This is a lesson from my 9th grade literate and writing class. The kids and I discussed the books and created an outline for the thesis.
When we do this, the students brainstorm their own ideas. I don’t tell them what to include in their outline. It’s a learning process, so even if the content may not be the way I would write this essay myself, I let them choose the content. They really get into. It’s a blessing to teach this class.
To create this outline, we brainstormed together how people were like the monster in Frankenstein and then how people were like the monster in Jekyll and Hyde. The latter is more fun to discuss because the students have to come to the understanding that Hyde isn’t the monster in Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll is because Jekyll and Hyde are one. Whenever Jekyll references Hyde in the text, he speaks in the first person. Hyde is Jekyll.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
General Outline structure:
I Introduction (contains thesis–is the last sentence of the first paragraph)
II. Body Paragraph I–topic sentence comes from thesis
III. Body Paragraph II–topic sentence from thesis
IV. Body Paragraph III–topic sentence from thesis
V. Refutation Paragraph–discuss the opposing thesis that people are more like the monster in Frankenstein, and then dismiss it.
VI. Conclusion
Thesis: People are more like the monster in the novel Jekyll and Hyde than they are
like the monster in Frankenstein for three reasons: the monster in Jekyll and Hyde knows
his actions are evil, he wants the freedom to publicly be evil, and he deliberately feeds
his evil inclinations.
[Each one of the three reasons in the thesis is the topic sentence for a body paragraph.]
Also, essay should be in the present tense because we are discussing a book. Books are always written about in the present tense.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
I. Introduction
– Hook (Quote: But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.) I would leave off the first word in this quote. Aleksandr Solzhentsyn
– Address the state of human beings
– Two examples of the human heart can be found in the novels Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
– In Frankenstein, the monster feels justified, repays evil for evil
– In Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll and Hyde share the same body, one supposedly good and one evil
– Jekyll, however, is Hyde and is a monster. Same as people. Good and bad.
– Thesis goes here.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 1
II. Jekyll knows what evil is and he wants to commit evil.
– Find a quote in the novel that Jekyll knows that Hyde is evil. (Taken from chapter 10) Quote should only be a phrase of 3 or 4 words to support their idea.
– He knows both good and evil existed in him
– He wants to separate the good and the evil
– The result was Hyde
– Same within humans, people are made in the image of God, but have free will. Can do good, but are fallen. Choose evil as Jekyll chooses the potion.
– People are capable of doing good and both, but choose evil.
Note: I pulled the quotes from Smoops website on important quotes from the text.
http://www.shmoop.com/jekyll-and-hyde/good-vs-evil-quotes.html
Quotes from chapter 10 that might help:
Both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the futherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering. (10.1)
He contained both good and evil
It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements. If each, I told myself, could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil. It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots were thus bound together—that in the agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should continuously be struggling. How, then, were they dissociated? (10.1)
Good and evil exist in equal parts in Dr. Jekyll.
Enough then, that I not only recognised my natural body from the mere aura and effulgence of certain of the powers that made up my spirit, but managed to compound a drug by which these powers should be dethroned from their supremacy, and a second form and countenance substituted, none the less natural to me because they were the expression, and bore the stamp of lower elements in my soul. (10.2)
Interestingly, Dr. Jekyll’s potion results in pure evil, rather than pure good.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 2
III. Jekyll wants to publicly be evil, but wants to be anonymous
– Find a quote in the novel about any of the events (Quote should only be a phrase of 3 or 4 words to support their idea.)
– He tramples a girl in public
– He beats a man in front of his servant girl.
– He drinks the potion in front of his butler.
– Same within humans, people sin but hide their sins. Want to be accepted for sinful behavior. If it’s not
accepted by society, we sin in secret. Ex. Birds of a feather.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 3
IV. Jekyll deliberately feeds the evil.
– Find a quote in the novel about this (Quote should only be a phrase of 3 or 4 words to support their idea.)
– Describe how Hyde is taking over
– Explain that Jekyll and Hyde are one and the same. He is simply enjoying the evil and choosing to be evil.
– Same within humans, people choose to do evil. Free will?
__________________________________________________________________________________
Refutation Paragraph
V. When comparing the monsters in Frank. and J and H, some think we are more like the monster in Frank.
– Monster in Frankenstein does evil because he feels wronged by Dr. Frank.
– Some say people are the same, but this is only partially true.
– According to Scripture, monster in Frank. lives by Matt 5: 44.
– Jesus calls us to live by Matthew 5:43. (include quote from Scripture one or two) (Quote should only be a phrase of 3 or 4 words to support their idea.)
– Living by the golden rule is possible, because we are capable of doing good because we’re made in the image of God.
– People choose, good or evil.
– Therefore more like the monster in J and H.
__________________________________________________________________________________
VI. Conclusion
– Restate Thesis but in different words
– All people need to know evil is a choice; tell why they need to know
_______________________________________________
Essay should be in MLA format, quotes in all paragraphs except conclusion.
Include a works cited page.
How to quote the Bible:
Citing the Bible
Quoted from the Purdue owl link above.
Ezekiel saw “what seemed to be four living creatures,” each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).
When Creating a Works Cited Page, there should be three entries–one from the Bible, and one from Jekyl and Hyde, and one for the hook which is a quote.
If including a quotefrom the book Frankenstein as well, there should be 4 entries.
Works Cited Help for the Bible
Quoted from the Purdue Owl link below.
Give the name of the specific edition you are using, any editor(s) associated with it, followed by the publication information. Remember that your in-text (parenthetical citation) should include the name of the specific edition of the Bible, followed by an abbreviation of the book, the chapter and verse(s). (See Citing the Bible on In-Text Citations: The Basics.)
The New Jerusalem Bible. Ed. Susan Jones. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Print.
_____________________________
Students modify the outline as they see fit. They should rearrange the details as they need to make the ideas flow from one to the other.
Result should be about a 3 page essay plus a works cited page. All in MLA format.
