Intro Quiz: Dr Jekyll (Part 2)

Video: Dr Jekyll (Part 2)

﻿Hello and welcome to our second lesson revisiting the character of Dr Jekyll from "Jekyll and Hyde." In today's lesson, we'll be focusing on Jekyll's downfall from chapter seven to 10. And specifically thinking about how Stevenson uses this downfall to criticise the Victorian repressive society. This lesson contains references to deteriorating mental health, self harm and suicide. If this is a sensitive topic for you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting the lesson, or completing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby. For this lesson, all that you'll need is a pen, paper, and something to write on or with. Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions including turning off the notifications on any apps or conversations that you have running, if you know how to. And finally, try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed so that you can focus when you're learning this lesson. Okay, so when you're ready, let's begin. In this lesson, we'll be looking at this question, what is the key purpose of Dr Henry Jekyll in the novel? This is the same question that we used in the previous lesson. We're building up a sort of mini-essay here. Our last lessons paragraph would be on the first few chapters, and now we're focusing on the final chapters and how Stevenson uses Jekyll at the end of the novella. First up in this lesson, we'll be looking at a key word and term that we use in our analysis today. Then we'll look at an overview of the character of Dr Jekyll. We'll recap our key moments from our last Dr Jekyll lesson and look at some more during Jekyll's downfall, and I'll question you on those. Then we'll finish up by applying our learning to a literature paragraph and a quick review quiz. So let's get started on that keyword and key term then. The first key term is sibilance. Sibilance is the repetition of the letter S, or letters creating an S sound, creating a hissing noise. For example, six sizzling sausages, you can hear the repeated S creating that /s/ sound. Or a quotation from Jekyll and Hyde, "The smile was struck from his face." You can see that the end of face is highlighted here, because even though it's not the letter S, it creates an S sound. Please write down sibilance and the definition. Now on to our next key word which is restraint. Restraint means controlled or unemotional behaviour. For example, she showed restraint and didn't reply to his remarks. Or in Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll starts the novella showing restraint but loses this as he loses control of Hyde. Pause the video to write down restraint and the definition. Okay, let's check that you understood sibilance then. Which of the examples below correctly uses sibilance? Is it A, the merciless iced east winds that knive us or is it B, this drug is wanted bitter bad? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two and one. That's correct. The correct example was the merciless iced east winds that knive us. Hopefully, you can hear that /s/ sound created by the S and the C repeated there. Mark your answer now please. And moving on to restraint, let's check you've understood that. Which of these is correct? Is it A, Takiyah showed restraint by stopping herself from eating her friend's chocolate? Or is it B, Takiyah showed restraint by eating her friend's chocolate bar? Pause your video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two, and one. That's right. The correct one is A, because here she is controlling her behaviour by stopping herself. Whereas in the second one it's not restraint, she's just doing whatever she wants. Pause the video to check and correct your response. And now let's look at our key character of Dr Jekyll again. Dr Jekyll is initially presented as a respectable Victorian gentleman. However, throughout the novella, it's clear that he is plagued by the need to keep his secret desires hidden. Ultimately, Jekyll's desire to separate his good and his evil sides slowly destroys him, causing his downfall. And Stevenson may have shown us this to represent the dangers of a repressive society. Stevenson uses Jekyll to warn that it is impossible to repress one's inner evil. So let's check that you understood that. I've got three statements here, and I want you to decide if they're true or false. If they're false, write them out correctly please. Number one, Jekyll's desire to keep his good and evil sides separate causes him to create Hyde. Number two, Jekyll wants to keep his evil a separate entity as he feels pressured by the repressive society to reject it. And number three, Stevenson uses Jekyll to show his readers that they should accept their duality. Pause the video to answer your questions. The answer's coming up in three, two, and one. In fact, they were all true. So please now check and correct your answers. Now we're going to