KS4 English Literature

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert

Louis Stevenson

Hyde’s Letter

Ms Tait
How have Jekyll’s feelings about
Hyde changed following the
murder?
 Part One: Key Vocabulary

Part Two: Summary and Recap

Part Three: Reading & Questions

Part Four: Applying our Learning

Part Five: Review Quiz

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Part One:
Key Vocabulary

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Key Vocabulary

In this lesson we will be learning the word persona and duplicitous.

Persona

Definition: The aspect or part of someone's character that is presented to, or perceived by, others
Example 1: His professional persona suggested he was confident and sociable but behind closed
doors he was exceptionally shy.
Example 2: Dr Jekyll’s public persona is very different to his private character.
Key Vocabulary: Persona
Dr. Jekyll has a public persona that is very
different to his private one.

His public persona is that of a handsome,

wealthy and respected doctor, who is
described by Enfield as a ‘celebrated’ man.

However, in private he is hiding something

about his relationship with the murderer,
Hyde.
Jekyll’s public persona masks a dark
secret.

6 Credit: [wikimedia commons] - [Janus] - [Tony Grist]

Which sentence uses the word persona correctly?

A B

People thought that he was a particularly He had a respectable persona that masked
angry persona and didn't want to irritate his true nature.
him.

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Check your answer:

A B

People thought that he was a particularly He had a respectable persona that masked
angry persona and didn't want to irritate his true nature.
him.

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Key Vocabulary

In this lesson we will be learning the words persona and duplicitous.

Duplicitous

Definition: to tell lies and be deceitful.

Example 1: You could not trust him as he was a duplicitous character.
Example 2: Dr. Jekyll is a duplicitous character and conceals the truth from Mr. Utterson.

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Pause the video to complete your task

Applying Key Vocabulary

Write a sentence about the word duplicitous.

Resume once you’re finished

Part Two:
Summary and Recap

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Soho and Weather
The fog makes the streets of London unclear. It
symbolises Utterson’s confusion: he can’t see the truth
about Jekyll and Hyde.
The fog and wind are battling just as good and evil battle
in the novella.
Soho is a ‘dismal’ and ‘blackguardly’ area of London
that normally remains hidden to respectable members of
Victorian society. Utterson is forced to explore it just as
he is forced to explore the dark side of human nature.

12 Credit: [wikimedia commons] - [Photographs of a Glasgow slum] - [Thomas Annan]

 Fill in the blanks in the passage below using the
words below it.

The________obscures Utterson’s vision in the goodt’

novella. This represents the fact he can’t see the
fog
__________ about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The fog trutht’
and the _______ battle just as _______ and ________
windt’
are battling in the novella. _______ is a _________
Hyde
and ‘blackguardly’ area of London. This is where the
character____ lives.
Sohot’
evilt’

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 Now check your answer:

The fog obscures Utterson’s vision in the novella. This represents the
fact he can’t see the truth about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The fog and
wind battle just as good and evil are battling in the novella. Soho
is a ‘blackguardly’ area of London. This is where the character Hyde
lives.

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Part Three
Chapter 4: The Incident of the letter

Utterson goes to see Dr. Jekyll and the doctor gives him a letter from Mr. Hyde.

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It was late in the afternoon, when Mr. Utterson found his way to Dr. Jekyll's
door, where he was at once admitted by Poole, and carried down by the kitchen
offices and across a yard which had once been a garden, to the building which
was indifferently known as the laboratory or dissecting rooms. The doctor had
Glossary:
bought the house from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own tastes ● Poole = Mr.
being rather chemical than anatomical, had changed the destination of the block Poole is Jekyll’s
at the bottom of the garden. It was the first time that the lawyer had been servant.
received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowless
structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness

The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
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as he crossed the theatre, once crowded with eager students and now
lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemical apparatus, the Glossary:
● Cupola= domed
floor strewn with crates and littered with packing straw, and the light
ceiling.
falling dimly through the foggy cupola. At the further end, a flight of
● The doctor’s
stairs mounted to a door covered with red baize; and through this, Mr.
cabinet =
Utterson was at last received into the doctor's cabinet. It was a large Jekyll’s room.
room fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things,
with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court
by three dusty windows barred with iron.

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The fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the
fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick. He
did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice.
"And now," said Mr. Utterson, as soon as Poole had left them, "you have heard the news?" The
doctor shuddered. "They were crying it in the square," he said. "I heard them in my dining-room."
"One word," said the lawyer. "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?"
"Utterson, I swear to God," cried the doctor, "I swear to God I will never set eyes on him again. I
bind my honour to you that I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end. And indeed he does
not want my help; you do not know him as I do; he is safe, he is quite safe; mark my words, he will
never more be heard of."

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Now pause the video to answer these questions:

Question 1.

‘[Utterson] eyed the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a
distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, once crowded with eager students
and now lying gaunt and silent, the tables laden with chemical apparatus, the floor strewn
with crates and littered with packing straw, and the light falling dimly through the foggy
cupola.’
What does the description of the doctor’s laboratory tell you about his work?

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Now pause the video to answer these questions:

Question 2.

Read Jekyll’s reaction when Utterson mentions Hyde:

‘"Utterson, I swear to God," cried the doctor, "I swear to God I will never set eyes on him
again. I bind my honour to you that I am done with him in this world. It is all at an end.’

How does Jekyll feel about Hyde here?

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Now pause the video to answer these questions:
Question 3.

Think back to the description of Dr Jekyll in Chapter 6:

‘A large, well-made, smooth faced man of fifty’ and ‘the large, handsome face of Dr
Jekyll’.

Now let’s look again at how he appears in this extract:

‘close up to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick. He did not rise to meet his
visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice.’
What is different about Henry Jekyll in this part of the novella?

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Check your answers:

Question 1.

The structure is ‘windowless; suggesting Jekyll wants his experiments to remain secret’.
It was once full of students but is ‘silent and gaunt’ and objects are ‘strewn’ and ‘littered’
over the floor, suggesting neglect and chaos. Jekyll has clearly been successful in the past
but the description of his laboratory here suggests that he is no longer working
effectively and that something is preventing him from working in his former manner.

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Check your answers:

Question 2.

Jekyll uses the short simple sentence ‘it is all at an end’, which suggests he wants
to convey to Utterson how strongly he feels that his association with Hyde is over.
The fact he repeats ‘I swear to god’ suggests a desperation on the part of Henry
Jekyll to get Utterson to believe him.

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Check your answers:

Question 3.

Henry Jekyll was ‘quite at ease’ when he was first introduced to the reader but he is now
‘looking deathly sick’ with a ‘cold hand’ and a ‘changed voice’. The adverb ‘deathly’
suggests he is very seriously unwell. He no longer seems ‘large’ or ‘handsome’ and the
reader questions what has happened to bring about such a dramatic transformation.

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Back to the text:
The lawyer listened gloomily; he did not like his friend's feverish manner. "You seem pretty
sure of him," said he; "and for your sake, I hope you may be right. If it came to a trial, your
name might appear."
"I am quite sure of him," replied Jekyll; "I have grounds for certainty that I cannot share
with anyone. But there is one thing on which you may advise me. I have--I have received a
letter; and I am at a loss whether I should show it to the police. I should like to leave it in
your hands, Utterson; you would judge wisely, I am sure; I have so great a trust in you."
"You fear, I suppose, that it might lead to his detection?" asked the lawyer.
"No," said the other. "I cannot say that I care what becomes of Hyde; I am quite done with
him. I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed."

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 The letter was written in an odd, upright hand and signed "Edward Hyde": and 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 Glossary:
for his safety, as he had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence. ● Benefactor =
The lawyer liked this letter well enough; it put a better colour on the intimacy A person who
than he had looked for; and he blamed himself for some of his past suspicions. gives money or
"Have you the envelope?" he asked. help to
someone.
"I burned it," replied Jekyll, "before I thought what I was about. But it bore no
postmark. The note was handed in."

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 "Well, I shall consider," returned the lawyer. "And now one word more: it was Hyde who
dictated the terms in your will about that disappearance?"
The doctor seemed seized with a faintness; he shut his mouth tight and nodded.
"I knew it," said Utterson. "He meant to murder you. You had a fine escape."
Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr. Guest, his head clerk, upon
the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a
particular old wine. There was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr. Guest;
and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant.

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 Guest had often been on business to the doctor's; he knew Poole; he could scarce have failed to
hear of Mr. Hyde's familiarity about the house; he might draw conclusions: was it not as well,
then, that he should see a letter which put that mystery to right? and above all since Guest,
being a great student and critic of handwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging?
"This is a sad business about Sir Danvers," he said.
"Yes, sir, indeed. It has elicited a great deal of public feeling," returned Guest. "The man, of
course, was mad."
"I should like to hear your views on that," replied Utterson. "I have a document here in his
handwriting; it is between ourselves, for I scarce know what to do about it; it is an ugly
business at the best. But there it is; quite in your way: a murderer's autograph."

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 Guest's eyes brightened, and he sat down at once and studied it with passion. "No sir," he said:
"not mad; but it is an odd hand."
Just then the servant entered with a note.
"Is that from Dr. Jekyll, sir?" inquired the clerk. "I thought I knew the writing. Anything
private, Mr. Utterson?
"Only an invitation to dinner. Why? Do you want to see it?"
"One moment. I thank you, sir;" and the clerk laid the two sheets of paper alongside and
compared their contents. "Thank you, sir," he said at last, returning both; "it's a very interesting
autograph."
There was a pause, during which Mr. Utterson struggled with himself. "Why did you
compare them, Guest?" he inquired suddenly.

