Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 

is a Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis

Stevenson, first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case of Jekyll
Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll and Hyde.[1] It is about a London legal practitioner
named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr.
Henry Jekyll,[2][3][4] and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of
the language, with the vernacular phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" referring to people with an unpredictably
dual nature: outwardly good, but sometimes shockingly evil.[5][6]

Inspiration and writing[edit]

Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885

Stevenson had long been intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can reflect the interplay
of good and evil. While still a teenager, he developed a script for a play about Deacon Brodie, which
he later reworked with the help of W. E. Henley and which was produced for the first time in 1882.
[7]
 In early 1884, he wrote the short story, "Markheim", which he revised in 1884 for publication in
a Christmas annual. According to his essay, "A Chapter on Dreams" (Scribner's, Jan. 1888), he
racked his brains for an idea for a story and had a dream, and upon waking had the intuition for two
or three scenes that would appear in the story Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Biographer, Graham Balfour, quoted Stevenson's wife, Fanny Stevenson:
In the small hours of one morning,[...] I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had
a nightmare, I awakened him. He said angrily: "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey
tale." I had awakened him at the first transformation scene.[8]
Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson, wrote: "I don't believe that there was ever such a literary feat
before as the writing of Dr. Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Louis
came downstairs in a fever; read nearly half the book aloud; and then, while we were still gasping,
he was away again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first draft took so long as three days."[8]
Inspiration may also have come from the writer's friendship with Edinburgh-based French
teacher, Eugene Chantrelle, who was convicted and executed for the murder of his wife in May
1878.[9] Chantrelle, who had appeared to lead a normal life in the city, poisoned his wife with opium.
According to author, Jeremy Hodges,[10] Stevenson was present throughout the trial and as "the
evidence unfolded he found himself, like Dr. Jekyll, 'aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde'."
Moreover, it was believed that the teacher had committed other murders both in France and Britain
by poisoning his victims at supper parties with a "favourite dish of toasted cheese and opium".[11]
As was customary, Mrs. Stevenson would read the draft and offer her criticisms in the margins.
Robert Stevenson was confined to bed at the time from a haemorrhage. In her comments in
the manuscript, she observed that in effect the story was really an allegory, but Robert was writing it
as a story. After a while, Robert called her back into the bedroom and pointed to a pile of ashes: he
had burnt the manuscript in fear that he would try to salvage it, and thus forced himself to start again
from nothing, writing an allegorical story as she had suggested. Scholars debate whether he really
burnt his manuscript; there is no direct factual evidence for the burning, but it remains an integral
part of the history of the novella.[12]
Stevenson rewrote the story in three to six days. A number of later biographers have alleged that
Stevenson was on drugs during the frantic re-write; for example, William Gray's revisionist history A
Literary Life (2004) said he used cocaine while other biographers said he used ergot.[13] However, the
standard history, according to the accounts of his wife and son (and himself), says he was bed-
ridden and sick while writing it. According to Osbourne, "The mere physical feat was tremendous
and, instead of harming him, it roused and cheered him inexpressibly". He continued to refine the
work for four to six weeks after the initial revision. The novella was written in the southern English
seaside town of Bournemouth, where Stevenson had moved to benefit from its sea air and warmer
climate.[citation needed]
The name Jekyll was borrowed from the Reverend Walter Jekyll, a friend of Stevenson and younger
brother of horticulturalist and landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll.[14]

Plot[edit]
Gabriel John Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield reach the door of a large house on their
weekly walk. Enfield tells Utterson that months ago, he saw a sinister-looking man named Edward
Hyde trample a young girl after accidentally bumping into her. Enfield forced Hyde to pay her family
£100 to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought Enfield to this door and gave him a cheque signed by a
reputable gentleman later revealed to be Doctor Henry Jekyll, Utterson's friend, and client. Utterson
fears Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll, as Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole
beneficiary. When Utterson tries to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll tells Utterson he can get rid of
Hyde when he wants and asks him to drop the matter.
One night in October, a servant sees Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew, another one of Utterson's
clients, to death and leave behind half a broken cane. The police contact Utterson, who leads
officers to Hyde's apartment. Hyde has vanished, but they find the other half of the broken cane.
Utterson recognizes the cane as one he had given to Jekyll. Utterson visits Jekyll, who shows
Utterson a note, allegedly written to Jekyll by Hyde, apologizing for the trouble that he has caused.
However, Hyde's handwriting is similar to Jekyll's own, leading Utterson to conclude that Jekyll
forged the note to protect Hyde.
For two months, Jekyll reverts to his former sociable manner, but in early January, he starts refusing
visitors. Dr. Hastie Lanyon, a mutual acquaintance of Jekyll and Utterson, dies of shock after
receiving information relating to Jekyll. Before his death, Lanyon gives Utterson a letter to be opened
after Jekyll's death or disappearance. In late February, during another walk with Enfield, Utterson
starts a conversation with Jekyll at his laboratory window. Jekyll suddenly slams the window and
disappears, shocking and concerning Utterson.
In early March, Jekyll's butler, Mr. Poole, visits Utterson and says Jekyll has secluded himself in his
laboratory for weeks. Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory, where they find Hyde's body
wearing Jekyll's clothes, apparently having killed himself. They find a letter from Jekyll to Utterson.
Utterson reads Lanyon's letter, then Jekyll's. Lanyon's letter reveals his deterioration resulted from
the shock of seeing Hyde drink a serum that turned him into Jekyll. Jekyll's letter explains he had
indulged in unstated vices and feared discovery. He found a way to transform himself and thereby
indulge his vices without fear of detection. Jekyll's transformed body, Hyde, was evil, self-indulgent,
and uncaring to anyone but himself. Initially, Jekyll controlled the transformations with the serum, but
one night in August, he became Hyde involuntarily in his sleep.
Jekyll resolved to cease becoming Hyde. Despite this, one night he had a moment of weakness and
drank the serum. Hyde, his desires having been caged for so long, killed Carew. Horrified, Jekyll
tried more adamantly to stop the transformations. Then, in early January, he transformed
involuntarily while awake. Far from his laboratory and hunted by the police as a murderer, Hyde
needed help to avoid capture. He wrote to Lanyon in Jekyll's hand, asking his friend to bring
chemicals from his laboratory. In Lanyon's presence, Hyde mixed the chemicals, drank the serum,
and transformed into Jekyll. The shock of the sight instigated Lanyon's deterioration and death.
Meanwhile, Jekyll's involuntary transformations increased in frequency and required ever larger
doses of the serum to reverse. It was one of these transformations that caused Jekyll to slam his
window shut on Enfield and Utterson.
Eventually, one of the chemicals used in the serum ran low, and subsequent batches prepared from
new stocks failed to work. Jekyll speculated that one of the original ingredients must have had some
unknown impurity that made it work. Realizing that he would stay transformed as Hyde, Jekyll wrote
out a full account of the events and locked himself in his laboratory with the intent to keep Hyde
imprisoned and, as Poole & Utterson smash down the door to the laboratory, committed suicide by
poison.

Characters[edit]
Gabriel John Utterson[edit]
Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer and close loyal friend of Jekyll and Lanyon for many years, is
the protagonist of the story. Utterson is measured and at all times emotionless bachelor – who
nonetheless seems believable, trustworthy, tolerant of the faults of others, and indeed genuinely
likeable. However, Utterson is not immune to guilt, as, while he is quick to investigate and judge the
faults of others even for the benefit of his friends, Stevenson states that "he was humbled to the dust
by the many ill things he had done". Whatever these "ill things" may be, he does not partake in
gossip or other views of the upper class out of respect for his fellow man. Often the last remaining
friend of the downfallen, he finds an interest in others' downfalls, which creates a spark of interest
not only in Jekyll but also regarding Hyde. He concludes that human downfall results from indulging
oneself in topics of interest. As a result of this line of reasoning, he lives life as a recluse and
"dampens his taste for the finer items of life". Utterson concludes that Jekyll lives life as he wishes by
enjoying his occupation.

Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde[edit]

Main article: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)
Dr. Jekyll is a "large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast",[15] who
occasionally feels he is battling between the good and evil within himself, leading to the struggle
between his dual personalities of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. He has spent a great part of his life
trying to repress evil urges that were not fitting for a man of his stature. He creates a serum, or
potion, in an attempt to separate this hidden evil from his personality. In doing so, Jekyll transformed
into the smaller, younger, cruel, remorseless, and evil Hyde. Jekyll has many friends and an amiable
personality, but like Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. As time goes by, Hyde grows in
power. After taking the potion repeatedly, he no longer relies upon it to unleash his inner demon, i.e.,
his alter ego. Eventually, Hyde grows so strong that Jekyll becomes reliant on the potion to remain
conscious throughout the book.

