Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Themes test questions

Read the extract from the final chapter of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, where Jekyll explains everything, and then answer questions 1-4 below.

I was stepping leisurely across the court after breakfast, drinking the chill of the air with pleasure, when I was seized again with those indescribable sensations that heralded the change; and I had but the time to gain the shelter of my cabinet, before I was once again raging and freezing with the passions of Hyde. It took on this occasion a double dose to recall me to myself.

Which of the themes is Stevenson highlighting in this passage?

What do the words 'leisurely' and 'pleasure' show us about Jekyll's personality?

How does Stevenson polarise Hyde's and Jekyll's personalities in this passage?

Why does it take Jekyll a 'double dose to recall' himself?

Read the extract from when Dr Lanyon witnesses Hyde turn into Jekyll and answer questions 5-7 below.

He put the glass to his lips, and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked, there came, I thought, a change - he seemed to swell - his face became suddenly black, and the features seemed to melt and alter - and the next moment I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

How does Dr Lanyon feel about the experiment in this passage?

How does the change physically affect Hyde?

What does the phrase 'my arm shield me from that prodigy' tell us about Lanyon's emotion?

Read the extract from the end of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, where Jekyll is explaining everything, and then answer questions 8-10 below.

I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know yourself how earnestly in the last months of the year I laboured to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others, and that the days passed quietly, almost happily for myself. Nor can I truly say that I wearied of this beneficent and innocent life; I think instead that I daily enjoyed it more completely; but I was still cursed with my duality of purpose; and as the first edge of my penitence wore off, the lower side of me, so long indulged, so recently chained down, began to growl for license.

Which two themes does Stevenson refer to in this passage?

How does Jekyll describe Hyde in this passage?

How does Jekyll describe his own emotions in this passage?