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Hello, welcome to today's lesson, Chapter 5: the Incident of the Letter.
My name's Mr. Barnsley.
I'm really pleased you've joined me today.
Let's get started.
Right, so the outcome of today's lesson.
In this lesson, you're gonna explore the themes of duality and concealment in Chapter 5.
Duality and concealment, two themes that we have looked at or you should have looked at when have been reading the beginning of this novella.
So, here are our five key words today.
These are all keywords that are from the text, so it's really important we understand what these are because we're gonna be reading an extract and we don't want to be confused when we see them appear.
So, these five keywords are dissecting-rooms, cupola, baize, cheval-glass, and carbuncle.
The definitions of each of these words now are gonna appear on screen one by one.
Read each one of them carefully, pausing the video if you need to.
It's really important that you do understand what each of these words means, so you're not confused when you see them in the extract shortly.
Okay, so we're in another reading lesson today, and we're looking at Chapter 5: the Incident of the Letter.
Today's lesson's gonna be broken down into two parts.
Firstly, we're gonna be reading Chapter 5, and then we are gonna be discussing what we have read.
So, let's kick off with some reading of Chapter 5 then.
We're gonna start with a discussion.
I want you to think about why these two ideas are so clearly connected in "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".
So, the idea of reputation and social standing in Victorian London, and also the themes of duality and concealment.
Why are they so closely related? Pause the video, have a discussion if you've got a partner.
If not, you can think through this question by yourself and press Play when you're ready to continue.
Over to you.
Well done, I heard some really great ideas.
I just want to pull out some of those fantastic things that I heard some of you saying.
So, I loved the idea of people talking about reputational dictating social and economic opportunities.
So, if you wanted to get the best profession, if you wanted to get the best jobs, if you wanted to spend time with those people in the upper classes, you needed to have a great reputation.
It was really key for social acceptance.
I think that's a really interesting point and we might have questioned whether that is still appropriate today.
And maybe whilst life might not look exactly like Victorian society, I'm sure we can think of times when we've worried about our reputation and how that might have an impact on our social standing, so this is still an idea relevant today.
But how does that link to the idea of duality and concealment then? Well, I really, really liked the ideas when people were saying, "Well, you need that need for respectability meant that some people had to hide some of their behaviours, particularly behaviours that might have been deemed socially unacceptable." We've gotta remember when we think about the Victorian gentleman, there was a moral and social code that he lived by and he didn't want to be, you know, he might always have lived by that social and moral code, but he didn't want any of his peers to find out.
So, duality and concealment, concealing the truth, hiding some of those more unsavoury sides of their personality was really important if they wanted to have a reputation which allowed them to be socially and economically successful.
Right, we are going to look at an extract from Chapter 5 together before you read Chapter 5 independently.
As always, I am gonna read through this once just for meaning.
All we're gonna do is listen and check we're understanding what is happening.
"It was late in the afternoon, when Mr. Utterson found his way to Dr.
Jekyll's door, where he was at once admitted by Poole, and carried down by the kitchen offices and across a yard, which had once been a garden, to the building, which was indifferently known as the laboratory or dissecting rooms. The doctor had bought the house from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon; and his own taste being rather chemical than anatomical, had changed the destination of the block at the bottom of the garden.
It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of the friend's quarters; and he eye the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre." Okay, time for a check for understanding.
Which of the following best describes the building that Mr. Utterson is visiting in this extract? Is it a, he's visiting Dr.
Jekyll's house, Is it b, he's visiting Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory, is it C, that he's visiting Dr.
Jekyll's Chemical Laboratory, which was a former dissecting room? Pause the video, have a think, make your selection and press Play when you are ready to continue.
Yes, well done If you said c.
Technically all of these answers are correct.
The building that he's visiting is at Dr.
Jekyll's home, it's through what was once a garden, it's now a courtyard.
It is Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory, the room, the building that he's about to enter.
However, c is probably our most specific response.
It's a laboratory that used to be a dissecting room.
It used to be where a surgeon would have performed anatomical studies, so dissected bodies to find out more about the human body and human life.
But as we know, Dr.
Jekyll is much more interested in chemicals and chemical reactions rather than anatomical and anatomical experiments.
So, I think we can call, I think c is probably our most accurate description of the building that Utterson is visiting.
Well done if you've got that correct.
Okay, we are gonna dive a little bit deeper then into this extract, and I'm gonna give you some very specific questions to think through, starting with that definition of the word anatomical, which I've just been through with you.
So, anatomical relates to body structure and the study of bodies.
So, let's have a think about this little phrase that comes at the end of the extract.
The building is described as being dingy and windowless structure.
How does dingy, windowless structure suggest concealment? Pause the video, have a discussion or work through this question by yourself and press Play when you are ready to continue.
Right, well done.
I heard some really interesting discussions.
Well done if you said that actually this dingy, windowless structure implies secrecy and isolation.
Without the window where it's hiding any of those interior activities, we can't see what's going on from the outside world, and this is a symbol, therefore, of concealment.
