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Year 11
Eduqas

'Jekyll and Hyde': urbanisation and social divisions

I can analyse how Stevenson uses his descriptions of Victorian London to explore the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

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Year 11
Eduqas

'Jekyll and Hyde': urbanisation and social divisions

I can analyse how Stevenson uses his descriptions of Victorian London to explore the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Victorian London was noisy, overcrowded, and diverse, with people from various cultural backgrounds and social classes.
  2. The Industrial Revolution transformed London, causing pollution, a huge class divide and feelings of alienation.
  3. The novella explores human duality in Victorian society, reflecting conflict between progress and primal instincts.
  4. Stevenson's descriptions of setting create an ominous atmosphere, perhaps implying Hyde is an evil, immoral character.
  5. Descriptions of the fog suggest the progress of the Industrial Revolution obscured a darker side of Victorian society.

Keywords

  • Pathetic fallacy - the attribution of human emotion to inanimate objects, nature, or animals

  • Industrial Revolution - a period of major industrial and technological advancements, transforming economies and societies

  • Ominous - suggesting something bad or threatening is about to happen

  • Alienation - a feeling of disconnection or isolation from society, work, or one's environment

  • Foreshadows - hints at or predicts a future event in a story

Common misconception

There isn't much point analysing setting to learn about theh characters or themes of text; it just provides the scenery for the action to take place in.

Often writers use setting to subtly foreshadow events or symbolise important paralells to characters. Analysing settings is a useful way to learn more about characters and key themes.

There are many other decriptions of setting in the novella. To challenge pupils, you could encourage them to find their own description of setting to annotate for Task B, instead of using the one provided in the additional materials.
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Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

You will need access to specific extracts from 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can find the extracts in the additional materials.

content-guidance

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
  • Language may offend
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on

Open Government Licence version 3.0
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is a slum?
a wealthy, well-kept neighbourhood
a rural area with farms and open land
Correct answer: an overcrowded urban area with poor living conditions
a large industrial factory
Q2.
Which of these happened as a result of the Industrial Revolution?
a decrease in the urban population
improved working conditions for all
Correct answer: an increase in pollution, causing widespread health problems
less reliance on machinery in factories
Q3.
Which of the following words is an example of an adjective?
Correct answer: golden
running
quietly
box
Q4.
Which of the following adverbs does Stevenson use in Chapter 1 of 'Jekyll and Hyde' to emphasise how cruel and merciless Hyde was when he trampled over the young girl?
"quickly"
Correct answer: "calmly"
"joyously"
"violently"
Q5.
Which of these statements are true of the Victorian era?
Victorians were given houses to live in by their employers.
Correct answer: Many poor Victorians live in cramped, unsanitary accommodation.
Many Victorians moved from big cities to the countryside.
Correct answer: Many Victorians suffered health problems due to poor living conditions.
Q6.
In what way did poor Victorians face social stigma from the wealthier classes?
Correct answer: they were seen as inferior and blamed for their poverty
they were celebrated for their hard work and resilience
they were given generous support and assistance
they were admired for their contributions to society

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What caused the 'pea souper' fogs in Victorian London?
ocean mist and heavy rain
Correct answer: factory pollution and burning coal
forest fires
volcanoes
Q2.
What was one major impact of the Industrial Revolution on London?
improved public health
population decline
Correct answer: overcrowding
less traffic
Q3.
Which of these words would you use to describe Victorian London?
tranquil
Correct answer: unsanitary
equal
Correct answer: foggy
Correct answer: bustling
Q4.
Complete the following sentence: 'The Industrial Revolution transformed the city, worsening pollution, widening the class divide and causing feelings of .'
Correct Answer: alienation
Q5.
Which method is being described here: 'hinting at or predicting a future event in a story'?
pathetic fallacy
Correct answer: foreshadowing
metaphor
alliteration
Q6.
What is significant about Stevenson's descriptions of the fog in 'Jekyll and Hyde'?
it shows that London has terrible weather
Correct answer: it implies that technology obscured darker aspects of the Industrial Revolution
it implies that Hyde was really Henry Jekyll
it suggests that this novella is a ghost story

Additional material

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