ch5 2

This news sent off the visitor with his fears renewed. Plainly the letter had come by the laboratory door; possibly, indeed, it had been written in the cabinet; and if that were so, it must be differently judged, and handled with the more caution. The newsboys, as he went, were crying themselves hoarse along the footways: "Special edition. Shocking murder of an M. P." That was the funeral oration of one friend and client; and he could not help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. It was, at least, a ticklish decision that he had to make; and self-reliant as he was by habit, he began to cherish a longing for advice. It was not to be had directly; but perhaps, he thought, it might be fished for.

Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr. Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house. The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city, where the lamps glimmered like carbuncles; and through the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds, the procession of the town's life was still rolling in through the great arteries with a sound as of a mighty wind. 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. There was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr. Guest; and he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant. Guest had often been on business to the doctor's; he knew Poole; he could scarce have failed to hear of Mr. Hyde's familiarity about the house; he might draw conclusions: was it not as well, then, that he should see a letter which put that mystery to rights? and above all since Guest, being a great student and critic of handwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging? The clerk, besides, was a man of counsel; he would scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark; and by that remark Mr. Utterson might shape his future course.

model answer

Model Answer:

This extract from half way through the novel has Mr. Utterson, worried about his friend, visiting Dr. Jekyll in rooms of the latter’s home that he has never been previously visited. This extract is important because through the descriptions of Jekyll’s laboratory and cabinet we get ideas about his secretive and sly undertaking of unorthodox scientific practices. Moreover diction from the semantic field of death foreshadows his untimely end.

 

This particular extract is key as this is the first time we are introduced to the eponymous protagonist’s private space in which he will die later in the novel. Although this passage comes from half way through the novel, these tragic events are already foreshadowed by words from the semantic field of death, complex sentences and by creating a repugnant setting, which significantly increases tension. The words such as ‘deadly,’ ‘sick’, ‘cold,’ ‘red’ and ‘silent’ all connotes lifelessness. Additionally Dr. Jekyll’s  “changed voice” in this extract foreshadows the tragic moments towards the end of the novel when Mr.Utterson and Poole are trying to breach the door of the cabinet and do not recognize Jekyll’s voice.

 

The author paints a very peculiar picture of Dr. Jekyll's private space through using Mr. Utterson as the reader's guide. Mr. Utterson is often our eyes and ears in the novel as he has useful qualities such as his "curiosity" and how he observes the scene painting a clear picture for the reader as seen through the words "eyed" and "gazed". The passage is written in free indirect discourse and this amplifies Mr. Utterson’s opinion of the atmosphere. He describes it as having a "distasteful sense of strangeness" which connotes being repelled and disgusted and "strangeness" connotes something foreign and supernatural. This foreshadows what the reader will find eventually about the true nature of Dr. Jekyll's activities. 

 

 

Stevenson highlights the secrecy of Dr. Jekyll's private space by including the motif of windows and doors and including words from the semantic field of obscurity. Dr. Jekyll's laboratory is described as being a "windowless structure" which implies that he is hiding something. Furthermore the "barred" windows hint at criminal activity and suggest how Dr. Jekyll will become entrapped by Mr. Hyde. Moreover there are words that connote obscurity such as "foggy", "fog", "dimly" and "thickly" which infer that Dr. Jekyll's unorthodox activities even in the world of conventional science. 

 

Additionally, this extract is further evidence of Dr Jekyll’s shift in interest from the anatomical, conventional scientific approach to the unorthodox, chemical practices which, the reader learnt before, were so disapproved by his friend and fellow scientist Dr Lanyon. Stevenson paints a picture of the scene of the house as it was previously used by its old owner “a celebrated surgeon” as being “crowded with eager students” and juxtaposes this with its purposes now. The room is now described as “lying gaunt and silent”. The words “gaunt” and “silent” come from the semantic field of death which suggests that the previous lively atmosphere has been contaminated and killed by the evil practices that have been introduced by Dr Jekyll. The change in atmosphere is a consequence of the shift in Dr Jekyll’s scientific methods, proving that the work he is doing is untoward and not appropriate. 

 

To conclude, this extract is particularly enjoyable as the reader savours entering and discovering the private spaces in the novel.  The atmosphere of intense secrecy and the suggestion of unorthodox goings-on further sharpens the appetite to know what Dr. Jekyll is really engaged in doing.

The Landlady bonus work

bonus 1
Yellow chrysanthemums, according to the Society of American Florists, mean "secret admirer."  Chrysanthemums are associated with autumn.

What does this mean to the story?


bonus 2

“Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell that seemed to emanate directly from her person...he wasn’t quite sure what it reminded him of? Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital? 
Research these smells and then consider what they foreshadow. Discuss.

