THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HDYE Robert Louis ... · The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde follows the character of Mr Utterson as he seeks to uncover the mystery behind

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THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HDYE

Robert Louis Stevenson

Barrington StokeCLASSROOM RESOURCES

INTRODUCTIONPART 1 Synopsis and Background

PART 2 Chapter One

PART 3 The Key Characters

PART 4 The Key Themes

PART 5 The Key Scenes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


This guide has been produced to provide ideas for guiding readers through Robert Louis Stevenson’s infamous novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

This guide will start with a synopsis and a brief cultural and historical background to the text. From here it is suggested that Chapter One of the novella be read and discussed in isolation with the provided questions. After the book has been read in full, this guide will break down the text into its key characters, themes and scenes. The questions assigned to each aspect of the novel are accompanied by quotes and are intended to further an understanding of the text and provide opportunities for classroom discussion or written work.

We hope you enjoy using these materials with your students.

INTRODUCTION


SYNOPSIS The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde follows the character of Mr Utterson as he seeks to uncover the mystery behind the terrifying and deadly Mr Hyde. Utterson’s friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, appears to be in some way connected to Hyde and Utterson is concerned for his friend’s wellbeing. However, what Utterson doesn’t know is that Jekyll and Hyde are one and the same, and Hyde is the human embodiment of the good doctor’s dark desires. As Jekyll retreats further from society and Hyde becomes more powerful, there is little Utterson can do to stop them. When Utterson discovers the dead body of Hyde, wearing Jekyll’s clothing, the doctor’s secret is revealed.

CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND First published in 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of Stevenson’s most famous stories and has had such a significant cultural impact that even people with no knowledge of the book would recognise the names of its central characters.

Originally published as a ‘Penny Dreadful’ (stories from the Victorian era that were designed to shock and scare) The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a gothic mystery that examines the duality of human nature. Written in a time of great scientific advancement, Stevenson would have been greatly influenced by medicine’s developing interest in the human mind, and he had long been fascinated by the balance of good and evil within human nature.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was extremely successful in its time, selling 40,000 copies in its first few months of publication. It has never been out of print, has hugely influenced many great works of literature and film, and remains culturally prominent to this day with simply the names of its protagonists.

Before starting the novel with the group ask them the following questions:

Have you heard of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde before?

No

¯ What impression do you get of the novel from its front cover and title?

¯ What do you think the novel is about?

¯ Do you recognise the names Jekyll and Hyde? In what context do you recognise them?

Yes

¯ How do you know the story? Have you already read the book?

¯ Do you know about Jekyll and Hyde and their relationship from somewhere other than the book?

PART 1 SYNOPSIS AND BACKGROUND


Read the first chapter as a group before reading the rest of the novel. Use the questions and quotes below to discuss the opening to the novel and to help encourage critical thinking as the readers progress through the rest of the text. We will return to some of these questions later:

SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE A certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind forehead of discoloured wall on the upper; and bore in every feature, the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence. The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered and distained. Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages. [page 5–6]

˚ Where is the book set? Does the author give a specific location?

˚ When is the book set? Does the author provide a specific date?

¯ Do you think Stevenson has set the book in his own time period?

¯ Can you think of anything that might be important about this time period?

˚ How does Stevenson’s language create a sense of time and place? Provide examples from the chapter.

˚ How does Stevenson use language to create atmosphere?

¯ Give examples of passages driven by atmosphere or descriptions you particularly like. Look at the language used by Stevenson; how does it make you feel? What atmosphere is it creating? Is Stevenson successful in creating this atmosphere?

MR UTTERSONMr 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 […] But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. [page 1–2]

PART 2 CHAPTER ONE


˚ What can we tell about Utterson from his introduction?

˚ What sort of man do you think he is? Why?

˚ What language does Stevenson use to describe Utterson? Pull out some examples from the text.

¯ What do Stevenson’s language choices tell us about him?

¯ How does this language make you feel?

˚ What imagery does Stevenson use to describe him? Pull out some examples from the text.

¯ What techniques is Stevenson using in his descriptions of Utterson?

¯ What does Stevenson’s imagery convey about Utterson?

˚ What can we tell about Utterson’s personality from Stevenson’s description?

˚ What three words would you use to describe Utterson?

MR HYDEHe is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point. He’s an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can’t describe him. And it’s not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment. [page 16–17]

˚ What is unique about how Hyde is introduced?

˚ Do you think we can really classify Hyde’s introduction as a description? Why?

˚ What effect does Hyde’s description, or lack thereof, have on our understanding of the character?

˚ What sort of man do you think Hyde is? What about how he is described by the other characters gives this impression?

˚ Do we learn more about Hyde from his actions or his description?

˚ What do you think Stevenson is trying to achieve by leaving Hyde’s physical description ambiguous? Is Stevenson successful in this?

˚ How does the ambiguity of the character make you feel?

Does the opening chapter to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde make you want to keep reading the book? Why?


In this section we will return to the characters discussed in the first chapter whilst also looking at the other supporting characters. All of these characters help to illuminate and support the book’s central themes, and play major roles in the key scenes of the text:

MR UTTERSON

Return to the discussion of this character from Chapter One:

˚ Has your perception of Utterson’s character changed after finishing the full text?

¯ How has it changed? Did he act the way you expected him to?

¯ What do you think about him now?

˚ How has his characterisation changed from Chapter One?

˚ What new information did we learn about him as the story progressed? Give examples.

˚ Have your feelings towards him changed? At what point in the text did you start to feel differently about him?

˚ How do you think Stevenson wants us to feel about him?

˚ What do you think his role within the text is? Is he the central character or does he serve another purpose?

MR HYDE

Return to the discussion of this character from Chapter One:

˚ Has your perception of Hyde’s character changed after finishing the full text?

¯ How has it changed? Or did he act the way you expected him to?

¯ What do you think about Hyde now?

˚ Do you think that Hyde is an effective antagonist?

¯ Did you find him intimidating, scary, unnatural?

¯ Do you think a Victorian reader would have a different response to Hyde? Why?

˚ Were you surprised by the revelation of Hyde’s true identity?

PART 3 THE KEY CHARACTERS


˚ Do you think the ambiguity of Hyde’s character makes him scarier or more unnerving?

˚ How would you more fully describe Hyde? What do you think his most prominent characteristics are? What do you think he actually looks like?

¯ Describe him in your own words. Think about his physical description as well as his personality. You may use examples from the text to support your description.

DR HENRY JEKYLL

Having finished the book you now know the true identity of Mr Hyde. With this in mind look at the character of Henry Jekyll and think about him in relation to his alter-ego.

As he now sat on the opposite side of the fire – a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness – you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr Utterson a sincere and warm affection. [page 44]

˚ What sort of character is Henry Jekyll? Do you like him?

˚ What role does he play within the book?

˚ What are Jekyll’s main characteristics? What language does Stevenson use to highlight them?

˚ What are Jekyll’s central beliefs and values? Give evidence from the text to support your answer.

˚ What do the other characters think of Jekyll?

¯ How does Mr Utterson’s view of Jekyll differ from that of Dr Lanyon? Give evidence from the text to support your answer.

˚ Is Dr Jekyll a good man? Why? What actions can you identify that show this?

¯ Do you agree that Jekyll is good and Hyde is bad? Or is it more complex than that?

¯ What descriptions of Jekyll support your understanding?

˚ What language does Stevenson use to show the differences between Jekyll and Hyde?

¯ How does he convince the reader that they’re not the same person?

˚ What three words would you use to describe Dr Henry Jekyll?


DR LANYONCavendish Square, that citadel of medicine, where his friend, the great Dr Lanyon, had his house and received his crowding patients.‘If anyone knows, it will be Lanyon,’ he had thought […] This was a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair prematurely white, and a boisterous and decided manner. At sight of Mr Utterson, he sprang up from his chair and welcomed him with both hands. The geniality, as was the way of the man, was somewhat theatrical to the eye; but it reposed on genuine feeling. [page 22–23]

˚ What sort of character is Dr Lanyon?

˚ What role does Lanyon play within the book?

˚ What do the other characters think of Dr Lanyon?

