The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson)
Directions: In your notebook, complete the following activities and reading questions.
Overview: Often times, we excuse our unkind and impolite behavior by saying, “It wasn’t me; it was my evil twin.” Stevenson’s
Victorian horror story, published in 1886, endeavors to explain this dual nature of the human psyche (soul) and the seemingly
ceaseless battle that rages between the ego (our rational, conscious behavior) and the alter-ego (our uncontrolled, subconscious
thoughts).
I. Literary Research:
A. Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson, born in 1850 in
Edinburgh, Scotland, was a sickly child. His
father was a designer of lighthouses, and he
wanted his only son to study engineering.
However,
when
Stevenson
entered
Edinburgh University, he chose to study
literature. After graduation Stevenson was
forced to split his time between the French
Riviera and southern England because the
warmer climates helped his deteriorating
health, now known to have been caused by
tuberculosis. His travels in France led to his
first book, An Inland Voyage (1878), the
story of a canoe trip on the country’s many canals. While in France,
he fell in love with Fanny Osbourne, a married American. In 1879
Stevenson undertook an extremely risky voyage to California, where
Fanny was divorcing her husband. The dreadful transatlantic
crossing to New York and the cross-country train trip to the West
Coast nearly killed him. The strain was so hard on his health that
when he reached California and finally married Fanny, he was barely
able to stand. His doctor told Fanny that her new husband could live
for only a few months. Fortunately, the doctor was wrong. The
couple returned to Scotland. It was there that Stevenson began to
write his first great success, Treasure Island (1883), the thrilling
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6.
Where and when was RLS born?
From what disease did RLS suffer?
What was the name of RLS’s wife?
What was the title of RLS’s first literary success?
What was the basis or inspiration for Jekyll and Hyde?
Where and when did RLS die?
B. The Time & Place
Overview:
The novella takes place in London in the 1880s. The settings include
Jekyll’s fine home in a formerly grand neighborhood now in decay;
Lanyon’s comfortable home in Cavendish Square, where many
distinguished doctors have their houses and offices; and Hyde’s
house in Soho, a part of London known for its immigrant
populations.
The Victorian Era:
Robert Louis Stevenson was born at the height of the Victorian Era,
which stretched from the 1830s to the beginning of the 1900s.
Britain’s Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 at the age of
eighteen and ruled until her death in 1901. During her sixty-fouryear reign, Great Britain was the world’s leading economic and
military power and controlled a vast empire. Queen Victoria’s reign
was a period of intense change in many arenas. Railroads and a
postal system expanded to link almost every corner of the nation,
making transportation and communication much faster. Medical
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story of a swashbuckling pirate named Long John Silver. The
writer’s deteriorating health prompted the couple to move to the
south of France, where Stevenson completed A Child’s Garden of
Verses (1885). At his next home, in southern England, Stevenson
wrote Kidnapped. Nonetheless, financial worries were never far
away. One night Stevenson had a nightmare so strange that he
decided to use it as the basis for a novel. This novel, The Strange
Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), became one of Stevenson’s
most popular creations and helped to ease his financial strain. In
1888 an American publisher asked Stevenson to write a travel book
about the South Pacific. The couple jumped at the chance to escape
to the tropics. They chartered a yacht and sailed from San Francisco
to the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Hawaii. The author’s health
improved in the tropical sun, and in 1890 the Stevensons decided to
settle in Samoa. On his estate in Samoa, Stevenson finished David
Balfour (1893), a sequel to Kidnapped, as well as several books
about nature and life in the South Seas. His descriptions of his exotic
and romantic lifestyle captivated readers. During his years in Samoa,
legends grew up about Stevenson that led to his reputation of being
one of the most beloved storytellers of his time. Stevenson died in
Samoa on December 3, 1894, at the age of forty-four. At the time of
his death, he was working with friends in Scotland to prepare an
edition of his complete works.
and sanitary advances led to improvements in health. The
government began to support schools financially. Political reforms
allowed more people to participate in self-government. Industry grew
rapidly, while agriculture became less important to the economy.
Cities like London, Manchester, and Glasgow became densely
populated as masses of people flocked to them in search of work.
The prosperous decades between 1850 and 1870 were characterized
by a general optimism and a sense of accomplishment. By the 1880s,
however, pessimism and worry had begun to cloud the thoughts of
many Victorians. With the increase in the urban population, poverty
became a formidable problem. The strength of Britain’s vast empire
was challenged by difficult foreign wars. Workers demanded more
power, and women were entering the workforce in greater numbers.
The changes in traditional society disturbed and frightened many
Britons. It was at this historical juncture that Stevenson wrote The
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As you read, look for signs
of a society undergoing major changes.
Who ruled Britain during RLS’s lifetime? What are her reign dates?
What changes and advances characterized this period in British history?
Between 1850-1870, what mood best describes how Victorians felt?
By the 1880s was mood best describes the changing attitude? Why?
What does a close reading of Jekyll and Hyde tell readers about this period in British history?
C. Literary Terms: Define
Novella http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_N.html
Doppelganger http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~dougt/goth.html#dop
Jekyll&Hyde/Livesay 1
D. “Birth of Victorian Horror” (A&E Documentary): In-class viewing. Separate handout.
II. Evil: What is it? Does it even exist?
Print (if possible) and READ Time article “Evil” (found on website)
Take detailed notes in NB in which you highlight the author’s main points about evil -- its definition, its existence and its
place in modern thought and society.
III. Vocabulary: Define each word using a college level dictionary.
apocryphal
demonstrative
austere
denizen
bravo (person)
duplicity
capricious
ebullition
condescension
effulgence
conveyance
fortnight
heresy
coquetry
countenance
incongruous
infamy
iniquity
insurgent
ken
malady
malefactor
obsequious
pall (noun & verb)
parley
pedant
reprove
sedulous
sordid
transfigure
transpire
troglodyte
IV. Reading Questions:
Chapter 1 Story of the Door
1. Briefly identify the following characters: Mr. Utterson
Mr. Richard Enfield
2. What is an allusion? Find one example in the first paragraph. Who was this Biblical allusion? Look here for the answer:
http://www.csis.pace.edu/grendel/projf981e/cain.html
3. Define simile. Find one example of simile in the description of a London neighborhood.
4. What triggers Enfield’s strange memory?
5. Define Juggernaut. Why does Enfield compare Mr. Hyde’s actions to a Juggernaut?
6. Why do Enfield and the doctor attending the child decide to extract a punishment from Mr. Hyde even though the child is not
seriously injured? What is the punishment?
7. Define apocryphal. Why does Enfield accompany the man to the bank?
8. Why does Enfield refer to the house as the Black Mail house?
9. How does Enfield describe Mr. Hyde? What is unusual about the description?
10. Why is Utterson concerned about the fact Mr. Hyde has a key to the residence?
11. What does Utterson mean when he says, “Your tale has gone home.”?
In-Class Activity: Close Reading (separate handout)
Chapter 2 Search of Mr. Hyde
1. Define holograph. Why is the document referred to as “the lawyer’s eyesore”?
2. Briefly describe Dr. Lanyon. Why does Utterson visit him/ What does he learn of Lanyon’s relationship with Jekyll?
3. Find an example of allusion in this chapter. How is it a metaphor?
4. Why does Utterson want to see Mr. Hyde’s face? Why does Utterson go to so much
trouble to investigate Hyde?
5. Define apropos. Why do you think Hyde gives Utterson his address?
6. Describe Mr. Hyde’s physical appearance.
7. State a theme for this story using the following quotation describing Mr. Hyde. “. . . or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that
thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent?” Hint: Remember the Prometheus story.
8. What information does Poole give Utterson about Hyde?
9. What does Utterson think that Hyde has on Dr. Jekyll?
10. Why do you suppose Utterson has a dream about Hyde?
11. Considering Hyde’s actions, the effect he has on how people view him, and the effect he had on Enfield and the doctor (they felt
like murdering him), what can you conclude about Hyde and evil?
