences divided into parts by semi-colons. Occasionally, Stevenson follows a long sentence with a short one in order to emphasize a sense of shock or drama. For example: 

But the hand which I now saw, clearly en...