Chapter 7
Incident at the Window
Answer these questions in full sentences
1. Find one way in which the weather reflects
characters’ emotions in this chapter.
2. How does Stevenson hint that the expression on Dr
Jekyll’s face terrifies Enfield and Utterson?
3. What similarities can you find between the men’s
reaction to this incident and their reaction to Mr
Hyde?
Some Final Discussion Points…
• This is a short chapter but represents a key
scene. Why?
• The answer to this question should be along
the lines of – the reader is now fully aware
that Jekyll’s house (at the front) contrasts with
Hyde’s dilapidated entrance at the back.
Read the following section again:
‘But the words were hardly uttered, before a smile was struck
out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject
terror as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below.’
What has happened here?
•
Dr Jekyll appears to have taken on some of Hyde’s traits here.
Both men stood below have witnessed the duality of a
person’s nature – good and evil. Their response to this
occurrence leaves them ‘both pale’ with ‘an answering horror
in their eyes’.
How is Dr Jekyll’s house and laboratory situated so as to suggest
a symbolic significance to their ‘arrangement’?
• Dr. Jekyll lives in a respectable home, described by Stevenson as having “a
great air of wealth and comfort.” His laboratory is described as “a certain
sinister block of building … [which] bore in every feature the marks of
profound and sordid negligence.” With its decaying facade and air of
neglect, the laboratory quite neatly symbolizes the corrupt and perverse
Hyde.
• Correspondingly, the respectable, prosperous-looking main house
symbolizes the respectable, upright Jekyll.
• The connection between the buildings also reflects the connection
between the personas they represent. The buildings are adjoined but look
out on two different streets. Because of the complicated layout of the
streets in the area, the casual observer cannot detect that the structures
are two parts of a whole, just as he or she would be unable to detect the
relationship between Jekyll and Hyde.
The Transformation
• This clip is taken from a film made in 1932.
Prepare to be amazed by the special effects!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN4Di8DE
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