Jekyll and Hyde

 

《世无定事》第14章。佩姬开始自己的专科业务了：心血管外科，而且还被分配到了世界著名的心血管专家劳伦斯·巴克大夫的团队里。佩姬甭提有多高兴了。但第一次查房，就让她大为失望，甚至满腔愤怒。巴克大夫对待病人和对待手下的住院医生判若两人：对病人和蔼可亲、关怀备至；而对她却凶神恶煞、蛮不讲理。

 

原文：

My God! Paige thought. Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!

 

《译林》版译文：

我的上帝！佩姬心想。真是个双重性格的人啊！

 

我的译文：

我的上帝！佩姬心想，就像传说中的杰克尔和海德一样，真是个双重性格的人啊！

 

说明：

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde：杰克尔与海德（又可说成 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde）出自英国作家斯蒂文森（Stevenson）的著名小说《化身博士》(The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde，1886)。《化身博士》是罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森所写的一部小说，故事描述在维多利亚时代，杰克尔博士为了探索人性的善恶，研究发明了一种特殊的新药，吃下去便会变成另一个自我，即海德先生，博士把自己所有的恶念全部赋予了野蛮残暴的海德。杰克尔虽然已有贤惠的未婚妻，但是被放荡的风尘女子勾起了他变成海德的欲望。杰克尔博士行医多年，多行善事，名声极好，海德则无恶不作，杀人害命，一场悲剧终于一发不可收拾。杰克尔博士无法摆脱海德，最后选择了自杀，以自己的自尽，来停止海德的作恶。

Jekyll and Hyde这部著作曾经被拍成电影、编成音乐剧，流传十分广泛，使得Jekyll and Hyde成为「双重人格」的代称。

 

斯蒂文森 (Stevenson, Robert Louis (Balfour)1850-1894)英国作家。生於苏格兰爱丁堡，毕业於爱丁堡大学。1875年当过律师，后转向为期刊写作并记见闻、散文和短篇小说。

传奇式冒险小说《金银岛》(Treasure Island,1883)使他一举成名，从此走上浪漫小说的写作道路。他的作品还有《绑架》(Kidnapped，1886)、《化身博士》(The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde，1886 )、《巴伦特雷的少爷》(The Master of Ballantral，1889) 和未完成的《赫米斯顿的韦尔》(Weir of Hermiston，1896)。后者被认为是他的杰作。1888年因健康原因定居萨摩亚的瓦伊利马，直至去世。

 

维基百科中的杰克尔与海德

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alternative personality, Mr. Edward Hyde, is a fictional character in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He is the title character, but the main protagonist is Gabriel John Utterson.

 

Fictional character biography

Dr. Henry Jekyll feels he is battling between the good and bad within himself, thus leading to the struggle with his alter ego, Edward Hyde. He spends his life trying to repress evil urges that are not fitting for a man of his stature. He develops a serum in an attempt to mask this hidden evil. However, in doing so, Jekyll transforms into Hyde, a hideous creature without compassion or remorse. Jekyll has a friendly personality, but as Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. As time goes by, Hyde grows in power and eventually manifests whenever Jekyll shows signs of physical or moral weakness, no longer needing the serum to be released.

Stevenson never says exactly what Hyde does on his nightly forays, generally saying that it is something of an evil and lustful nature. Thus, in the context of the times, it is abhorrent to Victorian religious morality. Hyde may have been reveling in activities such as engaging with prostitutes or burglary. However, it is Hyde's violent activities that seem to give him the most thrills, driving him to attack and murder Sir Danvers Carew without apparent reason, making him a hunted outlaw throughout England.

