General Guidelines: Expository essay, 3-5 pages in length, quotes from the novel to support each
paragraph, as well as examples from “real world.” MLA format, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay Planning-Your goal is to come up with your own essay prompt and write to
that. You will include examples from the text and any others you want to incorporate, as well as relevant
life experiences that you have had. Some general topics include:
Friendship
Addiction
Secrets
Good
Evil
Fear
Hope
Free will
Character-nature vs nurture
And anything else you can legitimately justify from the text.
1. What message do I want to convey to the larger audience?
The message that I want to convey to the larger audience is the Duality of Man which means the idea
that every single human being has good and evil within them. Stevenson describes how there is a good
and an evil side to everyone's personality, but what is important is how you behave and the decisions
you make. The choices people make determine whether a person is good or not.
Another theme is Nature and the supernatural. The idea of the supernatural is evident in Jekyll’s
experiment which released Hyde into the world to cause trouble. In contrast, nature or the natural order
is implicit in Lanyon’s horrified response of Jekyll’s experiment.
2. Choose two of the four pillars of student voice to incorporate into your essay.
List them here:
Content and Culture
3. What specific themes will you show in your writing? (Something specific to DJMH, but a
message that can apply to society as a whole.)
The two specific themes that I will show in my writing is Duality of Man and Nature and the
Supernatural.
4. How is this text relevant 134 after its initial publication?
It is relevant after 134 years after its initial publication because it shows the story of how Jekyll
has two part to him. Jekyll, the good part and Hyde, the bad part. It tells the moral story of how
everyone has evil and good inside themselves and if they go to far to one side they lose control
over the other.