Richard Enfield[edit]
Richard Enfield is Utterson's cousin and is a well-known "man about town". He first sees Hyde at
about three in the morning in an episode that is well documented as Hyde is running over a little girl.
He is the person who mentions to Utterson the actual personality of Jekyll's friend, Hyde. Enfield
witnessed Hyde recklessly running over a little girl in the street and the group of witnesses, with the
girl's parents and other residents, force Hyde into writing a cheque for the girl's family. Enfield
discovers that Jekyll signed the cheque, which is genuine. He says that Hyde is disgusting-looking
but finds himself stumped when asked to describe the man.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon[edit]

A longtime friend of Jekyll, Hastie Lanyon disagrees with Jekyll's "scientific" concepts, which Lanyon
describes as "...too fanciful". He is the first person to discover Hyde's true identity (Hyde transforms
himself back into Jekyll in Lanyon's presence). Lanyon helps Utterson solve the case when he
describes the letter given to him by Jekyll and his thoughts and reactions to the transformation. After
he witnesses the transformation process (and subsequently hears Jekyll's private confession, made
to him alone), Lanyon becomes shocked into critical illness and, later, death.

Mr. Poole[edit]
Poole is Jekyll's butler who has been employed by him for many years. Poole serves Jekyll faithfully
and attempts to be loyal to his master, but the growing reclusiveness of and changes in his master
cause him growing concern. Finally fearing that his master has been murdered and that his
murderer, Mr. Hyde, is residing in Jekyll's chambers, Poole is driven into going to Utterson and
joining forces with him to uncover the truth. He chops down the door towards Jekyll's lab in five
strong swipes to aid Utterson in the climax.

Inspector Newcomen[edit]
Utterson joins this Scotland Yard inspector after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. They explore
Hyde's loft in Soho and discover evidence of his depraved life.

Sir Danvers Carew, MP[edit]

A kind, 70-year-old Member of Parliament. The maid claims that Hyde, in a murderous rage, killed
Carew in the streets of London on the night of 18 October. At the time of his death, Carew is carrying
on his person a letter addressed to Utterson, and the broken half of one of Jekyll's walking sticks is
found on his body.

Maid[edit]
A maid, whose employer – presumably Jekyll – Hyde had once visited, is the only person who has
witnessed the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. She saw Hyde murder Carew with Jekyll's cane and his
feet. Having fainted after seeing what happened, she then wakes up and rushes to the police, thus
initiating the murder case of Sir Danvers Carew.

Analysis of themes[edit]
Richard Mansfield was mostly known for his dual role depicted in this double exposure. The stage
adaptation opened in Boston in 1887, a year after the publication of the novella. (picture 1895)

Literary genres that critics have applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include religious
allegory, fable, detective story, sensation fiction, doppelgänger literature, Scottish devil tales,
and Gothic novel.

Dualities[edit]
The novella is frequently interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature, usually
expressed as an inner struggle between good and evil, with variations such as human versus
animal, civilisation versus barbarism sometimes substituted, the main point being that of an essential
inner struggle between the one and other, and that the failure to accept this tension results in evil, or
barbarity, or animal violence, being projected onto others.[16] In Freudian theory, the thoughts and
desires banished to the unconscious mind motivate the behaviour of the conscious mind.
Banishing evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to achieve perfect goodness can result in the
development of a Mr. Hyde-type aspect to one's character.[16]
In Christian theology, Satan's fall from Heaven is due to his refusal to accept that he is a created
being (that he has a dual nature) and is not God.[16] This idea is suggested when Hyde says to
Lanyon, shortly before drinking the famous potion: "your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy to
stagger the unbelief of Satan." This is because, in Christianity, pride (to consider oneself as without
sin or without evil) is a sin, as it is the precursor to evil itself.[16]
In his discussion of the novel, Vladimir Nabokov argues that the "good versus evil" view of the novel
is misleading, as Jekyll himself is not, by Victorian standards, a morally good person in some cases.
[17]

Public vs. private[edit]

The work is commonly associated today with the Victorian concern over the public and private
division, the individual's sense of playing a part and the class division of London.[5] In this respect, the
novella has also been noted as "one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian era" because of its
piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th century "outward respectability and
inward lust", as this period had a tendency for social hypocrisy.[18]

Scottish nationalism vs. union with Britain[edit]

Another common interpretation sees the novella's duality as representative of Scotland and the
Scottish character. In this reading, the duality represents the national and linguistic dualities inherent
in Scotland's relationship with the wider Britain and the English language, respectively, and also the
repressive effects of the Church of Scotland on the Scottish character.[12] A further parallel is also
drawn with the city of Edinburgh itself, Stevenson's birthplace, which consists of two distinct parts:
the old medieval section historically inhabited by the city's poor, where the dark crowded slums were
rife with all types of crime, and the modern Georgian area of wide spacious streets representing
respectability.[12][19][20]

Addiction[edit]
Some scholars have argued that addiction or substance abuse is a central theme in the novella.
Stevenson's depiction of Mr. Hyde is reminiscent of descriptions of substance abuse in the
nineteenth century. Daniel L. Wright describes Dr. Jekyll as "not so much a man of conflicted
personality as a man suffering from the ravages of addiction".[21] Patricia Comitini argues that the
central duality in the novella is in fact not Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but rather Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and
Utterson, where Utterson represents the rational, unaddicted, ideal Victorian subject devoid of
forbidden desires, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde constitutes his opposite.[22]

Reception[edit]
Publication[edit]
The book was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the U.K. and for one penny in the U.S.
[dubious  –  discuss]
 These books were called "shilling shockers" or penny dreadfuls.[23] The American publisher
issued the book on 5 January 1886, four days before the first appearance of the U.K. edition issued
by Longmans; Scribner's published 3,000 copies, only 1,250 of them bound in cloth. Initially, stores
did not stock it until a review appeared in The Times on 25 January 1886 giving it a favourable
reception. Within the next six months, close to 40 thousand copies were sold. As Stevenson's
biographer Graham Balfour wrote in 1901, the book's success was probably due rather to the "moral
instincts of the public" than to any conscious perception of the merits of its art. It was read by those
who never read fiction and quoted in pulpit sermons and in religious papers.[24] By 1901, it was
estimated to have sold over 250,000 copies in the United States.[25]

The stage version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde[edit]
Although the book had initially been published as a "shilling shocker", it was an immediate success
and one of Stevenson's best-selling works. Stage adaptations began in Boston and London and
soon moved all across England and then towards his home country of Scotland.[5]
The first stage adaptation followed the story's initial publication in 1886. Richard Mansfield bought
the rights from Stevenson and worked with Boston author Thomas Russell Sullivan to write a script.
The resulting play added to the cast of characters and some elements of romance to the plot. The
addition of female characters to the originally male-centred plot continued in later adaptations of the
story. The first performance of the play took place in the Boston Museum in May 1887. The lighting
effects and makeup for Jekyll's transformation into Hyde created horrified reactions from the
audience, and the play was so successful that production followed in London. After a successful 10
weeks in London in 1888, Mansfield was forced to close down production. The hysteria surrounding
the Jack the Ripper serial murders led even those who only played murderers on stage to be
considered suspects. When Mansfield was mentioned in London newspapers as a possible suspect
for the crimes, he shut down production.[23]

Adaptations[edit]
The 1920 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Main article: Adaptations of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

There have been numerous adaptations of the novella, including over 120 stage and film versions
alone.[26]
There have also been many audio recordings of the novella, with some of the more famous readers
including Tom Baker, Roger Rees, Christopher Lee, Anthony Quayle, Martin Jarvis, Tim Pigott-
Smith, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Gene Lockhart, Richard Armitage, John Sessions, Alan Howard, Rory
Kinnear and Richard E. Grant.
A musical based on the story was created by Frank Wildhorn, Steve Cuden, and Leslie Bricusse.
There was also a video game adaptation released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988
developed by Advance Communication Co. It received mixed reviews upon release but would be
panned in retrospect.
Until 2012, with the publication of Strange Case of Mr. Bodkin and Father Whitechapel by Marc Elias
Keller, there had been no major adaptations of the novel that remain faithful to the narrative structure
of Stevenson's original. The novel re-creates Stevenson's narrative structure in a novel about a
banker who takes Jekyll's drug and releases his repressed saint, Father Whitechapel, integrating
true events from 1888 about Jack the Ripper and the Charity Organisation Society. In Keller's novel,
the perspective originally held by Utterson is taken on by Charles Loch, Secretary of the Charity
Organisation Society.[27]

Illustrated versions[edit]
S. G. Hulme Beaman illustrated a 1930s edition,[28] and in 1948 Mervyn Peake provided the newly
founded Folio Society with memorable illustrations for the story.
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“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” redirects here. For other uses, see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(disambiguation).
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert
Louis Stevenson, first published in 1886. The work is also known as The Strange Case
of Jekyll Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll and Hyde.[1] It is about a
London legal practitioner named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange
occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll,[2][3][4] and the evil Edward Hyde.
The novella’s impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the
vernacular phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” referring to people with an unpredictably dual
nature: outwardly good, but sometimes shockingly evil.[5][6]
Inspiration and writing
Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885
Stevenson had long been intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can reflect the
interplay of good and evil. While still a teenager, he developed a script for a play
about Deacon Brodie, which he later reworked with the help of W. E. Henley and which
was produced for the first time in 1882.[7] In early 1884, he wrote the short story,
“Markheim“, which he revised in 1884 for publication in a Christmas annual. According
to his essay, “A Chapter on Dreams” (Scribner’s, Jan. 1888), he racked his brains for an
idea for a story and had a dream, and upon waking had the intuition for two or three
scenes that would appear in the story Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Biographer, Graham Balfour, quoted Stevenson’s wife, Fanny Stevenson:
In the small hours of one morning,[…] I was awakened by cries of horror
from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare, I awakened him. He said
angrily: “Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.” I
had awakened him at the first transformation scene.[8]
Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson’s stepson, wrote: “I don’t believe that there was ever such a
literary feat before as the writing of Dr. Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it
were yesterday. Louis came downstairs in a fever; read nearly half the book aloud; and
then, while we were still gasping, he was away again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first
draft took so long as three days.”[8]
Inspiration may also have come from the writer’s friendship with Edinburgh-based
French teacher, Eugene Chantrelle, who was convicted and executed for the murder of
his wife in May 1878.[9] Chantrelle, who had appeared to lead a normal life in the city,
poisoned his wife with opium. According to author, Jeremy Hodges,[10] Stevenson was
present throughout the trial and as “the evidence unfolded he found himself, like Dr.
Jekyll, ‘aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde’.” Moreover, it was believed that the
teacher had committed other murders both in France and Britain by poisoning his victims
at supper parties with a “favourite dish of toasted cheese and opium”. [11]
As was customary, Mrs. Stevenson would read the draft and offer her criticisms in the
margins. Robert Stevenson was confined to bed at the time from a haemorrhage. In her
comments in the manuscript, she observed that in effect the story was really an allegory,
but Robert was writing it as a story. After a while, Robert called her back into the
bedroom and pointed to a pile of ashes: he had burnt the manuscript in fear that he would
try to salvage it, and thus forced himself to start again from nothing, writing
an allegorical story as she had suggested. Scholars debate whether he really burnt his
manuscript; there is no direct factual evidence for the burning, but it remains an integral
part of the history of the novella.[12]
Stevenson rewrote the story in three to six days. A number of later biographers have
alleged that Stevenson was on drugs during the frantic re-write; for example, William
Gray’s revisionist history A Literary Life (2004) said he used cocaine while other
biographers said he used ergot.[13] However, the standard history, according to the
accounts of his wife and son (and himself), says he was bed-ridden and sick while writing
it. According to Osbourne, “The mere physical feat was tremendous and, instead of
harming him, it roused and cheered him inexpressibly”. He continued to refine the work
for four to six weeks after the initial revision. The novella was written in the southern
English seaside town of Bournemouth, where Stevenson had moved to benefit from its
sea air and warmer climate.[citation needed]
The name Jekyll was borrowed from the Reverend Walter Jekyll, a friend of Stevenson
and younger brother of horticulturalist and landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll.[14]
Plot
Gabriel John Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield reach the door of a large house on
their weekly walk. Enfield tells Utterson that months ago, he saw a sinister-looking man
named Edward Hyde trample a young girl after accidentally bumping into her. Enfield
forced Hyde to pay her family £100 to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought Enfield to this door
and gave him a cheque signed by a reputable gentleman later revealed to be Doctor
Henry Jekyll, Utterson’s friend, and client. Utterson fears Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll, as
Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary. When Utterson tries
to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll tells Utterson he can get rid of Hyde when he wants
and asks him to drop the matter.

One night in October, a servant sees Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew, another one of
Utterson’s clients, to death and leave behind half a broken cane. The police contact
Utterson, who leads officers to Hyde’s apartment. Hyde has vanished, but they find the
other half of the broken cane. Utterson recognizes the cane as one he had given to Jekyll.
Utterson visits Jekyll, who shows Utterson a note, allegedly written to Jekyll by Hyde,
apologizing for the trouble that he has caused. However, Hyde’s handwriting is similar to
Jekyll’s own, leading Utterson to conclude that Jekyll forged the note to protect Hyde.

For two months, Jekyll reverts to his former sociable manner, but in early January, he
starts refusing visitors. Dr. Hastie Lanyon, a mutual acquaintance of Jekyll and Utterson,
dies of shock after receiving information relating to Jekyll. Before his death, Lanyon
gives Utterson a letter to be opened after Jekyll’s death or disappearance. In late
February, during another walk with Enfield, Utterson starts a conversation with Jekyll at
his laboratory window. Jekyll suddenly slams the window and disappears, shocking and
concerning Utterson.

In early March, Jekyll’s butler, Mr. Poole, visits Utterson and says Jekyll has secluded
himself in his laboratory for weeks. Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory, where
they find Hyde’s body wearing Jekyll’s clothes, apparently having killed himself. They
find a letter from Jekyll to Utterson. Utterson reads Lanyon’s letter, then Jekyll’s.
Lanyon’s letter reveals his deterioration resulted from the shock of seeing Hyde drink a
serum that turned him into Jekyll. Jekyll’s letter explains he had indulged in unstated
vices and feared discovery. He found a way to transform himself and thereby indulge his
vices without fear of detection. Jekyll’s transformed body, Hyde, was evil, self-indulgent,
and uncaring to anyone but himself. Initially, Jekyll controlled the transformations with
the serum, but one night in August, he became Hyde involuntarily in his sleep.

Jekyll resolved to cease becoming Hyde. Despite this, one night he had a moment of
weakness and drank the serum. Hyde, his desires having been caged for so long, killed
Carew. Horrified, Jekyll tried more adamantly to stop the transformations. Then, in early
January, he transformed involuntarily while awake. Far from his laboratory and hunted
by the police as a murderer, Hyde needed help to avoid capture. He wrote to Lanyon in
Jekyll’s hand, asking his friend to bring chemicals from his laboratory. In Lanyon’s
presence, Hyde mixed the chemicals, drank the serum, and transformed into Jekyll. The
shock of the sight instigated Lanyon’s deterioration and death. Meanwhile, Jekyll’s
involuntary transformations increased in frequency and required ever larger doses of the
serum to reverse. It was one of these transformations that caused Jekyll to slam his
window shut on Enfield and Utterson.

Eventually, one of the chemicals used in the serum ran low, and subsequent batches
prepared from new stocks failed to work. Jekyll speculated that one of the original
ingredients must have had some unknown impurity that made it work. Realizing that he
would stay transformed as Hyde, Jekyll wrote out a full account of the events and locked
himself in his laboratory with the intent to keep Hyde imprisoned and, as Poole &
Utterson smash down the door to the laboratory, committed suicide by poison.

Characters
Gabriel John Utterson
Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer and close loyal friend of Jekyll and Lanyon for many
years, is the protagonist of the story. Utterson is measured and at all times emotionless
bachelor – who nonetheless seems believable, trustworthy, tolerant of the faults of others,
and indeed genuinely likeable. However, Utterson is not immune to guilt, as, while he is
quick to investigate and judge the faults of others even for the benefit of his friends,
Stevenson states that “he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done”.
Whatever these “ill things” may be, he does not partake in gossip or other views of the
upper class out of respect for his fellow man. Often the last remaining friend of the
downfallen, he finds an interest in others’ downfalls, which creates a spark of interest not
only in Jekyll but also regarding Hyde. He concludes that human downfall results from
indulging oneself in topics of interest. As a result of this line of reasoning, he lives life as
a recluse and “dampens his taste for the finer items of life”. Utterson concludes that
Jekyll lives life as he wishes by enjoying his occupation.
Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde
Main article: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)
Dr. Jekyll is a “large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish
cast”,[15] who occasionally feels he is battling between the good and evil within himself,
leading to the struggle between his dual personalities of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde.
He has spent a great part of his life trying to repress evil urges that were not fitting for a
man of his stature. He creates a serum, or potion, in an attempt to separate this hidden
evil from his personality. In doing so, Jekyll transformed into the smaller, younger, cruel,
remorseless, and evil Hyde. Jekyll has many friends and an amiable personality, but like
Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. As time goes by, Hyde grows in power. After
taking the potion repeatedly, he no longer relies upon it to unleash his inner demon, i.e.,
his alter ego. Eventually, Hyde grows so strong that Jekyll becomes reliant on the potion
to remain conscious throughout the book.
Richard Enfield
Richard Enfield is Utterson’s cousin and is a well-known “man about town”. He first sees
Hyde at about three in the morning in an episode that is well documented as Hyde is
running over a little girl. He is the person who mentions to Utterson the actual personality
of Jekyll’s friend, Hyde. Enfield witnessed Hyde recklessly running over a little girl in
the street and the group of witnesses, with the girl’s parents and other residents, force
Hyde into writing a cheque for the girl’s family. Enfield discovers that Jekyll signed the
cheque, which is genuine. He says that Hyde is disgusting-looking but finds himself
stumped when asked to describe the man.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon

A longtime friend of Jekyll, Hastie Lanyon disagrees with Jekyll’s “scientific” concepts,
which Lanyon describes as “…too fanciful”. He is the first person to discover Hyde’s
true identity (Hyde transforms himself back into Jekyll in Lanyon’s presence). Lanyon
helps Utterson solve the case when he describes the letter given to him by Jekyll and his
thoughts and reactions to the transformation. After he witnesses the transformation
process (and subsequently hears Jekyll’s private confession, made to him alone), Lanyon
becomes shocked into critical illness and, later, death.

