Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Assignment

In your book write full sentence answers to the following questions.

1. If you had a friend that was doing something that you were sure could either get them into trouble or cause them harm (e.g. taking drugs and stealing to fund their habit), would you: a. Become involved, even if they didn’t want you to, and do everything in your power to convince them to change?
Or b. Do not interfere. Leave them to their own devices – if they need you they’ll let you know?
Give reasons for your choice of answer.
B, because I would not want to become involved with their bad habit/s.

2. Do you think that everyone has good and evil inside them? Write a couple of sentences explaining your answer.
I think that everyone has potential to either be good or do evil. I think its is up to them to do what they want with that ability.

3. Now fill in the gaps in the paragraphs below using the word bank. This will help you improve your understanding of what was happening in the world when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

London in the time of Queen_Victoria____ was a fascinating place to live. Flickering gas lamps lit the streets casting shadows. There was a huge difference in the standard of living between the poor and the rich. There was also a lot of crime. People in the nineteenth century were often concerned with the idea of a’double self’ or ‘twin’, often referred to as a Doppelgänger. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written in 1886, just before the end of the century. It was a time when people, especially authors, were concerned with death and rebirth and people’s inner nature.

4. Have you ever heard term “Jekyll and Hyde” before? If you have, write a sentence in your book explaining what you think it means.
I have not herd the term ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ before.
5. Below is a summary of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Read it and answer the questions in full sentence answers in your book.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 and is one of the best known of Stevenson’s novels. It concerns the way in which an individual is made up of lots of emotions and desires: some good and some evil. Through the curiosity of Utterson, a lawyer, we learn of the ugly and violent Mr Hyde and his odd connection to the respectable Dr Jekyll, who has written a cheque for the family of a girl that Hyde ran over. A brutal murder follows. The dead man is one of Utterson’s clients, Sir Danvers Carew. The murder weapon was, unbelievably a cane Utterson had given to Jekyll. As such, the lawyer becomes entangled in the strange world of the physician Jekyll who it transpires has created a drug that separates his good and evil natures - purifying the doctor himself but with the ghastly side effect of periods spent as the monstrous Hyde. We follow Utterson as he investigates with Poole, Jekyll’s butler, the seeming contradictions in the doctor’s actions and his increasingly hermit-like existence in his laboratory. As the truth is about to surface, tragic events occur that end the whole affair dramatically and conclusively. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a great success and it followed 1883’s fame-bringing Treasure Island (Stevenson’s first full-length novel).
a. What emotions and desires is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde concerned with? Good & Evil.
b. Why has Dr Jekyll written Hyde a cheque? For the family of a girl that Hyde ran over.
c. Who was murdered? One of Utterson’s clients Sir Danvers Carew.
d. What was the murder weapon and who did it belong to? A cane that Utterson gave to Jekyll.
e. What did the drug that Dr Jekyll creates do? Separates both good and evil natures.
6. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde illustrates how one man can have two very different personalities. Dr Jekyll is a good man, but his alternative personality is evil. Why do you think that Robert Louis Stevenson chose to call this ‘bad’ personality Hyde? (If you are not sure say “Hyde” out loud to see what it sounds like.)
7. Write the title Word Bank in your book. Look up the following words in a dictionary and write their definitions down. You will find them very useful when you come to write your essay.
Word Bank
Malicious- intending or intended to do harm
Vicious- Deliberately cruel or violent
Metamorphosis- A change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means
Antagonistic- Showing or feeling active opposition or hostility toward someone or something
Dominant- Most important, powerful, or influential: "they are now in an even more dominant position in the market
Hypocrisy- The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
Protagonist- The leading character or a major character in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text
Antagonist- A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary