(1,700-2,200 words)
“”””Focus on a specific passage or passages that are crucial to the novel, and show how, if interpreted correctly, this passage resolves questions about the work as a whole. “””””
“Aspects of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Worth Pondering. Bear in mind the distinction between two aspects of this or any other narrative: ”
A. The order in which the events “really” occur in the “real world” the text evokes (sometimes called the Fabula or histoire).
B. The order in which the text depicts the events—that is, the order in which the reader learns of them (the Sjužet or discours).
Some issues worth consideration:
1. Consider the role of London in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Is it crucial that this novel takes place in a large city—indeed, in the largest city in the world at that time? Stevenson, by the way, was not English but Scottish, and a native of Edinburgh.
2. G. K. Chesterton wrote of Dr. Jekyll that “The real stab of the story is not in the discovery that the one man is two men; but in the discovery that the two men are one man.” Chesterton is right, but notice that this “stab of the story” is the focus of only the third-person narrative (29-73) and Lanyon’s narrative (74-80). Each of these two narratives presents the transformation from an outsider’s perspective, and from an outsider’s perspective the plot must build up to the discovery that the two men are one. Jekyll’s own account (81-97), on the other hand, describes the process in its “real” chronological order (see “A,” above), and this process splits one man into two. How would the novel’s effect be different if it were narrated solely by Jekyll?
3. People assume that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. With what might Hyde be blackmailing Jekyll, if he were blackmailing him? What information about Jekyll might in theory be something he would pay to conceal? What are the possibilities? What are the effects of Stevenson’s leaving this question so vague?
4. Why do people have so much trouble being specific when they describe Hyde? (Note that this makes him more difficult to identify—imagine Enfield talking to a police sketch artist.) See 50.
5. Think about how Jekyll’s science reveals that the body is only the “aura” of the spirit (83), an aura that can reveal things a person might prefer hidden: . . . is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay contiment? The last, I think; for, O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend!” (40)
6. Consider how this novel focuses on the difficulties of determining identity, either from outside (how might Utterson determine that Jekyll is Hyde and that Hyde is Jekyll?) or from inside (“am I Jekyll or am I Hyde?”). Do Jekyll and Hyde share consciousness? Do they share memory? What does Jekyll say about handwriting?
7. Jekyll manuevers uncomfortably whenever he must describe Hyde’s actions: “He, I say—I cannot say I” (94). Consider the interplay of personae in Jekyll’s narration—how Hyde is both “I” and “he.”
8. Examine and categorize the metaphors that Jekyll, Enfield, Utterson, and Poole apply to Hyde (religious, zoological, etc.).
9. A maid whose master Hyde visited (and who therefore can recognize Hyde) witnesses Hyde killing a client of Utterson’s with a cane that Utterson gave to Jekyll. The implausibility of these coincidences is less interesting than the question of what the coincidences might suggest. Often novelists violate probability in order to spotlight some crucial theme. How do these coincidences make Utterson look?
10. What is the relation between Jekyll’s “undignified” diversions and Hyde’s “drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another” (62)?
11. Consider who Hyde chooses as his victims. What patterns do you see?
12. Like Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, Stevenson came from a Calvinist background. Calvinism emphasizes human depravity. Does The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde express a pessimistic, Calvinist worldview? Is evil stronger than good in this novel?
Source: http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/504229740.pdf
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