A lawyer named Gabriel Utterson and Jekyll's butler, Mr. Poole, end up breaking into Jekyll's lab. Inside, they find the body of Hyde wearing Jekyll's clothes and apparently dead from suicide. They find also a letter from Jekyll to Utterson promising to explain the entire mystery. Utterson takes the document home where he first reads Lanyon’s letter and then Jekyll's. The first reveals that Lanyon’s deterioration and eventual death resulted from the shock of seeing Hyde drinking a serum or potion and as a result of doing so, turning into Jekyll. The second letter explains that Jekyll, having previously indulged unstated vices (and with it the fear that discovery would lead to his losing his social position) found a way to transform himself and thereby indulge his vices without fear of detection. But Jekyll's transformed personality, Hyde, was effectively a sociopath — evil, self-indulgent, and utterly uncaring to anyone but himself. Initially, Jekyll was able to control the transformations, but eventually he would become Hyde involuntarily in his sleep.

At this point, Jekyll resolved to cease becoming Hyde. One night, however, the urge gripped him too strongly, and after the transformation he immediately rushed out and violently killed Carew. Horrified, Jekyll tried more adamantly to stop the transformations, and for a time he proved successful by engaging in philanthropic work. One day, at a park, he considered how good a person that he had become as a result of his deeds (in comparison to others), believing himself redeemed. However, before he completed his line of thought, he looked down at his hands and realized that he had suddenly transformed once again into Hyde. This was the first time that an involuntary metamorphosis had happened in waking hours. Far from his laboratory and hunted by the police as a murderer, Hyde needed help to avoid being caught. He wrote to Lanyon (in Jekyll's hand), asking his friend to retrieve the contents of a cabinet in his laboratory and to meet him at midnight at Lanyon's home in Cavendish Square. In Lanyon's presence, Hyde mixed the potion and transformed back to Jekyll. The shock of the sight instigated Lanyon's deterioration and death. Meanwhile, Jekyll returned to his home only to find himself ever more helpless and trapped as the transformations increased in frequency and necessitated even larger doses of potion in order to reverse them. It was the onset of one of these spontaneous metamorphoses that caused Jekyll to slam his laboratory window shut in the middle of his conversation with Enfield and Utterson.

Eventually, the stock of ingredients from which Jekyll had been preparing the potion ran low, and subsequent batches prepared by Dr. Jekyll from renewed stocks failed to produce the transformation. Jekyll speculated that the one essential ingredient that made the original potion work (a salt) must have itself been contaminated. After sending Poole to one chemist after another to purchase the salt that was running low only to find it wouldn't work, he assumed that subsequent supplies all lacked the essential ingredient that made the potion successful for his experiments. His ability to change back from Hyde into Jekyll had slowly vanished in consequence. Jekyll wrote that even as he composed his letter, he knew that he would soon become Hyde permanently, having used the last of this salt and he wondered if Hyde would face execution for his crimes or choose to kill himself. Jekyll noted that, in either case, the end of his letter marked the end of his life. He ended the letter saying, "I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end". With these words, both the document and the novella come to a close.

The original pronunciation of Jekyll was "Jeekul", which was the pronunciation used in Stevenson's native Scotland. This is also the pronunciation of Gertrude Jekyll.

 

Adaptations

Television

Dr. Jekyll appeared in some of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts.

In Hyde and Hare, Dr. Jekyll (voiced by Mel Blanc) brings Bugs Bunny to his apartment. When Dr. Jekyll drinks his formula, he becomes Mr. Hyde who is depicted with green skin and red eyes. Around the end of the cartoon, Bugs Bunny drinks the formula and starts to turn into a Hyde-like rabbit.

In Hyde and Go Tweet, Dr. Jekyll drinks a formula that turns himself into Mr. Hyde with the commotion waking Sylvester up until he sees Dr. Jekyll back to his normal self. Tweety later exposes himself to Dr. Jekyll's formula where he becomes a Hyde-like canary.

The episode Dr. Jerkyl's Hide features Sylvester turning into a Hyde-like cat upon ingesting the formula which he mistook for soda pop where he attacks Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Climax! episode "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". Hosted by Bill Lundigan, this episode was originally aired on 28 July 1955 (Season 1 Episode 34). The story was adapted for television by Gore Vidal.