Mr. Poole
Poole is Jekyll’s butler who has been employed by him for many years. Poole serves
Jekyll faithfully and attempts to be loyal to his master, but the growing reclusiveness of
and changes in his master cause him growing concern. Finally fearing that his master has
been murdered and that his murderer, Mr. Hyde, is residing in Jekyll’s chambers, Poole is
driven into going to Utterson and joining forces with him to uncover the truth. He chops
down the door towards Jekyll’s lab in five strong swipes to aid Utterson in the climax.

Inspector Newcomen
Utterson joins this Scotland Yard inspector after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. They
explore Hyde’s loft in Soho and discover evidence of his depraved life.
Sir Danvers Carew, MP
A kind, 70-year-old Member of Parliament. The maid claims that Hyde, in a murderous
rage, killed Carew in the streets of London on the night of 18 October. At the time of his
death, Carew is carrying on his person a letter addressed to Utterson, and the broken half
of one of Jekyll’s walking sticks is found on his body.

Maid
A maid, whose employer – presumably Jekyll – Hyde had once visited, is the only person
who has witnessed the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. She saw Hyde murder Carew with
Jekyll’s cane and his feet. Having fainted after seeing what happened, she then wakes up
and rushes to the police, thus initiating the murder case of Sir Danvers Carew.
Analysis of themes

Richard Mansfield was mostly known for his dual role depicted in this double exposure.
The stage adaptation opened in Boston in 1887, a year after the publication of the
novella. (picture 1895)
Literary genres that critics have applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include
religious allegory, fable, detective story, sensation fiction, doppelgänger literature,
Scottish devil tales, and Gothic novel.
Dualities
The novella is frequently interpreted as an examination of the duality of human nature,
usually expressed as an inner struggle between good and evil, with variations such as
human versus animal, civilisation versus barbarism sometimes substituted, the main point
being that of an essential inner struggle between the one and other, and that the failure to
accept this tension results in evil, or barbarity, or animal violence, being projected onto
others.[16] In Freudian theory, the thoughts and desires banished to the unconscious mind
motivate the behaviour of the conscious mind. Banishing evil to the unconscious mind in
an attempt to achieve perfect goodness can result in the development of a Mr. Hyde-type
aspect to one’s character.[16]
In Christian theology, Satan’s fall from Heaven is due to his refusal to accept that he is a
created being (that he has a dual nature) and is not God. [16] This idea is suggested when
Hyde says to Lanyon, shortly before drinking the famous potion: “your sight shall be
blasted by a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan.” This is because, in Christianity,
pride (to consider oneself as without sin or without evil) is a sin, as it is the precursor to
evil itself.[16]
In his discussion of the novel, Vladimir Nabokov argues that the “good versus evil” view
of the novel is misleading, as Jekyll himself is not, by Victorian standards, a morally
good person in some cases.[17]
Public vs. private
The work is commonly associated today with the Victorian concern over the public and
private division, the individual’s sense of playing a part and the class division of London.
[5] In this respect, the novella has also been noted as “one of the best guidebooks of the
Victorian era” because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the
19th century “outward respectability and inward lust”, as this period had a tendency for
social hypocrisy.[18]
Scottish nationalism vs. union with Britain
Another common interpretation sees the novella’s duality as representative of Scotland
and the Scottish character. In this reading, the duality represents the national and
linguistic dualities inherent in Scotland’s relationship with the wider Britain and the
English language, respectively, and also the repressive effects of the Church of
Scotland on the Scottish character.[12] A further parallel is also drawn with the city of
Edinburgh itself, Stevenson’s birthplace, which consists of two distinct parts: the old
medieval section historically inhabited by the city’s poor, where the dark crowded slums
were rife with all types of crime, and the modern Georgian area of wide spacious streets
representing respectability.[12][19][20]
Addiction
Some scholars have argued that addiction or substance abuse is a central theme in the
novella. Stevenson’s depiction of Mr. Hyde is reminiscent of descriptions of substance
abuse in the nineteenth century. Daniel L. Wright describes Dr. Jekyll as “not so much a
man of conflicted personality as a man suffering from the ravages of addiction”.
[21] Patricia Comitini argues that the central duality in the novella is in fact not Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde but rather Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Utterson, where Utterson represents the
rational, unaddicted, ideal Victorian subject devoid of forbidden desires, and Dr.
Jekyll/Mr. Hyde constitutes his opposite.[22]
Reception
Publication
The book was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the U.K. and for one penny
in the U.S.[dubious  – discuss] These books were called “shilling shockers” or penny dreadfuls.
[23] The American publisher issued the book on 5 January 1886, four days before the first
appearance of the U.K. edition issued by Longmans; Scribner’s published 3,000 copies,
only 1,250 of them bound in cloth. Initially, stores did not stock it until a review appeared
in The Times on 25 January 1886 giving it a favourable reception. Within the next six
months, close to 40 thousand copies were sold. As Stevenson’s biographer Graham
Balfour wrote in 1901, the book’s success was probably due rather to the “moral instincts
of the public” than to any conscious perception of the merits of its art. It was read by
those who never read fiction and quoted in pulpit sermons and in religious papers. [24] By
1901, it was estimated to have sold over 250,000 copies in the United States. [25]
The stage version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Although the book had initially been published as a “shilling shocker”, it was an
immediate success and one of Stevenson’s best-selling works. Stage adaptations began in
Boston and London and soon moved all across England and then towards his home
country of Scotland.[5]
The first stage adaptation followed the story’s initial publication in 1886. Richard
Mansfield bought the rights from Stevenson and worked with Boston author Thomas
Russell Sullivan to write a script. The resulting play added to the cast of characters and
some elements of romance to the plot. The addition of female characters to the originally
male-centred plot continued in later adaptations of the story. The first performance of the
play took place in the Boston Museum in May 1887. The lighting effects and makeup for
Jekyll’s transformation into Hyde created horrified reactions from the audience, and the
play was so successful that production followed in London. After a successful 10 weeks
in London in 1888, Mansfield was forced to close down production. The hysteria
surrounding the Jack the Ripper serial murders led even those who only played murderers
on stage to be considered suspects. When Mansfield was mentioned in London
newspapers as a possible suspect for the crimes, he shut down production. [23]
Adaptations
Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.[29]
 Louis Vivet, a mental patient diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder. His case
caught Frederic W. H. Myers’s attention, who wrote to Stevenson after the story was
 published. Stevenson was polite in his response, but rejected the interpretation that Dr
Jekyll was suffering from DID.[30]
 British singer Example (musician) directly references Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in his
song “Skies Don’t Lie”. The song lyrics, referring to the duality of human character, read
“don’t discriminate Jekyll or Hyde, everybody’s different at night”.[31]

Further reading
o Katherine B. Linehan, ed. (2003). Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Norton
Critical Edition, W. W. Norton & Co. Text, annotations, contextual essays, and
criticism. ISBN 0-393-97465-0
Wikisource has
original text related
to this article:
The Annotated
Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr
Hyde

Wikimedia
Commons has media
related to The
Strange Case of Dr
Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

o Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at Standard Ebooks

o Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde[1] from Internet Archive. Many antiquarian
illustrated editions.
o

o The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at Project Gutenberg

o “The Beast Within”, Freudian fable, sexual morality tale, gay allegory – the novella has
inspired as many interpretations as it has film adaptations. By James Campbell, The
Guardian, 13 December 2008
o 1950 Theatre Guild on the Air radio adaptation at Internet Archive
o  Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde public domain audiobook at LibriVox
 Allegory in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Instructor: Clayton TarrShow bio

Cite this lesson

In this lesson you will learn about Robert Louis Stevenson's use of allegory in the 'Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' and in particular about the novel as an allegory of original sin and degeneration.

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What is an Allegory?
An allegory is related to a metaphor in that a text's characters, settings, or plot have another
meaning beneath the surface. An allegory is often spiritual in nature so that the concrete, material
parts of the text have more abstract meanings.
Perhaps the most famous literary allegory is John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, which is a
seventeenth-century story about a journey on Earth that is also about the soul's ascension to
heaven.
A more recent example is Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which on the surface is about the Salem
Witch Trials, but is also an allegory for McCarthyism in the twentieth century.
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Allegory of Original Sin

Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde could be an allegory
about original sin and the fall of man in biblical terms.
Judeo-Christian myth begins in Genesis after God creates the universe and populates
the Earth with plants and animals. Adam and Eve are the first human inhabitants of
Earth, contained within Eden, a place without sin. Satan invades this space, however,
and tricks Eve into tasting from the Tree of Knowledge, which God has forbidden. Thus,
Eve sins and God banishes Adam and Eve from Eden. (This is the basic story. For an
extraordinary literary take on it, see John Milton's seventeenth-century epic
poem Paradise Lost.)
For Christians, especially, every human is born bearing Eve's original sin. Baptism
purifies, but we are still sinful creatures who must seek forgiveness from God.
In Stevenson's text, Hyde could embody this original sin. Jekyll, a professional doctor
from polite society, develops a serum that will transform him into another figure so that
he can satisfy his carnal desires. But Hyde eventually takes over. Jekyll cannot control
his evil double. In the end, Hyde has fully taken over, since Utterson discovers Hyde's
dead body.
Stevenson may be suggesting that we cannot give in to the sin that lies within each of
us. Jekyll finds a way to let it out, but is ultimately consumed by it.

