You will write an argument where you evaluate Robert Louis Stevenson’s
novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Your essay must consist of a
minimum of 4 complete pages-excluding the works cited page-to be acceptable. In
addition, the essay will consist of 7 paragraphs: an introduction, 5-body paragraphs, and a
solid conclusion. Students will incorporate ten (10) in-text parenthetical citations
(documented direct quotes from the primary source) in their essays. In addition, students
are tasked with writing the essay in the third person and the literary present tense.
Your essay will present a tiered evaluation. Your task, then, will be to:
A) critically evaluate the social, psychological, and physical implications attributed
to Mr. Hyde, as he signifies an aberration of Victorian propriety, and,
B) provide a detailed analysis of the paradox attributed to the masculine identity.
In this assignment, students will use a specific theoretical perspective to examine and
analyze a specific element or aspect of a work. In one (1) body paragraph, students will
consider Psychoanalytic Criticism as the manner in which to evaluate the constituted
ideology.
Literary theory pertains not to the meaning of a work of literature but to the theories that
reveal what literature can mean. This assignment is not an essay about theory. This essay
is a critical evaluation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from a particular theoretical perspective. The student is not writing about a specific theory; the student is,
instead, applying that theory to the story.
