In my opinion, one of the more interesting stories that we’ve read this semester is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. While it wasn’t the only story that caught my attention, it was one that I enjoyed quite a bit more than the others. The strange premise that seemed to almost come from a movie, the interesting use of character descriptions, and the way in which it seemed to contradict the Realism that was prevalent in its time. Realism is valuable and interesting in its own right, and certainly not less so than works like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. However, for me, it requires a degree of patience and analysis in an academic setting and, in all truth, I don’t find myself reading such works outside of school very often. This may make me seem like a simpleton, but that’s just how I tend to be.
If I were to teach this work to a certain age group, it would be to high school students (grades 9-12). I chose this age group because Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde manages to provide examples of writing from the Victorian era while also being somewhat fun and interesting. When I was in high school, I lacked the patience and thought to read works of Realism, and preferred more exciting and fantastical stories (not that I consider Realism of lesser value than stories like these). If high school students are anything like I was at that age, I would assume that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde would be one of the Victorian works that they would want to read. It manages to make a suspenseful story about inner conflict and reputation that had me wondering about what would happen next. The contrast between how Jekyll and Hyde are described throughout the work stokes the imagination, and the mysteries surrounding the two make for a desire to read further. Simply put, I think the story is fun even though it is relatively short, and thus more suitable for 9-12 graders, rather than younger students who might find difficulty reading it or college-age students who have the patience for or prefer different works from the time period. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, most of all, provides many questions to ask students. Why is it written from the perspective it is written in? What does the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde represent, if anything? Each answer could be different. It would be interesting to hear the different perspectives of students, just as I heard the different perspectives of students in this class.
Brit Lit 2020 