The two books are similar in many ways, they were both around the horror genre, and both had some kind of evil in them. Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” was about before Jekyll and Hyde, but it fascinated people, and so when Stevenson’s novella was brought out, people loved it.
Just like all sci-fi horrors, the way in which the evil comes about is never fully explained, this is for the simple reason, that it is impossible.
When describing a disturbing scene Stevenson uses the same kind of mood, he talks about it being dark, and foggy, this makes you automatically think that something evil will happen. In the chapter “The Carew Murder Case” this appears, Stevenson describes the scene as being “Like a district of some city in a nightmare” and it happened on “a dingy street” as “the fog settled down.” This is the same as what Mary Shelley did in her novel when getting a horror mood.
The first Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle “A Study in Scarlet” which was first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, could also have been said to have some of the same features as “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.” This is because they both have a detective theme to them. In detective books there is the murder or something serious, and then as you go through the book, you find out all the facts. There are also hidden clues that you could pick up on when reading the book for example in Stevenson’s novella, Hyde goes in the back door of Jekyll’s house. If you picked up on this you may have caught on that they live in the same place, and are in actual fact the same person.
Often in a detective book, the title of the chapters generally gives you a rather large clue to what will happen in the chapter itself. Stevenson’s book also has this in, for example the chapter called “The Carew Murder Case” pretty much gives away the fact that there will be a murder in the chapter, and most likely it will happen to someone by the name of Carew.
Dr Jekyll was “a large, well-made, smooth faced, a man of 50… with every mark of capacity and kindness.” He was a scientist, and “the hand of Henry Jekyll… was professional in shape and size; it was large and firm, white and comely.”
As a child, Jekyll was a quiet boy, but did enjoy the odd wild night out. I think Stevenson is almost putting himself in the story here, because as a boy Stevenson and his friends liked going out drinking and visiting prostitutes, which most would describe as a wild night. Jekyll inherited a large sum of money (£250,000) from his family, which he used to keep himself going and to get his house.
As Jekyll got older, he became a doctor and a scientist. He thought that if he could separate himself in to good and bad he could do all he wanted and not get caught. Then he did, but it all went wrong for him, he committed one of the worst crimes of all, murder, and then to make things worse he unwillingly started to change into Hyde, and then came the point where he could no longer get back to being Dr Jekyll. His friends, especially Utterson are vital to the plot. With out Utterson there would have been no interest with Hyde, no one would be intrigued with the situation and the strange will. The reason the will was strange is because unlike most wills it had a clause in it, it said that if he (Dr Jekyll) went missing for more then 3 months, then all his belongings were to go to Edward Hyde. Without all these factors the plot couldn’t unfold into such a good story.
Stevenson brings across the type of person that Jekyll is in the way he describes his house. The house was well decorated, and looked very attractive, the rooms “were furnished with luxury and good taste.” This obviously says that he is a rich man, but also that he is cultured and civil, not the kind of person you would expect to want to do nasty things!
One of Mr Hyde’s key actions in the novella is when he “trampled over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.” Hyde showed no remorse after the incident and grudgingly gave the £100 compensation over to the girl’s family. This is the first account we, as the reader, hear about Hyde, which instantly does not give us a very good impression of him! Mr Enfield, Utterson’s “distant kinsman” was the one who told the tale of the door, and ant the same time triggered off something in Utterson’s head, which makes him determined to meet Mr Hyde. There are many reasons why Utterson got interested, there was the strange will, there is the cheque with Jekyll’s signature (this occurred when Mr Hyde went to get the £100 for trampling the little girl), but the main factor I feel stimulated the obsessiveness of Utterson, was the fact that he knew that the door Hyde went in, was in fact the back door to Jekyll’s house. This intrigued Utterson, he must have thought, why did Jekyll sign the cheque for that evil Hyde character, why is he allowing him to stay in his house and why on earth did Jekyll put the clause in the will. After pondering about this for a while, Utterson probably came to the conclusion that Hyde knew a deep dark secret of Jekyll’s and he was blackmailing him with it.
The other key action Hyde did, was the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. The brutal attack was not premeditated; Carew simply seemed to ask for directions, but in “a great flame of anger” Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew to death using a cane “with ape like fury.” Stevenson describes a very eerie, horror like setting for the scene. It was early morning, foggy, with no one about, except for two gentlemen who advanced towards each other, there was also a maid who lay awake looking out her window.
You could guess that some kind of crime would take place, but as the murder is taking place, the descriptions Stevenson uses makes you feel like you are there and can almost hear the bones as they were “audibly shattered” as Hyde trampled Carews body under foot.
Edward Hyde was “a man of ape like stature” he was stunted in growth, and was also hunched. Each and every time someone describes Hyde they say, “He gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformations.” They also say that he was “dwarfish,” and quite young, when people talk about seeing Hyde they get a shiver up their spine just from the look he gives. Enfield described it as being “a look so ugly it made me sweat like running.” Hyde was originally smaller and less developed because Jekyll’s evil side wasn’t around much throughout his life, but as Hyde is about more often he becomes more developed, and therefore stronger, until he becomes strong enough to come out without Jekyll drinking the potion. This happened at first when Jekyll was at his weakest point, during his slumber.
