Description

The X-Kit Achieve! Literature series offers a unique series of visually attractive, high-quality exam preparation tools. The series has been written by top South African educationalists. The books cover all the knowledge and skills tested in the final English Home Language and First Additional Language literature exams for the FET phase. Plot, theme, character, style, symbolism and imagery are all discussed in detail, and thoroughly taught and tested. Study and exam preparation techniques are covered and exam questions provided. Answers are also provided for all the questions to allow learners to monitor their own understanding. This study guide aims to provide you with sufficient support for doing really well in your Grade 12 English examination. This study guide will provide: • All the background information needed for a full understanding of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; • Summaries, including a précis of the whole play, plus details of acts and scenes; • Important quotes for use in exams; • An analysis of the play that will help you understand the plot and develop insight and appreciation; • Pointers about the characters for quick and easy revision; • A summary of the key themes; • Comprehensive exam preparation assistance, including test-yourself questions, sample contextual questions and full answers; and • A glossary explaining literature terminology. About the author, RL Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1850. He wrote poetry, essays, travel books and novels. He is most famous for writing the novels Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Stevenson wrote during the late nineteenth century, which fell inside the Victorian period. The Victorian period in British history is the name for the period when Queen Victoria ruled (between 1837 and 1901). The Reform Bill, passed in England in 1832, made the middle classes more powerful, both politically and economically. Through commerce and industry, the middle classes became richer, while the working classes lived miserable lives in the cities. It was during this time that the English novel became so popular. The novels of the time were realistic, with interesting characters and complex plots. Charles Dickens, the Bronté sisters, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy are among the famous writers of this period. Robert Louis Stevenson can be included in this list. Some novelists, such as Charles Dickens, dealt with social change and issues that reflected the circumstances of the working classes. Other novelists focused on the middle classes – as in the case of Jane Austen. Robert Louis Stevenson’s characters in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are clearly from the professional middle class. However, we do get a sense of the inequality between different classes in his description of the London streets. These descriptions show a contrast between the rich and the poor. In his novel, Stevenson deals with the widely held belief of the late nineteenth century that human beings had a dual (double) nature. On the one hand, they were rational, moral and good and, on the other hand, they were irrational, instinctive, aggressive and evil. Stevenson clearly explores this idea in his novel. In more modern times, the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has come to be associated with the mental illness commonly known as a “split personality”. The psychiatric name for it is the “dissociative identity disorder”, which is when one person shifts between two or more personalities. In the novel, the two personalities represent the two sides of morality: Dr Jekyll loosely represents the moral and the good; and Mr Hyde represents the immoral and the evil. The story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde became so well known that the expression “a Jekyll and Hyde personality” has become idiomatic in English for someone who has a split personality and who changes between good and bad. Many plays have been inspired by The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and over one hundred movies are based on this story. This eBook is in ePDF format, which enables you to: • View the entire book offline on desktop or tablet; • Search for and highlight text; and • Add and edit personal notes directly in your eBook.