Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde˝ Hyde˝ A Class Project

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Paloma Rodríguez Pérez, 3ºA IES Cristo del Rosario – Zafra (Badajoz) 01/03/14

Information about about the book Title: The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850- 1894). Edinburgh, Scotland.

Publishing House: Burlington Books.

Main Characters: Dr Henry Jekyll: He´s about 40-50 years old and he´s a doctor and a scientist from London. He´s serious, shy, friendly, generous and very mysterious. He wants to have a bad side or a bad personality. He´s really intelligent, and he makes a chemical which transforms him into a bad person, who is Mr Edward Hyde. He´s very tall and slim, he´s got blonde hair and he´s always well dressed.

Mr Edward Hyde: He´s about 40-50 years old and he´s Dr Henry Jekyll´s bad side. He´s from London. He does a lot of bad things: he jumps over children, he murders one man... He´s really bad and unfriendly. He´s very short and ugly, because he´s got an evil face.

He´s got dark hair and he gives an impression of deformity, he´s detestable. He always wears a hat and a cane and he isn´t well dressed.

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Mr Utterson: He´s about 50 years old and he´s a quiet, serious lawyer from London. He´s Dr Jekyll´s lawyer and friend. He wants to discover Dr Jekyll´s secret. He´s shy with strangers, he´s curious and he´s really interested in strange stories. He´s got a lot of friends and he always helps them because he´s very friendly. He´s constant and worker too. He´s tall and slim, he´s got brown hair and a big moustache and he usually wears a monocle. He´s well dressed.

Mr Enfield: He´s about 50 years old and he´s a reserved and a serious man from London. He tells strange stories to Mr Utterson, because they are friends. They walk together through the streets of London every Sunday afternoon and they always help each other. He´s got brown hair and a brown beard. He´s tall and a bit fat. He´s well dressed too.

Dr Lanyon: He´s about 50 years old and he´s a serious, intelligent and friendly doctor from London. Dr Henry Jekyll and Mr Utterson are his friends. He discovers Dr Jekyll´s secret and he dies because he´s terrified. He´s short and a bit fat. He´s got white hair, a big moustache like Mr Utterson, and red cheeks. He´s also well dressed.

Poole: He´s about 50 years old, he´s from London, and he´s Dr Jekyll´s butler. He´s friendly and shy, and he helps Mr Utterson when it´s necessary. He´s a bit fearful. He isn´t very tall, he´s got white hair and he wears glasses. He´s got a friendly face.

There are different secondary characters in this story, for example: Mr Guest (Mr Utterson´s head clerk), Sir Danvers Carew (the man who is murdered by Mr Edward Hyde), a girl, a police man, a maid...

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Summary: In a Victorian London, Mr Enfield told a story to Mr Utterson which was about an strange and a really evil man called Mr Hyde. One day after that, Mr Utterson read the will of one of his good clients, Dr Henry Jekyll, which said that in the case of disappearance or in the case of Dr Jekyll´s death, all his money and possessions will go to his friend, Mr Edward Hyde.

Mr Utterson was very surprised and interested in this man, so he began to investigate him with the help of his friends, who were Mr Enfield, Dr Lanyon and Poole. Mr Hyde did a lot of bad things (for example, he murdered a man called Sir Danvers Carew) and he was really mysterious. Dr Jekyll was different too. Mr Utterson thought that this situation was really strange.

At the end of the story, Mr Utterson discovered that Dr Jekyll created a chemical which transformed him into Mr Hyde. He created this potion because he wanted to have a bad personality or a bad side and he wanted to do bad things. Unfortunately, Dr Henry Jekyll couldn´t stop or control his bad side, who was Mr Hyde, because it was an addiction and he committed suicide.

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Personal Opinion: I think that this book is very interesting and mysterious. It´s a really good psychological novel because it shows us the good and the bad side that all people have inside them. We sometimes want to do bad things, when we are angry or upset for example, and in other cases we are very nice and good people. This is a normal thing because we aren´t perfect, we are humans. I think that it´s really cool, but if there is always a balance between the two sides. I love this book, it´s a masterpiece.

Vocabulary chart:

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Word lawyer

Meaning abogado

envelope

sobre

purse

monedero

reward

recompensa

will

testamento

tightly butler

apretadamente, fuertemente mayordomo

maid

sirvienta, criada

collided

se chocaron

rusty

oxidado/a

jaw

mandíbula

swing

balancear

locksmith

cerrajero

cane

bastón

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Sentence He was a quiet, serious lawyer.

After dinner, he went into his office and took an envelope from the drawer in his desk.

The police also found a purse and a gold watch on the body.

The police offered thounsands of pounds as a reward.

The Dr Jekyll´s will was in an envelope.

He closed his mouth tightly for a moment.

Poole, the butler, opened the door of Dr Jekyll´s house.

An old maid opened the door.

Unfortunately, the two of them collided at the corner and the girl fell to the ground.

The old key was rusty and broken.

I had a much more prominent jaw.

He became angry and began to swing his cane in the air.

The locksmith will open locked doorto my room above the laboratory.

Mr Hyde had a heavy cane in his hand.

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