 If you had a friend that was doing something that you were sure could either get them into trouble or cause them harm, would you… Become involved, even if they didn’t want you to, and do everything in your power to convince them to change. Why? Do not interfere. Leave them to their own devices – if they need you, they’ll let you know. Why?

 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Interested in what made up a person’s character, both good and evil.  Came from a good family, but fascinated by the "dregs of humanity", something that the upper class pretended never existed.  After a nightmare, Stevenson wrote the story of Dr. Jekyll in just three days.

 Nineteenth Century/Victorian Era Concerned with the concept of a ‘double self’ or ‘twin’, often referred to as a Doppelgänger. Genre began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, published in These characters have become part of our cultural mythology:  Jekyll and Hyde,  Dracula and Frankenstein  Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty

 Victorian Era  People, especially authors, were concerned with ideas of death and rebirth, urbanism, imperial decline, sexual revolution and sexual epidemics.  For Stevenson’s audience, the novel would have begun as a mystery each new chapter would have involved an attempt to discover the identity of Hyde and how he was using Dr Jekyll in some evil way.

Stevenson was very interested in the contrast between good and evil. He showed this in how he described the setting before Mr. Enfield and Mr. Utterson start talking about Mr. Hyde.

Ch. 1, Paragraph 3: What words/phrases stand out in this passage? What tone does the author establish, and how? It chanced on one of these rambles that their way led them down a by-street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays. The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed and all hoping to do better still - the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of visitors, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and cheerfulness of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.

After the positive description of the street, comes the negative.

Chapter 1, paragraph 4: What words and phrases stand out in this passage? What tone does the author establish, and how? Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point 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.

POSITIVENEGATIVE

 What do you know about each of the characters mentioned so far:  Mr. Utterson  Mr. Enfield  Mr. Hyde  How do people in the story react to Mr. Hyde, and why? What information is the reader left wondering about?

 Text Analysis Look at the passage beginning with “Six o’clock struck” and ending with “enduring hatred” (paragraph 13).  Look closely at Stevenson’s choice of language and sentence lengths. How does the author use language to build the sense of apprehension and terror in this passage?

 Look at the passage beginning, “He was wild when he was young…’ and ending ‘…cancer of some concealed disgrace” (last paragraph of chapter). Discuss the concept of GOOD vs. EVIL as addressed in this passage. To what extent do you think Stevenson is saying that Hyde is not totally evil but a part of all people, and the very sight of him brings out the worst in us? By expressing our desire to kill Hyde, are we rejecting that evil part of our nature?

In the first chapter, we were only distantly involved with Hyde. What else do we now know? What might Hyde be? What clues could you extract from the text? Cite specific quotes and examples to support your hypothesis.