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Hello, my name is Mr. Barnsley, and welcome to today's lesson, Atmospheric Setting: The Incident of The Letter.
So today's Outcome, I can analyse how setting is used to create atmosphere in Chapter 5 of "The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Our keywords then for today's lesson are prepositions, torturous, alienated, and criminality.
As ever, it's really important that we understand the definitions of these four keywords, as they're gonna be words that appear in today's lesson.
So these definitions are gonna be appearing on the screen now, do take a moment to read through each of them carefully, and if you need to pause the video just to make sure you've understood what all four of the words mean, then please do so and press play when you are ready to continue.
So let's look at the lesson outline for today's lesson, Atmospheric setting: The Incident of The Letter.
So two parts today's lesson, two learning cycles.
First, we're gonna look at how Stevenson uses the setting of Jekyll's laboratory, and then we are gonna compare Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory to Mr. Utterson's house.
So let's get started by thinking about the setting of Jekyll's laboratory.
So Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory is described at the beginning of Chapter 5.
We're gonna read the extract below, I'm gonna identify any prepositional phrases, preposition being one of our keywords today, that show you or describe to us the route that Utterson has to take through Jekyll's house to his laboratory.
So let's read the extract from Chapter 5.
"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 officers and across a yard, which had once been a garden, to the building, which was indifferent known as the laboratory or the 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." Okay, pause the video, and I want you to see if you can identify, highlight, underline, if needs be, any prepositional phrases that you can see in this extract.
Give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done, I could see some great work going on there.
So let's have a look.
What prepositional phrases might we have found? Well, we could say Utterson found his way to Dr.
Jekyll's door, but he had to go down by the kitchen offices.
He had to go across a yard to the building, and this was all at the bottom of the garden.
So we can see there was quite a few prepositional phrases in this very short extract describing the journey from Jekyll's house to the laboratory.
So I want you to think then, this has been described as a very long and complicated route.
How does this link to the novels plot? And what do you think Stevenson's message might be? So I really want you to think about why would we have this really long and complex, complicated route from Jekyll's home to his laboratory? Pause the video, if you've got a partner, have a discussion with them.
If you are working by yourself, make a few notes, give this a go, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done, I heard some great discussions there, some really interesting ideas.
We are now getting some really complex ideas and having to compare a setting and a journey to a character and an author's message is a really quite tricky task.
So well done for giving it a go.
So I've got two students on the screen, Jun and Izzy, and they both had something to say.
Let's have a look at what they said.
So Jun said, "To, down, across, to the bottom, it's a torturous route.
The setting is complicated, it is like a mystery." So that's what Jun's idea was.
Izzy added, "Well, it could imply that Jekyll is very hard to reach, both metaphorically, but also literally from his house to his laboratory.
It could suggest that the truth is being kept out of sight." Do you agree with these students? Did you have any similar ideas? Is there anything you'd like to add? Pause the video, continue your discussion using the ideas on the screen, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Okay, we're gonna continue reading this description, and "From the laboratory, Mr. Utterson is taken upstairs to see Dr.
Jekyll." So as I read the next part of this extract, I want you to think about what impression of the setting is created by the highlighted words.
"At the further end, a flight of stairs mounted to a door covered with red baize; and through this, Mr. Utterson was at last received into the doctor's cabinet.
It was a large room, fitted round with glass presses, furnished, amongst other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron.
A fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr.
Jekyll, looking deadly sick.
He did not rise to meet his visitor, but held out a cold hand and bade him welcome in a changed voice." Okay, we're thinking about the impression of setting is created by the highlighted words, but let's look at these words.
"At the further end," "at last received," and "three dusty windows barred with iron." Pause the video, if you've got a partner, have a discussion, if not, make some notes for yourself.
What impression is created through these highlighted words? Press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done, some really interesting discussions there.
What I want to do is just spotlight a few things that may have been said.
As ever, in English, you may have come up with some different interpretations as well, and that's fantastic.
All I ask is that your interpretations are logical and can be justified using quotation from the text.
Let's have a look at things that you may have said then.
