Book Review: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

 

This is such an interesting book - to say the least!  What surprised me the most was how in-depth it was.  FOR A BOOK WRITTEN IN THE 1800'S!  I read the original 1886 classic version.  It is only 90 pages which is extremely short for a book, especially back then.  But there is so much information packed into this story.  It reminds me of some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.  The writing styles are a bit different though. 
The book is written in the POV (point of view) of Mr. Utterson.  He is the lawyer who drew up Dr. Jekyll's will.  In that will, it was said that when Dr. Jekyll's death or untimely disappearance came around, everything he owned would go to Mr. Hyde.  And this really confused me, originally because Mr. Utterson is seeing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde separately.  And they are VERY much different from each other.  I was wondering through the entire book "Why do they look so different?" See, Dr. Jekyll is tall and stylish.  He dresses well and is kind of face.  Whereas Mr. Hyde is the TOTAL opposite.  He's short, fat, ugly, and has the kind of face that looks like he wants to kill everyone in his path.  So how can someone tall become someone MUCH shorter?  We're placed in suspense throughout the first 80 pages of the book.  It's not until Dr. Jekyll "dies" that we find out what happened. His deposition is sent to his doctor, then his lawyer who reads it for us readers.  And just wow.  I won't spoil it for you, but oh my goodness.  It really reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray.  
Mr. Hyde is the true definition of wicked.  He's a murderer and will literally run over anyone in his way.  The first time we see this is when he walks over a child and just keeps walking.  Leaving her crying in the middle of the street.  Not even acknowledging anything. So right away, the reader sees how mean he is.  We see one case specifically of Hyde killing someone.  His name was Carew.  And Hyde killed him because it was the first time he came out in 2 months.  And because of that, he had a huge fit of rage.  And Jekyll explains why that was in the deposition in the last 10 pages of the book. Hyde became so prevalent in Jekylls life that when Jekyll was sleeping, Hyde came out.  Without any help.  Which is so disturbing if you look at this from a cerebration point of view.  It's like all of a sudden having a problem with somnambulism and it's not you, but you're killing people!  Talk about letting your bad side win out. 
On another note: I feel that Mr. Utterson did a thorough job, sometimes putting his life (and other's if I'm being honest) in danger trying to find out what the mystery and connection is between Jekyll and Hyde.  Same with Dr. Lanyon. 
Another interesting thing is the amount of Gothism here.  A lot of people think badly about the Gothic Era because of what it has become today, but the Gothic Era was such a cool piece of history.  The amount of darkness, Hyde's problems, fog, rain, etc. really pulls into the Gothicness.  We also see Hyde's residence in Soho which is just in what we would consider a bad part of town.  Which lends to being Gothic.  I really appreciate Stevenson putting this in the book because it was written in 1886, and the Gothic Era was in the 1300's.  500 years later, and he's putting little snippets of it in his book.  
I have no criticism for this book.  Stevenson did an amazing job writing this out and showing us everything while keeping it short and simple.  

Here are a few links to info on the Gothic Era and why it was so pretty and an amazing piece of history!
The Gothic Era was not people dressing up all in black (which has now been renamed as Emo-kids), but the art and architecture (art in a building).  
Gothic Art - Britannica

Gothic Art - Wikipedia

And here is a link where you can look at pictures of Gothic Art!  (Disclaimer: be careful because I do not control the internet)
Gothic Art Architecture

Gothic ART

Thank you for reading! Hope y'all enjoy 💖
~Charity