The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was first published in 1886 by Robert Louise Stevenson. The novella tells the story, if you don’t know of it already, of a doctor who wanting to experience the vices he dreams of indulging in. Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is a version of Jekyll free from inhibitions or social conventions such as decency. This altered form of Jekyll has free reigns over the nights of his own life pursuing these vices Jekyll fantasized about freely, which often arouses suspicion and concern from those around Jekyll. Jekyll relations assume that Hyde is a beneficiary or a thug working Jekyll for his inheritance but never for a moment they are the same. It is not until they discovered Hyde’s body wearing Jekyll’s clothes with a note explaining it. Jekyll ran out of components and time as the personality of Hyde gradually worked its way to the forefront of his conscious mind, eventually turning Jekyll into the monster without the potion, or Jekyll’s control. Knowing that Hyde would eventually be arrested for a murder, or commit suicide Jekyll writes the note his relations eventually find, and the novella ends with the last line of its explanation “I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”.
The novella itself is what you could consider one of the early “modern” mass produced, and mainstream paper back novels ever created. It fits the mold of books I’ve covered so far to the extent that shops in the US wouldn’t sell it until the Times magazine had produced a review of it praising its worth. From there it went on to become immediately popular, and over the years more than a cult following has formed spanning into movies(many version of the book itself, and also in forms like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), video games(infamous NES game), and as a cliche set piece of the Halloween/horror genre in general.
It goes without saying that this novella and its concept is ripe for allegorical assessment on many levels. From the cultural/societal point of view I focus on it is most basically a story about the duality of the individual. Perhaps as well touching on the idea of society being a corrupting influence in people’s lives. Going back on my ideas to do with the Warhammer novels it is very reminiscent of the concept of Chaos and how it works to corrupt people/places in the plot line. This concept of the duality of good and evil within every human being obviously has Christian influence but for the time was a fairly new idea that hadn’t been explored too thoroughly in popular media. Like Satan, or Lorgar we get a horribly “evil” character, but one that is explainable or at least understandable from a human point of view. Whether or not we are wrong or right is irrelevant for these characters, they are largely guiltless as victims of their societies and circumstance.
It is also one hell of a good, quick, and Halloween themed read if you have never checked it out.
unappliedsemantics 