Believe the Hype: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- Camille Benz
- Aug 2, 2018
- 2 min read
We all know Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story from the multitude of references in movies, other books and even used in our common vernacular. Rumor has it that this story was written when Stevenson was high on cocaine and to me, that's reason enough to read it. Since I have been trying to fill my brain with as many classic stories as possible, I knew I had to read this particular grim mystery. Just by the general gist of the story, I could sense an underlying representation of mental illness like multiple personality disorder (or multiplex personality defined by Frederic W. H. Myers the same year of the book's publication) or bipolar disorder. These modern psychological interpretations are a little too complex considering that psychology was a new science of the time, and steered me away from my belief that stories can also just be "art for art's sake," however, thanks to Mr. Wilde, I decided to interpret the novella as such.
The beginning sets the tone for the rest of the book; it is gloomy, always night time or generally dark even during the day, there’s fog and an ominous vibe that comes from the lonely streets Utterson repeatedly roams in. He is a lawyer and best friend with Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Lanyon which makes them a perfect trio of older men who are used to each other’s company and the commonality of life. Strange rumors about a deformed man who kills children and innocent civilians are whispered among the streets right at the start of the tale. The mystery keeps increasing when Dr. Jekyll disappears for months at a time and his “friend” Hyde appears to frequent his house.
It’s true that the mystery doesn’t really feel like a mystery because the story is so popular, but the slow and steady revelations of Hyde’s activities, and Jekyll’s sudden disappearance that spike Utterson’s curiosity, make the story still worth reading. Personally, as my first piece of real Victorian literature the description and colloquial dialogue didn’t feel slow or irrelevant; each sentence set the atmosphere or revealed a new piece to the strange case of Mr. Hyde.
The story becomes fully explained from the middle to the end when Stevenson starts a different chapter through Lanyon’s point of view, instead of Utterson’s, where he illustrates Dr. Jekyll’s abrupt appearance after a big argument between the two. Since Lanyon discovers Jekyll’s story too horrid to write, he is so distraught by his friend’s confession that he dies. The point of view then switches one last time to Jekyll who reports the reason for his disappearances and his friendship with Hyde, until he ends his letter on a doomed and hopeless note.
Overall, I enjoyed reading such a rich gothic novella consisting of less than 100 pages. Stevenson was creative and forward-thinking for his time and I can’t help but draw the obvious conclusion that this story has been replicated time and time again particularly with the character of the Hulk. This just goes to show how Stevenson’s work is able to influence storytelling hundred of years later.
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