The Strange Case of

Doctor Jekyll and

Mr Hyde
 Stevenson’s life
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00glx0g
• Jollity: Lively and cheerful activity or celebration
• Calvinist: following the teachings of Calvin, an
influential French theologian and pastor during
the Protestant Reformation
• Feverish: displaying a frenetic excitement or
energy
• Strife: conflict
 Great Lives - Stevenson
• Listen to the extract
1. Give Stevenson’s dates and places of birth and
death
2. What was the family’s profession?
3. What sort of child was R L Stevenson?
4. Give 2 adjectives used to describe his father
5. Give 1 adjective used to describe his nurse
6. Give 1 adjective used to describe his parents
7. Explain the expression ‘picnic on a volcano’
 Chapter 1: storyline
• Who are the three characters
introduced in this chapter?
• Why is the chapter called ‘Story of
the door’?
 Chapter 1: answers
• Why is the chapter called ‘Story of
the door’?
• The title refers to a story told by Mr
Enfield to Mr Utterson as they walk
past a strange door. The door was
used by a horrible man who had
trampled over a little girl.
 Chapter 1: analysis
• What sort of man is Utterson?
• Compare the by-street and the block of
buildings (p6 from ‘It chanced.. To ‘..their
ravages’)
Present your observations in two columns
 Chapter 1: analysis
• Explain the following references and
expressions:
- ‘I incline to Cain’s heresy’ (p.5 - middle)
- ‘it was a nut to crack’ (p.6 – top)
- ‘The more it looks like Queer street, the
less I ask’ (p.9 - middle)
 Chapter 1
-‘I incline to Cain’s heresy’ (p.5 - middle)
---> see note (p.162). Utterson means that like Cain, it is
not his problem what his ‘brothers’ do and he doesn’t
try to interfere
-‘it was a nut to crack’ (p.6 – top)
- it was a difficult mystery to solve
-‘The more it looks like Queer street, the less I ask’ (p.9 -
middle)
- the strangest a story looks or sound, the less I want
to enquire
 Chapter 2
Put the events in the right order
1. Mr Utterson meets Mr Hyde
2. Mr Utterson reads Dr Jekyll’s will
3. Mr Utterson has a conversation with Dr Jekyll’s
butler, Poole
4. Mr Utterson visits his friend Dr Lanyon
5. Mr Utterson has a restless night
 Chapter 2
1. Explain: ‘This document had long been the
lawyer’s eyesore’. p.11
2. What information do we find on Dr Lanyon in the
text? p.12
3. Why does Utterson want to meet Hyde so much ?
4. List the elements that contribute to creating
suspense (p.14)
5. Explain: ‘He is in deep waters!’ (p.17)
 Chapter 2
1. P. 11 ‘This document had long been
the lawyer’s eyesore’.
Utterson hates Dr Jekyll’s will
because it is unreasonable. He hates it
even more now that he knows what
sort of man Mr Hyde is.
 Chapter 2
2. Dr Lanyon is an old friend of both Lanyon’s
and Utterson’s
He is ‘a hearty, healthy, red-faced, dapper
gentleman with a shock of hair prematurely
white and a boisterous and decided manner’ (p.
12)
He finds Jekyll and his science too fanciful (over
imaginative)
 Chapter 2
3. Why does Utterson want to meet Hyde so much ?
• Hyde was already a mystery for Utterson because he
was the beneficiary of Dr Jekyll’s will. Now that
Utterson has heard Enfield’s story, Hyde has become
an obsession for him: ‘now his imagination was also
engaged or rather enslaved’ (p.13).
• He hopes that if he meets Hyde, he will stop thinking
about him all the time:‘if he could set his eyes on him
(…) the mystery would lighten up or even roll
altogether away’ (p.13)
 Chapter 2
4. Elements of suspense (p.14)
• A fine dry night … unshaken by any wind … a regular
pattern of light and shadow… low growl … very silent
 things are suspiciously calm, too perfect
• An odd light footstep drawing near
 something breaks the silence
• His attention had never been so sharply and
decisively arrested
 Sharply is a strong word, the tension builds up
 Chapter 2
5. ‘He is in deep waters!’ (p.17)
 Utterson thinks his friend Jekyll is in trouble.
He is afraid that he has done something bad in
his past that is coming back to punish him
 Chapter 3
• What promise does Jekyll ask Utterson to
make?
 Chapter 3 answer

