Extract essay skills

Jekyll and Hyde is in Paper 1, Section B. There is one question. You are given an extract and asked to start with it, then write about the novel as a whole.

It is worth 30 marks (there are no AO4 marks for this question). Spend about 45 minutes on it:

• AO1: your own argument, answering the question, with quotations;
• AO2: how Stevenson uses language, form and structure;
• AO3: context, such as Victorian respectability, Darwin and the Gothic.

1. 5 minutes: read and plan. Underline the key words of the question. Mark 3–4 short quotations in the extract, and note which chapter it comes from.
2. 15 minutes: the extract. Write one or two paragraphs analysing language and methods.
3. 20 minutes: the whole novel. Write two or three paragraphs on moments from the beginning, middle and end, using quotations you have learnt.
4. 5 minutes: check your answer.

Start with a short introduction giving your thesis, and weave context into your paragraphs.

Question: Starting with this extract, explore how Stevenson presents Hyde as violent.

He had in his hand a heavy cane, with which he was trifling;

but he answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an

ill-contained impatience. And then all of a sudden he broke out in a

great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and

5carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman. The old gentleman

took a step back, with the air of one very much surprised and a trifle

hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to

the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his

victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the

10bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway. At

the horror of these sights and sounds, the maid fainted.

Stevenson presents Hyde's violence as sudden and inhuman. At first he is ‘trifling’ with his cane, but he breaks out ‘all of a sudden’ in ‘a great flame of anger’, and the fire imagery suggests something wild and uncontrollable. The phrase ‘ape-like fury’ links him to an animal, which would remind Victorian readers of their fears about degeneration. The gentle old man's ‘innocent’ kindness makes the contrast more shocking.

• Clear answers explain the extract and the novel, with relevant quotations.
• Thoughtful, developed answers explore methods in detail and link them to context.
• Convincing, critical answers build an argument across the whole novel, and consider more than one interpretation.

Always write ‘Stevenson presents…’ rather than ‘Hyde is…’, and zoom in on single words such as ‘ape-like’.