go to those key moments. We'll start off with a reminder of the three key moments from last lesson. So last lesson, we discussed how Dr Jekyll is initially presented as respectable Victorian gentleman, and how it becomes clear that he suppresses his inner evil and keep secrets in order to keep his reputation. Last lesson, we focused on these three moments to show this. The first one was chapter three, where Jekyll seems a respectable Victorian gentleman, and he's got that facade, that cover up. The second one was chapter five, where Jekyll lies about Hyde. He gives out this in the forged letter supposedly from Hyde and says that Hyde is never coming back. And the third moment was us comparing the front and the back of Jekyll's house. How the front seems really respectable, but the back, his laboratory, is neglected. Why does Jekyll feel the need to keep a respectable facade? Is it A, he is a victim of the repressive society and must suppress these desires to keep his reputation? Or is it B, He wants to be promoted and knows he must be respected in order to achieve this? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer is of course A. Stevenson is criticising the repressive society through Jekyll, and he's blaming Jekyll's downfall primarily on the Victorian repressive society. Who is Jekyll talking about when he says, "I am quite done with him?" Is it A, doctor Lanyon, or B, Mr Hyde? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer is Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll says this in chapter five when he's trying to convince Utterson that he will have nothing more to do with Hyde. How is Jekyll's laboratory, at the back of his house described? Is it A, it wore a great air of wealth and comfort? Or is it B, dingy windowless structure? Pause your video to answer this question. The answers are coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer is dingy windowless structure. Dingy means that it's gloomy and dark so we get the idea that his inner evil is a neglected part of him. Pause the video to check and correct your response please. Now, content warning before we go any further. The next section focuses on Dr Jekyll's deteriorating mental health and contains references to self-harm and suicide. For some of you, this will be a sensitive topic. If this applies to you, you may want to do the rest of this lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support you. These are the three key moments that we're going to look at today. These moments show how Jekyll's desire to separate his good and evil sides slowly destroys him. Jekyll becomes addicted to the freedom that being Hyde provides him, causing him to lose control and leading to his downfall. The first moment we'll look at today's chapter seven, where we start to see Jekyll lose control of Hyde. Then we'll look at chapter eight, which is Jekyll and Hyde committing suicide. And then we'll look at chapter 10, where Jekyll explains why he created Hyde in a letter that Utterson only reads after Jekyll's death. So let's go straight into the moment where Jekyll starts to lose control of Hyde. In chapter seven, which is referred to as the incident at the window, Jekyll is imprisoned in his home. After months of drinking his potion, he's unable to control when Hyde appears, and so, he's forced to lock himself away. We've got two key quotes here. The first one, "like some disconsolate prisoner". Jekyll feels hopeless or disconsolate and trapped within his home like a prisoner. He no longer has freedom because he can't control when he's Jekyll and when he's Hyde. And the second quote, "the smile was struck out of his face". Jekyll's smile immediately drops as he realises that he's about to change into Hyde and he needs to get away from the window so that Utterson and Enfield who he's talking to don't see this transformation. Why is Jekyll locked inside his home? Is it A, he's lost control of when he changes into Hyde? Or is it B, he's been arrested for the murder of Sir Danvers Carew? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer is A, he's losing control of his changes into Hyde. Now, let's look at that second quote that I told you about. "The smile was struck out of his face." This quotation is describing how Jekyll's face changes as he realises that he's about to change into Hyde, and that he's losing control of his repressed inner evil. Stevenson uses the violent verb "struck" to emphasise the violence of this change. Stevenson uses sibilance here to create a hissing sound. Why might Stevenson use that for this quotation? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two, and one. Stevenson uses sibilance to create a hissing sound, which could mimic the hissing of a snake. This could allude to the creation story from the Bible, where the devil was presented in the form of a snake and tempted Eve to sin, and that sin caused the downfall of mankind. Therefore, Stevenson could be highlighting the sin of Jekyll in his creation of Hyde and how this would lead to his downfall. Pause the video to check and correct your response. Now, moving on to our second key moment of the lesson. This is chapter eight. In chapter eight, referred to as "The Last Night," Jekyll's butler, Poole, explains that Jekyll has been locked in his laboratory for several days, calling out in a strange voice for a particular chemical to be brought. and saying that the chemicals Poole has brought him are not pure enough. We get the idea here that Jekyll is currently in Hyde's body. He's trying to change back but now the potion that he made is not strong enough in order to reverse the change that he made going into Hyde. And Poole says, "If it was my master, why did he cry out like a rat?" Here, Poole thinks that Hyde is in the laboratory and he describes the voice as crying out like a rat, making it sound desperate. Then we've also got the quotation from Poole describing the voice. "This drug is wanted bitter bad." He describes Jekyll/Hyde as a weeping like a woman or a lost soul. Remember Jekyll is currently in Hyde's body. He's demanding pure chemicals as nothing will turn him back into Jekyll. He's lost total control here. What is Hyde calling out for and why? Is it A, rats to include in his potion so that it will be stronger and help him change back? Or is it B, pure chemicals so he can turn back into Jekyll because the normal potion isn't strong enough. Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer is B, he needs pure chemicals. Nothing is strong enough now because he is repressed in an evil, Hyde has taken over. Now, let's look at the second quotation. "This drug is wanted bitter bad, "weeping like a woman or a lost soul." Here, Jekyll, in Hydes form, is desperate to regain control over hide. He's compared to a woman who would be considered overly-emotional and unable to make rational decisions due to the patriarchal society. Victorian society would not have expected men to show the loss of restraint associated with a weeping. So this contrasts with the controlled depiction of Jekyll that we had at the start of him as a Victorian gentleman. I want us to zoom in on the word "soul" now. What are the connotations of a soul? And why might Victorian readers feel that Jekyll is a lost soul? Consider their religious beliefs here, and what Jekyll has done in creating Hyde. Pause the video to answer that question. The answers coming up in three, two and one. A "soul" is seen as the spiritual or immortal part of a human. Christians view this as belonging to God. Victorian society would view Jekyll's soul as damaged as he is engaged in experiments in order to separate his personality, which would be considered sacrilegious as he tried to play the role of God by creating new life, which he did when he created Hyde. Pause the video to check and correct your response now please. Now, let's look at our final key moments of the lesson. This is chapter 10, the final chapter of the whole novella. And it's where Jekyll is narrating through the letter explaining why he created Hyde. In this part of the novella, Jekyll explains how the desire to seem respectable and hide his inner self caused him to create Hyde. He says, "My devil had long been caged "and it came out roaring." Here, Jekyll is saying after repressing it for so long, his inner evil, Hyde, came out. And our second quotation, "I've been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck. "Man is not truly one but truly two." Jekyll realises that he cannot escape his duality. He cannot escape the fact that he has inner evil within him. What caused Jekyll to create Hyde? Was it A, he was curious at how far his scientific experiments could go and wanted to be more successful than Dr Lanyon? Or is it B, he felt pressured to seem respectable, so created Hyde to embody his inner desires? Pause the video to write your answer. It's coming up in three, two, and one. The correct answer is of course, B. He was pressured by the expectations of a repressive society in order to keep his reputation as a Victorian gentleman. Let's look at that quotation from chapter 10. "I've been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck. "Man is not truly one but truly two." Jekyll states his realisation that he has a dual nature, which is emphasised by the repetition in "not truly one but truly two." Jekyll states that he's been "doomed," meaning that he was unable to escape this terrible fate. Through Jekyll's downfall, Stevenson warns us that you cannot deny your duality or repress your inner evil. What are the connotations of "shipwreck," and why do you think it's been used here? Why is it significant? Pause your video and write your answer please. The answers coming up in three, two, and one. The noun "shipwreck" has connotations of disaster, highlighting how Jekyll recognises his downfall and that his attempt to