• Utterson has to promise that he will get Hyde’s

rights for him (ie. Make sure the will is
respected when Jekyll dies)
 Chapter 4
1. Who is the victim? The murderer?
2. How was the victim killed?
3. Who is the witness? Where was he / she?
4. Where do Utterson and the inspector go?
5. What do they find there?
6. What do they discover at the bank?
 Chapter 4
1. Sir Danvers Carew / Mr Hyde
2. He was clubbed to death with a stick
3. A young maid/ At her window
4. To Hyde’s house in Soho
5. The butt end of a green cheque book and the other
half of the stick with which Sir Danvers Carew was
killed
6. They discover that several thousands pounds are
‘lying to the murderer’s credit’ (ie. on his bank
account)
 Chapter 4
• Read the description at page 23 (from ‘It was
by this time.. To .. The most honest’)
• Draw the setting
• How does the description of the sky and
streets reflect Mr Utterson state of mind?
 Chapter 4 – Utterson’s cab ride
• Pall • Wreaths
• Vapours • Dismal
• Crawl • Glimpses
• Beheld (behold) • Slatternly
• hues • Kindled
• Lurid • Mournful
• Conflagration • Gloomiest (gloomy)
• Haggard • Dye
• shaft • Glanced
• Swirling • assail
Utterson’s cab ride – main feelings
• Fear
• Confusion agitation
• Oppression
• Mystery
• Danger
• Sadness wretchedness
 p23
In this passage, Utterson is not feeling well. His mind is
confused, oppressed and agitated.
This is reflected in the description of his environment,
especially the sky.
The sky is full of colours: ‘lurid brown’, ‘conflagration’ but
also contrasted light and darkness. It’s ’broken up’. This
shows Utterson’s confusion.
Words like ‘haggard’, ‘mournful’ and ‘gloomiest’ also convey
his distress.
Finally, the words ‘charging’, ‘embattled’ and ‘assail’ belong
to the lexical field of war, revealing his inner struggle.
 Pathetic Fallacy

• noun: the attribution of human feelings and

responses to inanimate things or animals,
especially in art and literature.
 Writing
• Write a ten line paragraph, using pathetic
fallacy. You will try and express one of the
following emotions:
• Anger
• Joy
• Sadness
• Hope
 Chapter 5
1. Where does the scene at the beginning of the
chapter take place?
2. How does Dr Jekyll feel? Justify with a quote
3. What does he give Mr Utterson?
4. What does Utterson ask Poole and why is his
answer puzzling?
5. Who is Mr Guest and what discovery does he
make?
6. What does Utterson believe Dr Jekyll has done?
 Chapter 5
1. At doctor Jekyll’s
2. Bad (‘looking deadly sick’)
3. He gives him a letter signed by Hyde
4. He asks what the messenger who brought the letter was
like. When Poole says there was none, Utterson realises
that the letter must have been given directly to Jekyll by
Hyde, which worries him.
5. He is a ‘great student and critic of handwriting’. (p 29). He
discovers that Hyde’s handwriting is very similar to Jekyll’s.
6. He believes that Jekyll forges for Hyde (ie. Wrote the letter
himself but pretends it was written by Hyde)
 Study of places
• Compare the description of Mr Hyde’s house
in Soho (p. 24) and Dr Jekyll’s laboratory
(p.26). What do those places reveal about the
people who live or work in them and about
their state of mind?
 Hyde’s house
• With Mr Hyde’s house, we get an impression
of luxury (‘carpets of many plies’, ‘silver plate’,
‘good painting’) and pleasure (wine) but also
of chaos (ransacked).
• Hyde is a man who enjoys luxury and pleasure,
but he must be going through some sort of
crisis.
 Jekyll’s laboratory
• There is a sense of desolation (‘gaunt and
silent’)
and nostalgia (‘once crowded’)
• The place is oppressive (‘windowless’, ‘dimly’,
‘fog’, ‘iron bars’)
• However, the cabinet has a red baize door and a
fire which introduces a touch of comfort.
• Jekyll is a scientist, but he is a man of the past,
who is only half alive and lives in a foggy prison
 Conclusion
• The laboratory is a place of absence and
death, Hyde’s house a place of chaotic life
 Study of places – Jekyll’s lab v Hyde’s
house
Hyde’s house and Jekyll’s laboratory • Light falling dimly through a foggy cupola