The Scooby-Doo, Where are You! episode "Nowhere to Hyde" features the Ghost of Mr. Hyde, who is committing jewelry store robberies and one of the suspects is a descendant of Dr. Jekyll. The Ghost of Mr. Hyde later made a cameo in Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King as a patron in a monster bar.

In the Dynomutt, Dog Wonder episode "Everyone Hyde!", the criminal Willie the Weasel (voiced by Henry Corden) creates a similar formula (which is related to Dr. Jekyll's formula) that turns him into Mr. Hyde.

In the Gravedale High episode "Fear of Flying", there is a medical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (voiced by Frank Welker) that works as a doctor for the monsters. Mr. Hyde serves as Dr. Jekyll's "partner" where Dr. Jekyll would turn into him for any second opinions of anyone's medical problems.

In the All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series episode "Dr. Beagle and Mangy Hyde", Charlie turns into a Mr. Hyde-like monster (voiced by Brad Garrett) when eating dog food tainted with a dangerous substance Carface had.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in the Animaniacs episode "Brain Meets Brawn", voiced by Jeff Bennett. Dr. Jekyll was seen taking a serum that turns him into Mr. Hyde where is then attacked by the police. They take a break in the conflict when tea time occurs. Afterwards, the police subdue Mr. Hyde and take him away to the police station. Dr. Jekyll's serum inspires Brain to take it so that he can break Big Ben in this monster form whenever Brain gets angered.

The 2007 TV serial Jekyll starred James Nesbitt as Tom Jackman, a modern Jekyll whose Hyde persona wreaks havoc in modern London. In the course of the series, it is revealed that the original Jekyll's transformation into Hyde was a 'natural' process, triggered by Jekyll's love for his maid rather than any kind of potion, and Jackman is the descendant of one of Hyde's bastard sons, while his wife is a clone of Jekyll's maid created by a corporation to try and duplicate the Hyde process. As with most modern adaptations, Hyde is depicted as possessing superhuman strength, able to tear a lion apart with his bare hands, and is depicted as being impulsive and childish rather than explicitly evil, although the physical changes are fairly subtle, such as Hyde having darker eyes and a different hairstyle. At the series' conclusion, Hyde apparently sacrifices himself to save Jackman, 'dying' when he is shot but somehow able to stop Jackman 'sharing the damage', with the result that the bullets remain in Jackman but he has no injuries to demonstrate where they entered his body.

NBC's Do No Harm is a modern retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde story featuring a renamed Jekyll-like character named Dr. Jason Cole (played by Steven Pasquale) trying to stop his drug-addicted, sociopathic, Hyde-like counterpart named Ian Price from ruining his professional and private life. Unlike the original story, the main character is a highly respected neurosurgeon who is able to keep his alter-ego in check through the use of an experimental sedative. Also, Jason suffers from dissociative identity disorder instead of developing a serum that separates the good and evil in a person.

The Phineas and Ferb episode "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein" features the villain Dr. Jekyll Doofenshmirtz drinking a potion to turn himself into a monster.

The Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero episode "Rip-Penn" features Penn as Dr. Barzelby (inspired by Dr. Jekyll), who accidentally drinks a potion that turns him into a monster version of Penn's nemesis Rippen.

SBS's Hyde, Jekyll, Me portrays a man, Goo Seo Jin, who is in line as a successor of the conglomerate group his family owns but has dissociative identity disorder. His other personality, Robin, is the opposite of his usual cold, cynical self; Robin is kind, gentle and has a savior complex.

Shazad Latif portrays an Anglo-Indian Dr. Henry Jekyll on the third season of Penny Dreadful. In the show, Jekyll is the illegitimate child of an English nobleman and an Indian woman. His father abandoned Jekyll and his mother in India, and after Jekyll's mother dies from leprosy, he goes to the University of Cambridge, where he befriends Victor Frankenstein but is ultimately expelled from Cambridge after getting into a fight with a professor due to the professor's racist comments. He then works at Bedlam Hospital, developing a serum to pacify patients and bring out a calm, tame nature. In the last episode of the show, Jekyll's father dies and he inherits his title: Lord Hyde.

The 2015 TV series Jekyll & Hyde focuses on the illegitimate grandson of Henry Jekyll, Doctor Robert Jekyll, who has inherited his grandfather's Hyde personality. While Robert is initially able to control his transformation with pills, as the series unfolds, he learns about various demonic threats to the world, and is forced to harness the superhuman strength he possesses as Hyde to oppose these forces. In the course of the series, Robert Jekyll works with Henry Jekyll's old assistant and even meets Henry Jekyll's lover (and hence his grandmother), although his Hyde persona never gains a first name.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Once Upon a Time, with Dr. Jekyll portrayed by Hank Harris and Mr. Hyde portrayed by Samuel Witwer. They first appear in the season five finale "Only You" and "An Untold Story". Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are shown as inhabitants of the Land of Untold Stories, who follow the heroes to Storybrooke. In season six, it's revealed that Jekyll's serum failed to remove his capacity for evil and he is killed by Captain Hook which causes Hyde to die as well as a side effect of the serum.

 

Film

John Barrymore played Jekyll and Hyde in the 1920 silent movie adaptation of the novel.

Fredric March played Jekyll and Hyde in the 1931 film adaptation of the novel, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Spencer Tracy played Jekyll and Hyde in the 1941 film adaptation of the novel.

Jack Palance played the two characters in the 1968 TV movie.

David Hemmings played the characters in the 1980 version, but instead of transforming into a hideous being, he becomes younger and very physically attractive. And even though he still does evil things, he seems to be more of a gentlemen at times and less remorseless than other versions of this character. The movie was only made for TV.

John Hannah played Jekyll and Hyde in the 2003 television film adaptation of the novel.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, played by Boris Karloff.

In the Hammer Horror film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Dr. Jekyll (Ralph Bates), rather than transforming into an ugly, deformed monster, transforms into a beautiful yet malicious femme fatale (Martin Beswick).

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Mad Monster Party?, voiced by Allen Swift. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear as guests at a party thrown by Baron Boris von Frankenstein at his castle on the Isle of Evil. Dr. Jekyll keeps his elixir in his cane whenever he wants to turn into Mr. Hyde. Also, Dr. Jekyll's cane doubles as an umbrella as seen when Mr. Hyde uses it to keep the sleeping Creature from spewing water onto him at night.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (a "prequel of sorts" to Mad Monster Party?), voiced again by Allen Swift. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are among the monsters invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding of Frankenstein's Monster and its mate at the Transylvania Astoria Hotel.

Mr. Hyde appears in The Nightmare Before Christmas, voiced by Randy Crenshaw. He appears as one of the citizens of Halloween Town. Only seen in his "Hyde" form, he keeps two smaller versions of himself underneath his hat.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in the 1994 film The Pagemaster, voiced by Leonard Nimoy.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in the 1996 film Mary Reilly, portrayed by John Malkovich.

