STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL TO MR. HYDE

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde

Introduction

The tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is well known to most of the people at its most basic level, in which a portion is developed by an educated man who after drinking the potion transforms into a creature that frightens London's night time streets. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in January 1886. It tells the story of a lawyer, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates the strange link between Edward Hyde and Dr. Henry Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll, a philanthropist obsessed with his split personality, develops a drug to separate his good side from his bad. It is the latter who, night after night, finally took over and transformed into the monstrous Mr. Hyde.

Discussion and Analysis

The story is revealed to us through the eyes of Utterson, a lawyer and close friend of Dr. Henry Jekyll. Utterson hears from a companion, Richard Enright, the story of a fiendishly cruel man who ruthlessly attacked a child sometime in the recent past. Utterson correctly identifies the culprit as Edward Hyde, a disreputable and secretive new friend of Jekyll's who has recently been made the primary beneficiary of the doctor's estate (Singh and Subho, 2008). There is something about Hyde that repulses everyone he meets, but he seems to be so thoroughly in Jekyll's good graces that he can intrude at odd hours of the morning demanding financial support. Utterson, predictably, suspects blackmail, but Jekyll resists his efforts to pursue the matter further (Mathiasen, 2009).

A year passes uneventfully, and the friendship among Jekyll, Utterson, and another doctor, Lanyon, slowly deteriorates through lack of contact. The situation changes following the ...