Jim+S

This novel is one of great mystery and suspense. A lawyer, Utterson, hears through his friend a rumor that a man named Mr. Hyde brutally murdered a young girl, and then paid off her relatives. Utterson decides to ignore the rumor, hoping it was only gossip. He can’t escape it though, because his friend, Dr. Jekyll, recently made out his will to go entirely to this potential murderer, Mr. Hyde. Utterson chooses to find Dr. Jekyll and talk to him, and Jekyll tells Utterson not to worry about Hyde. However, Hyde takes another victim’s life and the police question Utterson who sends them to Hyde. When the police arrive at Hyde’s address there is no one there, so Utterson again finds Jekyll. Jekyll tells Utterson that he is no longer talking to Hyde and shows him a letter that Hyde wrote to Jekyll which states the two will no longer be associated with each other. There is a peculiarity with the note though; Hyde’s handwriting is exactly the same as Jekyll’s. As it turns out, Jekyll and Hyde are the same person. Jekyll created a potion in which he could turn his evil side into a separate being with no morals. Of course he got addicted to this potion and ended up turning into evil Hyde uncontrollably, and murdering people. The story ends with Jekyll writing a final letter to Utterson explaining everything, and how he will end up permanently transforming into Hyde. Instead of turning himself into the police, Hyde kills himself in the laboratory. 1) Dr. Jekyll, “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” - Jekyll believes that a man is not one whole person, but rather two halves, good and evil, combined. He therefore believes the halves can be separated into two different beings. 2) Enfield in describing Mr. Hyde, “He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. ” - Hyde is never fully described in the novel. His deformities are never explained. Stevenson leaves it up to the reader to create their own viscous creature with their own inner Mr. Hyde. 3) Lanyon to Utterson, “Some day, Utterson, after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you.” - This is perhaps the moral of the story. Is it wrong for Hyde to behave the way he does if he has no morals? Is it Jekyll’s fault that Hyde behaves the way he does? Lanyon can’t tell Utterson what to think, he thinks maybe someday in the future we’ll figure out the right answer. 1) What is the double meaning behind the plot in this story? - The entire plot and story of Dr. Jekyll can be related to the story of the life of a drug addict. The fact that Jekyll desperately wants to not transform, but still does, can be related to how someone addicted to drugs does not want to use them, but can’t resist the urge. When Jekyll becomes Hyde he loves it, as a drug abuser loves being on drugs when on them, but in both cases as soon as the affect wears off they feel horrible and realize they’ve just done horrible things. At the end of the novel Hyde/Jekyll die, as a drug addict would die with continued uncontrolled use. 2) Hyde is deformed, but his appearance is never fully described besides the fact that his is short and incredibly ugly. Do you think this is the way Hyde should look? Why or why not? - I think Hyde looks like a primitive man. He’s short, hard to talk to and has no conscience. He lives for himself and only himself, as if there were no society. If Hyde was described as supernatural he would be looked at as a monster, which isn’t how the author, Stevenson, wants him to be viewed. Stevenson purposely never has Hyde fully described because he wants our own dark sides to create his appearance. If Hyde was strong or inhuman there would be no possibility of something like him existing, but Stevenson wants to prove that everyone has a Hyde inside them. 3) Is it Jekyll’s fault for how Hyde, his own inner demon, behaves? Why or why not? - It can be looked at either way, but I view Hyde as Jekyll’s inner demon, and not a human’s inner demon. I believe that Hyde behaved as Jekyll wished he could have behaved. Dr. Jekyll tried to play it off like he was a wonderful and respected man, but truly he had a murderous creature lurking deep inside his conscience that he couldn’t stand. He needed to let it out or it would consume him. In other words, Jekyll was messed up in the head. If he could have, he would have gone out and killed the people that Hyde killed, but obviously he couldn’t just go and do that, so he created his elixir to allow him to do the things he so passionately and secretly craved.
 * __The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde__**
 * The Plot:**
 * Characters:**
 * Mr. Utterson** is the main character in the novel. He is a successful lawyer from London that will connect Hyde to Jekyll. Smart, sophisticated, but doesn’t like gossip, rumors, or the paranormal. He has a hard time imagining the Hyde and Jekyll transformation affect.
 * Dr. Jekyll** is a wealthy doctor and good friends with Utterson. Is known for his good qualities but possesses a dark side. He experiments in his laboratory on removing his dark side from his personality completely.
 * Mr. Hyde**, who is an indescribably ugly murder, is Dr. Jekyll transformed into his evil side through a potion. There is literally not a single good quality in Hyde. He causes chaos in Jekyll’s life, eventually leading to their death.
 * Important Quotations:**
 * Study Questions and Essay Topics:**