Question

ead the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I want you to postpone all other engagements for to-night—ay, even if you were summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a cab, unless your carriage should be actually at the door; and with this letter in your hand for consultation, to drive straight to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find him waiting your arrival with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is then to be forced: and you are to go in alone; to open the glazed press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be shut; and to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the fourth drawer from the top or (which is the same thing) the third from the bottom.

The excerpt contains an example of a gothic setting because it has

a loyal butler waiting in the dark.
a mysterious old house at night.
a peculiar locksmith arriving late.
a strange carriage driving at night.

Answer 1

a mysterious old house at night.

The passage sends the reader to the narrator’s house after dark, with secretive instructions to break into a locked cabinet—classic Gothic elements (night, a foreboding house, secrecy). The butler, locksmith, and carriage are details but not the core Gothic setting.