Name ___________________________________________________________Period ____ Date________ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Comparative Texts “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne 1. What request does Dr. Heidegger make of the four old people before he lets them drink the water? 2. Express the “moral” of this story in your own words. 3. Which work, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, seems more realistic to you? Which seems more like a fairy tale? Why? What qualities of the two works help create this distinction? “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson 1. What qualities does the speaker of the poem attribute to Richard Cory? What is the speaker’s attitude toward him? 2. How does the speaker portray the other people in Cory’s town? What do you think they react to Cory’s actions the way they do? 3. What similarities can you see in the situations of Henry Jekyll and Richard Cory? What differences? 4. What is the tone of this poem? What diction leads you to that choice?
“Markheim” by Robert Louis Stevenson 1. Describe the character of the dealer. Through his use of descriptive details, does Stevenson create sympathy for the man? Explain your answer. 2. What causes Markheim’s agony? Is his conflict external, internal, or both? Support your answer with examples from the text. 3. In your opinion, is Markheim different from Edward Hyde? Why or why not? “William Wilson” by Edgar Allan Poe 1. Where does the narrator first meet the other William Wilson? What is unusual about this other person? What is notable about his speaking voice? 2. Reread the end of the story. Describe the events that occur after Wilson has appeared at the masquerade in the black silk mask. What is your interpretation of the last paragraph? 3. Compare and contrast William Wilson who haunts and torments Poe’s narrator with the character of Edward Hyde in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. How are they similar? How do they differ? What do the two character represent in each work? Individually read the following excerpt from Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). Underline and highlight important points to discuss in your groups. . . . men are not gentle creatures, who want to be loved, who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a result, their neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work without compensation, to use him sexually without his consent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and to kill him. Homo homini lupus [man is wolf to man]. Who in the face of all his experience of life and of history, will have the courage to dispute this assertion? As a rule this cruel aggressiveness waits for some provocation or puts itself at the service of some other purpose, whose goal might also have been reached by milder measures. In circumstances that are favorable to it, when the mental counter‐forces which ordinarily inhibit it are out of action, it also manifests itself spontaneously and reveals man as a savage beast to whom consideration towards his own kind is something alien. Anyone who calls to mind the atrocities committed during the racial migrations or the invasions of the Huns, or by the people known as Mongols under Jenghiz Khan and Tamerlane, or at the capture of Jerusalem by the pious Crusaders, or even, indeed, the horrors of the recent World War ‐‐ anyone who calls these things to mind will have to bow humbly before the truth of this view. The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbor and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure [of energy]. In consequence of this primary mutual hostility of human beings, civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration. The interest of work in common would not hold it together; instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests. Civilization has to use its utmost efforts in order to set limits to man's aggressive instincts and to hold the manifestations of hem in check by psychical reaction‐formations. Hence, therefore, the use of methods intended to incite people into identifications and aim‐inhibited relations of love, hence the restriction upon sexual life, and hence too the ideal's commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself ‐‐ a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs so strongly counter to the original nature of man. In spite of every effort, these endeavors of civilization have not so far achieved very much. It hopes to prevent the crudest excesses of brutal violence by itself assuming the right to use violence against criminals, but the law is not able to lay hold of the more cautious and refined manifestations of human aggressiveness. The time comes when each one of us has to give up illusions the expectations which, in his youth. He pinned upon his fellow men, and when he may learn how much difficulty and pain has been added to his life by their ill‐
will. At the same time, it would be unfair to reproach civilization with trying to eliminate strife and competition from human activity. These things are undoubtedly indispensable. But opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made occasion for enmity. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, trans. and ed., James Strachey. New York: W. W. Norton, 1961. 1. Individually write a summary of the paragraphs in the excerpt. Small Group Instructions: 2. Talk through your summaries of the paragraphs in the excerpt. The point of the summary is to make sure that you understand the argument Freud is making. Did you all come up with similar summaries? If not, are the differences superficial or do you have different understandings of the excerpt? Make adjustments to your summaries, as needed. 3. Work together and help each other understand what the excerpt means. Help each other answer any of the questions you wrote down. 4. Work together to write a one‐sentence summary of Freud’s argument in this excerpt. Write it here: 5. Discuss the following questions in your small group. You will each answer your questions in your own packet. o How does Freud’s theory of repression (and belief that all humans are basically aggressive and self‐
interested) explain the transformation of Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde? o What evidence (incidents and quotations) from the text would support a Freudian interpretation of the novel? o Is this interpretation an adequate explanation of the novel? Of human nature? Why or why not? o Do you think humans are motivated by selfishness and aggression? Where do you see that evident in our world? o How does society deal with humans’ tendency towards selfishness and aggression? Comparing Voices Writing a Two‐Voice Poem (Individual) What is a Two‐Voice poem? Two‐voice poetry is written for two people to perform. The poetry usually has two columns—one for each person who is reading the poem. Each person reading the poem reads the text in one of the columns. Sometimes, the poet wants the two readers to say something at the same time, so the poet writes the words on the same line in each column. These poems often sound like a dialogue for two people. Write your two‐voice poem using the characters of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. Your poem should be 15‐20 lines. Remember, when you want the characters to say things at the same time, you write the same text on the same line.