And really well done if people will making connections back to that windowless building of Chapter 1 in the story of the door.
Fantastic if you are making those connections there, well done, what a detective you will be.
Okay, our next question then, and this is gonna focus on that little part of the extract in the middle.
I really want you to think about how the labs shift from, it was previously education, so it was used for students to come and watch and learn about the human body, but it's now being used for experimentation.
How can we link that to Jekyll's duality? How can you link that to Jekyll's duality? Pause the video, give this question a go, either with a partner or by yourself, and press Play when you are ready to continue.
Fantastic, I heard some really interesting discussions there.
I just want to shine a bit of a spotlight on people who said things like the answer you can now see on screen, the labs change from education to private experimentation reflects Jekyll's public facade versus his hidden desires.
Okay, this lab was once open to all, was very public, and now it's private experimentation hidden the desires.
Well done if you made that comparison between the laboratory and Jekyll's own duality.
I want to kind of lean into this a little bit further then, this idea.
So, we know that the lab was once a dissecting room, okay, where anatomical study students could come in and watch and they would look at how a body worked, but now it's become a chemical laboratory.
How can we make a link between the anatomical and the chemical here to really emphasise this idea of duality, secrecy, concealment? Tricky question here, so do take your time, pause your video, have a discussion with your partner or just think to yourself about how we can make a comparison between the dissecting, the anatomical and the chemical and how this can represent duality and concealment.
Over to you, pause the video and press Play when you're ready to continue.
Well done, that was a really, really tricky question there.
I really loved some of the ideas that people were coming up with.
Well done if you got anything like this, so dissecting is very much the external study of the body to chemistry being the inner change.
So, this lab really highlights visible versus hidden.
Visible, the external, chemistry, the internal, the inner change.
Again, so we can see that as duality, the difference between those three things, external and internal, but also concealment because what is being hidden? The inner change, the inner chemistry of this laboratory.
Really nice ideas there, well done.
Okay, check for understanding.
True or false, Jekyll's laboratory is a symbol of concealment? Do you agree with this, true, or do you disagree, false? Pause the video, make your suggested answer and press Play when you're ready to continue.
Okay, well done if you said true.
We can definitely talk about Jekyll's laboratory as being a symbol of concealment, and we'll look at this in more detail as we explore the text, but definitely the laboratory is a symbol of concealment.
Let's see how we can justify that response.
So, is it the laboratory's hidden location and its lack of windows indicates secrets and things being kept out of sight, or is it b, Mr. Utterson does not know what Jekyll does in the laboratory? Which of those is the more successful justification? Have a think, pause the video while you're thinking and press Play when you're ready to continue.
Well done if you said a.
Both of those answers are valid answers, but a definitely goes into a little bit more detail talking about the hidden location and the lack of windows as really clear reasons to why this is a symbol of concealment.
Well done if you said a.
Right, it's over to you now to do some reading of Chapter 5.
You might be reading as a class or you might be reading independently.
You're gonna start from the sentence, "Once crowded with empty streets," and you're gonna read until the end of the chapter.
I am gonna provide you with some questions.
It's really important that we continue to ask ourselves questions as we read to make sure we're understanding the main point, the main plot points of the novella, as also challenge us to start thinking about Stevenson's purpose and what he's trying to, and what messages he's trying to share with us.
So, here are some questions for you to think about as you are reading.
One, how do settings like Jekyll's laboratory emphasise concealment? We've already started discussing that, so build on your responses there.
Two, how does Utterson's blackmail assumption highlight Victorian reputation concerns? Three, how does London's foggy motif boost the concealment theme? Four, how does the mysterious letter hint at Jekyll and Hyde's dual identity? Five, how does Utterson's role push the detective theme, revealing Jekyll and Hyde's duality? And six, how do symbols like dissecting rooms underscore duality and secrets? Over to you for some detailed reading.
Some questions to guide you.
Pause the video and press Play when you are ready to continue.
Okay, I saw some fantastic reading and some discussion going on as you were doing that, so really, really well done.
Now, time for us to share some of our ideas.
So, how does the settings like Jekyll's laboratory emphasise concealment? Well, we know it's secluded and it's an obscure design, no windows, it symbolises secrecy, things being kept hidden.
Well done if you said any of those things.
Utterson's blackmail assumption, what's that tell us about Victorian reputation concerns? Well, it tells us that Utterson's assumption, it really shows that how much emphasis society put on preserving reputation at any cost.
The fact that Utterson believes Jekyll must be being blackmailed shows that he knows that or he believes Jekyll would rather risk, would rather pay Hyde money and look after Hyde then risk whatever it is that Hyde knows about him destroying his reputation.
Question three was all about the motif of fog and how does that support or develop the concealment theme? So, well done if you said anything about the persistent fog of London, it is almost like a metaphor, it masks the truth, it reinforces this idea of concealment because the characters themselves cannot really see through it, they cannot see the truth.
