Revision Activity on the first reading response essay

Paragraph one

``The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming
on the ground...it was like some damned Juggernaut...[on the check was]
a name at least very well known and often printed.''
    Direct evidence because of quotation. Might be better as more
separate statements.

Utterson is originally alarmed by the clear disconnect between Jekyll's
upstanding reputation and Hyde's immoral and unhealthy nature.
    Analytic statement. Doesn't directly correspond to the quote, but
the story motivates Utterson's fear.

He believes their link to be because Hyde is coercing Jekyll, which is
why he repeatedly interviews Jekyll, but, as revealed later in the book,
Hyde is Jekyll, and Jekyll is being entirely honest when he shuts down
the line of questioning with ``My position is a very strange---a very
strange one.''
    Argument for why this quote and Hyde's behavior so disturb Utterson.

The case would be less strange if it were chronologically revealed from
Dr. Jekyll's perspective because, although supernatural in nature, none
of the apparent sinister contradictions would be contradictions.
    Argument/so what. Doesn't perfectly connect to the course theme of
health but argues about moral contradiction and how the
story-telling affected the reader's view.

The introduction was used to get down to this level of abstraction, but
there isn't really a concrete statement about why I'm listing these
specific quotes at the beginning. A link to health from a perspective
about moral and social standing is certainly possible, but I missed it.
This should probably be constructed as an argument about the more
general genre leading into the quote as evidence of reason behind the
fear.

Strangeness is in the eye of the beholder, and Stevenson presents his
story in a specific format to build this sense.
Mr. Utterson plays the role of the audience to the tale of Jekyll and
Hyde, and his fear of Hyde's immorality harming his friend Jekyll
develops the sense of strangeness.
The assumed health of Dr. Jekyll contradicts with unscrupulous dealings
with an unscrupulous man whom Mr. Utterson is shown the true nature of
in the talk with his friend.
``The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming
on the ground...it was like some damned Juggernaut''
He believes their link to be coercion, which makes it even more bizarre
when he learns that the upstanding citizen Jekyll is dealing entirely
voluntarily with Hyde.
Dr. Jekyll's chronological perspective would be less strange because he,
in his letter declares himself as a less intrinsically healthy and moral
man, so his adventures with Hyde would be less surprising.



Both of these cases are really rather similar in that they contrast the
immoral with the moral to form a ``strange'' contradiction.
    So what: tries to connect the two stories by weaving this thread of
morality and immorality defining strangeness.

While the modern sense of morality has strayed from the explicit
condemnation of vice, the Victorian morality that these stories apply is
in no way implicit.
    So what: continues talking about why these stories use morality in
such a culture-specific way, mostly molded by concerns about vices.

Health is tied to morality, and morality is tied to restraint from vice.
    Argument: tries to connect the behavior of characters in the stories
to the contradiction of morality and immorality as well as vices.

Despite Holmes's cocaine's use to show his dedication, Watson
appealing to Holmes's sense of better nature (i.e. health/morality)
shows that vice, although casually accepted, is frowned upon.
    Analytic statement

Jekyll's attitude to vice shows this sort of casual distaste:
``My life [had been] nine-tenths a life of effort, virtue,  and
control''
    Direct evidence

The conflation of health and morality is evidenced in Watson's pleading,
``it is a pathological and morbid process...why should you, for a
mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which
you have been endowed?''
    Direct evidence

Mr. Hyde emphasizes the belief that immorality implies unhealthfulness.
    Analytic statement

``Edward  Hyde,  alone  in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil,''
which is why he is unhealthy and ``gives a strong feeling of
deformity.''
    Direct evidence

The hypocritically unhealthy characters of these stories are abnormal,
given the implicit assumption that most people follow mores, and they
are therefore surprising, difficult to explain, and ``strange.''
    Argument: continues to construct an argument about the strange and
the abnormal but doesn't connect it back to anything with teeth or
establish an absolute connection from immorality to strangeness and
health.



Health is tied to morality, and morality, especially under the Victorian
moral system, is restraint from vice.
Despite Holmes using cocaine to show his dedication to work, Watson
appealing to Holmes's sense of better nature (i.e. health/morality)
shows that vice, although casually accepted, is frowned upon.
The conflation of health and morality is evidenced in Watson's pleading,
``it is a pathological and morbid process...why should you, for a
mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which
you have been endowed?''
``Edward  Hyde,  alone  in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil,''
which is why he is unhealthy and ``gives a strong feeling of
deformity.''
Mr. Hyde emphasizes the belief that immorality implies unhealthfulness.
Jekyll and Sherlock, with their indulgence, feel guilt as part of the
social expectation of moral health, so they are not particularly strange
in and of themselves, despite the immoral actions they take part in.
Hyde and Smalls, however, appal the people they interact with, and when
this immorality interacts with standard mores, they are surprising and
strange.