Scarlett's Notebook

             Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde


Title: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Publication: 1886
Genre: Gothic, Horror
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Favourite Quote:  “Good and evil are so close as to be chained together in the soul.” 

I'd be surprised to hear that anyone over the age of 15 doesn't know the story of Jekyll and Hyde. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an immensely influential work. Since the publication of this novel, the plot and theme have been repeated innumerable times in both proses and on the screen. It's recognised as a ground-breaking, chilling, and artistically vigorous exploration into the dark and light corners within the human mind.

Through its hidden labyrinths, silent street, gruesome bodily descriptions and a continuously gloomy atmosphere, this book just reeks of Gothicness.  


"That child of Hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred."

Set in Victorian London, we read the "strange case" through the eyes of a lawyer, Mr. Utterson. He tells us of a brutal murder committed by Mr Hyde who then disappears without a trace. Fearing for the life and reputation of his friend, Dr Jekyll, Utterson takes it upon himself to investigate his disappearance, particuarly when reports ofHyde's gruesome social conduct around London starts to spread. With the help of a friend, Dr Lanyon, Utterson ends up finding out what has really been going on with his friend.

Told in alternating first-person points of view by both Dr Jekyll and Utterson, we find out that Jekyll has been conducting experiments with his mind and body, alternating drugs that friend the fiendish alter ego known as the notorious Mr Hyde. As time passes, Jekyll finds that he is becoming addicted to the transformations that also begin to occur spontaneously.


"He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter."

Although this story is so well-known, what people might not realise if they haven't studied the book is that it's much more than a story about a wacky science experiment that's gone wrong and the aftermath of the consequences.  It's not about a man innocently, at first, and uncontrollably being split into a good and evil person and then keeping his double life hidden.  Rather, it's about a man who struggles with the spiritual duality within himself. He thinks he can create two people out of one person, separating the bad from the good, but when he tries it, he discovers he was terribly wrong. Jekyll still remains as he was before: good mixed with bad, but Hyde is deformed, stunted and purely evil. Because of the favour of the evil, the weakness of Jekyll's human nature, the abandonment of Hyde and the decreasing effectiveness of the drug all working together, what started as an experiment soon turns into a horrible addiction.

“I was slowly losing hold of my original and better self, and becoming slowly incorporated with my second and worse.” 

I think any decent person must be able to imagine and sympathise with the horror someone feels as they watch this person become a monster, knowing their real identity will soon vanish. Jekyll's situation, if anything, is even crueller: at the start, he has the ability to be himself again at his own will. Though, through his weakness, errors and addiction, he lives through the agony of losing himself, bit by tiny bit. I'm sure many of us can relate to Jekyll in someway because sometimes we feel discouraged as we fight our own inner demons. 

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a marvellously crafted exploration of various forms of maliciousness, corruption and evil. The messages placed within this novella has helped it become as relevant today as it was when first published in the 19th century.