Breakdown of important stuff about Jekyll and Hyde ripped from Schmoop with thanks.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde IntroWe live in a world that lurves a good good vs. evil story. Star Wars has the Empire (boo!) and the Rebel Alliance (yay!). The Lord of The Rings has Hobbits & Co. (woo-hoo!) against Sauron and his creepy horseback-riding zombie lords (hiss!). The Hunger Games has the regular Joes/Katnisses of the world (huzzah!) persecuted by a bunch of sadistic richy McRichersons with questionable taste in cosmetics (blergh).
So of course we all like Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a book whose title has become synonymous with the battle between Big Bad and Big Good. Right? Right?
Eh... sort of.
People tend to think of this novel as a pretty clear case of split personality. In one corner we have Dr. Jekyll, the upstanding MD. In the other corner, we have Mr. Hyde, his hairy and sociopathic double. Let the best man win.
But it isn't at all that simple.
Dr. Jekyll is hardly the kind of TV doctor with a megawatt smile we'd like to think he is. He creates Mr. Hyde so he can have both the respectable lifestyle he's become accustomed to and be a total degenerate in his off hours. He likes being Mr. Hyde. He loves being bad.
Ultimately, he loves badness so much that Mr. Hyde takes over. This isn't exactly surprising—Mr. Hyde clearly represents the person that Dr. Jekyll wishes he could be all the time... if he lived in a world without consequences.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in 1886 and was instrumental in launching the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, to literary fame. But people forget that this novel was written as a "shilling shocker." Popular during the Victorian era (the mid-1800s to about 1900), shilling shockers were short, graphic, and inexpensive books eagerly consumed by the masses—like those cheap romance novels you find in the supermarket.
But the real (shilling) shocker is that this piece of pulp fiction has remained totally famous and totally respectable. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been in continual publication for over 120 years... and shows no signs of falling out of fashion.
In A Nutshell
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in 1886 and was instrumental in launching the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, to literary fame. The novel, a mystery thriller about a respectable man who takes a potion to occasionally become a dark and evil character, was written as a "shilling shocker." Popular during the Victorian era (the mid-1800s to about 1900), shilling shockers were short, graphic, and inexpensive books eagerly consumed by the masses –like those cheap romance novels you find in the supermarket. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been in continual publication for over 120 years.
Why Should I Care?
We know, you’re not going to be taking some weird potions and unleashing your inner Mr. Hyde anytime soon. But seriously – have you ever tried to be good all the time? Flat-out "pleases" and "thank yous" and keeping your room clean and doing charity work and being respectful and eating your brussels sprouts and minding your parents and your manners? Many people would go crazy being "good" all the time.
Dr. Jekyll admits that one of his "flaws" is a tendency towards, as best we could figure out, happiness. Dr. Jekyll opted to be a grave, somber man, and before he knew it, his inner Wild Child was begging to be unleashed. So he came up with a perfect little solution: he created an alter ego. Except, instead of a Peter Parker/Spiderman deal, Dr. Jekyll went in the opposite direction and created an evil alter ego via some mysterious potion. His alter ego, Edward Hyde, who has a completely different appearance and personality, gets to do all the fun and illegal things that Jekyll, or any normal person, can’t. Although we don’t get the juicy details, it’s pretty clear that Mr. Hyde is a pretty perverse, wicked, sinful, foul guy – all around NOT the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley.
Apparently there’s some sort of consequence to all this evil-doing, what with Hyde taking over and everyone dying. So it’s best not to try Dr. Jekyll’s experiment at home. Read the text instead, because if you haven’t figured it out already, the point of this book is so sharp we could spear fish with it. What with being a "shilling shocker" and all (tabloid stories not unlike trashy romance novels), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written in a clear-cut (if still Victorian ) manner and clocks in at fewer than 150 pages.
How It All Goes DownThe novel begins with "Mr. Utterson the lawyer" going for a walk with his friend and relative Mr. Enfield. They walk past a door, which somehow prompts Mr. Enfield to tell a sad story: a brute of a man knocked down a little girl, everyone yelled at the rude man, the man offered to pay a lot of money and disappeared through the door only to return with a large check drawn from Dr. Jekyll’s bank account. The nasty man? None other than Mr. Hyde.
