R. L.

STEVENSON - THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1886)

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the story of a scientist that wants to go
beyond human limits. Like Frankenstein, he wants to make himself God. Being
convinced “that man is not truly one, but truly two”, he decides to separate these
two parts of man’s personality so that “the unjust might go his way” and “the just
could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path”.
Jekyll’s experiment apparently succeeds and Hyde is born. Hyde is pure evil and as
such he is hated by everybody. When Utterson and Enfield see Jekyll at the window
and witness some glimpse of his transformation, they understand that something evil
is going on. Lanyon, who chooses to witness the unnatural and horrible
transformation, cannot survive what he sees and soon dies. But the man who has
dared defy God is soon punished. Hyde becomes stronger and stronger and it
becomes more and more difficult for Jekyll to keep him under control. When he falls
asleep he wakes up as Hyde and whenever Hyde decides to appear, he easily gets rid
of Jekyll’s body. The man who wanted to get rid of evil is actually taken over by it. The
final irony is that the powder for the experiment is running short and cannot be
found anywhere: the powder bought by Jekyll was impure and so he does not even
know what made the experiment work. His pride of going beyond the limits imposed
by nature has been severely punished. Of him, nothing remains and Utterson and
Poole only find Hyde’s body behind the locked door.

Not only is the story interesting for the issues it presents but also for the way it is
narrated. The story is told from several different points of view. The first 8 chapters
are told by a third person narrator, who mainly takes Utterson’s (Jekyll’s lawyer and
friend) point of view. We see what Utterson and his distant relative Enfield see, and
we understand what they understand. Chapter 9 has a first person narrator, Dr
Lanyon, who has limited knowledge of facts, and gives his point of view of the
events. The last chapter is told by Dr Jekyll himself, who does not know all about the
other characters, so his narrative is ironically ‘partial’. This type of narration seems to
challenge the scientific certainties of the Victorian period when people thought that
everything could be understood and explained, and in this novel we see the difficulty
of interpreting the complexity of reality. The accounts of the first three – Utterson,
Enfield and Lanyon – are gathered together in the first part of the book, and Jekyll
appears as a respectable doctor. It is not until the last part of the story that Jekyll
himself becomes the narrator in a final confession before killing Hyde and himself. In
this way, the story moves to a more profound level of confession and self-
examination, as Jekyll explores the hidden destructive forces in himself.

Stevenson’s style is very interesting. The setting of the first experiment comes to life
thanks to a great number of vivid images that we find in the description of the magic
potion. The dreadful atmosphere of the night outside Lanyon’s house is built up
thanks to the image of the policeman’s lamp that stands out against the darkness of
the night. The atmosphere is often created by the interaction of a series of elements
such as the characters’ state of mind and the horrible transformation that takes
place.
Words with a harsh sound are frequently found to describe the transformation, thus
adding an unpleasant auditory quality to the horror of the event.
Jekyll’s loss of identity is enhanced through the confusion of pronouns that refer to
the doctor and his malignant double; sometimes Jekyll refers to himself as he or with
his proper name; Hyde is always he, but once he becomes us. The proud doctor who
wanted to dominate human nature has completely lost his own identity.

THEMES

Stevenson said that the story came to him first under the form of a dream. Excited by
its Gothic aspect, he sat down and rapidly produced a first draft. However, his wife
convinced him that he should have written something more than a ‘horror story’ and
should have dealt with human nature in general. Stevenson agreed with his wife’s
opinion: the first manuscript was burnt in the fire and a second version was
produced, which was to become The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

The theme of the double dominates the novel. Influenced by his Calvinist upbringing,
in particular by the belief that we all have in us the potential for evil, Stevenson
considered evil to be a real presence in human nature. Jekyll is a respectable man but
he has always been ‘committed to a profound duplicity of life’; because of his high
aspirations, he has been obliged to split ‘those provinces of good and ill which divide
and compound man’s dual nature’.
This evil potential is eventually released in the shape of Mr Hyde, but in an
uncontrolled form. Due to the strict Victorian morality, Jekyll has been forced to deny
his instinctual side and, when he becomes Hyde, he feels somehow liberated, as
though his social persona were actually a prison.
Stevenson’s novel goes beyond a simple moral vision based on the dichotomy
between good and evil. In fact, it is one of a number of works written after the
publication of On the Origin of Species, where Darwin tried to confront the problem
of man’s primordial animal side, which Victorians feared might still be present inside
the civilised self. In social and ideological terms, attempts were made to differentiate
between levels of human evolution, reflecting class and racial prejudices. As a result,
physical appearance and stature took on a moral connotation: Hyde, for example, is
presented as a degenerate, physically deformed being, and the Victorian reader
would probably have seen this as a sign of his criminal nature.
SHILLING-SHOCKER
PENNY-DREADFUL

Although the prevailing narrative mode is third-person narration, Stevenson

frequently uses first-person narration; moreover, he adopts the point of view of his
characters.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Chapter index

I Story of the door
II Search for Mr Hyde
III Dr Jekyll was quite at ease
IV The Carew murder case
V Incident of the letter
VI Remarkable incident of Dr Lanyon
VII Incident at the window
VIII The last night
IX Dr Lanyon’s narrative
X Henry Jekyll’s full statement of the case

Jekyll  ‘Je’ (French for ‘I’) + kill = I kill myself, or better my true self
Hyde  to hide, to conceal one’s true nature (reference to ‘hide&seek’)
Hyde  hideous, horrible, dreadful, abominable
Utterson  utter (to utter, to express, to tell) + son  the son of truth
Utter  adjective which means ‘complete, extreme’

Trustworthy
The former and the latter