The film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (adapted from the comic book series) features Jason Flemyng as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the latter using prosthetic makeup). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are employed by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to combat the ruthless criminal known as the Fantom, who is revealed in the course of the film to be "M", the man who recruited them, and also Professor Moriarty, who intends to acquire the power of the League for use in his plans to trigger a world war and sell his weapons for profit. His mole in the League, Dorian Gray, manages to acquire a sample of the Hyde serum, which he is able to duplicate, one of Moriarty's men drinking a massive overdose of the Hyde serum to become an even larger version of Hyde. Despite the other Hyde's size and raw power, he is defeated when he burns through the formula at an accelerated rate, resulting in Moriarty's fortress collapsing on top of him.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde appear in Van Helsing, with Dr. Jekyll portrayed by Stephen Fisher while Robbie Coltrane provides the voice of the CGI animated Mr. Hyde. Like the version that was seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mr. Hyde is also portrayed as a large, hulking brute. Van Helsing has pursued Hyde to Paris, France after having failed to capture him in an earlier confrontation in London, England. He is superhumanly strong and displays agility comparable to that of a great ape. While not invulnerable, he's extremely tough and sustains severe injuries that ultimately do little to impede or slow him down to any appreciable degree. Upon exchanging banter, they begin fighting in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral with Van Helsing initially gaining the advantage by severing Hyde's left arm at the biceps, which regresses to a normal form after landing on the floor. Hyde rallies and assaults Van Helsing, using his right arm to hurl him through the roof of the cathedral. He then gloats before tossing Van Helsing off the roof only for Van Helsing to fire a grappling gun that sends the hook & line through the center of Hyde's body, which Van Helsing uses to stop his fall. He attempts to pull Hyde off the roof, only for Hyde to begin pulling him upward, seemingly unfazed by the large hole in his body. Hyde trips over the edge of the roof, his falling weight pulling Van Helsing up to the roof before the line breaks. As it breaks, the momentum swings Hyde through the Rose Window of the cathedral and, while he falls, Hyde transforms back into the form of Henry Jekyll and dies from the fall. A police officer spots Van Helsing on top of the cathedral and holds him accountable for Dr. Jekyll's death. The novelization of the film portrays Hyde as not only a murderer, but a cannibal as well. The novel says the body of the murdered woman Van Helsing discovers on the streets of Paris as partially devoured while the same scene in the film shows the woman's body intact. However, the film does suggest that Hyde is cannibalistic when he encounters Van Helsing in Notre Dame and tells him "You're a big one. You'll be hard to digest."

A creature that might be Mr. Hyde appears in Hotel Transylvania. He is seen around the end of the movie, when everyone is singing "The Zing".

The Dynomutt version of Mr. Hyde appeared in Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, voiced by John DiMaggio.

Russell Crowe played Dr. Jekyll in The Mummy, which is the first installment in Universal's Dark Universe and is a role which will be elaborated on in further films within the series. It is suggested that Jekyll's transformation into Hyde was a 'natural' condition, as he reflects on how someone- implied to be him- realized that he was succumbing to evil but was able to find a cure as a physician, requiring regular injections of an unspecified compound to prevent himself becoming Hyde, an aggressive and sadistic persona. Despite the personality transformation, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have the same appearance, with the exception of their skins and eyes, although they also have a different palmprint with the result that palm scanners that will allow Jekyll access but will prohibit Hyde from using the door. As Hyde, he exhibits greater levels of physical strength, endurance and aggression as well as improved combat abilities.

 

Comics

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One and Volume Two by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Henry Jekyll is a scientist who is the lesser half of Edward Hyde and member of the Victorian League. This incarnation of Jekyll and Hyde reveals that eventually Jekyll found that he would transform into Hyde under stress, not unlike Hulk. Likewise, Hyde has become progressively taller and bulkier than Jekyll, while Jekyll has become shorter and withered. During a dinner scene, Hyde explains that this is because splitting himself and Jekyll into separate identities resulted in him losing his restraints and growing beyond his original limits, while Jekyll withered away without anything to drive him. During the Martian invasion, he developed a strong respect for Mina Murray and sacrificed himself to stop Martian tripods from crossing London Bridge. His self-sacrifice was honored in having Serpentine Park named into Hyde Park and a statue of Mr. Hyde is seen in the park in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier and throughout The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century.

The Marvel Comics superhero Hulk is loosely based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein's Monster. The supervillain Mister Hyde is more directly inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The DC Comics supervillain Two-Face was inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde due to their split personality.

 

Music

The Who recorded the song "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on their album Magic Bus: The Who on Tour.

Renaissance (band) recorded the song "Jekyll and Hyde" on their album Azure d'Or.

The Damned recorded a song titled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on their 1980 release The Black Album.

The split personality theme - I am to myself what Jekyll must have been to Hyde - is featured in ABBA song Me and I (1980).

South Korean boy band VIXX released their first mini-album, Hyde, and first repackaged mini album, Jekyll, based on the novel.

Heavy metal band Judas Priest released a song entitled "Jekyll and Hyde" on their 2001 album "Demolition."

Another heavy metal band, Iced Earth, released a song entitled "Jekyll & Hyde" on their 2001 album, "Horror Show."

American Christian Rock band Petra recorded a song Jekyll & Hyde for their 2003 album with the same name.

American rock band Halestorm released an album in 2012 called The Strange Case Of..., with a track called "Mz. Hyde". The title of the album and song is referencing singer Lzzy Hale's on stage and off stage sides to her life.

In 2015, Five Finger Death Punch released a single named "Jekyll & Hyde".

Ice Nine Kills released the single "Me, Myself & Hyde" in February 2015.

Zac Brown Band released the album Jekyll + Hyde in 2015.

 

Miscellaneous

The Lego Minifigures theme has a character in Series 9 named Mr. Good and Evil, who is based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

In Monster High, there are characters named Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde who are the descendants of Dr. Jekyll. They are voiced by Cindy Robinson in the webisodes and TV specials.

In Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Blue & Silver, a light novel series based on the original drafts of Fate/stay night, Dr. Jekyll appears as the Servant of the Berserker class, portrayed as a gentle and good looking young man. His Noble Phantasm allows him to transform into Mr. Hyde.

In "Servamp", a manga written and illustrated by Strike Tanaka, there are two characters known as Licht Jekylland Todoroki and Lawless of Greed (later given the name of Hyde by the former). They have no direct correlation with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in personality traits from the original novel, but their names, as well as their roles as opposites to each other (Licht as an Angel and Hyde as a Demon) nod to the original story. Their combined special attack is titled "Jekyll and Hyde".

In "Fate/Grand Order", a mobile video game based on the "Fate/stay night" visual novel and franchise from Type-Moon, a Servant under the classes Assassin and Berserker appears, named "Henry Jekyll & Hyde." In most of his appearance during battle sequences, he is the Assassin-class Servant Henry Jekyll, however when using his Noble Phantasm, or special ability, he becomes the Berserker-class Servant Hyde.

 

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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Title page of the first London edition (1886)

 

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 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" entering the vernacular to refer to people with an unpredictably dual nature: usually very good, but sometimes shockingly evil instead.

 

Inspiration and writing

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Robert Louis Stevenson

 

Stevenson had long been intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can affect how to incorporate the interplay of good and evil into a story. 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. 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 wakening 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.

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."

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. Chantrelle, who had appeared to lead a normal life in the city, poisoned his wife with opium. According to author Jeremy Hodges, 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 doctor 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".

Louis Vivet, a mental patient who was suffering from dissociative identity disorder, caught Frederic W. H. Myers's attention and he wrote to Stevenson after the story was published. Stevenson was polite in his response but rejected that reading. 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. Therefore, she left her comments with the manuscript and Robert in the toilet. She said 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 in the process 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.

Stevenson re-wrote 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. 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 inexpres-sibly". He continued to refine the work for four to six weeks after the initial re-write. The novella was written in the southern English seaside town of Bournemouth, where Stevenson had moved due to ill health, to benefit from its sea air and warmer southern climate.

The name Jekyll was borrowed from Reverend Walter Jekyll, a friend of Stevenson and younger brother of horticulturalist and landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll.

 

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 £100 to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought them to this door and provided a cheque signed by a reputable gentleman (later revealed to be Doctor Henry Jekyll, a friend and client of Utterson). Utterson is disturbed because Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary. Utterson fears that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. When Utterson tries to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll turns pale and asks that Hyde be left alone.

One night in October, a servant sees Hyde beat to death Sir Danvers Carew, another of Utterson's clients. The police contact Utterson, who leads officers to Hyde's apartment. Hyde has vanished, but they find half of a 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, apologising 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 a window of his laboratory. Jekyll suddenly slams the window and disappears.

