Sample Answers - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Grades 9

Examiner's Grade

Grades 6–7 The examiner gave this sample answer Grades 6–7.
Now read the comments below to understand why this grade was given.
The examiner also provides tips on how the answer might be improved.

Comment

This gives a secure account of how the Gothic elements of the novel are more unsettling because they are presented through a normal setting. The expression is fluent, though it could be more sophisticated in places. There is good use of supporting quotations and effects are generally shown. It could go further in identifying what precisely is terrifying in the story as a whole and the idea of breaking up a personality and finding terrible impulses in a normal character is not tackled.

For Grades 8-9

Show how Hyde commits horrible acts, yet he is part of an ordinary person. The character Jekyll/Hyde embodies the combination of Gothic and normal.
Pay more attention to characters other than Jekyll/Hyde. For example, Lanyon has a horrifying experience witnessing the transformation, and Utterson and Poole are key characters in the final scene.
Show in detail how one or more of the horrifying episodes are handled, such as the transformations, Carew’s murder or the finding of Hyde’s body.