A character that particularly interests me is Mr.Hyde. He seems to be a dark manifested part of Dr. Jeckyll’s subconscious that has taken control. On the one hand, he can speak and write and come off as a more or less normal person and on the other, he can be extremely violent like a wild animal.
“The large handsome face of Dr. Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes” – Stevenson uses pale to the very lips and blackness about his eyes to describe how Dr. Jeckyll can regress into a very disturbed person when Utterson mentions Mr.Hyde. He is someone that Dr. Jeckyll fears and we really get the sense of how different of a person he is despite sharing the same body.
“Only on one point, were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders.” – Stevenson paints us a picture of how Hyde is seen by everyone else. He is mysterious, eerie, and disturbing in sight.
“- but Mr. Hyde had disappeared out of the ken of the police as though he had never existed” – Stevenson uses language to describe how quickly he disappeared as a play on the fact that Hyde actually did never exist.
“Much of his past was unearthed, indeed, and all disreputable: tales came out of the man’s cruelty, at once so callous and violent, of his vile life,” – Stevenson starts giving us some of the information that is starting to come out to the public about how violent this Hyde seems to be. This just adds to the mystery for the reader as to why someone as respectable as Dr. Jeckyll has anything to do with someone like this.
“but of his present whereabouts, not a whisper.” – Stevenson gives mystery to the reader as one might begin to ask how Hyde keeps dodging being captured. Noone ever seems to know his whereabouts until after something has occurred.

An intriguing part of Jekyll and Hyde is the outside appearance of Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. Stevenson’s first description of the lab is “a sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street.” At this point, the reader does not know that this is Dr. Jekyll’s lab but we do know that this house sticks out amongst the rest of the setting on the street. The rest of the storefronts in the surrounding neighborhood are described as looking like “an air of invitation” showing that the neighborhood is not as scary as the building being described. Stevenson goes on to describe the building as having no windows and only having a door in the front and looking like it was neglected. Later in the story, Poole has to break the door of Dr. Jekyll’s lab down with an axe, implying that it was heavily locked. It is also known that Dr. Jekyll’s house is a big and comfortable house that is well cared for. The contrast between Dr. Jekyll’s house and his laboratory represents the difference that exists between Jekyll and Hyde. When Dr. Jekyll is living as himself, he lives in a comfortable, normal house which would be expected of a doctor to live in. However, when Hyde is present he takes to the “sinister” looking lab that has no windows indicating something bad will happen. When first hearing of the windowless building, the reader may assume that the building is hiding something which may have been Stevenson’s purpose. Calling the building a “sinister” structure suggests that whatever the building is hiding is evil. Since the rest of the streets surrounding the block that the lab is located on are described as inviting, we know that this building isn’t similar to the surrounding architecture. This dwelling that Hyde lives in demonstrates how he sticks out and how different Hyde is from the rest of society.

I was interested in Dr. Lanyon while reading this story because he seemed like the opposite of Dr. Jekyll. He was a logical, rational person and was in disbelief when he saw Dr. Jekyll irrationally transform into Mr. Hyde.

Quotes:

Lanyon on Jekyll: “I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead.”

Lanyon on Jekyll: “He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake’s sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such unscientific balderdash”

Jekyll on Lanyon: “I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies”

Jekyll on Lanyon: “O, I know he’s a good fellow … but a hide-bound pedant for all that; an ignorant, blatant pedant. I was never more disappointed in any man than Lanyon.”

Lanyon’s fate: “And yet when Utterson remarked on his ill-looks, it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declared himself a doomed man.”

Lanyon and Jekyll were longtime friends who had a big scientific disagreement at some point in the past. I think this disagreement occurred because of Jekyll’s interest in the supernatural and illogical experiments that Lanyon detests. Lanyon believes strongly in science and logic, so he considered Jekyll’s outlandish ideas “heresies.” He describes Jekyll’s ideas as “unscientific balderdash,” which means his ideas are nonsense. Their relationship is broken beyond repair, with both expressing disappointment in the other. Jekyll describes Lanyon as a ignorant “pedant” that obsesses over small details, while Lanyon considers Jekyll to be dead to him. This ties into the idea of the text that supernaturalism triumphed over logic. Lanyon’s firm belief in logic causes his death when he witnesses Jekyll’s transformation. He either is unable to or doesn’t want to believe what he’s seeing, which defies logic. Lanyon knew he was going to die and accepts it, sticking to his beliefs until the end.

Group work:
Group Members: Vincent Patti, Erica Simon, and Christopher Soto

Discuss your experiences with the individual assignment.

The overall experience of the individual assignment in our group was great. Everyone in the group encountered slight difficulty in selecting one scene to write about in where our interests lies in discovering multiple choices from the text in a short period of time.

Choose one student’s assignment as the basis for group exploration

One theme explored in the basis student assignment (Vincent) is discovering the supernatural, won over logic and reason. Specifically, in Dr Lanyon’s death over Dr. Jekyll’s supernatural transformation. Another theme explored is the good vs evil and duality in Dr. Lanyon vs Dr. Jekyll in which both are considered opposites as Lanyon is perceived as being more good than Jekyll who is more evil based on his actions and character.

What themes, motifs, or moods emerged in the individual student’s interpretation or analysis?

The mood of Dr. Lanyon’s death is grim, sad, and tense as Dr. Lanyon dies after viewing Dr. Jekyll.

How might you convey similar themes, motifs, or moods for a modern audience without using words?

Through descriptions of body language, feelings and emotions, can describe the mood and themes mentioned about about grim, sadness, and tenseness without using words. Scenarios of conflict and action through character interactions can also be used to describe the themes and moods of the text without using words directly.

Sara B., Jules F., Jahed A., Christina C.
1.Discuss experiences—hard to pick out words to analyze good at interpreting phrases for closer readings, idea came to mind easily when picking a scene.
-need to work on analyzing and close readings, I usually summarize instead of analyze. Picking a scene was easy for me as well.
2.Sara B.’s post
3.Themes, moods
-Theme of good vs. evil—Sara wrote about the scene in chapter one “incident at the window”- this scene shows the theme of good vs. evil because it outlines Dr. Jekyll’s life as he started to lose control over his identity. The evil was taking power over the good
-mood of anger—Sara writes what his mood changes from a pleasant smile to terror and despair. His identity was changing violently into Mr. Hyde where the evil held power above the good.
4.To convey similar themes we would draw a picture or use a person who has an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other showing that both extremes can fight against each other and take over your conscious and ultimately lead to a lack of power within yourself.

A particular scene that interests me is when we first meet Mr. Hyde, trampling a young girl Enfield relates to Utterson as being incredibly ugly but not sure why. This is a particularly interesting because this is a reflection of Hyde’s identity. He is judged as being evil not based on his physique but metaphysical. Throughout the novel, his ugliness is questioned as to why he is perceived as ugly.

As Enfield says, “He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity.

Enfield’s lack of strength in his description of Mr. Hyde sets the tone of ambiguity. This is important because it is a reflection of Hyde as not being able to fit into a proper description because he is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Not only that, these failures of articulation and lack of placement show Hyde as an uncanny figure, and the so called “deformity” is intangible.