Chapter: "Dr. Lanyon's Narrative"

 

Review Questions to Answer

1. What had happened to Dr. Lanyon?  (He had a shock and then died, leaving a sealed letter for Mr. Utterson.)

2. Did Dr. Lanyon know Dr. Jekyll?  (Yes, they were old friends.)

3. Did he know Mr. Hyde?  (Not yet.)

 

Comprehension Questions to Respond To

1. What emotion did Jekyll’s letter convey?  (Desperation, fright, humiliation)

2. What did Lanyon think after he read the letter?  (That Jekyll was insane.)

3. Do you recognize the stranger from Lanyon’s description of him?  (He is Mr. Hyde.)

4. Interpret the clues based on your knowledge of the end of the story.  (Hyde needs the contents of the drawer in order to return to his state as Jekyll.)

5. What is going to happen when the strange man drinks the potion?  (He turns into Jekyll.)

 

Vocabulary Words to Look Up

1. glazed press

2. morbid

3. phial

4. receipt

5. trifle

6. farrago

7. volatile

8. tincture

9. incipient

10. rigour (rigor)

11. accoutrement

12. muster

13. graduated

14. ebullition

15.parley

16. enigma

17. transcendental

18. prodigy

19. incredulous

20. turpitude

 

Before class begins, place dictionaries under some of the students' seats. Place a vocabulary word (or words) on a slip of paper inside each dictionary. As we read aloud this chapter, we will pause for vocabulary words on our list to be defined by each student who is holding a dictionary.

 

Discussion Questions to Talk Over

1. What caused Lanyon to become mortally ill?  (Shock to nervous system)

2. Why didn’t Jekyll-Hyde die of shock?  (Jekyll believed in the possibility of transcen-dental medicine; whereas Lanyon scorned any non-scientific phenomena.  See p. 101)

3. Has Stevenson sufficiently prepared us for the disastrous effect of Jekyll’s revelation?  (Yes, because we already know that Lanyon dies after saying to Utterson, “I have had a shock, and I shall never recover.  See p. 72)

4. Why did Stevenson need to kill Lanyon off for purposes of plot?  (Think like an author.  Stevenson used Lanyon’s letter to reveal part of the mystery.  If Lanyon had not suffered the shock and died, he might have kept Jekyll’s secret.)

5. Why did Jekyll offer to reveal his transformation to Dr. Lanyon?  (Use your imagination.  Jekyll-Hyde was arrogant about his remarkable discovery, and wished to prove Lanyon in the wrong.)

 

Questions for Newcomer/ Beginning English Proificiency Level

1. Who wrote a letter to Dr. Lanyon?  (Dr. Jekyll)

2. Was Dr. Jekyll worried or happy?  (worried)

3. Did Dr. Lanyon do what Dr. Jekyll asked?  (Yes.)

4. Who did Mr. Hyde change into when he drank the mixture?  (Dr. Jekyll)

 

Questions for Intermediate English Proficiency Level

1. Tell me what Dr. Jekyll asked Dr. Lanyon to do for him.  (to get a drawer with powders, a phial, and a book, and to give those things to a messenger)

2. Describe the strange man who came into Dr. Lanyon’s house.  (clothes too big, impatient, excited, scary)

3. What happened when the strange man drank the mixture?  (He turned into Dr. Jekyll.)

 

Questions for Advanced English Proficiency Level

1. Answer Dr. Lanyon’s question: “How could the presence of these articles [powders, phial, and book] in my house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the life of my flighty colleague [Dr. Jekyll]?”  (They affected his honor, sanity, and life because Mr. Hyde was wanted for murder, and unless he could change back into Dr. Jekyll, he would be caught, tried, and hung.)

2. Dr. Lanyon said, “I set it [my disturbed feelings] down to some idiosyncratic, personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness of the symptoms; but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature of the man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of hatred.”  Decide whether Dr. Lanyon disliked his strange visitor because he just didn’t like him, or because the man was evil.  (Either side can be argued, but all the others who met Mr. Hyde disliked and feared him as well, so possibly they felt that way because of Mr. Hyde’s nature.

3. How would you feel if a person changed shape suddenly right in front of you?  (scared, surprised, confused)

 

(c) 2005 Sharon Rose Enterline