Usually in detective stories the main investigator has an assistant, for example Inspector Morse’s assistant is Inspector Lewis. However in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ Mr Utterson does not have an assistant, although Mr Enfield could be seen to fit this role the closest as he is the one to first tell Mr Utterson about the strange Mr Hyde.
Another typecast of a detective is that he is unmarried and lives alone. This is the case in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. Mr Utterson is unmarried and throughout the whole book does not mention any women.
The novel is also very like a horror story, it is written to unsettle the reader. Although there are no vampires, demons or werewolves in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ there is a supernatural occurrence of when Dr Jekyll transforms into Mr Hyde.
“A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table. Held on, staring with infected eye, gasping with open mouth. He seemed to swell – his face became suddenly black, and the features seemed to melt and alter.”
When the book was first published this transformation probably was seen as unnatural and that Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were as frightening as werewolves and vampires. To the modern reader the transformation is still disturbing but defiantly not scary.
Usually in horror stories there is a lot of bloodshed and murder. This is not really the case in the novel, but there is one particularly gory scene. In ‘The Carew Murder Case’ The MP Sir Danvers Carew is beaten to death by Mr Hyde.
“Mr Hyde went wild and clubbed him to the ground, with an apelike fury, he was trampling his victim underfoot.”
This scene is very extreme and shocks the reader.
‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ also could be seen as a gothic story. The novel is built up with suspense and drama to the final chapter where there is the resolution. The novel also contains a great deal of mystery and secrets.
Dr Lanyon knew only some of what was going on between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but refused to tell anyone, even Mr Utterson.
“Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you.”
The secret that he had learnt about Dr Jekyll caused him to die and he daren’t share it with anyone for fear they might die too.
Doppelgangers are often the themes of many gothic stories and the doppelganger is defiantly the main theme of ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. A doppelganger, is the ghostly double of a living person, it can also be known as a person’s evil twin. Although Mr Hyde is not a twin, he is the evil double of Dr Jekyll. A doppelganger is usually the omen of death, and for Sir Danvers Carew seeing Mr Hyde did in fact result in death.
The use of multiple narrators is often used in gothic stories and is used in “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. The story is first narrated in the third person and is then told by Dr Lanyon in his letter to Mr Utterson, and then the novel is ended by Dr Jekyll and his full statement of the case. Having different narrators in the novel makes you look at the events in the book from different angles and makes it in some ways more alarming to read. It also helps the story to unfold gradually and builds up more suspense for the reader.
‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ is set in London. This is unusual for gothic stories, which are mainly set in far away countries. Having novels set in far away countries makes them less frightening to the reader, because they know that they will probably never visit these countries. Setting the novel in London made it seem more realistic and much more frightening to the reader, especially in 1886 when the book was first published. It almost seems as if the events in the book could be happening on your doorstep.
In ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ there are elements of all three of these genres included in the novel. It is hard to say which genre the novel is most like. I think that the closest the novel is most is a gothic story. The novel includes doubles, mystery, suspense and secrets – the main features of gothic stories.
