Question

The next thing was to get the money; and where

do you think he carried us but to that place with
the door?

-whipped out a key, went in, and
presently came back with the matter of ten
pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance on
Coutts's, drawn payable to bearer and signed
with a name that I can't mention, though it's one
of the points of my story, but it was a name at
least very well known and often printed.
-The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
Robert Louis Stevenson


How does Dr. Jekyll's confession answer questions
about the mysterious cheque?
O It reveals Mr. Hyde's motive for trampling a small
girl and congratulates him for escaping the police
by writing a cheque.
O It reveals why Jekyll wrote a cheque for Hyde's
wrong and what steps Jekyll took to avoid this problem in the future.
O It reveals how Jekyll managed to forge a cheque in Hyde's name without raising people's suspicions.

Answer 1

Dr. Jekyll's cheque reveals how he used financial transactions to maintain his secret life as Mr. Hyde, presenting a complex interplay of identity and morality and highlighting themes of dualism and ethical flexibility. The correct option is D.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the confession that emerges around Dr. Jekyll's cheque uncovers the mystery surrounding his dual existence. He manages to keep his nefarious alter ego, Mr. Hyde, shrouded in secrecy by employing the use of cheques for financial transactions. The question of how Dr. Jekyll orchestrated payments without casting suspicion reveals the intricacies of his duplicitous life. One moment, a respectable doctor; the next, a man capable of deceitful actions such as forgery.

Dr. Jekyll's actions indicate a deep conflict within himself, balancing between his outer world of respect and propriety and his inner world driven by darker impulses. By maneuvering financial transactions with cheques, he complicates the relationship between money, identity, and morality—demonstrating how these elements intersect within his split personality.

Cheques as a symbol in literature often represent trust, obligation, and societal contracts. Dr. Jekyll navigates these by exploiting the financial instrument to maintain his public veneer while fulfilling the demands of his secret life. This allowance of unchecked behaviors speaks to themes of dualism and the human capacity for ethical flexibility.