An ALLUSION in a literary text is a reference, either explicit or ...

An ALLUSION in a literary text is a reference, either explicit or oblique, to a well‐known
person, place, or event, or to another literary text. The writer explains neither the nature
nor the relevance of the reference. Rather, the effect of the allusion depends upon the
reader's knowledge and his or her recognition of the reference. Prior to the twentieth
century, authors could reasonably presume that educated readers would recognize
references to the Bible and the classics. The current term intertextuality includes allusions
among the many ways in which one text is interlinked with other texts. An allusion is an
economical means of calling upon the history or the literary tradition that the author and
reader share. An allusion often presents a parallel situation, or universalizes the specific.
Biblical Allusions
Stevenson, brought up in a Presbyterian home, found that biblical allusions were a useful
way of delineating good and evil. In the first chapter, for example, the narrator Utterson
remarks quaintly that he inclines to Cain's heresy‐‐he "lets his brother go to the Devil" (e.
g., be as dissolute as he likes). The reference to the Genesis 4 functions here not merely as a
clever quip, but as foreshadowing, for the good brother (Jekyll) must murder the evil
brother (Hyde) to save the world from the actions of a sadist. The irony, of course, is that in
Genesis it was the evil brother (Cain) who slew the good brother (Abel); however, the
reference is appropriate since Hyde wishes to take over the body and possessions of his
elder brother. Indeed, Hyde's physical deformity, which produces revulsion in anyone who
sees him, may be related to his bearing the mark of Cain, the first murderer.
Another biblical allusion is "Babylonian finger on the wall" (a reference to the end of King
Belshazzar's empire, popularized in the expression "the writing on the wall") [other
Victorian allusions to this biblical passage.] However, whereas the eastern potentate's
empire is destroyed by external forces (an invading army), Hyde's house of cards is
destroyed by Jekyll's conscience momentarily reasserting itself in time to destroy the evil
twin with whom Jekyll shares mind and body just as Hyde is about to assume full control.
(see last page of this handout).
Contemporary or Topical Allusions
In British‐controlled India, at Puri in Orissa, the followers of the eighth incarnation of
Vishnu, Jagannath ('Lord of the World'), annually dragged in procession a statue of the
deity on an enormous car, under the wheels of which many devotees are said to have flung
themselves to escape the cycle of karma‐ samsara (reincarnation). Hence, Hyde tramples
the child as if he were "some damned Juggernaut." Hyde is identified with barbaric rituals
and an un‐Christian religion, with senseless passion, and with suicidal audacity. The exotic,
the foreign, the disreputable aspects of Hyde are exactly what attract Jekyll to him, but in
attaching himself to Hyde Jekyll assures his own moral and physical destruction.
Classical Allusions
For the British writer and reader, both schooled in Latin and Greek, such allusions to the
history, philosophy, and mythology of Greece and Rome were extremely useful, there being

no danger of 'blaspheming' by citing scripture out of context or for one's own ends. For
example, Dr. Lanyon likens the early relationship between himself and Jekyll to that of
Damon and Pythias, whose friendship was so strong that the former put up his life as bail
for the latter, sentenced to death by King Dionysius. The term, then, connotes self‐ sacrifice
and altruism. Although former schoolfellows and fellow medical practitioners, after a
lifetime of shared confidences, Jekyll and Lanyon are no longer "Damon and Pythias";
indeed, Jekyll has replaced Lanyon as his bosom companion with his own creation, for
whom he is prepared to sacrifice all that he has attained in life, and even life itself.
Ultimately, however, Jekyll sacrifices himself in order to destroy the menace he has
unleashed upon the world.
The "captives at Philippi" is probably both a classical and a Shakespearean (literary)
allusion since, at the end of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and after the battles at that
Macedonian city in 42 B. C., the captives (former supporters of the conspirators Cassius and
Brutus) were released by the magnanimous victors, Antony and Octavius, given liberty
instead of death as traitors. Hyde is unexpectedly (and undeservedly) liberated from his
prison to cause further havoc.
Thus, we may conclude that Stevenson is utilizing allusions coherently, to underscore
certain fundamental themes of the novella. Although these underlying meanings appear
coded to modern readers, they were transparent to educated nineteenth‐century readers.
From: Allusions in Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1886)
Philip V. Allingham, Contributing Editor, Victorian Web; Faculty of Education, Lakehead
University, Thunder Bay, Ontario
[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Authors —> Robert Louis Stevenson]

Daniel 5:1‐4 describes "Belshazzar's Feast" in which the sacred vessels of Solomon's
Temple in Jerusalem, which had been brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar at the time of
the Captivity were profaned by the company. The narrative unfolds against the background
of the impending arrival of the Persian armies.
"King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with
them. 2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and
silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so
that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 3 So they
brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and
the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. 4 As they drank the
wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone."
In consequence of this, during the festivities, a hand was seen writing on the wall of the
chamber a mysterious sentence mene mene tekel upharsin, which defied all attempts at
interpretation. Some Rabbinic interpretations (notably the mention in the Babylonian
Talmud) say that the words were written in code, one possibility was that it was an atbash
cipher, another being that the written Aramaic and Hebrew looked very different, even
though they were pronounced similarly. Still, their natural denotations of weights and
measures were superficially meaningless: "two minas, a shekel and two parts.". In the verb
form, they were: mene, to number; tekel, to weigh; upharsin, to divide—literally
"numbered, weighed, divided". When the Hebrew Daniel was called in, he read and
interpreted the words. The last word (prs) he read as peres not parsin. His free choice of
interpretation and decoding revealed the menacing subtext: "Thou art weighed in the
balance and art found wanting". The divine menace against the dissolute Belshazzar, whose
kingdom was to be divided between the Medes and Persians, was swiftly realized: in the
last verse we are told that Belshazzar was slain in that same night, and that his power
passed to Darius the Mede.
The Greek historians Herodotus and Xenophon also record that there was a festival in the
city of Babylon the same night it fell to the Persians.[2]
This Biblical story is the source of the popular phrase "the writing on the wall" as a
euphemism for impending doom that is so obvious only a fool would not see it coming. It
also provides the origin for the similar expression "your days are numbered."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belshazzar