˚ How does Dr Lanyon differ from Dr Jekyll? Provide evidence from the text.

˚ How does he speak about Henry Jekyll? What does that tell us about him?

˚ What are Lanyon’s main characteristics? What language does Stevenson use to highlight them?

˚ Do you think Lanyon is a good man? Why? What actions can you identify that show this?

˚ What three words would you use to describe Lanyon?


Before taking the group through this section and the key themes of the text ask them:

What do you think the major themes of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are? Why? (Give evidence to support your answers)

THEME 1: DUALITY OF HUMAN NATUREHence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life. Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame. [page 153]

[…]

At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. [page 166]

[…]

Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it. [page 179–180]

PART 4 THE KEY THEMES


THEME 2: SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT“We had,” was the reply. “But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake’s sake as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such unscientific balderdash,” added the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, “would have estranged Damon and Pythias.” [page 24]

[…]

Unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies. O, I know he’s a good fellow – you needn’t frown – an excellent fellow, and I always mean to see more of him; but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon. [page 45]

[…]

And it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental, reacted and shed a strong light on this consciousness of the perennial war among my members. [page 154–155]

THEME 3: RATIONAL VS. IRRATIONALHitherto it had touched him on the intellectual side alone; but now his imagination also was engaged, or rather enslaved; and as he lay and tossed in the gross darkness of the night and the curtained room, Mr Enfield’s tale went by before his mind in a scroll of lighted pictures. [page 26]

[…]

And thus it was that there sprang up and grew apace in the lawyer’s mind a singularly strong, almost an inordinate, curiosity to behold the features of the real Mr Hyde. If he could but once set eyes on him, he thought the mystery would lighten and perhaps roll altogether away, as was the habit of mysterious things when well examined. He might see a reason for his friend’s strange preference or bondage … [page 28]

All of the characters and the key scenes within the book relate to and are defined by these themes. Take each theme and the attributed quotes and explore the following key questions:

1. How does Stevenson convey this theme throughout the book?

2. How do these key quotes show this theme in action?

3. What characters are most predominantly shaped by this theme?

4. How does it affect their story arcs and characterisation?

5. Why do you think Stevenson wanted to explore this theme?


We’ve pulled quotes and highlighted the key scenes from the novella that clearly depict the central themes at play and explore the defining characteristics of each central and supporting character:

KEY SCENE 1: INTRODUCING MR HYDE All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground. […] It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut […] He was perfectly cool and made no resistance, but gave me one look, so ugly that it brought out the sweat on me like running.

[…]

For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good. [page 8–13]

KEY SCENE 2: UTTERSON MEETS MR HYDEThe other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.

[…]

Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr Utterson regarded him. “There must be something else,” said the perplexed gentleman. “There is something more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human!” [page 34–36]

PART 5 THE KEY SCENES


KEY SCENE 3: HYDE MURDERS CAREW London was startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more notable by the high position of the victim. The details were few and startling.

[…]

And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger […] at that Mr Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway. At the horror of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted. [page 50–53]

KEY SCENE 4: LANYON’S LETTER He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change – he seemed to swell – his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter – and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my eyes – pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death – there stood Henry Jekyll!

What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night; I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall die incredulous. [page 149–151]

KEY SCENE 5: JEKYLL’S LETTER It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil. [page 155–156]


Read and discuss the above scenes in relation to the following questions:

1. How does this scene make you feel? Why?

2. What themes are being explored by Stevenson in this scene?

3. How are the characters affected by this scene? What do we learn about them from this scene?

4. Pick five words or phrases that have been very carefully chosen by Stevenson. What themes, symbols or characterisation do they highlight?

5. What effect does this scene have on the book as a whole?

Remember to provide evidence from the scenes to support your answers!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850 and is best known as the author of the children’s classic Treasure Island and the adult thriller The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. His vast array of genres can be linked to his nomadic lifestyle, taking inspiration from his ever‑changing surroundings. Many of his stories observe and explore a key theme of the impossiblity of separating good and evil. He died in 1894.

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THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HDYE Robert Louis ... · The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde follows the character of Mr Utterson as he seeks to uncover the mystery behind