Some Questions for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(adapted from A. J. Drake's Teaching Resources)
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What effect does the sight of Mr. Hyde have upon Enfield and Utterson? Early in the story, how do they describe him and the effect he has upon them?
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Describe the Carew murder that occurs on pages 14-16. In what circumstances does it occur? How does Hyde behave, and what is the victim’s class or status?
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Find places in the story where the issue of class or social status either openly or subtly influences the characters’ actions, treatment of one another, or the advice they give.
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What kind of character is Dr. Jekyll when we are first introduced to him? In what sense does he appear to be a model or admirable character? But is he a flawed character, too? How?
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Compare Dr. Jekyll with Mr. Hyde. What are the physical and mental differences between them? Are they in some way allied or even ultimately one being? If so, how?
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In what sense might the Victorian period’s rigid moral standards be responsible for Dr. Jekyll’s tragic transformation into the evil Hyde? In other words, according to Stevenson’s story, what makes a man like Jekyll--a good Victorian, really--become the criminal Hyde?
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By what specific mechanism does Dr. Jekyll transform himself into Mr. Hyde?
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In an earlier short story called “Markheim” (1874) Stevenson wrote that “evil consists not in action but in character.” How is that statement applicable to the various characters’ interest in discovering the facts behind “the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”?
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What happens to Dr. Lanyon as a result of his contact with Jekyll and Hyde, and what story does he write down before his death?
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Examine the final chapter, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case.” How does Jekyll tell his story--how does he account for his scientific motivations, his evil actions, his need for secrecy? How does he characterize his ultimate fate and his relation to Mr. Hyde?
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What effect on you as a reader does the book’s partly epistolary structure have? (The term “epistolary” refers to the writing of letters.) In other words, we sometimes read a chapter that describes events or their consequences, and then, in a subsequent chapter, the person most directly concerned in those events tells his story by means of a letter read by us and several other characters.