So, At the further end," "Further" implies that how far away Jekyll has now moved from mainstream society.
He's really like locking himself away, pushing himself to the shadows, to the corners, to the edges, which is where, of course, Hyde lives as well in society, so the further end of his room suggests that Jekyll has been separated, is moved away from mainstream society.
"At last," implies that the relief that Utterson feels when he sees his friend Jekyll, this shows, and I think it's really important throughout the novella, we think about Utterson's relationship with Jekyll and his fondness and how much he cares about him is really important, because actually, we can be quite critical, I think, at times, of how Utterson doesn't do enough to unearth the secrets, the truth, but actually, this probably comes from a very close relationship and his affection for his good friend.
And this one, I hope you all managed to say some really interesting things about this quotation.
The "three dusty windows barred with iron." "Barred" reminds or has connotations of a prison, It suggests Jekyll is locked away, he's in prison, he can't see out this trap, he's trapped, and the dusty windows, he can't, maybe can't see any way of escape.
And once we know the truth about Jekyll and his relationship to Hyde, we can definitely interpret this as Jekyll not being able to see a way of escaping his creation of Mr. Hyde.
Well done if you said any of those things, and, of course, fantastic if you have brought different interpretations and different ideas to the text as well.
Check for understanding now, I would like you to think about how would you finish the following sentence starter.
So at the start of Chapter 5, Stevenson makes the setting seem.
A, long and difficult? B, tortuous and confining? C, dark and confusing? D, depressing and Gothic? Lots of great adjectives, which do you think is the most appropriate way to finish this sentence? Pause the video, choose your response, and press play when you are ready for an answer.
Very well done, if you said B, torturous and confining, it's both long and difficult like A, which creates this sense of torturous, but there's also this really sense of confinement that it seems very kind of small and enclosed journey from house to laboratory, to Jekyll's space upstairs in the laboratory, which seems both confined and torturous.
It feels almost slightly juxtaposed here, but I think this was definitely the best response, so well done if you picked B.
Okay, over to our first task in today's lesson.
And I would like you to use the following sentence stems to explain your understanding of the setting at the beginning of Chapter 5.
So 1, Stevenson positions Jekyll far from the street because.
2, Utterson wants to help his friend, but.
3, the windows in Jekyll's room are "barred," so.
So pause the video, give this task a go, try your best and see if you can put a really interesting, sophisticated inference on the end of each of these sentences, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Okay, very well done on that.
I'm gonna share it with you some model answers.
Of course, these are not the only sentences that you could have written, but it'd be really nice for you to compare your responses to the ones on the screen and see if you can use my responses to improve your own.
So let's have a look.
Stevenson positions Jekyll far from the street because he wants to show how Jekyll is increasingly alienated from the rest of society.
So Jekyll's Laboratory and Jekyll within his position within his laboratory is all Stevenson's attempt to show Jekyll's alienation.
Well done if you said that.
2, Utterson wants to help his friend, but he can't because Jekyll is hiding away from him.
Both literally, he's hiding away in his laboratory and figuratively, he's hiding and keeping secrets away from his friend.
Well done if you said something similar to that.
And finally, the windows are "barred" so the overall impression is of a prison.
What Utterson doesn't know at this point is that Jekyll deserves to be in prison for his crimes.
We can also talk about whether this prison is both a literal and a figurative one.
Jekyll potentially imprisoned by his own guilt.
And so he's keeping himself locked away for society's good, but also because he himself is a very conflicted person.
So we can even talk about prison here, both being a literal, he's locked away, and figurative, he's imprisoned in his own confliction, his own confusion.
So some really nice ideas there.
Well done if you've said something similar.
Okay, over to our second part of today's lesson then, we're gonna be comparing Jekyll's Laboratory with Mr. Utterson's house.
So I want us to think, start by thinking about Mr. Utterson home.
At the end of Chapter 5, we're given a picture of Utterson's home and it really contrasts, very strongly with Dr.
Jekyll's room.
So let's read the description below of Mr. Utterson's home, and I want you to identify the words and phrases that create a really comfortable atmosphere.
"Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, but the room was gay with firelight.
In the bottle the acids were long ago resolved; the imperial dye had softened with time, As the colour grows richer in stained windows; and the glow of hot autumn afternoons on hillside vineyards was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London.
Insensibly the lawyer melted." Okay, pause the video and see if you can identify words or phrases that creates a very comfortable atmosphere.
Press play when you have identified all of those phrases.
Great job on that, well done! You may have picked out some of these.
So it's Hearth, which is something that we'd associate with a fireplace, warm, welcoming, gay with firelights, things these verbs resolved and softened suggest a sense of comfort , and colours growing, richer, glowing, melted.
There was a real sense of heat, and warmth, and welcoming in this image.
Okay, now let's consider how Stevenson has used contrasting settings to convey his different ideas about characters.
So we're gonna compare Jekyll's laboratory to Mr. Utterson's home.
So we're gonna use this grid below to help us formalise our thoughts.
So let's start by the first contrasting setting that we know that Utterson's home is described as being warm and welcoming.
So that quote, "glow," in comparison to Jekyll's laboratory, which is dingy and uncomfortable, that quote, that adjective "dusty." We could also see that Jekyll's home has been presented like a prison, the "windows have been barred, whereas Utterson himself sits under his "own" hearth, sits in front of his "own" fireplace.
So pause the video for each of these contrasts.
I want you to have a think, consider, what do you think Stevenson's purpose is? What is he trying to do here? What's he trying to say about Utterson? What's he trying to say about Jekyll? What's he trying to say about the similarities, or more importantly, the differences between those characters? Pause the video, have a think, make some notes if you wish, and press play when you are ready to share some responses.
Okay, fantastic, I saw some really good comparing there, really thinking about those contrasts in the setting, well done.
I'm gonna spotlight some fantastic ideas.
I heard you may have different ones, that's okay.
In fact, that's brilliant.
The more ideas, the better.
So let's have a look at this first one there, the contrast in the warmth and welcoming setting of Utterson's home, in comparison to the dingy, uncomfortable setting of Jekyll's laboratory.
Well, we could've said it highlights the real differences between the two friends.
Jekyll is no longer living like an upper-class or middle-class Victorian gentleman, and that shows a real contrast in how far he's fallen throughout the course of the novel.
And then the second one, Jekyll's home being like a prison, whereas Utterson has the freedom of sitting in front of his own fire.
Well, we could say, "This is really hinting at the criminality in Jekyll's life." Remember, at this point, the reader nor the characters know exactly what Jekyll has done.
So this really is a little hint, a little clue to us, as a reader, from Stevenson, that there is a certain criminality, that Jekyll's life, and this is compared to the warmth and safety of Utterson, Utterson being a law-abiding man.
We know Utterson is a lawyer, we know he follows the law.
So this contrast really is being used to highlight Jekyll's criminality, even though we, at this point, as readers are not sure or don't know the exact link between him and Mr. Hyde.
Well done if you've said any of those things on the screen and fantastic if you brought some new and different ideas to the text as well.
Check for understanding time now.
Why does Stevenson create a contrast between the homes of Utterson and Jekyll? I want you to pick the most conceptualised, the most detailed response.
Is it A, to create a dramatic contrast between the two characters, who used to be close, but are now more separate? Is it B, to show the reader how far Dr.
Jekyll has moved away from the forces of law as represented by Mr. Utterson? Or is it C, to show the reader how different the characters are causing us to wonder why people turn out the way they do? Have a think, pause the video, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Well done if you said B.
All of those are valid responses.
It is really interesting to see how the characters change and how Jekyll, in particular changes.
And that allows us to think about the impact society has and why people turn out the way they do.
It also is interesting to show that these two friends, these two peers who used to be very close and see them becoming more and more separate.
But the most conceptualised response, the most detailed, nuanced response is showing how Jekyll is moving away from the forces of law.
The criminality or the suspected criminality is showing that he's behaving very differently to Mr. Utterson who is a man who represents law, he is, of course, a lawyer.