Foreshadowing in “The Landlady”
Complete the following chart with information from the short story. List the example in the first column and what event it foreshadows in the second column. Find at least five examples.

Example of Foreshadowing
“And now a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of stepping back and turning away from the window when all at once his eye was caught
and held in the most peculiar manner by the small notice that was there.”
“...and we don’t want to go breaking any laws at this stage in the proceedings, do we?”
“His landlady wasn’t there, but the fire was glowing in the hearth, and the little daschund was still sleeping soundly in front of it.”
“Now and again, he caught a whiff of
a peculiar smell that seemed to emanate directly from her person...he wasn’t quite sure what it reminded him of? Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital?
“The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t much care for it.”

What is Being Foreshadowed
The words “queer” and “peculiar” indicate that something is happening beyond Billy’s control. The use of these words suggest he should be on the alert.
The stress on “this stage” suggests that she will probably want to break a law later in the story.
Because it is unusual that the dog is still sleeping soundly, this hints at the fact that something is not normal with the dog. In fact he ends up being dead and stuffed.
Maybe the lady has something to do with hospitals; she might pickle or preserve things. This foreshadows the fact that she has stuffed her parrot and dog.
The tea has been poisoned, and Billy will be the landlady's next victim. 

http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/documents/11612_5195.pdf

Narrative terms

plot vocabulary

plot, main plot, minor plot
story
conflict, internal conflict, external conflict, clash of actions, clash of ideas, clash of desires, clash of wills, major, minor, emotional, physical

• man v. self
• man v. man
• man v. society
• man v. nature
• man v. the supernatural
• man v. machine/technology

cf. conflict in fairy tales:

• good v. evil
• rich v. poor
• young v. old
• beauty v. ugliness
• weak v. strong
• innocent v. wise

protagonist
antagonist (antagonistic)
suspense (suspenseful)
mystery (mysterious, mysteriously, mysteriousness)
dilemma
surprise (surprising, surprised)
plot twist
ending

• happy ending
• unhappy ending
• indeterminate ending (ambiguous)
• surprise ending (unexpected)

artistic unity (unified)
time sequence
exposition

in medias res
complication (complicate)

inciting force
rising action
falling action
crisis
climax
anti-climax (anti-climactic)
conclusion (conclude, conclusive)
resolution (resolve, resolving)
denouement
flashback, retrospect
back-story

foreshadowing
causality
plot structure
initiating incident
epiphany
reversal
catastrophe
beginning, middle, end
scene
chance, coincidence
double plot

parallel plot
subplot, underplotdeus ex machina
disclosure, discovery
movement, shape of movement
trajectory
change
focus

elementary

complex

A Detective Story Decalogue

Ronald Knox`s A Detective Story Decalogue (1928)
is as follows:

One
The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.

Two
All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

Three
Not more than one secret or passage is allowed.

Four
No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

Five
No Chinaman* must figure in the story.
*or other mysterious alien

Six
No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

Seven
The detective must not commit the crime.

Eight
The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.

Nine
The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

Ten
Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

consider particularly in relation to Christie as she brakes one rule every novel.

Crime fiction

An Overview of Crime Fiction

Crime Fiction is essentially about the solving of a crime, usually a mystery of murder. Crime Fiction texts question what it is to be human and raise questions about identity. The main feature of crime fiction is the plot and the story always reflects the culture and social values of when it was written. The texts are often part of a series featuring the same detective. The plot can also reflect the social changes of the time. Crime fiction is not static, nor is any genre, and there are many hybrid texts. Each sub-genre holds its own conventions that reflect their differing contexts.

The face remains that murder and law breaking are present in other genres aside from crime fiction. The features, therefor, do not categorize a genre; rather, genres are created through the rules for reading the members of a community share. However this doesn’t mean that crime fiction doesn’t have its own specific template. It is this template that has created the rules for reading and therefor the rules of crime fiction enable us to read into a text. This can also limit the way meaning is constructed for the writers and readers alike by confining to the conventions of the genre.

Crime fiction can be divided into six main stages or sub-genres. These sub-genres are categorized by their time periods and also their writing styles and conventions. As time and contexts changed crime fiction grew and developed as a genre. The six main sub-genres are Early Crime Fiction (sensation novels), The Golden Age, The Intuitionists, The Realists, Hard-boiled and Contemporary Crime Fiction. Edgar Allen Poe created the first notable detective of Crime Fiction in 1840.

http://heavymetaltime.webs.com/thecrimefictiongenre.htm

sources for short stories middle school

http://mrsklanguagearts.blogspot.hu/

looks pretty awesome