Facultad de Ciencias y Artes

Departamento de Lingüística
Coordinación de Literatura
Período 1920-3
Lecturas I BPTLI11
Sección 1

Book Report “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Robert Stevenson
1- At least one paragraph describing the setting of the book. (The setting is where
the main part of the story takes place. There may be more than one place in your
story to describe.)

The story takes place in London, England. The most important places are Dr Jekyll’s
house and his study, where he created the chemical mixture to transform into Mr.
Hyde. The rest of the relevant places are Mr. Utterson’s house and the dark street
outside Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory, which Mr. Hyde has access to.

2- Description of the main character.

The main character of the novel is Mr. Utterson, a quiet, serious man, who
prefered to show his feelings to those he knows well enough. Even though he has
things to enjoy, he chooses not to, thus depriving himself of being more content with
his life. The criminals he has worked with “often carried with them memories of his
politeness and fairness” on their way to prison. Throughout this story, his
determination to unravel the mystery of his friend, Dr. Jekyll, grows stronger the
closer he gets to the end, which can be taken as a somewhat annoying
stubbornness by a few of his friends. All in all, Utterson tends to show his kindness
through his actions, rather than his words.

3. Beginning of the story.

The story begins when Mr. Utterson and his best friend, Mr. Enfield, take a
stroll around London and arrive near the windowless building where he had an
unpleasant encounter with Hyde, who had tramped, without hesitation, a girl who
happened to be on the floor. This horrible act had prompted Enfield to fetch the
violent stranger and make him confront the crowd that had formed around the girl
who had been screaming in pain since she got stepped on, literally. Hyde offers to
pay for what he had done to the girl and compensate for it to her family. After
Utterson hears the disastrous situation, he asks who was that ugly-looking stranger,
to which his friend replies “He told us his name was Hyde”. Later, Mr. Utterson
decides to look for the hateful man, who happened to be in the will of his friend, Dr.
Jekyll. After a dinner party he organized, Utterson asks Jekyll who Hyde is to him,
Jekyll went pale and declined further questions about his evil counterpart. This part
of the story ends with the murder of Sir Danvers Carew done by Mr. Hyde, which had
a witness, to his misfortune, because now the police are going after him.

4- At least one paragraph explaining what happened in the middle of the book.

While Utterson and his cousin were strolling near Hyde’s place, when they
saw Henry at the window, who, after a short talk, shut the window and seemed to be
experiencing a sort of seizure; his face was truly disturbing for both men on the
street. In this part of the story, Richard Poole, Jekyll’s butler, contacts Utterson to
report the unusual behavior of his master, plus the crying, pacing and wailing that
has been heard throughout the week, with no sign of him coming out anytime soon.

5- At least one paragraph explaining what happened at the end of the book.

For the final part of the book, Jekyll gives his testimony, reveals how he
transformed into Mr. Hyde, why he was doing so in the first place, and how he slowly
felt Edward taking over his body, the one people respected, loved and cherished. At
one point, Henry woke up to see Hyde’s hand instead of his. This triggered a panic
response; it meant he was losing the grip he had on his evil counterpart whenever he
rested, or closed his eyes with said purpose in mind. Jekyll had to do something
about it, in the form of a very urgent letter to Lanyon, pleading for him to follow the
instructions he left him in it, so Hyde could pick up the components of the potion to
turn him back into himself. Meanwhile, Utterson and Poole had teamed up to solve
the mystery of Jekyll’s imprisonment in his room for the past week. A single door got
kicked down, a body was discovered, questions were raised, one thing was true:
Jekyll took Hyde with him when the potion failed, before the door went down.

6- Similes, metaphores and symbols.

When describing the street where Mr. Utterson and his cousin would find the
door of Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory, the author described it as “the street shone out in
contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest”, which is the opposite of
the atmosphere around the being going in and out of the building on a regular basis.
The most prominent symbol in the story are letters, or anything written on paper, for
that matter. They provide a sense of emergency, secrecy, as well as setting the
wheels of the narrative in motion by revealing key information the moment it was
needed. For example, the notes that Jekyll had to write and slip under the door of his
room to give orders to Poole, thus avoiding the use of his voice, which would raise
further suspicions from the staff in his situation.

7- At least one paragraph explaining the use of humor, satire, and exaggeration and
their relevance in the events that unfold in the novel.

The novel’s genre has no room for humor, at all. It is characterized by its dark,
tense mood held throughout the story. The only thing that could be humorous is the
constant description of Mr. Hyde as someone who fits the “hate at first sight”
expression, because of how awful and ugly his presence is. Nonetheless,
exaggeration is used for Edward’s crimes; no one could possibly contain so much
evil to tramp a girl who had done nothing to him, in public.

8- At least one paragraph stating your opinion of the book. Based on

examples from the novel, state if at some points in the story you were able to predict,
infer, and read between the lines. Connect some events of the story to your own life.
 This book had me at the edge of my seat (my sofa) after I read that Hyde had
stepped over the girl and showed no remorse whatsoever. I had never read or
remember seeing anything of the like, ever. Evil is often sophisticated, well dressed,
well-poised in the productions or writings I take time to comprehend and connect
with. However, THIS, blew my overwhelmed brain away; such a small action
resulting in something horrifying to witness: raw, gunless violence, from an unfiltered
creature. It was certainly enough to interest me in Edward’s true nature and
character. Who could predict what his reactions were going to be to anything at all?
Not me, for sure.

Being honest, I could barely predict or infer much, except for small events, like
some dialogs between Utterson and any other character, using knowledge I have
gathered about basic human interaction during my lifetime.

As shocking as it sounds, it did not occur to me that Dr. Jekyll’s contant

transformations into Mr. Hyde could relate to me in any way. Then, of course, it hit
me: this sounds oddly familiar. I understand the distress that Henry goes through
when he cannot find the right chemicals again to make a dosage of his mixture to
come back to normal; it is the same as not having testosterone available (which is
not a thing in this country, at all) and having to cope with the constant bother of not
feeling like yourself for more than one can handle. Which also brings mental health
issues, as well as the wailing and crying depicted at the end of the novel, depending
on the severity of the gender dysphoria.

P.D: I am very glad mine is not crippling :D

Depth of Use of Use of the Conventions Total

reflection textual language
evidence

5/5 4.5/5 5/5 5/5 19.5 /20