Hyde’s house The cabinet

• Door covered with red baize
• Luxury and good taste • Large room
• Wine • Glass presses
• Silver plates • Cheval-glass, business table
• Elegant nappery • Three dusty windows barred with iron
• Good picture • Fire, lamp, fog, warmth
• Thick carpets, agreeable in colour
BUT
• Messy What these places tell us about Jekyll and Hyde

Jekyll’s laboratory and cabinet We can imagine that Hyde is a man of taste who lives a
good, pleasurable life but is also temperamental and violent.
The laboratory is a gloomy place where time seems to have
The laboratory
stopped. The cabinet is a place of contrasts, both cold and
• Dingy windowless structure lonely but also warm - Jekyll is a sick man seeking the
• Sense of strangeness warmth of the fire inside his cabinet, but the fog is creeping
• Once crowded / now gaunt and silent in from outside.
• Chemical apparatus/crates and packing straw
 Explanations of difficult sentences
• P.26 ‘Carew was my client but so are you and I want to know
what I am doing. You have not been mad enough to hide this
fellow?’
• P. 27 ‘It signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s
benefactor , Dr Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily
repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no
alarm for his safety as he had means of escape on which he
placed a sure dependence.’
• P.28 ‘’That was the funeral oration of one friend and client;
and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good
name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the
scandal.’
 Explanations of difficult sentences
• P.26 ‘Carew was my client but so are you and I want to
know what I am doing. You have not been mad enough
to hide this fellow?’
This fellow = Mr Hyde
• P. 27 ‘It signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s
benefactor , Dr Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily
repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under
no alarm for his safety as he had means of escape on
which he placed a sure dependence.’
 Mr Hyde tells Dr Jekyll : ‘Don’t worry about my safety
because I have means of escape.’
 Explanations of difficult sentences (2)
• P.28 ‘’That was the funeral oration of one
friend and client; and he could not help a
certain apprehension lest the good name of
another should be sucked down in the eddy of
the scandal.’
 Utterson fears that Dr Jekyll’s reputation is
going to be damaged as a consequence of
Carew’s murder.
 Chapter 6
• What happens to Dr Lanyon in this chapter?
• What caused it?
• What does he leave for Mr Utterson?
• Explain ‘I mean from henceforth to lead a life
of extreme seclusion’ (p.33)
 Chapter 6 answers
• What happens to Dr Lanyon in this chapter?

He dies
• What caused it?

A terrible shock
• What does he leave for Mr Utterson?

An envelope to be opened by him only. Inside

is another envelope ‘not to be opened till the death
or disapearance of Dr Henry Jekyll’
• Explain ‘I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion’ (p.33)