A depiction of Adam and Eve by William Blake

Degeneration
Charles Darwin's 1859 text On the Origin of Species caused a sensation for its theory of
evolution by natural selection. His 1871 text The Descent of Man specifically theorized
that man descended from primates.

Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Celeste Bright
Celeste has taught college English for four years and holds a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature.

Cite this lesson

In the story 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' doors are symbolic of character,
access, and barriers. Learn about door symbolism in the story, Dr. Jekyll's door, Mr. Hyde's door,
and the Jekyll/Hyde cabinet door. Updated: 01/20/2022

Door Symbolism
Doors have powerful symbolic potential in literature, drama, and film, particularly within the
horror and fantasy genres. Doors can be opened to grant access or opportunity to something or
someone, but they can also be used protectively or secretively to keep something or someone
out. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, doors represent good and evil, points of
access and barriers, and symbols of character.
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Dr. Jekyll's Door

Dr. Jekyll's door can be thought of as both a point of access to and a representation of his
character. Jekyll is a well-respected and successful doctor in London, and his front door reflects
this. The novel's narrator tells us that the doctor's home is part of a ''square of ancient, handsome
houses,'' and that its door ''w[ears] a great air of wealth and comfort.''
Beyond the door is ''a large, low-roofed, comfortable hall paved with flags, warmed... by a
bright, open fire, and furnished with costly cabinets of oak.'' Mr. Utterson, Jekyll's attorney and
friend, describes the hall behind the door as ''the pleasantest room in London.''
Like his door, Jekyll is a ''well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish
cast'' and ''every mark of capacity and kindness.''
Jekyll's door is also both a point of access and a barrier to Utterson, and it's been controlled for
twenty years by his servant, Poole. At the beginning and middle of the novel, Poole invites
Utterson into the house to see Jekyll, but at times in between, Utterson is mysteriously denied
admittance.

Mr. Hyde's Door

Mr. Hyde's door, too, can be read as a point of access to and representation of his character. It's a
symbol of insidious intrigue: Utterson is first introduced to the door in conversation with his
friend Mr. Enfield, who calls the building it belongs to ''Black Mail House.'' He tells Utterson
how he once saw Hyde trample a little girl in the street, then enter this building with a key to get
a checkbook so he could pay the girl's family to keep quiet about it.
Unlike Jekyll's home, Hyde's is a ''sinister block of building thrust forward... on the street.'' It is
''two storeys high; show[s] no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey and a blind
forehead of discolored wall on the upper.'' It shows ''the marks of prolonged and sordid
negligence.'' Its door is ''blistered and distained,'' a shelter for tramps and street urchins.
In contrast to Jekyll, Hyde, like his door, inspires revulsion in everyone he meets. He is ''pale and
dwarfish'' and ''troglodytic'' (caveman-like). He also gives a strange ''impression of deformity
without any nameable malformation'' and has a ''displeasing smile.''
Hyde's door is also both a point of access and a barrier to Utterson. He first meets Hyde at the
door as the fiend is trying to go into the house. Hyde is anxious not to reveal too much about
himself, and he quickly disappears through the door, practically shutting it in Utterson's face.
Later, however, Utterson is permitted to enter the house by an unnamed old woman, presumably
a servant. She has ''an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy'' and expresses ''odious joy'' that Hyde
may be in trouble with the law. This time, the door allows him access to evidence that Hyde is
the murderer of Sir Danvers Carew.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Mask Motifs

Instructor: Celeste Bright

Celeste has taught college English for four years and holds a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature.

Cite this lesson

When themes related to identity arise in literature, drama, or film, it's not uncommon to find mask
motifs as well. We'll discuss literal and metaphorical masks in Stevenson's novel and how they're linked
to problems of identity.

The Literal Mask

 Near the end of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we learn from Dr. Jekyll's
personal writings (''full statement of the case'') that although he was initially able to control his
transformation between personas using his chemical formula, he eventually lost this control. He
found that he would involuntarily change from Jekyll into Hyde after an arbitrary period of time,
or during his sleep, without taking the formula.
This meant that, with increasing frequency, he became trapped in his Hyde persona until he
could take more of the solution—and he sometimes had difficulty getting supplies to make it.
This is a problem because the doctor's friends and servants only have a relationship with Jekyll.
Further, about a year after Mr. Utterson meets him, the then ''missing'' Hyde is identified as the
murderer of Sir Carew and can't be seen by anyone. To hide Hyde, the doctor is forced to
become increasingly reclusive. When he does leave his cabinet (laboratory office), he has to
sneak around carefully, wearing a mask.
He's not fooling anyone, however—especially not his servant of twenty years, Poole. In the
middle of the novella, a terrified Poole brings Mr. Utterson to Jekyll's house to try to determine
what's happening to the doctor. Vehemently he tells Utterson: ''That thing was not my master,
and there's the truth. My master... is a tall, fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf. [...]
No sir, that thing in the mask was never Dr. Jekyll—God knows what it was, but it was never Dr.
Jekyll.'' Poole and Utterson also notice that the voice coming from Jekyll's cabinet is Hyde's.
Apparently, the reckless Jekyll didn't come up with a very good contingency plan with his mask.
He admits this in his notes: ''It might indeed be possible to cover my face; but of what use was
that, when I was unable to conceal the alteration in my stature?'' It's clear that of the various faces
the doctor wears, the literal mask is by far the flimsiest.
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 Hyde races upstairs to his cabinet wearing a
mask in front of the horrified Poole (illustration
by Charles Raymond Macauley).

Metaphorical Masks

The Lie of the Half

The doctor writes that even metaphorically, neither his Jekyll or his Hyde persona was really a
mask; each were authentic halves of himself. ''Though so profound a double-dealer, I was in no
sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I had laid
aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance
of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering.''
However, because each of his personas operate independently of one another, neither represents
the entire man. This means that when the doctor is in either persona, that persona is a false
representation of his character as a whole. Dr. Jekyll can't be prosecuted for the crimes of Mr.
Hyde because everyone is deceived into thinking that these are two different men. Thus, each of
them represents a kind of mask or facade that hides his full identity.

The two masks of Jekyll and Hyde

The Unnerving Mask of Mr. Hyde

Have you ever worn a scary mask for Halloween that worked a little too well? Frightening masks
are usually deformed in an obvious way, and they have a way of making people shudder, even
when they know that a (presumably) harmless person is underneath them. Those who interact
with Hyde, even briefly, have a similar and unilateral reaction: revulsion.

Metaphor in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, you will learn about Robert Louis Stevenson's use of metaphor in 'The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' including how weather events are used to enhance descriptions.

What Is a Metaphor?
A metaphor is a comparison between things with common characteristics that are overt,
suggested, or even hidden. (A simile, on the other hand, is a comparison between two things
using the words 'like' or 'as.')
 For example, here is a metaphor: 'The tree reached its arms out toward the sun.' A tree does not
actually have arms; it has branches. However, its branches can act as its arms, as if it were
human and reaching to the sky. (Notice how this comparison does not use 'like' or 'as.')
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Nature Metaphors
Stevenson uses several nature metaphors to add color to his descriptions of characters and
events. In other words, Stevenson compares events in the novel to things in nature so that readers
can better understand how the character or event may have looked.
Edward Hyde commits two crimes (that we know of) during the course of the narrative. At the
beginning of the novel, he mercilessly runs over a young girl (who survives). Later, he beats Sir
Danvers Carew to death with a cane that Gabriel Utterson had given to Henry Jekyll.
Stevenson's narrator describes the scene: 'with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under
foot and hailing down a storm of blows.' There is no literal storm, of course, but the beating
resembles the sound and fury of a storm.
Let's take a look at the quotation without the metaphors: 'with fury, he was trampling his victim
under foot and blows.' Adding in the metaphor 'hailing down a storm of blows' allows readers to
picture the violence with which Hyde murders Carew. In addition, the natural metaphor
functions to indicate Hyde's non-human state. His physical force is something out of nature
rather than humanity.
Later, Utterson laments of Jekyll: 'my mind misgives me he is in deep waters.' Here, Utterson
describes Jekyll's mental state as 'in too deep,' to use another phrase. He cannot rise to the surface
of the rational world. He is metaphorically drowning.
Again, if we remove the metaphor, Utterson's quotation would lose its appeal: 'my mind
misgives me he is in trouble.' The image of Jekyll sinking under the weight of his desires adds
flavor to Utterson's words. Literary metaphors allow readers to understand characters, scenes,
and events in new ways, rather than merely reading about them with precise description.
Let's look at one more metaphor in which Stevenson reverses the trend and describes a natural
object using human properties. The narrator describes the ominous nighttime setting: 'with a pale
moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her.'
Obviously, the moon does not have a back, and it can neither lie down nor tilt. But adding these
human characteristics brings the natural object to life, allowing it to become a character in the
scene that foreshadows the disastrous events that follow.
 Similes in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Instructor: Bryan Cowing

Bryan is a freelance writer who specializes in literature. He has worked as an English instructor, editor and
writer for the past 10 years.