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"Well, sir," returned the clerk, "there's a rather singular resemblance; the two
hands are in many points identical: only differently sloped."
"Rather quaint," said Utterson.
Glossary:
"It is, as you say, rather quaint," returned Guest. ● Forge = to fake
"I wouldn't speak of this note, you know," said the master. the handwriting
of someone else.
"No, sir," said the clerk. "I understand."
But no sooner was Mr. Utterson alone that night, than he locked the note into
his safe, where it reposed from that time forward. "What!" he thought. "Henry
Jekyll forge for a murderer!" And his blood ran cold in his veins.

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Now pause the video to answer these questions:

Question 1. Question 2.

‘I was thinking of my own character,

Which is Utterson more concerned with
which this hateful business has rather
now: finding out the truth or protecting
exposed.’
Henry Jekyll’s reputation? What does
that tell you about him?
What concerns Jekyll about the murder
of Danvers Carew? What does this
suggest about him?

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Now pause the video to answer these questions:

Question 3. Question 4.

What does Utterson’s clerk Mr. Guest What does Utterson assume? How does
notice about the letter from Hyde and this make him feel and is he likely to go
the note from Dr. Jekyll? to the police?

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Now pause the video to check your answers:
Question 1.

Jekyll is now concerned with his own ‘character’ or reputation. He is worried that his
public persona has been tarnished by his involvement in the murder. This could suggest
that Jekyll is a selfish man as he is far less concerned with the murder than he is about
how he will be perceived by Victorian society. The word ‘exposed’ suggests that
something about Jekyll that he wanted to remain hidden has been revealed.

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Now pause the video to check your answers:

Question 2.

Utterson is now more concerned with preserving the reputation of his friend than he is
with finding Hyde. He locks the note that might incriminate Jekyll away in his safe
and does not go to the police. He instructs Guest not to speak of the letter to anyone.

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Now pause the video to check your answers:

Question 3. Question 4.

Mr. Guest, the clerk, notices that
the handwriting in Jekyll’s note
and the handwriting in Hyde’s
letter are identical; apart from the
fact they slope in opposite
directions.
Utterson assumes that Jekyll must have
forged the letter on behalf of Hyde but he
does not go to the police with this
information. Instead, he locks the letter in
his safe. The truth is less important to him
than Jekyll’s reputation.

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Part Four:
Applying our Learning

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How have Jekyll’s feelings about Hyde changed following the murder?

Write a short response to the question above. Spend at least 15

minutes writing. Words to include:

You may wish to mention:

Persona
● The description of Jekyll and his laboratory. Duplicitous
● What he is concerned with now.
● The letter.
● The revelation that the letter from Hyde is in nearly
identical handwriting to that of Jekyll’s.

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Example answer:
Following the murder of Danvers Carew, Jekyll appears much changed and his feelings about Hyde
have changed too. He now claims that he is ‘done with’ Hyde. His use of the simple sentence, ‘it is all
at an end’ suggests he wants to emphasise to Utterson that he feels his dealings with Hyde are over.
Jekyll is now only concerned about his ‘own character’, that this ‘hateful business’ has been
‘exposed’. His use of the word ‘exposed’ suggests some secret part of Jekyll’s character, that he
wished to remain hidden, has been revealed. His public persona of a respectable Victorian gentleman
has been threatened by his private actions. The appearance of a letter from Hyde casts further doubt
over Jekyll’s good name as Guest reveals that it is in the same writing as Jekyll’s. Utterson realises
that Jekyll has behaved in a duplicitous manner when he thinks Jekyll must have forged the letter.

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 Developed answer:

Following the murder of Danvers Carew, Jekyll’s appearance and view of Hyde is altered.
Stevenson suggests, through his description of Jekyll’s laboratory, that things are very seriously
wrong. The room is ‘littered’ and ‘strewn’ with debris and the once packed lecture theatre is
‘silent’, suggesting something has been distracting Jekyll from his once celebrated work. The
description of Jekyll as ‘deathly pale’ also emphasises something is seriously amiss with the
scientist, with the adverb ‘deathly’ suggesting the problem may be terminal.

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Developed answer:
Jekyll’s assertion that ‘it is all at an end’ is a simple sentence designed to make it clear to
Utterson that he no longer associates with Hyde. However, his ‘feverish’ manner suggests that
Jekyll is still being affected by his relationship with the murderer. Jekyll maintains he is now
only concerned with his ‘own character’ which has been ‘exposed’. His public persona of a
respectable Victorian gentleman has been threatened by his private actions and a part of himself
he wished to remain hidden has been revealed. His duplicitous nature is hinted at when
Utterson makes the discovery that the letter from Hyde is actually in the near identical writing
to Jekyll’s.

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Part Five:
Review Quiz

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