So well done if you said B.
All of them valid responses, but B, being the most conceptualised.
So well done if you've said that.
Okay, our final task of today's lesson, we're gonna look at this question.
"How does Stevenson use setting to explore the differences between Jekyll and Utterson?" I want you to plan your analysis of the contrast between Jekyll's laboratory and Mr. Utterson home, making sure you're using plenty of conjunctions for those comparison.
So we are gonna use a single-paragraph outline.
You may have used one of these in your planning before, but as you can see on the screen, this is a way of structuring our analytical paragraphs.
We always start with a topic sentence.
That topic sentence explains the specific focus of the paragraph.
We're gonna write that in full sentences.
So here we want to bring in the idea of comparison between Jekyll and Utterson.
We want to make sure we use the word "setting," potentially use the word "laboratory," in Utterson's home.
In supporting details, this is where we include all the judicious evidence that supports our topic sentence.
So we might use quotations from the text, from a range of the text, not just Chapter 5, we might look at some other quotations from elsewhere.
We might also want to use some context here.
So we might want to explain our understanding of Victorian England, Victorian London, the class system.
We may bring this in here, particularly important to when we think about the difference in how Jekyll is behaving in comparison to the other upper-class men in society, particularly Utterson.
In the Supporting Detail Section, we always write in note form, it's just to remind us some of the things that we want to discuss.
And finally, our concluding sentence that's a summary of what the paragraph, and it has to have a real clear focus on the writer's purpose.
Remember, whenever we're writing about texts, we always want to go back to what is the author trying to do? What message are they trying to share with us? So in this case, we really want to think about, "Okay, what is Stevenson's purpose here? Why has he juxtaposed and have these contrast between Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory and Mr. Utterson's home?" You're gonna want to give yourself plenty of time to plan this, we want a really detailed plan here.
So pause the video, give this a go.
If you need to, flip back through the slides and look at what else we've covered in today's lesson.
But give this your best shot.
Good luck, and press play when you are ready to continue.
Really great job there, everybody! This is a challenging task.
This is a very challenging lesson and a very challenging unit.
We are moving on from just talking about the plot and the characters, to really thinking about some of the subtleties and the nuances in Stevenson's work.
So by trying to make comparisons between different settings and what they tell us about different characters, I'm really challenging you here to think really deeply about the text, so well done.
On the screen, you can see a model example of this single-paragraph outline.
So you might have something similar, you might have something different.
But what you can do is you can compare your outline to mine and you can see if there's anything you want to steal, to borrow from mine to improve yours.
So let's a look at the topic sentence.
Stevenson contrast: Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory with Mr. Utterson's home to show the growing distance between the doctor and mainstream society.
So really nice topic sentence.
It tells me, "Yes, I'm gonna talk about Mr. Utterson, but really I'm focusing on Dr.
Jekyll and his changes throughout the text." So some supporting details that I might talk about, well, Dr.
Jekyll being alone upstairs in the room above his laboratory.
That's very unlike Mr. Utterson who's beside his own hearth.
Yes, we've got Dr.
Jekyll's laboratory has barred windows.
It's like a prison, this is contrasted the relaxing and freedom of Utterson's space.
We've got how Dr.
Jekyll's room seems neglected, whereas Mr. Utterson home is full of firelight.
All of these are showing how the doctor is moving further and further away from the facade of respectability, the way that we expected upper-class gentlemen to behave in Victorian Britain.
So overall, the different settings are used to highlight the different paths the two men are taking, a really nice concluding sentence thinking about Stevenson's purpose.
Well done, If you had any similar ideas, and I'm sure you've done a fantastic job on this.
Okay, well thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson, Atmospheric Setting: The Incident of The Letter.
On the screen you can see a summary of everything that we have covered today.
Do take your time to read through all those bullet points, making sure that you feel really confident in all of the key learning that has happened in today's lesson, pausing the video if you need to.
Been really, really pleased to have you join me today, I hope you join me for any other lessons in this unit.
Thank you very much, see you soon, goodbye.