Key Extracts & Exam Practice

In the AQA GCSE exam, you will be given an extract from the novella and asked to write about it in relation to the whole text. This lesson covers the key extracts you should know, how to analyse them, and how to structure your response.

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The Exam Format

Feature	Detail
Exam board	AQA English Literature Paper 1
Section	Section B: The 19th-Century Novel
Time recommended	Approximately 50-55 minutes
Format	An extract is printed, followed by a question
Question style	"Starting with this extract, how does Stevenson present..."
Marks available	30 marks
AO weighting	AO1 (12), AO2 (12), AO3 (6)

What the AOs mean

AO	What it assesses	What to do
AO1	Read, understand, and respond to texts	Make clear, relevant points with evidence
AO2	Analyse language, form, and structure	Analyse techniques, word choices, and structural features
AO3	Show understanding of context	Weave in Victorian context to support your argument

Examiner's tip: AO2 is the most important — 12 out of 30 marks. Prioritise language and structural analysis over plot retelling.

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Key Extract 1: Hyde Tramples the Child (Chapter 1)

"the man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn't like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut."

Analysis

Word/phrase	Analysis
"trampled calmly"	Oxymoron — the violence is casual, not passionate. "Calmly" makes it worse — Hyde is indifferent to suffering.
"hellish"	Religious language — connects to the theme of Hyde as a diabolic figure.
"like some damned Juggernaut"	Simile — a Juggernaut is an unstoppable force. "Damned" means both cursed and condemned to hell. Hyde is presented as an inhuman, destructive machine.
"It wasn't like a man"	Hyde is dehumanised — he is not recognisably human in his behaviour.

Wider connections

• This is the first introduction to Hyde — establishing his cruelty and inhumanity.
• The child-trampling is echoed and escalated in the Carew murder (Ch 4) — the word "trampling" recurs.
• Enfield's difficulty describing Hyde connects to the broader theme of the indescribable.

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Key Extract 2: Utterson Meets Hyde (Chapter 2)

"Mr Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, and he had a displeasing smile, and he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice."

Analysis

Word/phrase	Analysis
"pale and dwarfish"	Physical smallness — Hyde represents Jekyll's "less exercised" evil side. Paleness suggests something unnatural, unhealthy.
"deformity without any nameable malformation"	Paradox — people sense wrongness but cannot identify it. This reflects the uncanny — something that defies rational explanation.
"displeasing smile"	Even positive expressions (smiles) are perverted in Hyde — nothing about him is natural.
"murderous mixture of timidity and boldness"	Oxymoron — contradictory qualities coexist, reflecting Hyde's unnatural nature. "Murderous" foreshadows the Carew murder.
"husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice"	Sibilant, secretive quality — Hyde's very voice embodies concealment and corruption.

Wider connections

• Hyde's indescribability is a recurring motif — here, Utterson struggles just as Enfield did.
• The physical description connects to degeneration theory and Victorian physiognomy.
• "Murderous" is dramatic irony — Utterson does not yet know Hyde will commit murder.

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Key Extract 3: The Carew Murder (Chapter 4)

"And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim underfoot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered, and the body jumped upon the roadway."

Analysis

Word/phrase	Analysis
"ape-like fury"	Animal imagery — Darwinian regression, degeneration. Hyde has devolved beyond human behaviour.
"trampling"	Echoes the child-trampling in Ch 1 — structural parallel showing escalation.
"hailing down a storm of blows"	Pathetic fallacy / natural disaster metaphor — the violence is elemental, beyond human control.
"bones were audibly shattered"	Visceral, auditory detail — forces the reader to hear the horror. "Audibly" makes it inescapable.
"the body jumped upon the roadway"	The lifeless body is moved by the force of the blows — dehumanising Carew, reducing him to a physical object.

Wider connections

• This is the turning point — Hyde's violence escalates from cruelty to murder.
• The motiveless nature of the attack reinforces Hyde as embodying evil for its own sake.
• The maid's emotional response contrasts with the male characters' emotional repression.

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Key Extract 4: Jekyll's Confession — The First Transformation (Chapter 10)

"I felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within I was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a mill-race in my fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom."

Analysis

Word/phrase	Analysis
"younger, lighter, happier"	Tricolon of positive adjectives — the transformation is initially pleasurable, seductive.
"heady recklessness"	"Heady" = intoxicating, dizzying. Hyde is addictive — like a drug.
"disordered sensual images"	Chaos and desire — the opposite of Victorian order and restraint.
"running like a mill-race"	Simile — a mill-race is a powerful, uncontrollable flow of water. Jekyll's repressed desires burst free.
"solution of the bonds of obligation"	"Solution" = dissolving. The social and moral "bonds" that constrain Jekyll are dissolved — freedom from Victorian duty.
"unknown but not an innocent freedom"	Litotes (understatement via double negative) — Jekyll admits this freedom is guilty. He knows Hyde is not merely liberating but morally corrupt.

Wider connections

• Jekyll enjoys being Hyde — this complicates any reading of him as a simple victim.
• The language of addiction ("heady", the pleasure of release) connects to Victorian fears about opium and alcoholism.
• "Not an innocent freedom" — Jekyll takes moral responsibility, even as he pursues it.

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Key Extract 5: Jekyll's Confession — Loss of Control (Chapter 10)

"I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde ... yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde."

Analysis

Word/phrase	Analysis
Repetition	The sentence is repeated almost identically — Jekyll is in shock, processing a terrifying reality.
"gone to bed" / "awakened"	The transformation happens during sleep — Jekyll has no conscious control. The boundary between the two selves has dissolved.
"Henry Jekyll" / "Edward Hyde"	Using full names creates a formal, almost legal distinction — but the sentence shows they are the same body.

Wider connections

• This is the moment when Jekyll loses control — the turning point of his confession.
• It inverts the earlier confidence: "the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde" (Ch 3) — dramatic irony.
• Sleep as the moment of transformation suggests that the unconscious mind belongs to Hyde.

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How to Structure Your Response: PEAL

Use the PEAL structure for each paragraph:

Step	What to do	Example
Point	State your argument clearly	"Stevenson presents Hyde as a degenerate figure..."
Evidence	Embed a short quotation (2-6 words)	"...describing him as having 'ape-like fury'..."
Analysis	Analyse the language — word choices, techniques, effects	"The adjective 'ape-like' positions Hyde as..."
Link	Link to context, the whole novella, or the question	"This reflects Victorian fears about degeneration..."

Balance: Extract vs Whole Novella

Aim for approximately 60% extract analysis and 40% wider play references: