Novel Passage Analysis of “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
Passage Analysis
Word Limit: 700 words
I am going to provide a choice of passages from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Analyze the passage in essay format, telling me the following information:
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Who is the speaker? With whom are they speaking?
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How is the narrative being focalized? (Internal or external focalization? Or free-indirect discourse? Give examples.)
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How does this passage function in the narrative? Is it foreshadowing, relaying information, or simply creating unity of effect? Give examples to demonstrate your assessment.
Assignment Instructions:
Formatting: Please double-space and use 12 point Times New Roman font. Do not include a separate title page; instead, place your title centered in the line immediately above your essays first sentence. Make sure your essay title clearly indicates the focus of your essay topic. Please write your name, the date, and the course date and section on the top left corner of the first page. Include page numbers.
Evaluation:
Your essay will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
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to what extent it conforms to the assignment instructions.
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to what extent it demonstrates proper grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, effective paragraph order, paragraph unity and coherence, and substantial and effective use of quotations to prove your points.
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to what extent it conforms to MLA formatting. Essays that do not conform to MLA formatting will lose significant grade points.
Choose one of the following passages to analyze. Indicate your choice in the assignment.
A) He had his death-warrant written legibly upon his face. The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it was not so much these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyers notice, as a look in the eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some deep-seated terror of the mind. It was unlikely that the doctor should fear death; and yet that was what Utterson was tempted to suspect. Yes, he thought; he is a doctor, he must know his own state and that his days are counted; and the knowledge is more than he can bear. And yet when Utterson remarked on his ill looks, it was with an air of great firmness that Lanyon declared himself a doomed man.
I have had a shock, he said, and I shall never recover. It is a question of weeks. Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I used to like it. I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away.
Jekyll is ill, too, observed Utterson. Have you seen him?
But Lanyons face changed, and he held up a trembling hand. I wish to see or hear no more of Dr. Jekyll, he said in a loud, unsteady voice. I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead.
B) Why, then, said the lawyer, good-naturedly, the best thing we can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are.
That is just what I was about to venture to propose, returned the doctor with a smile. But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. They saw it but for a glimpse for the window was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they turned and left the court without a word. In silence, too, they traversed the by-street; and it was not until they had come into a neighbouring thoroughfare, where even upon a Sunday there were still some stirrings of life, that Mr. Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes.
God forgive us, God forgive us, said Mr. Utterson.
But Mr. Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked on once more in silence.
C) All this, though it whetted my curiosity, told me little that was definite. Here were a phial of some salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of Jekylls investigations) to no end of practical usefulness. How could the presence of these articles in my house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the life of my flighty colleague? If his messenger could go to one place, why could he not go to another? And even granting some impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in secret? The more I reflected the more convinced I grew that I was dealing with a case of cerebral disease; and though I dismissed my servants to bed, I loaded an old revolver, that I might be found in some posture of self-defence.
D) I was so far in my reflections when, as I have said, a side light began to shine upon the subject from the laboratory table. I began to perceive more deeply than it has ever yet been stated, the trembling immateriality, the mistlike transience, of this seemingly so solid body in which we walk attired. Certain agents I found to have the power to shake and pluck back that fleshly vestment, even as a wind might toss the curtains of a pavilion. For two good reasons, I will not enter deeply into this scientific branch of my confession. First, because I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen of our life is bound for ever on mans shoulders, and when the attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and more awful pressure. Second, because, as my narrative will make, alas! too evident, my discoveries were incomplete. Enough then, that I not only recognised my natural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp of lower elements in my soul.
Link to Novel: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm
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