separate his good and evil sides was futile. It was pointless. Stevenson could be pointing towards the destruction that the pressures of a repressive society have caused. Therefore, he could be using Jekyll to criticise the repressive society. Pause the video to check and correct your response. Now we're going to apply our learning to the literature paragraph that I told you about before. Now, this is the same question that you had last lesson, but I want you to do a new literature paragraph this time focused on the downfall of Dr Jekyll. So our question is, what is the purpose of Dr Henry Jekyll in the novel? There should be a really detailed literature paragraph. So I want you to spend at least 15 minutes writing this. And you may wish to mention why Jekyll created Hyde, Jekyll's downfall and what caused it, think about society. And what Stevenson is telling us about Victorian society, particularly the repressive society through Jekyll. Some key words might be restraint or restrained. Remember that restraint behaviour is what Jekyll aspires for at the beginning. Facade, meaning the cover that you put on, so Jekyll puts on a respectable facade in order to conform. You could comment on Jekyll status as a Victorian gentleman. And depending on your quotation, you might pick out the use of sibilance. Pause the video to write your answer now please. You could have written something like this, Dr Jekyll seems trapped by the secrets that he is keeping. This can be seen in chapter seven, the incident at the window where he's described as "like some disconsolate prisoner." This simile demonstrates Jekyll's lack of freedom as the common noun "prisoner" connotes entrapment. However, prisoner also has connotations of crime and punishment, showing how Jekyll is isolated from the outside world because of the crimes that Hyde has committed, such as killing Sir Danvers Carew. And because he's lost the ability to control when he turns into Hyde. The Victorian reader would be able to see how, due to his actions as Hyde, Jekyll is now restricted. As you can see, the student's done some really nice analysis on the quotation, like some disconsolate prisoner. They've got their single word analysis on prisoner. They've even said two different sets of connotations. They've only got one quote in this paragraph, so they're not necessarily commenting on how Jekyll's presentation changes. Let's look at a more detailed response now. Stevenson uses Jekyll's downfall to warn about the dangers of the repressive society. In chapter seven, Jekyll's loss of control over Hyde has led to his loss of freedom when he is described as "like some disconsolate prisoner." The common noun "prisoner" connotes entrapment, displaying his loss of freedom. However, "prisoner" also has connotations of crime and punishment, showing how Jekyll is isolated from the outside world as he can no longer show the restraint required of a Victorian gentleman. In chapter eight, Jekyll is completely dominated by the desires that he previously tried to hide when he is described as "like a woman or a lost soul," showing that he has lost power and status because he's compared to a woman who would have been subservient in the Victorian patriarchal society. Furthermore, the phrase "lost soul" could suggest that Jekyll's position is now hopeless, as the adjective lost has connotations of something that cannot be retrieved, suggesting now that Jekyll has created the evil Hyde, he's lost God's faith. Okay, hopefully, you can see some changes in this one. So first of all, look at how they've started their paragraph. Stevenson uses Jekyll's downfall to warn about the dangers of repressive society. There's a lot more focus here on Stevenson's message, and how Stevenson is using Jekyll to spread that message. We've also got more weaving of context through the paragraph. For example, the reference to the Victorian patriarchal society, and it's not just lumped on the end there. Okay, I'd like you to pause your video and assess your own response in comparison to this one. What have you not done that you need to improve? And try to add that in now, please. I'd now like you to complete the short review quiz by clicking on the link. That brings us to the end of today's lesson, a really big well done on all the learning you've achieved today. I'd now like you to look back at your notes from this lesson and identify the three most important things that you've learned today. It's totally up to you what they are. Thank you for learning with me and have a great day.

Exit Quiz: Dr Jekyll (Part 2)

Completed: Dr Jekyll (Part 2)

In this lesson, we will revisit the character of Dr Jekyll, specifically focusing on his downfall in chapters 7-10. We will consider how Stevenson uses this downfall to comment on Victorian society and human nature.

English

Dr Jekyll (Part 2)

Introductory Quiz

Video

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete