The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde door Robert Louis Stevenson

Dr Jekyll's own letter of confession was more detailed. He wrote that he had invented a chemical witch changed him completely from the good, kind, respectable Dr Jekyll into the horrible fiend Mr Hyde. As Edward Hyde he was free to roam the dark, shady parts of London, become a member of the underworld and commit crimes without fear of recognition. Gradually the Hyde personality became the stronger one. Despite his efforts Jekyll did not succeed in banishing Hyde. He needed more and more drugs to transform into Dr Jekyll. After a time, Jekyll could no longer get the chemicals necessary to transform him back into his better self. In despair he shut himself up is his laboratory, experimenting with one drug after another. All was in vain. There was no way but to kill himself.

Setting: The story takes place in London around 1870, since it is said that Dr Jekyll was born in the year 18, and that he was fifty years old. For the most part are the houses of the main characters themselves described. The houses are well furnished, and Dr Jekyll has a laboratory in his house.

Title: The title describes the names of the two-in-one-person. The strange case of Dr Jekyll who is in fact the good side of the more evil Mr. Hyde.

Characters

Dr Henry Jekyll, a good friend and client of Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, through whom we get to hear the story. He has a good reputation. He has a nice house with a laboratory and loyal staff. He invents a drug that transforms him into his evil self. This evil self he names Edward Hyde. This way he can keep his good reputation as Dr Jekyll, but as Mr. Hyde he can let his evil self-loose. In the last chapter Dr Jekyll tells us his statement of the case. He explains what he did and why he did what he did. ’With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I drew thus steadily nearer to that truth by whose partial discovery i have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.’ All his development in the story is written down in the last chapter. He first believes that if the two sides are separated, everyone will be relieved of all that was unbearable. His drug doesn’t quite separate good and evil, but gives him two appearances: one is the all-out evil Mr. Hyde, and the other is the old Dr Jekyll himself. At the end he discovers that he is slowly losing hold of his original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with his second and worse. He understands that he must kill himself. Dr Jekyll aka Mr. Hyde is a round character, because he has a complex personality.

Mr Utterson, a good friend of Henry Jekyll is a lawyer. He is a kind and trustworthy man. Lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable. In the first chapter his character is well extensively described. As the reader you know as much as he does in the story. Besides finding out Jekyll’s past, he doesn’t have much development. You don’t even get to know his first name.

Mr. Edward Hyde, the evil side of Dr Jekyll. He is a cruel, murderous and solitary man. Something about him is off. In the book he is often described to have something that is indescribable. You don’t get to know much about his character, other than that he is the pure evil form of Henry Jekyll. ‘the evil side [...] was less robust and less developed than the good which I had just deposed. [...] Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter, and younger than Henry Jekyll.’

Form

The story is told through the eyes of Mr. Utterson. The first eight chapters are told by a he-person. The last two chapters are two letters, one from Dr Lanyon, a very good friend of Dr Jekyll, and the second letter from Dr Jekyll aka Mr. Hyde. The story is mainly told through telling. Not much is ‘shown’. Mainly thoughts and dialog are presented in the book

Theme and moral

The theme of the book is good versus evil. Dr Jekyll fights against his evil side, eventually losing the fight and ending both appearances’ lives. His normal personality is intellectual and morally good. While his evil self is just pure evil. The evil tempts Jekyll into doing wrong things without it having any consequences for his ‘good’ reputation.

I feel like the moral of the story is to let people know that you cannot do wrong without consequence. Jekyll tries to separate his evil side to be free to do whatever he wants to do. In the end this doesn’t work out. The evil almost gets the upper-hand on Jekyll, but he kills himself and thus killing his evil side with him. You cannot separate good from evil.

My opinion

I actually really liked this book. It’s a very short book, so you can read it through easily in an hour or two. In the beginning of the book I didn’t quite understood what was going on. The book seems very mysterious, but perhaps that was the music I was listening to at that moment. I honestly had not expected Dr Henry Jekyll to be the same person as Edward Hyde. Reading Dr Lanyon’s letter, I was genuinely surprised. I had heard of the title of this book before. It sounded really familiar, but I did not know what the story was. The first eight chapters, the tension really build. After the denouement, the story got a bit dull for my likes. But the last chapter really helped the whole story to get more plain, which was nice.

I actually really liked this book. It’s a very short book, so you can read it through easily in an hour or two. In the beginning of the book I didn’t quite understood what was going on. The book seems very mysterious, but perhaps that was the music I was listening to at that moment. I honestly had not expected Dr Henry Jekyll to be the same person as Edward Hyde. Reading Dr Lanyon’s letter, I was genuinely surprised. I had heard of the title of this book before. It sounded really familiar, but I did not know what the story was. The first eight chapters, the tension really build. After the denouement, the story got a bit dull for my likes. But the last chapter really helped the whole story to get more plain, which was nice.

The scene where Hyde changes into Jekyll in the letter of Lanyon, and the scene where Poole, the servant, and Mr. Utterson knock down the door to Jekyll’s room, are my favourite scenes in the story. They are exciting and made me very curious as to what was going on.

The language in the book was a bit old, but quite easy to understand. I think I might have liked the book even better if it was written in first-person, instead of third person.

All in all, this very short book, was way better than I expected it to be. The title doesn’t spoil anything. I would highly recommend anyone to read this book if they haven’t already.