I think the first chapter is symbolic, as “The door” is a door into the future and the unexplainable. It is the future in the sense of what Jekyll had discovered, but ironically it is actually going well in to the past, as Hyde is more “ape like” than anything else. We find out that Hyde’s house is in Soho when he is talking to Utterson “And he gave a number of a street in Soho” as his address.
Stevenson chose to locate Hyde in Soho because it is a rough area, where there were a lot of drugs, and prostitution, and so Hyde being ‘bad’ would have probably suited that environment if he were a real person.
To narrate the novella Stevenson used 4 different people in turn. Firstly Mr Enfield was used to tell the tale of the door and Hyde to Utterson. Enfield was a vital narrator in the novella, because with out him the plot could not develop in to anything.
After Enfield had told the story, it was Stevenson who actually narrated the majority of the book, but he did it in Utterson’s perspective, this would be in the 3rd person. Utterson was a key person to use to narrate, this is because only he knew about the ‘dodgy’ will (the strange clause), as he is almost everyone’s lawyer, including Jekyll’s in the book, and also he had the whole client confidentiality thing. This meant that he and only he could have really made the story what it is.
When you reach the last two chapters, it is noticeable that they are in letterform, and that Utterson is no longer the narrator. These last two chapters are in the 1st person.
It is Dr Lanyon’s narrative first, and this was included to give a second explanation of the events to everyone. This was needed because if Utterson and the others only heard the real story from Jekyll then they probably would not have believed it. Also included in the letter was a description of the change of Hyde back to Jekyll. He “drank one gulp. 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 features seemed to melt and alter.” Lanyon’s “soul sickened at the sight of it,” this basically tells us in black and white that it is unnatural, evil, and something that was not intended by God.
Finally the last chapter is narrated by Jekyll, and it is used to tell the reader how all the little clues were left about and what was actually happening. It tells the reader Jekyll’s point of view and almost gives him a chance to make himself look better, instead of a mad scientist who committed murder. Unfortunately it is not possible for him to tell us how he made the “Drug that so shook the very fortress of identity.” But it does try to cover everything else.
The advantage of having chapters in 1st person narrative is that the characters can always fully explain the mysterious things that have happened in the book, which the reader would not know.
Stevenson’s use of language throughout the novella is very interesting. The way he uses metaphors when describing a setting, “It was a wild, cold…march, with a pale moon, lying on her back.” It makes a vivid picture in the mind which allows you (the reader) to visualize the scene.
When reading the play you start to realize that the setting is always described when something bad/strange is going to happen.
This makes he events seem much more dramatic, and maintains the audiences interest. The way it is used also provides a much clearer idea of the area, setting, and mood, surrounding the events.
Stevenson also leaves hints and clues throughout the story, they are placed so only the reader will pick up on them, and so he is also using dramatic irony. Stevenson only gives away little clues, this is so it doesn’t reveal too much of the story, so when you get to the end, you are not quite sure about what is going on. An example of this is the cane belonging to Dr Jekyll and it is Hyde who killed someone with it, the cane was then found in Hyde’s room, at the back of Dr Jekyll’s theatre.
I think Stevenson would definitely have been surprised at the sensation his novella caused. I also think that there was a hidden message behind the story, this being that there is a danger to everything, and if you mess with things which are beyond the basic laws of nature, then you must be prepared for the consequences.
The novella deals with issues that are always cropping up in today’s life. The thought of new scientific developments, which if the technology got in the wrong hands, the consequences could be disastrous. As an example I will use cloning. If some evil person got their hands on the equipment to clone thousands of themselves, then the world could be over thrown, and ruled, by an evil Saddam Hussein empire. The idea of a piece of equipment getting in to the wrong hands is sort of in the novella by Stevenson. Jekyll was supposedly a good guy, but the potion makes him out of control, and so he does disturbing things (crimes).
So the added fear factor may have added to the sensation the novella caused.
Looking at the book it is almost as if Stevenson is trying to write an over exaggerated autobiography. As a young person Stevenson had to take lots of drugs to help him, but they also made him hallucinate. So in the novella the aspect of taking drugs could have come from his child hood, and also the image of Hyde may have been a hallucination he had as a child. Stevenson was close with his dad but he didn’t have any close relations with women. In the story Hyde tramples a child, and knocks over a woman. This could have been in Stevenson’s mind of what he would have liked to do but (luckily) he was too much of a gentleman to do so.
From this you may get the picture that in fact most of the story was based around Stevenson’s thoughts and feelings.
In 1886 “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was first published, and it caused an incredible sensation. There were as I have already mentioned a variety of different reasons for this. The novella was different to everything else around at the time and so the readers would not have been expecting what is in the book. One of the factors which made it different was that it had, horror, sci-fi, and detective qualities all packed into one. This contrast makes the story intriguing and makes you not want to put the book down.
At the time “The strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” was first published, Charles Darwin had already brought out his theory of evolution and from the churches point of view, Stevenson was agreeing with him from the aspect of Jekyll going back in the evolution process to become Hyde. With the church saying it is disgraceful (the book), it would get more people wanting to read the book and see what all the fuss is about.
Robert Louis Stevenson obviously knew how to make a good book. He dealt with issues which crop up in every day life, and many films have been made either about or including Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is just one example. The reason films are made with them in, is because people like the idea behind the story, that it is somehow possible to change your appearance and do evil things.
These are the reasons why “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” will always be a relevant text in today’s life, and in the future.
