Socratic Seminar Questions on

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Mr. Cleon M. McLeanDepartment of English

Ontario High School

Socratic Seminar Questions on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

1. What is the overall mood of the story? Does the mood change during the course of the story? Cite examples to support your answer

2. How does Stevenson create suspense in the text?

3. There are several narrators in the story. How might the story have been different if there were only one narrator?

Socratic Seminar Questions on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

4. From which point of view is the story written? How does this affect your understanding of the story?

5. Is there a significance to the names Utterson, Jekyll, and Hyde?

Note: According to some critics,R. L. Stevenson originally intended the name Jekyll to have a French pronunciation, which would be je kill, with the accent on the second syllable. The pronoun je in French means I.

Socratic Seminar Questions on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

6. Compare and contrast the physical and mental characteristics of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

7. Why do you think Mr. Utterson made so many incorrect assumptions?

8. Did Henry Jekyll’s experiences change the way you look at yourself? Explain how or why not.

Socratic Seminar Questions on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

9. Romantic philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau explored the idea of man as a "noble savage". This idea is oxymoronic, surely. How might you define "noble"? How might you define "savage"? How, then, can man be one and the same?