Mr. Utterson, it turns out, is Dr. Jekyll’s lawyer, and we find out that in the event of Dr. Jekyll’s death or disappearance, his entire estate is to be turned over to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson, who thinks highly of Dr. Jekyll, is extremely suspicious of this whole arrangement. He resolves to get to the bottom of this mystery. He hunts down Mr. Hyde and is suitably impressed with the evil just oozing out of Hyde’s pores. He then asks Dr. Jekyll about these odd arrangements. Dr. Jekyll refuses to comment, and there the matter rests until "nearly a year later."
Cut to "nearly a year later." A prominent politician is brutally beaten to death. The murder is conveniently witnessed by a maid, who points to evil-oozing Mr. Hyde as the culprit. Everyone tries to hunt down this evil man, but with no success. Meanwhile, Dr. Jekyll is in great health and spirits; he entertains his friends (among them one Dr. Lanyon), gives dinner parties, and attends to his religious duties. Two months later, both Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll fall terribly ill, and claim to have irrevocably quarreled with each other. Dr. Lanyon dies, leaving mysterious documents in Mr. Utterson’s possession, to be opened only if Dr. Jekyll dies or disappears. Dr. Jekyll remains in seclusion, despite frequent visits from Mr. Utterson.
Finally, one evening, Dr. Jekyll’s butler visits Mr. Utterson at home. He’s worried about his master and is convinced of foul play. The butler persuades Mr. Utterson to return to Dr. Jekyll’s house, where they break into Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. They find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor, with Dr. Jekyll nowhere to be found.
Mr. Utterson finds several documents left to him, and goes back home to read both Mr. Lanyon’s narrative and Dr. Jekyll’s narrative, which, it turns out, are two parts of the same story. Since we’re at the end of the story, author Robert Louis Stevenson figured it was about time to tell us what happened at the beginning. So we discover (through the documents left by the dead men) the following: by means of a potion, Dr. Jekyll was able to transform into Mr. Hyde and give in to a world of pleasure and self-serving crime. In his narrative, Dr. Jekyll writes that Mr. Hyde became ever more powerful and ever harder to control – in essence, the dominant personality.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde IntroWe live in a world that lurves a good good vs. evil story. Star Wars has the Empire (boo!) and the Rebel Alliance (yay!). The Lord of The Rings has Hobbits & Co. (woo-hoo!) against Sauron and his creepy horseback-riding zombie lords (hiss!). The Hunger Games has the regular Joes/Katnisses of the world (huzzah!) persecuted by a bunch of sadistic richy McRichersons with questionable taste in cosmetics (blergh).
So of course we all like Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a book whose title has become synonymous with the battle between Big Bad and Big Good. Right? Right?
Eh... sort of.
People tend to think of this novel as a pretty clear case of split personality. In one corner we have Dr. Jekyll, the upstanding MD. In the other corner, we have Mr. Hyde, his hairy and sociopathic double. Let the best man win.
But it isn't at all that simple.
Dr. Jekyll is hardly the kind of TV doctor with a megawatt smile we'd like to think he is. He creates Mr. Hyde so he can have both the respectable lifestyle he's become accustomed to and be a total degenerate in his off hours. He likes being Mr. Hyde. He loves being bad.
Ultimately, he loves badness so much that Mr. Hyde takes over. This isn't exactly surprising—Mr. Hyde clearly represents the person that Dr. Jekyll wishes he could be all the time... if he lived in a world without consequences.
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in 1886 and was instrumental in launching the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, to literary fame. But people forget that this novel was written as a "shilling shocker." Popular during the Victorian era (the mid-1800s to about 1900), shilling shockers were short, graphic, and inexpensive books eagerly consumed by the masses—like those cheap romance novels you find in the supermarket.
But the real (shilling) shocker is that this piece of pulp fiction has remained totally famous and totally respectable. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been in continual publication for over 120 years... and shows no signs of falling out of fashion.
In A Nutshell
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published in 1886 and was instrumental in launching the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, to literary fame. The novel, a mystery thriller about a respectable man who takes a potion to occasionally become a dark and evil character, was written as a "shilling shocker." Popular during the Victorian era (the mid-1800s to about 1900), shilling shockers were short, graphic, and inexpensive books eagerly consumed by the masses –like those cheap romance novels you find in the supermarket. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been in continual publication for over 120 years.
