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Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Collected Works of Robert Louis Stevenson)

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Mariam Silverio

Honors 150

Analysis Paper



The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a terror tale written in the Victorian era. It is counted as one of Stevenson's gothic tales. It is a classic. This tale tells us about a man that unintentionally has a double life. The author of this book is using fallacies, and a really good characterization. This book explains the bad and good parts of human beings. It tells us about an internal fight that Dr. Jekyll has against his bad self. This book also explains the potential that every human being has to do good or evil, according to their decisions.

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is written with an inductive logic, giving us the facts first, and the reasons why things happened at the end. It is the atrocities that are going on close to Mr. Utterson, a respected lawyer, and that are related to his friend, Dr. Jekyll, what makes him to try to find out who the criminal is, and at the end finding guilty the person that he suspected the least.

This book has mainly three characters. The first one is Mr. Utterson, a lawyer who is a good friend; he is intelligent, and persistent. A person with selected and few friends, "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" as described on page five, paragraph one. This character is a loyal friend, who is not going to judge his friend Dr. Jekyll, until he can be able to find out the reasons why he is protecting a criminal (Mr. Hyde). It is the curiosity, and the desire of look after his friends what brings Mr. Utterson to solve this mystery.

Dr. Jekyll is a rich lonely person, he only has a couple friends as described on page twelve "After a little rambling talk, the lawyer led up to the subject which so disagreeably preoccupied his mind. `I suppose, Lanyon' said he, `you and I must be the two oldest friends that Henry Jekyll has?' `I wish the friends were younger', chuckled Dr. Lanyon . `But I suppose we are. And what of that? I see little of him now" .His name is very well known, and often printed (page 8). He is a gentleman, and people trusted him. This character represents good values such ad honor. He is the protagonist and antagonist at the same time. He has the ability to become someone else with bad feelings, someone representing repressed feelings. He decides to name this new person Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is having an internal fight, he is trying to conquer, and totally destroy Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson is representing the good feelings of human beings in Dr. Jekyll character.

Mr. Hyde is "A man with a kind of black, sneering, coolness" (page 8). This character represents the anger, and irrational part of human beings. Mr. Utterson had been looking forward to meet Mr. Hyde, and when he finally meets him, he assumes that MR. Hyde is a bad person, because of his appearance, "Mr. Hyde was 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, an he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust , loathing and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him" ( page 16) Also this fragment is an example of a false analogy used by Stevenson, contrary to "The portrait of Dorian Gray" where Oscar Wild is describing a really good looking person doing evil.

Finally, this book let us analyze the difference of good from evil. For example warm, and comfortable places becoming places where few people go, "at the door of this, which wore a great air of wealth and comfort, though it was now plunged in darkness" (page 16). This book also mentions the rupture of friendships because of a man who let anger domain him, "`Jekyll is ill too,' observed Utterson. `Have you seen him?' But Lanyon's face changed, and he held up a trembling hand. `I wish to see or hear no more of Doctor Jekyll,' he said in a loud, unsteady voice. `I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion o one whom I regard as dead'" (page 32)