Learn to Write Grade 9 Essays, Whatever Text You Are Studying
To make the most of my posts, you have to ask yourself:
How would I apply this to any essay I write?
If you do that, it doesn’t matter what the text is about.
A Summary of the Story, Leaving Out the Clever Bits
For context, Jekyll experiments on himself to create a new being. He comes upon a formula which will transform him into another being, Hyde.
Hyde has all of Jekyll’s conscious mind - so Jekyll remembers everything Hyde does, thinks and feels. But Hyde’s body is a complete transformation, totally different from Jekyll’s. No one knows they are the same being.
There is an antidote, to change Hyde back into Jekyll. Hyde needs this because society won’t accept Hyde - he has desires - Jekyll’s desires - but while Jekyll has to remain a respected member of society, he can’t openly act on them. So, he acts on them through Hyde.
There are very strong hints that Jekyll and his single male friends, all in their fifties, are in fact homosexual, and cannot live openly as gay - indeed, can’t do so even in private. They are at war with their own natures, because society will not let allow them the freedom to be themselves.
You can reject this reading, and make up your own sins - whatever they are, they need to be so bad that Jekyll never tells us what they are. He does confess Hyde is a murderer so, you know, these things must be worse than murder.
So, society sees Hyde as evil. He has unspeakable pleasures. But Jekyll feels guilty about enjoying these (when in the body of Hyde), so he keeps Hyde locked up - in other words, inside him, without the potion to become himself.
One day, he gives in, takes the potion, and Hyde decides to murder a rich old man who appears to proposition him in the street. Why he picks on this man is never explained, even though he is an MP. Is it Hyde’s desire to kill him, or is it also Jekyll’s desire? Is it connected to homosexuality, or some other wicked sin of the flesh! We must decide.
Hyde is now a murderer, and to survive needs to change back into Jekyll. He takes the potion.
Meanwhile, Hyde’s identity or (if you prefer) his evil has become so strong, that he can spontaneously transform into his body from Jekyll’s. Jekyll could be forever lost inside him. And Hyde could be caught, hanged, and so both of them would die.
So, he keeps taking the potion to return to being Jekyll.
Until the potion runs out. And the ingredients which made it - a secret salt - cannot be sourced anywhere, as the original batch was contaminated with something - we know not what.
In the end, Jekyll writes his farewell, knowing that once he changes back into Hyde, he will be lost forever inside him.
Then Hyde, fearful of being hanged, commits suicide.
And no one lives happily ever after.
H
Hello Sir,
I know it is quite late to be sending essays, especially considering the exam for literature is tomorrow. However, I have attached an essay for you anyway as you have suggested in your DJMH guide. Phrases you have used in your guide were irresistible not to include here!
H.
The Essay
Stevenson explores the complexities associated with good and evil within the novella, and how each character responds to their dual natures. According to a Christian perspective, good and evil are strict moral principles that can be easily distinguished. However, Stevenson attempts to subvert these traditional beliefs by offering rationalisations for supposed ‘evil’ behaviour, that were initially created because of the strict, Christian foundations that were forced upon Victorian gentlemen.
My Comments
Plenty of top grade essays get by with only one or two ideas in a thesis statement. 50% of students are capable of more.
You are capable of more.
H uses too many words, but he has actually smashed his thesis statement. Here’s a shorter version:
Stevenson explores how each character has a dual nature, revealing that viewing actions as either good or evil is therefore complex. The Christian morality of his day paints good and evil as opposite. Stevenson subverts these beliefs and exposes them as Christian indoctrination imposed on Victorian society.
Depending on how you count, there are at least 4 different ideas in this paragraph. The examiner knows this will be a top grade answer from the beginning.
Their starting point is grade 9+, and they will have that grade as an anchor. Moving down the grades will be easy, but dropping below 8 will be incredibly hard. It is simple psychology.
And you can steal this, because this thesis statement will fit any essay topic that ever comes up in an exam.
The Essay
Jekyll is largely convinced that Hyde is his ultimate source of evil, his alter-ego and, under a freudian lens, a representation of his ‘Id’. However, there is evidence to suggest the opposite and rather Hyde is just an exaggeration of his desires, becoming gradually violent the longer they were repressed as a product of Victorian society.
My Comments
I love a quote. “Pure evil” would fit here.
Jekyll is not aware of Freudian psychology, so “we are convinced Hyde is a representation of Jekyll’s I’d” makes much more sense.
That said, this paragraph slaps the examiner gently on the cheeks and says, “oh yes, here is a fascinating alternative interpretation for you, maybe we are not dealing with the human condition on its own, maybe we are dealing with the effect of societal pressures.”
And, if you use the phrase “the human condition”, the examiner is likely to feel a grenade of wonder explode in their chest like an impossibly benign bomb. I don’t know this for sure, but I think they will literally melt.
The Essay
Jekyll states that he has “sold a slave to my original evil”. This is what he describes the experience to be like once he has taken the potion to split his personality in two. The “original evil” is the biblical allusion to Adam and Eve and their sin for eating from the fruit of the tree knowledge of good and evil.
My Comments
This idea is called Original Sin.
Full marks for spotting the allusion.
But the real marks are there for explaining why. Here it is to show that Jekyll has bought in to the Christian viewpoint that Hyde represents his sin, his evil nature. Later in the essay, or here, you might explore how many of Hyde’s actions might not be considered so evil.
The Essay
That he has “sold” a“slave” is metaphorical for losing control to Hyde; where “slave” almost victimises Jekyll, distancing him from the crimes as the body that has committed the murders is the same but the part of the soul or mind is different. To a Christian audience, this would villanise Hyde and portray Jekyll as the “good”, distinguishable from the “evil” of Hyde. However, Stevenson contradicts this with further description of the experience, where Jekyll felt more “natural and human”. This is ironic, as Jekyll previously thought that Hyde was the embodiment of evil yet here he even feels more “human”.
My Comments
This is a brilliant use of another quote to back up the idea that Hyde might not be evil - just human. The human condition!
Now, when the examiner has turned back into a solid, they are waiting for some action which is traditionally viewed as evil, from the Christian perspective, and which this new insight can be used to present as, if not good, at least “human” and not evil.
H doesn’t do this in the next paragraph.
You’ve read about 30% of the essay and my comments so far - enough to put you on the right track for grade 9.
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