Why Should I Care?
We know, you’re not going to be taking some weird potions and unleashing your inner Mr. Hyde anytime soon. But seriously – have you ever tried to be good all the time? Flat-out "pleases" and "thank yous" and keeping your room clean and doing charity work and being respectful and eating your brussels sprouts and minding your parents and your manners? Many people would go crazy being "good" all the time.
Dr. Jekyll admits that one of his "flaws" is a tendency towards, as best we could figure out, happiness. Dr. Jekyll opted to be a grave, somber man, and before he knew it, his inner Wild Child was begging to be unleashed. So he came up with a perfect little solution: he created an alter ego. Except, instead of a Peter Parker/Spiderman deal, Dr. Jekyll went in the opposite direction and created an evil alter ego via some mysterious potion. His alter ego, Edward Hyde, who has a completely different appearance and personality, gets to do all the fun and illegal things that Jekyll, or any normal person, can’t. Although we don’t get the juicy details, it’s pretty clear that Mr. Hyde is a pretty perverse, wicked, sinful, foul guy – all around NOT the kind of person you want to meet in a dark alley.
Apparently there’s some sort of consequence to all this evil-doing, what with Hyde taking over and everyone dying. So it’s best not to try Dr. Jekyll’s experiment at home. Read the text instead, because if you haven’t figured it out already, the point of this book is so sharp we could spear fish with it. What with being a "shilling shocker" and all (tabloid stories not unlike trashy romance novels), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written in a clear-cut (if still Victorian ) manner and clocks in at fewer than 150 pages.
How It All Goes DownThe novel begins with "Mr. Utterson the lawyer" going for a walk with his friend and relative Mr. Enfield. They walk past a door, which somehow prompts Mr. Enfield to tell a sad story: a brute of a man knocked down a little girl, everyone yelled at the rude man, the man offered to pay a lot of money and disappeared through the door only to return with a large check drawn from Dr. Jekyll’s bank account. The nasty man? None other than Mr. Hyde.
Mr. Utterson, it turns out, is Dr. Jekyll’s lawyer, and we find out that in the event of Dr. Jekyll’s death or disappearance, his entire estate is to be turned over to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson, who thinks highly of Dr. Jekyll, is extremely suspicious of this whole arrangement. He resolves to get to the bottom of this mystery. He hunts down Mr. Hyde and is suitably impressed with the evil just oozing out of Hyde’s pores. He then asks Dr. Jekyll about these odd arrangements. Dr. Jekyll refuses to comment, and there the matter rests until "nearly a year later."
Cut to "nearly a year later." A prominent politician is brutally beaten to death. The murder is conveniently witnessed by a maid, who points to evil-oozing Mr. Hyde as the culprit. Everyone tries to hunt down this evil man, but with no success. Meanwhile, Dr. Jekyll is in great health and spirits; he entertains his friends (among them one Dr. Lanyon), gives dinner parties, and attends to his religious duties. Two months later, both Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll fall terribly ill, and claim to have irrevocably quarreled with each other. Dr. Lanyon dies, leaving mysterious documents in Mr. Utterson’s possession, to be opened only if Dr. Jekyll dies or disappears. Dr. Jekyll remains in seclusion, despite frequent visits from Mr. Utterson.
Finally, one evening, Dr. Jekyll’s butler visits Mr. Utterson at home. He’s worried about his master and is convinced of foul play. The butler persuades Mr. Utterson to return to Dr. Jekyll’s house, where they break into Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. They find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor, with Dr. Jekyll nowhere to be found.
Mr. Utterson finds several documents left to him, and goes back home to read both Mr. Lanyon’s narrative and Dr. Jekyll’s narrative, which, it turns out, are two parts of the same story. Since we’re at the end of the story, author Robert Louis Stevenson figured it was about time to tell us what happened at the beginning. So we discover (through the documents left by the dead men) the following: by means of a potion, Dr. Jekyll was able to transform into Mr. Hyde and give in to a world of pleasure and self-serving crime. In his narrative, Dr. Jekyll writes that Mr. Hyde became ever more powerful and ever harder to control – in essence, the dominant personality.