12. Since Hyde’s presence arouses evil thoughts and feelings in others, what is Stevenson (author) suggesting about evil and human
beings?
Chapter 3 Dr. Jekyll Was Quite At Ease
1. Define “hide-bound pendant.” Why does Jekyll call Lanyon hide-bound?
2. What does Dr. Jekyll say to convince Utterson that he can handle Hyde?
3. What does Utterson promise Jekyll?
4. How is Jekyll’s physical appearance described?
5. In their physical appearances, what is like or unlike about Jekyll and Hyde?
Chapter 4 The Carew Murder Case
1. The maid looks out at a clear night and a full moon. With what are full moons associated (consider both romantic and sinister
associations).
2. Who is Sir Danvers Carew and how is he described?
3. How is Hyde’s assault on Carew described? Why do you suppose Hyde attacked him?
4. How does Utterson learn of Carew’s death?
5. Why do the police think the murderer is Mr. Hyde?
6. How was Hyde’s run in with Carew similar to, different from, his run in with the little girl in chapter one?
7. What do you suppose might have incited Hyde?
Jekyll&Hyde/Livesay 2
8. What evidence is there that Hyde’s rooms are furnished by Dr. Jekyll?
9. How does Inspector Newcomen of Scotland Yard plan to catch Hyde?
10. Why are Mr. Hyde’s movements difficult to trace? How are the descriptions of Mr. Hyde similar?
Chapter 5 Incident of the Letter
1. Jekyll now appears “looking deadly sick.” How would you account for Jekyll’s change in appearance?
2. When Jekyll tells Utterson that he will never again see Hyde, do you think he means it? Explain.
3. Why do you think Dr. Jekyll gives the letter to Utterson?
4. How does the letter ease Utterson’s fears that Hyde will blackmail Dr. Jekyll?
5. State two reasons Utterson is suspicious about the letter’s origin?
6. Briefly identify Mr. Guest.
7. Why does Utterson exclaim, “Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!”?
Art Activity: Imagine that you are the police inspector in charge of investigating the murder
of Sir Danvers Carew. In order to capture the suspected murderer, you need to create a wanted
poster to place throughout London. Examine the text for details about the murderer's physical
description, clothing, habits, and any other characteristics that might lead to his identification
and apprehension. Use the information you find in the story to draw a picture of the suspect and
write informational text for the wanted poster.
Chapter 6 Remarkable Incident of Dr. Lanyon
1. What change does Utterson notice in Dr., Jekyll after Mr. Hyde’s disappearance?
2. What do we learn of Hyde’s life in the year before he disappeared?
3. How might the murder of Carew be more understood in light of the information the police gather?
4. How has Dr. Lanyon changed? What topic does he refuse to discuss with Utterson?
5. How does Dr., Jekyll explain his seclusion to Mr. Utterson?
6. What does the letter from Lanyon have in common with Dr., Jekyll’s will?
7. Why doesn’t Utterson desire the company of Dr. Jekyll?
Chapter 7 Incident at the Window
1. What is Dr. Jekyll’s mood when Utterson and Enfield talk to him through the window?
2. Define foreshadowing. Find one example of foreshadowing in this story.
3. Why do you suppose Dr. Jekyll’s smile changes to “an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the
two gentlemen below”?
Chapter 8 The Last Night
1. Why are Poole and the other servants frightened?
2. Where does the impostor send Poole? How does he communicate with the butler?
3. What does Poole say to convince Utterson it is necessary to break into the doctor’s cabinet?
4. How is Mr. Hyde behaving in the doctor’s laboratory?
5. After finding Hyde’s body, Utterson still believes Hyde killed Jekyll, but he is confused about a number of points. What are they?
6. Why do they conclude that Jekyll could not have left by the back door? What may we conclude from what they find in this
instance?
7. What two things surprise Mr. Utterson about the will found on Dr. Jekyll’s desk?
8. Describe the other two documents discovered on the desk.
Chapter 9 Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative
1. What favor does Dr. Jekyll request from Dr. Lanyon?
2. List the contents of the drawer.
3. What is strange about the man who comes to pick up the drawer?
4. What choice does Mr. Hyde offer Dr. Lanyon? What is Lanyon’s decision?
5. Why does Dr. Lanyon say “. . . I shall die incredulous. As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of
patience, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror”?
6. What piece of knowledge that we already suspected does that last sentence in Lanyon’s narrative confirm?
7. How would you characterize Jekyll’s following statement to Lanyon just before he takes the potion?
“And now, you who have so long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who denied the virtue of
transcendental medicine, you who have denied your superiors -- behold!”
Chapter 10 Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case
1. As a young man what did Jekyll find was the worst of his faults? How did that lead him to practice a profound duplicity?
2. What aspect of Dr. Jekyll’s own character inspired his research?
3. Dr. Jekyll gives two reasons for not revealing the scientific branch of his investigations in his confession. What is Humankind’s
“burden”? What is Stevenson suggesting that Man not attempt to change? Hint: Think about what happens when Humans play
around with Mother Nature statement?
“First, because I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen [burden] of our life is bound forever on
man’s shoulders; and when the attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and
more awful pressure.”
4. How does Dr. Jekyll feel after drinking the potion for the first time? How has he changed physically?
Jekyll&Hyde/Livesay 3
5. What explanation does Dr. Jekyll give to explain this change in size and age? Why are other people repelled by his appearance?
6. If other people are repulsed by Hyde’s appearance, why isn’t Jekyll repulsed when he sees Hyde’s reflection in the mirror?
7. Since the drug changes his personality, why isn’t he changed into a completely good man instead of an evil one?
8. How did the pleasures Dr. Jekyll sought in the disguise of Mr. Hyde change over time? How does Dr. Jekyll justify continuing to
become Mr. Hyde?
9. In what way does Dr. Jekyll begin to lose control?
10. State a theme for this novel using the following passage.
“That part of me which I had the power of projecting had been much exercised and nourished; it had seemed to
me of late as though the body of Edward Hyde had grown in stature I began to spy a danger that, if this were much
prolonged, the balance of my nature might be permanently overthrown.”
11. How does Dr. Jekyll justify Mr. Hyde’s brutal attack on Danvers Carew? What generalization may Jekyll draw from this?
12. At this point why is it not possible for Dr. Jekyll to prevent the reemergence of Mr. Hyde?
13. How does Mr. Hyde trap Dr. Jekyll in his laboratory?
14. How does Hyde show his hatred of Jekyll?
15. What finally dooms Jekyll to either living out his life as Hyde or committing suicide?
16. When does Henry Jekyll die? When does Mr. Hyde?
17. How can Dr. Jekyll be both the protagonist and the antagonist in the story?
18. Find a quotation in this last chapter that illustrates the point in the story where Dr. Jekyll recognizes he has been in error all
along.
IV. Discussion Activities & Questions:
1. Read and annotate the following poem by RLS and explain how this simple children’s verse relates to the idea of doppelganger
motif present in Jekyll/Hyde. Hint: examine the qualities of the shadow.
My Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow-Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
2. What happens to you when you are told to stop laughing during a serious moment? Oddly enough, you can’t stop laughing, can
you? Likewise, many of Dr. Jekyll’s problems occur because he represses his natural human instinct to “loosen up” every once in a
while. What point is Stevenson attempting to make about people who keep every urge “bottled up”? What eventually happens?
How could this theory help explain why seemingly normal people “flip out” and commit violent crimes?
3. If this is a morality tale about the struggle between good and evil in the human soul and society in general, who won and who lost?
(Remember the dead body in the lab is that of Hyde’s not Jekyll’s.) Explain whether you agree with the conclusion Stevenson seems
to suggest?
4. If pronounced correctly using Stevenson’s native Scottish dialect, Jekyll sounds like Jeek-yl. Think about the two names Hyde
and Jekyll, pronounced correctly. What children’s game do the two names sound like? How does this game and its rules relate to
the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
Jekyll&Hyde/Livesay 4