Robert Louis Stevenson had written a quote '"With every day, and Irom both sides oI my

intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose
partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadIul shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but
truly two." in chapter 10 oI his most Iamous novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The words he wrote
were spoken by none other than the main character Dr. Jekyll. This idea oI a man and his soul
being to diIIerent entities is something that is talked and acted on throughout the entire novel.
The quote was a theory on science oI the human and human`s humanity. The novel became
worldly known as more oI a psychological horror thriller rather than action packed horror. It
soon would be made into many movies over the course oI the next 50 years.
While the story oI Mr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great gothic story that represents
everything gothic, the movie took a diIIerent turn. While the story was written with Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde who people are not quite sure can even be considered two separate creatures it also
had other men characters to show the aIIects oI this creature to the society in England. The two
men that do this is Mr. Gabriel John Utterson who is a lawyer who inquires Iirst about the house
oI Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde while in the beginning he Iirst is curious throughout the story can be seen
as a dispassionate man who has little Ieelings to many things and is not very exciting to the story.
There then is Mr. EnIield had witnessed one oI the incidents with Mr. Hyde he was a man a
questioning and a slight curiosity. While they discuss the incidents with the mysterious creature
and the society they live in; the story continues to the end with a deIinitive conclusion.
While the story oI Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a Iabulous addition to the gothic literature
the movie itselI is a totally diIIerent story. The movie starts with Dr. Jekyll and his ideas on the
soul and man just like the quote previously stated, but what is not part oI the story is his love. He
is in love with a woman and on tending to marry. Nowhere in the book other than the little girl
mentioned in one oI Mr. EnIield`s horriIic stories; are women not mentioned. The Iamous 1931
version oI Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which had casted Frederic March as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
also had two women Rose Hobart who played Dr. Jekyll`s Iiancee Muriel and then Miriam
Hopkins who played Ivy the sultry woman Mr. Hyde becomes obsessed with. Now iI a viewer is
planning to watch not only the 1931 version oI the Iilm thinking they will see an adaptation oI
the novel they will be clearly mistaken. The movie is Iilled with romance, wit and oI course the
normal despair, Iear, and horror. The women however take away parts oI the horriIic horror that
a reader Iinds when they read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book shows a more mysterious and
lonely men that can leave more Ior the mind or psychology to explain, it gives more anticipation.
The movie Ielt like a repeat oI a romance horror just with the names and bits oI the story thrown
in Irom the novel.
The themes oI gothic literature can be seen in both the movie and Iilm but on diIIerent
levels. When reading the book it is more oI people need to look over their shoulder to see iI
anyone is Iollowing them, but the movie makes a viewer want to protect their loved one and Iight
Ior them. Each gave a diIIerent idea oI despair and pain as well. The pain showed through Dr.
Jekyll was a mental and intellectual dilemma between himselI and his conscience in the book.
The movie however showed his despair over living without Muriel and the aItershocks and guilty
looks aIter his encounters with Ivy. The diIIerence ending in the two stories is by Iar the worst.
The book resolves the problems oI the man and soul the scientiIic expedition that started the
whole adventure. The movie while it tries to allude to that the ending here was violence
overpowering a man. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a man with a double identity trying to Iigure out
how people can live with two sides oI themselves, something that even today people
contemplate.