From now on I will stay inside my laboratory

and not see anyone
 Chapter 7
• What image is given in the description of Jekyll
in this chapter?
• How are suspense and fear created in the last
paragraph?
 Chapter 7 answers
• What image is given of Jekyll?
That of a ‘disconsolate prisoner’ (p 35)
• How are suspense and fear created in the last paragraph?
Surprise, shock, mystery, fear, terror
 ‘abject terror and despair’ ; ‘froze the very blood’
The horrible sight is very quick, which adds to its effect
 ‘They saw it but for a glimpse’
 Chapter 8
1. List all the signs of Poole’s concern in this chapter
2. What is the weather like when they reach Jekyll’s house?
3. What animal are the staff compared to? Why?
4. What does Poole think of his Master’s voice?
5. What does Dr Jekyll write on the sheets of papers?
6. Why does Poole believe the man he saw was not his master? Who does he
think it was?
7. How does Mr Utterson try to make sense of Poole’s story and Jekyll’s strange
voice?
8. How did Hyde die? (cf p 45)
9. How do Utterson and Poole know that Jekyll is not in the cellar or hasn’t left
using the door in the bystreet?
10. P.46-47, from ‘My head goes round,’ to ‘in some dire catastrophe’
 Who does the pronoun ‘he’ refer to in these sentences?
 Chapter 8 - answers
1. p.37 he sat with the glass; p.38 mopped his brow;His voice… harsh and broken;
P.39: with a ferocity of accent
2. Stormy, the moon is lying on its back as though the wind had tilted her 
something’s wrong
3. Sheep: scared and helpless
4. He thinks it’s not his Master’s voice but that of his murderer
5. Orders for a drug
6. Because he looked nothing like him, he looked as if he had a mask on, and he was
a dwarf. He is convinced it was Mr Hyde that he saw
7. Mr Utterson thinks that Jekyll might have a deforming disease, which would
explain his appearance and altered voice
8. He committed suicide (p.45 ‘a self-destroyer’)
9. There are thick cobwebs in the cellar and the key is rusty, which means it hasn’t
been used for a long time
10. 1st he = Utterson; 2nd to 5th he = Hyde; 6th he = Utterson; 7th to 10th he = Jekyll
 Chapter 9
• What does Jekyll ask
Lanyon? Why can’t he
do it himself?
• How does he convince
Lanyon to grant his
request?
• What happens?
 Chapter 9
• What does Jekyll ask Lanyon?
Why can’t he do it himself?
• Lanyon should go and fetch a
drawer in Jekyll’s cabinet,
then take it back to his place
and give the contents to a
man who will present himself
at his house in the name of
Jekyll.
• Jekyll can’t do it himself
because he’s in the shape of
Hyde and is wanted by the
police.
 Chapter 9
• How does he convince
Lanyon to grant his
request?
• He says his life
depends on it
• He says he would do
the same for him
• He reminds him of
their long friendship
 Chapter 9
• What happens?
• The visitor sent by Jekyll
makes a potion with the
contents of the drawer
and drinks it in front of
Lanyon. He transforms
into Dr Jekyll. To his
horror, Doctor Lanyon
realises that Jekyll and
Hyde are the same person,
and he dies from the
shock two weeks later.
Chapter 10 (part 1  draught p63)
• Why does Jekyll regret his gaiety of disposition (p.55)
• What are the two sides of man according to him?
• Which side prevails in him?
• What is his dream?
• Why did he delay experimenting the drug on himself?(p 57)
• How does Jekyll explain that Hyde is smaller in stature and
younger? (p.58)
• ‘the power of voluntary change be forfeited’ p.62 What is Dr
Jekyll afraid of?
• What would be the advantages of choosing Jekyll over Hyde? Who
does he choose to be in the end? P.63:
• How long did he keep his resolution? P 63
 Chapter 10 (part 1)-answers
• Because he wants to ‘carry his head high’ and wear a ‘grave
countenance’. He has high aspirations and wants to be respectable.
• Good and evil
• None
• To separate the two conflicting natures that reside in man
• Because he feared he may die
• Because in his life, his evil side had been less exercised and exhausted,
he had been virtuous most of the time
• He’s afraid that he may no longer be able to choose to be Jekyll or Hyde
as he wishes, that he’s losing control over the transformation process
• Hyde wouldn’t remember Jekyll, but Jekyll would remember Hyde and
probably miss his freedom and pleasures. He chooses to be Jekyll.
• For two months
 Chapter 10 (part 1)-explanations
• p.56: others will follow…independent denizens
Future scientists might discover that man’s personality is more than
double – that’s it is multiple
• p.56 certain agents I find have the power to shake and pluck back
that fleshy vestment, even as wind might toss the curtains of a
pavillion
I have discovered that certain drugs can make one’s body disappear
• P.60: the strange immunities of my position
Being able to transform back from Hyde to Jekyll protects me from
justice and punishment for my crime
• P.62: like the Babylonian finger on the wall
 see note p.167
 Chapter 10 (part 2)
• P.65 what makes Jekyll think he will be able to
resist the temptation of drinking the potion
again?
• Why does Henry Jekyll write:
‘This, then, is the last time, short of a miracle,
that Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or
see his own face’ (p.70)?
 Part 2 answers
• It is because Hyde is wanted by the police for
murder. Being Hyde means a certain death by
hanging.
• Because he’s run out of salt and can therefore
not make his potion anymore. He realises that
the original salt was ‘impure’ and that’s what
made it work. Besides his natural state is now
Hyde, not Jekyll. So he is DOOOOOOMED