Every card in Nineteenth-century novel, Year 10: Utterson, Lanyon, Enfield and Poole (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde option)
The whole deck, in order — so you can read it through before your child ever sees it.
- The narrator describes Utterson as “lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow...” what? (one word)
lovable
HintAfter a list of cold words, one warm one.
WhyThe contrast tells the reader that behind the stern, dry manner is a kind man, which is why people trust him with their secrets. Stevenson says something eminently human shows in his eye.
- Utterson says “I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.” What does this show about him?
That he is tolerant: he does not judge or interfere, so people confide in him
HintHe stays friends with those who have gone wrong.
WhyHe refers to Cain's question in the Bible. His tolerance makes him a trusted lawyer, but it also means he asks few questions of Jekyll until it is almost too late.
- In Chapter 2 Utterson says “If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek.” What is the wordplay?
Hyde and Seek: he will hunt for Hyde, like the game of hide-and-seek
HintSay the two names out loud, quickly.
WhyHe starts to haunt the door at all hours, waiting for Hyde. The pun shows a dry humour as well as a lawyer's patience.
- In Chapter 2 why does Utterson suspect that Hyde has some hold over Jekyll?
He thinks Jekyll did something wrong in his wild youth, and that Hyde knows about it
HintHe remembers his friend as a younger man.
WhyUtterson thinks of a ghost of some old sin. The truth is stranger: the secret is not in the past but in Jekyll himself.
- In Chapter 5 Utterson's clerk Mr Guest compares Hyde's letter with Jekyll's handwriting. What does he notice?
That the two hands are almost identical, only sloped differently
HintThe letter is meant to come from two different men.
WhyGuest is an expert on handwriting. The clue points towards Jekyll having written the letter himself, but Utterson chooses to say nothing.
- Lanyon calls Jekyll's recent theories “unscientific balderdash”. What does this show about Lanyon?
That he is a cautious, conventional scientist who despises Jekyll's risky ideas
HintHis idea of science is the opposite of his friend's.
WhyLanyon and Jekyll quarrelled over Jekyll's interest in mystic science. This sets up the later scene in which Lanyon sees at first hand where such ideas lead.
- In Chapter 6 Lanyon tells Utterson “I have had a shock, and I shall never recover.” What does he know?
He has seen Hyde turn into Jekyll, though he refuses to say so at this point
HintHe tells Utterson to ask his friend himself.
WhyThe healthy, red-faced doctor of Chapter 2 is now a shaken, dying man. The change in him shows the reader how terrible the truth must be.
- How is Enfield related to Utterson?
He is a distant relative: Utterson's kinsman
HintThey are very different, yet they walk together each Sunday.
WhyEnfield is a well-known man about town. The two share a taste for silence rather than interests, and Enfield's reluctance to ask questions suits Utterson.
- Enfield says “the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.” What does this show about the gentlemen of the story?
That they avoid asking questions about a scandal, to protect reputations
HintHe prefers not to know.
WhyThe rule works for Enfield and Utterson in Chapter 1 and lets the secret grow. A world in which respectable men look away is what lets Hyde escape.
- In Chapter 8 Poole says the figure in the cabinet was “more of a dwarf” than his master. What is Poole's point?
That the creature in the cabinet cannot be Jekyll, who is a tall, well-built man
HintHe compares what he saw with the master he has known for years.
WhyPoole's loyalty shows in how well he knows Jekyll. He is the first to say plainly that something is wrong, and he is believed in the end.
1★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0079
2★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0080
3★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0081
4★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0082
5★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0083
6★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0084
7★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0085
8★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0086
9★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0087
10★ GCSE-ENLI-NOV-0088
Keep what you learn
Here, nothing is saved. In your child’s own sky every card is scheduled — it comes back just before they’d forget it — and the professor who wrote it is one tap away.