Degeneration

A nineteenth-century belief that individuals or civilisation could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It is a historical theory, not an accepted explanation of criminal behaviour.

A nineteenth-century belief that people or civilisation could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It is a historical anxiety, not an accepted explanation of criminal behaviour.

Some late-Victorian thinkers feared degeneration: the possibility that civilisation or humanity could decline towards a supposedly primitive condition. These fears were not the same as Darwin’s theory and did not originate solely with him. They nevertheless gained force amid debates about evolution, crime and the security of civilisation.

A historical belief that individuals or societies could decline into a supposedly more primitive condition. It is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Distinguish contemporary fears of degeneration from Darwin’s actual theory: evolution does not mean that an individual can turn back into an ape.

Link context to a particular word or image: explain how “ape-like” evokes fears of degeneration rather than adding a detached paragraph about Darwin.

Use degeneration as a historical fear that helps explain the imagery, not as accepted science or proof that Stevenson endorses it.

A nineteenth-century belief that individuals or societies could decline into a supposedly more primitive condition. This historical idea is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The historical belief that individuals or societies could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It helps explain Victorian fears surrounding Hyde’s animal imagery, but is not accepted modern science.

A historical belief that individuals or societies could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Degeneration described a supposed decline towards a more primitive condition. Although such fears became entangled with popular responses to evolution, degeneration was not simply Darwin’s theory in reverse.

A nineteenth-century belief that human beings or civilisation could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition. It helps explain the fears evoked by Hyde’s animal-like behaviour, but is not an accepted modern scientific explanation of violence.

A feared decline from a supposedly advanced condition to a less developed one. Late-Victorian discussions extended this idea to human behaviour and civilisation.

Alongside it came fears of degeneration: perhaps civilisation and human self-control were fragile, and people could decline rather than continually progress. In Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism (1880), E. Ray Lankester questioned the assumption that European civilisation must always advance.

A decline from a developed condition to a less developed one. Victorian fears of human degeneration questioned whether civilisation and progress were secure.

A historical idea that humans or societies could decline from a supposedly more developed state. Hyde’s animal imagery can evoke Victorian anxieties about degeneration; this is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Deterioration from a more developed condition. In late-Victorian debates, degeneration expressed fears that human beings or civilisations could decline rather than inevitably progress.

The idea that individuals or societies can deteriorate rather than continually improve; a significant anxiety in late nineteenth-century culture.

This connects with Social Darwinist thinking: human society is imagined as a struggle in which supposedly unsuitable people should be discarded. His vision also reflects fin de siècle fears that comfortable civilisation might produce weakness or degeneration rather than continued improvement.

A nineteenth-century belief or fear that individuals or societies could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition.

A nineteenth-century belief that individuals or civilisation could decline towards a supposedly more primitive condition; it is not an established scientific explanation of criminal behaviour.

A nineteenth-century belief that individuals or societies could decline into a supposedly more primitive physical and moral condition. It is a historical theory, not an accepted explanation of criminal behaviour.

A Victorian anxiety that apparently civilised people could regress towards a supposedly more primitive condition; it is not the same as Darwin’s theory of evolution.

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AQA GCSE English Literature · 8702

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Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0

OCR GCSE English Literature · J352

Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720