How does Stevenson create mystery and suspense in the opening 8 chapters of ;The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’? How are we given clues as to the identity of Hyde?
Jekyll and Hyde is the dark story written by Stevenson about one man with a split personality, or the ‘beast inside the man’. It was written in 1886 and is thought to be based on the characters Burke and Hare; needless to say it caused outrage at the time, as shortly after the book was released Jack the Ripper terrorised London and shared the same characteristics as the evil Mr. Hyde.
Stevenson was brought up by his nurse, and she told him there were only two types of people that existed in the world: good and bad, i.e Jekyll and Hyde. Despite the fact that people were shocked by the idea of a respectable doctor meddling with science and enticing another evil side or beast of himself, the book was still hugely popular and even today when people refer to someone slightly crazy or with drastic mood swings they are said to be “like Jekyll and Hyde!”
The story begins with the introduction of Mr. Utterson; a serious, rspectable yet quite lonely man, as Stevenson writes “he drank gin when he was alone and although he enjoyed the theatre, he had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years” and “ a man of utter countenances that was never lighted by a smile”. He is introduced with great care and detail to portray him as a trustworthy man-“the last good influence in the lives of downgoing men” to the reader. After all, who wouldn’t trust a quiet renowned and respected lawyer? His thoughts being put into our minds lead us to see the story unravel as he does and make the same-unfortunately incorrect- assumptions as he does.
In fact, all the characters are introduced very quickly, with the first chapter being entitiled‘Story of the Door’. The story of this door leads us right into the story of Mr. Hyde, all the time building an atmosphere of mystery with deliberate language describing the scenery; one building is described as “two storey high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey” making the building sound menacing. The ‘door’ story is set in the gothic settings of old town Edinburgh come sinister alleyways of London. As Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield are taking a walk one day they pass the much anticipated door. Stevenson manages to create mystery through description and dialogue, with Utterson bringing it up; “Did you ever remark that door? It is connected in my mind, with a very odd story.” Immediately we are focused on it and wondering just what the story is. It has already made itself very different and conspicuous to its surroundings, despite its plain and shabby appearance-“equipped with neither bell nor knocker,blistered and distained” in an area where shop fronts were like “rows of smiling saleswomen, freshly painted shutters,well-polished brasses and general cleanliness.” The contrast marks the door out as odd , and the use of ‘smiling’ shows the area could have two sides, two personalities, which could be seen as a sign of things to come, and shows there is something different about it, making it seem mysterious and provoking the reader to ponder where the door leads to and who lives there. As Mr. Enfield tells his ‘odd story’ about Hyde, we increasingly learn more about him and his effect on people-and he certainly isn’t described as ‘nice’. Typically,the story happened at night on a silent dingy street on a dark night (which could be mirroring Hyde’s dark personality-emphasises the horror designed to be associated with his name), and he is described to have trampled on a young innocent girl; something to shock the reader. Stevenson goes as far as to compare him to “Satan” and the situation “Hellish”, clearly showing Hyde is an evil man and there is something unearthly and not right about him, which creates a semantic field of the supernatural. Who would have thought a man so monstrous and detested could have been a well known man with the respectable profession of a Doctor? What kind of Doctor has “women kept off him with force, for they were wild as harpies” and makes men “turn sick and white with the desire to kill him”? In chapter two theres is another description of this sort “and still the figure had no face which he might know it; even in his dreams it had no face”. All this descriptive and elusive writing creates mystery on his appearance and character, although many elements of his personality are revealed as evil All these adjectives used make Hyde something almost untouchable and unreal, the type of monster you read about in horror stories and Greek legends. The reader is left in the dark, thinking only who Mr. Hyde could be and what link he has to the other characters in the story, yet feels a sense of dissatisfaction as the two characters agree at the end of part 1 to “never speak of this again”. However, the reader gets a clear feeling that references to Mr. Hyde aren’t going to end there, and that there is more to this Hyde person than is said.
