1. What are some social issues which seem to lie behind the preoccupations of this book? Toward what social changes/patterns do its anxieties seem directed?
2. Does this book remind you of other books you have read, for example, those which present psychological doubles? (e. g. Dostoyevsky's The Double) What aspects of Victorian culture might this motif have been designed to reflect?
3. What are some features of Stevenson's style, narrative control and mode of building interest? Is the story artfully told? How are the scenes arranged and related to one another?
4. How does the story deal with issues of respectability, concealment and hypocrisy? Why might these be important for persons living in Stevenson's time period?
5. Which aspects of the story and/or its tensions may be autobiographical?
6. What social groups and classes seem represented by the characters and concerns of the story?
What function seems served by the descriptions of interiors and the presence of a butler and housemaid?
7. What attitudes seem implicit in the tale toward the preoccupations and authority of contemporary science, medicine and law?
Opening chapters:
8. What effect is created on the reader by the opening description of Mr. Utterson? Is anything added by the knowledge that he is a lawyer? By Dr. Lanyon's status as a doctor?
9. What significance is given by the use of names, such as Henry Jekyll, Mr. Utterson, Hastie Lanyon, Edward Hyde and Sir Danvers Carew?
10. How does Utterson's character and presence affect the narrative?
11. What circumstances are associated with the sinister building Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield note on their walk? What is unusual about the man who seems to enter and exit from it, and the incident of the signed check? About the reactions of Utterson and Enfield to what they have uncovered?
12. In the context of the story, what types of misdeeds seem likely to have been the topic of concealed interest?
13. What wealth is represented by Hyde's status as heir to a quarter of a million pounds?
14. What is the significance of the fact that Hyde cannot be described, though extraordinary in his appearance? By the comparisons between Hyde and the devil?
15. What is added to the story by Utterson's deep interest in the situation of his friend? By his preoccupation with uncovering the secret of Hyde?
16. What do we learn from the scene in "Dr Jekyll Was Quite at Ease" in which Utterson and Jekyll discuss his will? Is the title ironic? How is Jekyll self-deluded? What ominous promise does he extract from Utterson?
17. What added information is revealed in investigations into the murder of Sir Danvers Carew? What are some features of the scene of his death?
18. What do the investigators learn from visiting Mr. Hyde's house in Soho? What elements seem added to the tale by the presence of the police?
Concluding chapters:
19. What are implications of descriptions of Hyde as youthful and small? Are there any racial implications in his description?
20. What does the allusion to Soho add to the tale's mysteries?
21. What is the effect of the narrative's concentration on a series of letters, wills, and other forms of psychological and physical evidence?
22. What new evidence/information is contributed by Lanyon's narrative of his witness of the transformation?
23. What is the effect of ending this story with the testament of a dead man, rather than an account by a friend or observer? What new facts and reflections do we learn from this final revelation?
24. What is suggested by the theory that humans are not merely one but two? What late Victorian/modern psychological theories does this suggest?
25. What meaning is attached to the fact that Hyde committed suicide rather than await death by the hand of others?
26. What may be the significance of the fact that the transformation was sparked by an impurity in the concoction?
27. Is the ending effective? Are there plot mysteries which it fails to resolve?
Final Questions:
28. To what extent may this tale be read as an allegory? What seem to be some of its meanings?
29. Can this story be said to be a tragedy in the classical sense? Which features of the story engage the reader's sympathy or identification?
30. Are there ways in which its moral(s) reflect Victorian concerns? Does it suggest any ways in which humans can overcome the repressed evil of their nature?