Cite this lesson

What is a simile? If this question is bugging you, or if you are reading ''Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,'' take a look
at the following lesson. We will cover the definition of a simile as well as dissect a few solid examples
from the book.

A Simile Has Like or As

Do you know what a simile is? Chances are, even if you don't know the dictionary definition of
the word simile, you have probably encountered them before. Put simply, a simile is when
someone compares things using the words ''like'' or ''as.'' For example, the song ''Candle in the
Wind'' is a simile: Elton John sings that Marilyn Monroe lived her life like a candle in the wind,
meaning she burned brightly at times, sometimes weakly, and sometimes changed direction in
the breeze.
Let's take a look at a few examples of similes from Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis
Stevenson.
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The Bagpipes
One interesting example of a simile from Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde comes when the narrator
describes the apothecary (someone who is much like a pharmacist). We learn that ''He was the
usual cut-and-dry apothecary, of no particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent,
and about as emotional as a bagpipe.'' Can you spot the simile? If not, remember that a simile
has like or as. The phrase stating that the apothecary is ''as emotional as a bagpipe'' is a simile.
This comparison makes it seem like the apothecary is not emotional, since bagpipes are not a
living object. This simile tells the reader Dr. Jekyll can expect no empathy from the apothecary
in the story.

A Ballroom Floor
Check out this sentence and see if you can sharpen your simile-spotting skills. ''It was a fine dry
night; frost in the air; the streets as clean as a ballroom floor; the lamps, unshaken, by any wind,
drawing a regular pattern of light and shadow.'' Which things are being compared? Take a close
 look at how the streets are described. They are ''as clean as a ballroom floor.'' We can imagine
that a ballroom floor is maintained to pristine conditions, so this simile makes it clear that the
streets were extraordinarily clean and gives us an idea of what Dr. Jekyll's London neighborhood
was like.

The Prisoner
Another example of a simile comes when the lawyer, Utterson, sees Dr. Jekyll looking pretty
rough. Instead of offering a generic statement, like ''Dr. Jekyll looked bad,'' our narrator gets
creative and tells us ''The middle one of the three windows was half-way open; and sitting close
beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner,
Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.' In this passage, Dr. Jekyll is being compared to a ''disconsolate
prisoner.'' This simile tells us Dr. Jekyll is not only like a prisoner, but a prisoner who
is disconsolate or extremely unhappy and depressed.

Imagery in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: Examples & Quotes

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, you will learn about imagery in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde,' especially regarding how the author uses architecture to frame scenes.

Imagery in Literature
When you read, do you imagine the scenes and characters as moving pictures? That is, do you
create an image of what things look like based on the words that you're reading?
If so, then you are being affected by the author's use of imagery, which is vivid description in a
text that metaphorically paints a picture of what is going on. In this lesson, we'll look at images
through architectural frames in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
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Jekyll and Hyde Summary

In the story, Gabriel Utterson and his cousin Richard Enfield track down a man named Edward
Hyde, who mercilessly ran over a young girl. Later, Utterson notices that a man has been beaten
to death with a cane that he had given to his friend, Henry Jekyll.
In the end, Utterson finds Hyde's dead body, dressed in Jekyll's clothes. It turns out that Jekyll
had developed a serum to transform himself into another person, so that he could satisfy his
desires. He lost control, however, and was forced to end his life.

Imagery in Jekyll and Hyde

There is a lot of great imagery in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, meaning that
Stevenson uses vivid description in order to make the scenes he is describing come to life.
Stevenson notably uses architectural devices to frame some important images in his novel.

Murder
In one exceptionally important scene, a maid sits at her window and sees Sir Danvers Carew, a
local man, pass below. Carew gives her his blessing and carries on. But then she sees Hyde
approach and begin to scream and flail about. The maid then sees that ''Mr. Hyde broke out of all
bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his
victim under foot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly
shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.''
The scene is horrifying. A man is murdered for no apparent reason. Through vivid description,
Stevenson makes the murder come to life. We can feel the pain of the victim, and we shudder at
Hyde's violence. Through the frame of the window, readers become witnesses with the same
perspective as the maid.

Death Scene
Let's look at one other scene. When Utterson calls on Poole to break apart the door of Jekyll's
laboratory, Stevenson vividly describes the scene that Utterson sees through the open door:
''There lay the cabinet before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire glowing and chattering
on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on
the business-table, and nearer the fire, the things laid out for tea.''
Here Stevenson paints a picture of the room for readers, noting how commonplace it seems with
its specific elements arranged in ordinary fashion. Directly following this description, however,
Utterson sees Hyde's dead body.

Jekyll and Hyde

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Animal Imagery

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, you will learn about animal imagery in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde.' In particular you will learn about the anxiety over degeneracy in the Victorian Period.
 Jekyll and Hyde Context
Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' was first published in 1886.
It is a masterwork of the Gothic, a literary genre that explores the dark realms of the natural and
the supernatural world.
Jekyll and Hyde begins with the voice of an anonymous third-person narrator, who primarily
follows the experiences of Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer. With the help of his cousin, Richard
Enfield, Utterson begins to investigate a mysterious figure who violently ran over a little girl.
Utterson learns that the figure is named Edward Hyde and is subsequently shocked to find out a
local man was beaten to death with a cane he had given to his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll. Another
friend of the group, Dr. Hastie Lanyon, goes to visit Jekyll, but then dies of shock shortly
thereafter.
By this time, it is apparent that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Jekyll had developed a
serum to change himself into another person to satiate his desires. Utterson breaks into Jekyll's
laboratory and finds the dead body of Hyde dressed in Jekyll's clothes. A letter from Lanyon and
a suicide note by Jekyll close out the text.
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Victorian Progress
The Victorian Period spanned the reign of Queen Victoria (1831-1901) and was defined by
industry and progress. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) was one of the most
influential texts of the nineteenth century. It argued that species evolve through the process of
natural selection. Mutations help individual plants or animals survive, and these mutations are
subsequently passed on, changing the construction of the species. Victorians who believed in
Darwin's theory saw the progression of the human species through evolution and were able to
juxtapose the eminent civilization of the nineteenth century against the less civilized societies of
the past.
Darwin wrote another influential text in 1871 called The Descent of Man. This book more
explicitly traced the evolution of the human species. In so doing, it suggested that humans could
look to primates for their ancestors. The Victorians were shocked and many were incredulous.
Some used this information to argue that humans could degenerate back into animals. Max
Nordau's anxious text Degeneration (1892) had Victorian society at a fever pitch. Criminals,
prostitutes, and even people with mental or physical disabilities were thought to be proof that the
species was degenerating. This fear led to abhorrent programs such as eugenics, which is the
manipulation of the species by promoting desirable traits.

Jekyll and Hyde and Degeneration

 In Jekyll and Hyde, Hyde is directly described in animal terms. Whereas Jekyll is a respected
figure of polite society, in every sense, his double is small, stocky, and vicious. In addition, Hyde
satisfies his desires for violence (and probably

Personification in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Instructor: Bryan Cowing

Bryan is a freelance writer who specializes in literature. He has worked as an English instructor, editor and
writer for the past 10 years.

Cite this lesson

If you are reading 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson you might have
noticed that sometimes things that are not human are described as though they are. In this lesson, we
are going to dive into personification and take a look at examples from the story.

Cartoons and Personification

If you watched cartoons when you were young - or if you enjoy them now, you may remember
that in cartoons almost anything can be alive. For example, a pair of scissors may sprout eyes
and start chatting with the paper it is about to cut. When something that is not alive is described
as if it is human, this is called personification.
In literature, personification is often used to help convey emotions and make scenes feel more
intense. For example, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, when Dr. Jekyll speaks
about his evil side, he says, it ''had been long caged, he came out roaring.' Since anger or evil is
not actually alive, it cannot be caged or come out roaring. Let's take a look at a few more
examples from the story.
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The Legs of Time
One straight-forward example of personification is when the narrator describes Sir Danvers'
death. We learn that ''Time ran on; thousands of pounds were offered in reward, for the death of
Sir Danvers was resented as a public injury.'' This one might be a bit tricky. Can you spot the
personification? Here is a hint; does time have legs? Time does not have legs because it is not
alive. However, in this passage, time is described as running. This is personification because the
concept of time is described as though it is alive.