We know there are things hiding beneath the fog of London.
Really well done if you said any of those things.
Okay, we know the mysterious letter, how does this hint at the idea of dual identity, either with Jekyll or Hyde? Well, we know the letter introduces an element of mystery.
It does suggest there's a deeper connection between Jekyll and Hyde.
There is something shared between them.
There's something shared between these two characters and at the moment we're struggling to work out exactly what that is.
Question five, how does Utterson's role push the detective theme? How does it develop this idea of detective fiction? And how does it kind of help us understand this idea of duality, and particularly when it comes to the characters of Jekyll and Hyde? Well, we know his investigation served to unravel the intertwined lives.
He's questioning Jekyll, he's following Hyde.
It really is he's like a detective looking at the two characters and trying to find out the link between them.
And finally, question six, how do symbols like dissecting rooms underscore duality and secrets? Well, dissecting rooms is all about where outer appearances are stripped away.
You know, pulling apart these bodies.
It really echoes the themes of the novel, which are duality and hidden inner truths, dissecting, trying to get to those inner truths that may be hidden away.
Really well done if you discussed any of those things whilst reading Chapter 5, fantastic job.
Okay, now over to the second part of today's lesson, and we are gonna be discussing what we have read today.
So, Aisha has shared her opinion on Chapter 5, "The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", I'd like you to think about what evidence Aisha might use to justify her opinion.
So, Aisha says, "In my opinion, Chapter 5 illustrates that Jekyll is definitely complicit in the crimes of Hyde.
He's definitely involved in those crimes.
He lies to Utterson about the letter, which might make a reader question whether he's telling the truth regarding his will.
I believe that Stevenson uses the laboratory as a symbol of concealment to hint that Jekyll is deliberately hiding dangerous secrets from Utterson and the reader." So, have a quick discussion then, which quotations, what evidence might Aisha use to justify her opinion? Pause the video, discuss, and press Play when you are ready to continue.
Okay, I heard some really good quote selection there.
You were almost becoming detectives picking those best quotations help prove Aisha's point.
Okay, we are gonna build on this in our final practise activity of the lesson.
But before we do that, I want to do a very quick check for understanding.
So, on the screen, you can see three quotations from Chapter 5.
All of them can be used to suggest the theme of concealment.
However, I think one of these quotations is better than the others in justifying Aisha's argument that Jekyll is deliberately lying to Utterson.
So, all these quotations kind of create the idea of concealment and secrecy, but which one do you think creates the idea of a deliberate lying to Utterson? Is it a, dingy windowless structure, b, three dusty windows barred with iron, or is it c, even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly? Tricky question this one.
So, pause the video, give yourself plenty of time to think, and press Play with your ready for the answer.
Okay, like I said, this was a really, really tricky one.
Well done if you said b, three dusty windows barred with iron.
The reason why I thought this quote was the best one in compared to the others, whilst I do think a windowless structure, the window, the lack of window suggests secrecy and the fog being a motif that makes things unclear, suggesting secrecy and concealment.
For me, it's the the fact that windows are barred with iron, it feels like a very deliberate move.
Barring means to kind of keep things away or to hide things.
So, I thought this quotation was the best because it almost shows that Jekyll is deliberately putting his guard up, he's putting a a barrier between himself and Mr. Utterson.
Well done if you had selected b for this question.
Okay, so earlier we looked at Aisha's summary.
I want you to have a discussion now, to what extent do you agree with Aisha's summary of this chapter? To what extent do you agree that this chapter shows that Jekyll is definitely complicit in the crimes of Hyde, that he's definitely lying to Mr. Utterson? All right, what I want you to do though is think about those quotations that you were discussing earlier, and I want you to use quotations to justify your feelings towards Aisha's summary.
To what extent do you agree with her? Okay, use quotations, pause the video, have a discussion, or if you are working by yourself, just think through what you would say and make a note of some of the quotations you would use from Chapter 5.
All right, over to you now, pause your video and press Play when you are ready to continue.
All right, fantastic job.
I heard some really good discussions and debate there, people going back and forth about whether they agreed with Aisha.
Some of you thought she was absolutely spot on, others had slightly different interpretations, and that's great.
What I've shared with you on the screen now is some quotations that I hope you could have used within your discussion.
So, I want you to just pause the video now, read through these quotations and think, "Did I manage to use these in my discussion? If not, how could I have used them in my discussion?" Okay, pause the video, look at these fantastic quotations from Chapter 5 and press Play when you are to continue.
Okay, well done, everybody.
That's it, we've reached the end of today's lesson reading Chapter 5: the Incident of the Letter.
On the screen now, you can see a summary of the key learning that we have covered in today's lesson.
Do make sure you read through it, pausing the video if you need to.
It's really important that you read through each of these bullet points.
and think, "Yes, I understand that, that is something that I have learned today." Thank you so much for joining me.
I really hope you can join me for some other lessons in this unit.
See you all soon.
Thank you very much, goodbye.