Which are you? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  Tessa

    This month, I read the old classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The story and its characters have been referenced in many books, TV shows, and movies that I’ve watched or read, but I had never read the original novel until now. It has the same feel as a Sherlock Holmes book, or any book from the late 1800’s; very wordy and rich with luxurious language and detailed settings. The characters have fascinating personalities and dynamics, and I enjoyed reading it. It makes you compare yourself with the main characters. The story overall was just creepy enough for me. It wasn’t outright scary, it’s more of a psychological thriller. I would recommend reading this book if you don’t know the story yet, or even if you do, because it’s a quick read that feels cozy and pretty seasonal.

    The story’s genre is between mystery and horror. The plot is about this creepy man, Mr. Hyde who is somehow involved with a well-liked doctor, Dr. Jekyll. We hear about the plot in third person from Mr. Utterson, Dr. Jekyll’s friend. The whole feel of the book isn’t as blatantly scary as media today is. There aren’t any jump scares, and personally I wasn’t on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would say that the part of this book that could keep you up at night would be hopping into Dr. Jekyll’s shoes, after you’ve read the whole novel. To consider how you would behave and what would happen to you, or even how the dynamics of the characters are playing out inside of you right now could get into your head. 

The reason I think this book also falls under the mystery category is that we’re constantly supposed to be wondering what is happening between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There are clues in the story, just like in most mysteries, and I caught most of them because I knew the ending. I think that already knowing where the plot was going may have taken away from the story’s suspense. I can imagine being shocked and having to put the book down at the end and think for a minute if you didn’t know what was coming.

The characters in this book aren’t immediately relatable, at least to me. However, the whole point of the story is to see the parallels between yourself and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Mr. Hyde is described as a “juggernaut,” and  “particularly wicked looking ” (Stevenson 61). He’s unsettling to be around and described multiple times as inhuman. He seems to have no conscience and as such he can do whatever he wants. He hurts people, drinks constantly, and is the epitome of hate and fear in a person. On the other hand, Dr. Jekyll is “the very pink of the proprieties,” he is admired, friendly, and very successful (Stevenson 42). The downfall of Dr. Jekyll though, is that he feels old and trapped by the pressure of society, and is looking for a way to escape. Dr. Jekyll has all these expectations on him because he’s such an important member of the community, but he wants to be as free to do whatever he wants as Hyde is. 

So the question you’re supposed to ask yourself is, “What would you do?” If you could do literally whatever you wanted and face no repercussions, would you? You may say no, but what if you had no conscience? What if it didn’t bother you at all? The moral in this story isn’t blindingly obvious, but I think it’s something along the lines of the fact that everyone is a combination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Maybe literally, and as a human you have to balance the two and never let Mr. Hyde take over Dr. Jekyll.