Ghosts and Cancer

Now let's take a look at a slightly more complicated example of personification. This one comes
when Mr. Utterson is thinking about what could be troubling Jekyll. He knows that something is
up and thinks about how Jekyll has been as an adult - nothing like the wild youth he once was.
He decides that Jekyll must be paying for some past mistakes and thinks ''Ay, it must be that; the
ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace.'' Where is the personification here?
Take a look at how sin is being described. Our speaker says that the ghost of some sin must be
haunting Jekyll. Since a concept like sin does not have a soul, it cannot have a ghost. This means
that saying the ghost of a sin is haunting Jekyll is an example of personification.
This passage has another example of personification. When the narrator comments that the
problem is the ''cancer of some concealed disgrace'' this is personification because he is
suggesting that that cancer can grow on a disgrace. Since disgraces do not have cells that divide
out of control, they cannot get cancer.

Evoking Emotion
Alright, let's really get our hands dirty. Personification is not just something to fill the pages;
authors use personification to evoke emotion and force the reader to feel and think more deeply.
Let's take a look at what Stevenson is pushing us to think in the following example of
personification: ''My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at
all hours of the day and night; I feel that my days are numbered.'' First, let's point out the
personification. In this passage, Dr. Lanyon tells us that sleep has left him. Since sleep is not
alive, it cannot make a choice to leave, so this is personification. The next example is when he
tells us that the ''deadliest terror sits by'' him.
 Irony in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Instructor: Kevin Watson

Kevin Watson has taught ESL, Spanish, French, Composition, and literature for over 33 years at universities in
France, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Ecuador. He has a bachelor’s in education
and master’s in applied linguistics from the University of South Florida and a master’s in creative writing from
the New School in New York City.

Cite this lesson

Robert Louis Stevenson's ''The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' employs several types of irony
revolving around Henry Jekyll, a man who breaks promises. In this lesson, you'll learn how these broken
promises are the basis for his downfall and also the novel's irony.

Gifts from Ancient Greece

Consider two things inherited from the Ancient Greeks: the Hippocratic Oath and irony. In the
first, physicians promise to preserve life and heal the sick, to maintain doctor-patient
confidentiality, and to pass knowledge down through the generations. In Robert Louis
Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Henry Jekyll would have taken
this oath.
The next thing, irony, refers to words intended to mean the opposite of what they actually mean
or events that are contrary to what is expected. It comes in three main forms here: verbal,
situational, and dramatic. These are all present in the novel and actually relate to the three main
parts of the Hippocratic Oath. Let's see how, beginning with verbal irony.
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Verbal Irony: Protecting Confidentiality

An example of verbal irony occurs when Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, is curious about the
mysterious character of Mr. Hyde and comments on this to Dr. Jekyll. As a doctor, Henry Jekyll
would naturally protect the patients he treats.
People like Utterson would assume this of the good doctor. Verbal irony is in play when, in
reference to Mr. Hyde, Jekyll tells Utterson, ''I am quite sure of him. ... I have grounds for
certainty that I cannot share with anyone.''
For other characters such as Utterson, this can be construed as protecting his patient as a ethical
physician would. And for this reason, Jekyll's withholding information would not likely be
questioned. But for the reader it is different.
The reader by now understands his 'grounds for certainty' and why he 'cannot share.' The reader
knows that Hyde is Jekyll's cruel and criminal alter ego, or other self. In this example of verbal
irony, the words do not mean what they seem but refer to something else outside of the
characters' expectations.
Now let's look at some examples of situational irony.

Situational Irony: A Promise

What would you expect from a doctor? Probably the opposite of Dr. Jekyll's behavior. In the
story, is there anywhere that he actually helps a patient? Does he heal anyone? No.
Dr. Jekyll spends increasingly more time drinking his poison to become Mr. Hyde, a sadistic
villain who tramples a small girl at the start and later batters a man to death. He is a doctor sworn
to heal people who carries within him the impulse to harm for the sheer fun of it. This dichotomy
is situational irony.
Yet Hyde is still Dr. Jekyll, his alter ego, or other self. And Jekyll is not just abusive to others in
the form of Hyde; he is abusive to himself every time he drinks his potion, distorting his own
mind and body grotesquely. With full knowledge of the consequences, he indulges his dark side
and throws all decency aside.
The situational irony is not only that he is cruel when he is Hyde, but also when he is the sober-
minded Dr. Jekyll, he still chooses what we would expect him NOT to choose. This is all very
contrary to the spirit of the physician's Hippocratic Oath.
And finally, the fortunate situational irony is that the knowledge of this drug will not be passed
on to the next generation.

Dramatic Irony: A Known Secret

The first example of verbal irony is also an example of dramatic irony. We the readers know why
Dr. Jekyll can't share information on Hyde, so we are in on the secret with Jekyll. This is
dramatic irony. We know these two opposites live within one man.

Satire in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, you will learn about the potential avenues for satire in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' and consider the text as a criticism of the Gothic and polite society.

Satire vs. Parody

 Is it possible that something as disturbing and enthralling as Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde could be satire?
First, it is important that we differentiate between parody and satire. A parody is a work of art
that adapts from or reflects another piece of art with the intent of poking fun at the original. You
might think of the fake commercials or even some of the sketches on television programs such
as Saturday Night Live. They transform the meaning of original things to elicit laughter.
Satire, on the other hand, is more biting. It can still be funny, but it has bigger goals. Typically,
satire makes a social critique. Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal advocates eating babies to
help the Irish people. Obviously, Swift doesn't actually want people to eat babies. Instead, he's
drawing attention to the plight of the poor through satire.
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Satire of the Gothic

The Gothic is a literary genre that began in the eighteenth century. It became wildly popular
with Anne Radcliffe, who set her novels in foreign castles and introduced supernatural elements
that she would later explain away. The Gothic was also considered cheap literature by most
critics. Jane Austen parodied the Gothic in her 1817 novel, Northanger Abbey, though the parody
is more loving than biting.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Gothic mode had fallen out of favor. Realism, which meant
that authors held a mirror to the world, was now the favorite mode. There were still Gothic
scenes and texts, of course, but the genre had ostensibly died out.
Then Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde burst onto the scene. In some sense,
Stevenson revived the Gothic and paved the way for other familiar Gothic novels, such as Bram
Stoker's Dracula.
But there's a chance that Stevenson's novel is a satire of the Gothic. Stevenson claimed that he
came up with the idea for the novel in a dream. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, made
the same claim. Could this be the first element of Stevenson's satire? Could he be critiquing such
a wild story origin?
Stevenson might have revitalized the Gothic only to drag it down again. He created something
pulpy, short, and readable, intended for masses of people. And he knew that this sort of literature
would not be respected. So, he made the professional people in the novel the villains. In other
words, rather than borrowing from the Gothic's use of foreign villains, Stevenson satirizes the
Gothic mode by highlighting the villainy of the novel's protagonists. Jekyll, the professional
doctor, is just as much a villain as Hyde. And Utterson, the ambulance chaser, who wants to see
his name returned to Jekyll's will, is far from heroic.
 Figurative Language in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Instructor: Kerry Gray

Kerry has been a teacher and an administrator for more than twenty years. She has a Master of Education
degree.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson we examine various types of figurative language from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, ''Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'' The story is about a socialite who is living a double life.

A Double Life
Think about the parts of yourself that you don't share with others. If you could separate the less
pleasant pieces of you into a separate being, would you do it? This is the premise for Robert
Louis Stevenson's novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As Dr. Jekyll is wealthy and well-respected,
he is ashamed of the more depraved parts of his being. In order to deal with his guilt and
disgrace, he develops a potion that isolates his less desirable characteristics into a hideous,
murderous, dual personality.
Things heat up when Mr. Utterson, an attorney, begins to investigate the relationship between
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. While describing the people, places, and events in this psychological
murder mystery, Stevenson uses figurative language, or phrases that cannot be literally
translated, to provide visualizations for the reader. Let's look at some examples of figurative
language from the novel.
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Literary Terms
The following is a list of types of figurative language, definitions, and examples from Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde.

Metaphor
A metaphor compares two things that are not alike in a descriptive way. For example, when
describing Mr. Utterson's relationship with Mr. Enfield, the narrator says, ''It was a nut to crack
for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common.''
The narrator compares the confusing nature of Utterson and Enfield's relationship to the
puzzlement of cracking a nut.
 Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia provides auditory imagery for the reader. The word itself sounds like the sound
that might be heard by the character. When Poole and Utterson break down the door of Jekyll's
laboratory and find his corpse, the narrator describes the sound: ''A dismal screech, as of mere
animal terror, rang from the cabinet.'' The word 'screech' is an example of onomatopoeia; the
word sounds like the noise that is actually heard.

Personifcation
Personification is when non-living things are portrayed as having human characteristics in order
to describe them. After Sir Danver's murder, the narrator describes Utterson's impression of the
setting, 'As the colour grows richer in stained windows; and the glow of hot autumn afternoons
on hillside vineyards was ready to be set free and to disperse the fogs of London.' This is
personification because the colour is given the ability to grow and the glow is set free in the
description.
 To unlock this lesson you must be a St

Tone & Mood in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, you will learn about tone and mood in Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde,'' especially in regards to how it creates a Gothic feeling.