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 wearing Jekyll's clothes and apparently dead from suicide. 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 that 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 personality, 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. One night, he had a moment of weakness and drank the serum. Hyde, furious at 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 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 some unknown impurity that made it work. Realizing that he would stay transformed as Hyde, Jekyll decided to write his "confession". He ended the letter by writing, "I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end."

 

Characters

Gabriel John Utterson

Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer and loyal friend of Jekyll and Lanyon, is the main protagonist of the story. Utterson is a measured and at all times emotionless, bachelor – who nonetheless seems believable, trustworthy, tolerant of the faults of others, and indeed genuinely likable. Utterson has been close friends with Lanyon and Jekyll. 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 down-falling, he finds an interest in others' downfalls, which creates a spark of interest not only in Jekyll but also regarding Hyde. He comes to the conclusion 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. Utterson is a good, kind, loyal and honest friend to Henry Jekyll.

 

Dr Henry Jekyll/Mr Edward Hyde

Dr Jekyll is a "large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast", who occasionally feels he is battling between the good and evil within himself, upon 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 mask this hidden evil within his personality. However, in doing so, Jekyll transpired into the smaller, younger, cruel, remorseless, evil Hyde. Jekyll has many friends and an amiable personality, but as 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.

 

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 running over a little girl in the street recklessly, 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's, 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. When Lanyon witnesses the transformation process (and subsequently hears Jekyll's private confession, made to him alone), Lanyon becomes critically ill and later dies of shock.

 

Mr. Poole

Poole is Jekyll's butler who has lived with him for many years. Upon noticing the reclusiveness and changes of his master, Poole goes to Utterson with the fear that his master has been murdered and his murderer, Mr Hyde, is residing in the chambers. Poole serves Jekyll faithfully and attempts to do a good job and be loyal to his master. Yet events finally drive him into joining forces with Utterson to find the truth.

 

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, white-haired old man and a 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 (sometime between 11 pm and 2 am by the testimony of the maid). At the time of his death, Carew is 70 years old and is carrying on his person a letter addressed to Utterson, and they find one half of one of Jekyll's walking sticks on his body. As a result, they later go and investigate in Jekyll's house, but cannot find him; they later enter a house where Hyde has been living and find the other half of the stick in one of Hyde's rooms.

 

Maid

A maid, whose employer Hyde had once visited, is the only person who claims to have witnessed the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. She states that she saw that Mr Hyde murdered 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

Literary genres which 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 expres-sed as an inner struggle between good and evil, with variations such as human versus animal, civilization versus barbarism sometimes substituted, the main thrust 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. In Freudian theory, the thoughts and desires banished to the unconscious mind motivate the behaviour of the conscious mind. If someone banishes all evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to be wholly and completely good, it can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to that person's character. This failure to accept the tension of duality is related to Christian theology, where 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. This idea is suggested when Hyde says to Lanyon, shortly before drinking the famous potion – "...and 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 the greatest sin, as it is the precursor to evil itself.

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.

 

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. 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.

 

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. 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.

 

Reception

Publication

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the UK, as noted above, and for one dollar in the U.S. These books were called "shilling shockers" or penny dreadfuls. The American publisher issued the book on 5 January 1886, four days before the first appearance of the UK edition issued by Longmans; Scribner's published 3000 copies, only 1250 of them bound in cloth. Initially, stores would 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 forty 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. By 1901, it was estimated to have sold over 250,000 copies in the United States.

 

The Stage Version Of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, though it had initially been published as a "shilling shocker," was an immediate success and is 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.

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 adds some elements of romance to the plot. Addition of female characters to the originally male-centered plot has 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 ten 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.

 

Adaptations

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Poster from the 1880s

 

There have been numerous adaptations of the novella including over 120 stage and film versions alone.

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 and Richard Armitage.

A Musical was created by Frank Wildhorn, Steve Cuden, and Leslie Bricusse: "Jekyll & Hyde: The Gothic Musical Thriller - The Complete Work" (1994).

 

Illustrated versions

S. G. Hulme Beaman illustrated a 1930s edition.