Literary Tone and Mood

Have you ever read a piece of literature and imagined music and colors to correspond with the
scenes? The author's use of vivid description creates both tone and mood to make the text seem
more realistic or to immerse readers into the fictional world.
Tone is sort of like the theme of the text. Consider a piece of music. Is it in a major key or a
minor key? In other words, is the feeling of the text uplifting or depressing?
The mood of a work is its general atmosphere. You might think about in terms of colors. It's
kind of like the shade that a text is painted in. When you imagine a scene in your head as a
reader, what colors do you see? What lights and shadows?
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Tone
Authors establish tone primarily through description and dialogue. In a sense, tone is related to
the author's viewpoint on a certain subject.
The Victorian London setting of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lends itself to a dark,
ominous tone that brings an anxious, fearful feeling to the text. You might think of the novel as
being written in a minor key.
The story is enveloped by the mystery of Hyde's existence and Jekyll's disappearance. Thus, the
tone is fearful and anxious, which fits with its Gothic roots. Readers experience this tone along
with the characters.
They feel disturbing sensations that are triggered by Stevenson's vivid descriptions, which
include Enfield's description of Hyde: ''He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong
with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable.''
This description heightens the mystery of the text, causing the tone to become uncomfortable and
disconcerting.

Mood in Jekyll and Hyde

Where you might think of tone as the theme of the text, the mood is its atmosphere. Stevenson
uses dark colors to describe Victorian London, which in turn creates a dark, ominous mood.
The Victorian period was defined by progress and industry. London was the hub of the economic
world, so it not only hosted diverse people, but also built a great number of factories that created
goods to export for trade.
The driving industry of Victorian London meant that its citizens were often choked with smoke.
In addition, weather patterns and effects from the Thames river caused fog to mix with the
smoke. London was certainly a dark and dank place to live. No wonder Stevenson chose it for
the setting of his story.
Ultimately, the mood of Jekyll and Hyde is dark. Using imagery, Stevenson paints a picture of
Victorian London in dark colors, including browns, blacks, and grays.

Foreshadowing in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Instructor: Clayton Tarr

Clayton has taught college English and has a PhD in literature.

Cite this lesson

 In this lesson, you will learn about foreshadowing in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde,' and especially about the hints concerning Jekyll's transformation into Hyde.

Foreshadowing
Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself, ''I knew that was going to happen''?
There's a chance, of course, that the movie is bad, and that the plot is obvious. But there's also
the chance that the screenwriter or director has added subtle, early hints about what is going to
happen later in the film.
Take Jurassic Park, for instance. When Dr. Ian Malcolm hears that all the dinosaurs are female
early in the film, he ominously remarks, ''Nature finds a way.'' Indeed, it does. The dinosaurs
manage to reproduce, and cause much mayhem and destruction.
Authors of literature utilize foreshadowing, or giving hints to the reader as to what is coming
later in the story, either as a game to play with readers or to create a certain foreboding mood in
the story. If the characters are often talking about something bad happening, then readers stay
anxious throughout the story until the disaster is fully revealed.
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Foreshadowing in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The primary piece of foreshadowing in the novel comes from Dr. Hastie Lanyon, who was
previously friends with Dr. Henry Jekyll. Years earlier, the pair had collaborated on experiments,
but Lanyon stopped these meetings.
Lanyon tells Gabriel Utterson, ''it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful
for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest
in him for old sake's sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such
unscientific balderdash.''
Lanyon's words are fairly explicit foreshadowing of what is going to happen later in the novel.
Readers now know that Jekyll is up to something strange and mysterious. Since we have already
met Edward Hyde, we can probably posit that he has something to do with these experiments.
 Jekyll and Hyde

The next piece of foreshadowing comes from Utterson's description of Hyde following their
initial encounter. Utterson, who is Jekyll's lawyer, has become an amateur detective, trying to
figure out who mercilessly ran over a young girl. He eventually encounters Hyde, whom he
describes as ''pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable
malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of
murderous mixture of timidity and boldness.'' Utterson goes on to state that Hyde possesses
''Satan's signature'' on his face.

Character Analysis in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde
Mr. Gabriel Utterson: Mr. Utterson is the novel’s narrator, lawyer to Dr. Jekyll. He is loyal to
his friends, and strives to get to the bottom of Jekyll and Hyde’s relationship without ruining the
reputation of the former. Through investigating the strange goings-on in London, Utterson serves
as a stand-in for the reader and represents the ideal Victorian: he is temperate, concerned with
the appearance of decorum, and values rationality.

Dr. Henry Jekyll: Dr. Henry Jekyll is a brilliant, exceptionally well-educated physician. Behind
the mask of his stellar reputation, Jekyll is an eccentric, tortured person. In his free time he
pursues his interest in the occult and mystical realms of scientific knowledge. Spurring on
Jekyll’s investigations are his internal moral struggles with the portions of himself which he
deems evil. As the story progresses, these struggles begin to take over his life entirely.
Mr. Edward Hyde: Edward Hyde is a mysterious, dwarf-like man who haunts the streets of
London by night, particularly the disreputable neighborhood of Soho. Mr. Hyde is everything a
proper Victorian citizen strives not to be: violent, ugly, wicked, and lustful. As Mr. Utterson
pursues his investigations, the riddle of Hyde’s dark origins slowly comes to light.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon: Dr. Lanyon is a friend to both Utterson and Jekyll, as well as a successful
physician in his own right. In many ways, Lanyon is a foil to Jekyll: he is a rationalist in the
realm of the sciences and thus despises Jekyll’s occult inclinations.

Setting

 Late 19th century

 London england, Victorian era
 The setting relates back to the characters because Mr.
Utterson depicts the best example of a Victorian man: Prim
and proper while minding his own business
 As a mystery novel, the setting gives an eerie feeling, playing
along with the same same setting as other mystery novels
such as Sherlock Holmes

Characterization (In order of appearance)

 Utterson- Central character, mostly keeps to himself. Not a

busy body, but close friend to Jekyll and Lanyon as well as
Enfield. He is a lawyer and rationalist
 Enfield- Related distantly to Utterson, but complete opposite
of him. They still seem to enjoy each others company on their
Sunday walks. Reserved and formal, scornful of gossip
 Jekyll- Popular physician in London, handsome and
distinguished but some what shut out form the world because
of his experiments: Obsessed with finding a person's evil side,
why he creates Mr. Hyde within himself.
 An example of his Interest in finding the two sides, "...and from
an early date, even before the course of my scientific
 discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of
such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a
beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these
elements.
 Hyde- The alive, physical version of Jekyll's evil side, very ugly
and all around. So ugly people can't point out specifically why.
Guilty of committing evil acts throughout the novel, poor
language. Let loose by a mysterious potion
 Mr. Hyde is evil, even when people are trying to be nice to him,
"Once a woman spoke to him, offering, I think, a box of lights.
He smote her in the face, and she fled."
 Lanyon- Jekyll's closest friend, but had a falling out because
of Jekyll's need to find a person's evil side. Embodiment of
rationalism, materialism and skepticism
 Poole- Jekyll's main butler, been working for him for more than
20 years. Knows Jekyll so well he is able to tell that the man in
the lab is not his master. Gets Utterson to help when he thinks
something happened to Jekyll
 Mr. Guest- Utterson's clerk, expert in handwriting. Examines
the letters of Hyde's writing and notices his hand writing is the
same as Dr. Jekyll's just slanted the other way

Point of View

 The narrator is unknown but speaks in the third person, even

though Dr. Jekyll and Lanyon each narrate a chapter during
their confessional letters
 the novel follows Utterson, for the most part, and what he
sees, until Jekyll and Lanyon tell their stories
Metaphors and Allegories

 Utterson uses a metaphor in his concern for Jekyll saying,

"Poor Harry Jekylll... my mind misgives me, he is in deep
waters!". Jekyll is not literally in deep water drowning, but
Utterson knows he must be in trouble.
 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde themselves are also examples of
metaphors for good and evil. Jekyll is the good side to every
situation, while Hyde is the bad. Together they work in
harmony, almost like the Ying and the Yang.
 An allegory for the novel would be the door leading to the
laboratory. It symbolizes when and where Dr. Jekyll turns into
Mr. Hyde and leaves his old self behind.

Mood and Tone

 The tone set throughout the novel is mysterious and somewhat

grim.
 The mood the story gives off is sort of eerie in the sense that
you don't know what kind of twists or turns the novel is going to
take

Theme

 Every person has different sides- We all have two different

sides to our personalities, we just don't physically transform
into them when they arise. Jekyll however is obsessed with
finding what his alter ego is like and spends most of his days
focusing on only that. Jekyll talks about his transformation by
saying, " I was once more Mr. Hyde," implying this wasn't the
first time he changed into him.
 Importance of a person's reputation- Mr. Utterson worries
tremendously about how he acts and hold himself to a high
standard. He minds his own business and doesn't want to
 believe in the supernatural because people might find him
crazy, ruining his perfect reputation. Utterson is described in
the first sentence of the book as this, "Mr. Utterson, the lawyer,
was a man of a rugged countenance, that was never lighted by
a smile; cold, scanty, and embarrassed in discourse; backward
in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow
lovable."
