In a novel entitled The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it may seem strange that Jekyll is introduced fairly far into the text: this allows Stevenson to build tension and mystery around the novel’s protagonist. When Jekyll is introduced, he is presented as a wealthy and educated gentleman who is clearly hiding a dark secret – a secret which is connected to the will in which Jekyll leaves all his money to the violent Mr Hyde. When Utterson questions Jekyll about this, “there came a blackness about [the doctor’s] eyes”, a phrase Stevenson uses to hint at the repressed side of his personality. Despite the warning look in Jekyll’s eyes, Utterson pursues his questions, and Jekyll responds: “the moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde”. Through this strong statement, Stevenson reveals Jekyll’s hubris and lack of self-knowledge: the crux of the story is that Jekyll is not in control and that Hyde (who symbolises his repressed desires) is an inextricable part of his identity.
After the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, Stevenson suggests that Jekyll is starting to realise his mistake: Jekyll looks “deathly sick” and readers understand that he is horrified at the murder his alter ego has committed. Yet Stevenson then shows that Jekyll is unable to liberate himself from the situation, and he wallows in self-pity instead: “if I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also”. Whilst Jekyll admits responsibility for his “sins” (a word which evokes religious ideas of challenging the authority and goodness of a Christian God), he also sees himself as a victim. Yet even in his victimhood, Jekyll is hubristic, insisting that he is the “chief”.
As the novel progresses it is clear that Jekyll has entered an unstoppable downward spiral and that he has completely lost control. One evening, Utterson and Enfield walk past his window, and see Jekyll looking “like some disconsolate prisoner”. Again, the emphasis here is on Jekyll’s victimhood (“disconsolate” means unhappy whilst the simile “like…[a] prisoner” indicates that he is trapped).
However, by the time we reach the end of the novel, the reader is aware that this is a trap of Jekyll’s own making. Unlike the first 9 chapters, which are in the third person, Chapter 10 is in the first person and constitutes Jekyll’s confession. Stevenson highlights how Jekyll “stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life” well before he created the potion that resulted in the emergence of Hyde. As a young man, Jekyll had indulged in hedonistic behaviour, which he had sought to conceal from others in order to protect his reputation. Being unable to continue this deceit, he had decided to create a potion to destroy his darker side – but it had the opposite result, and unleashed Hyde. Stevenson initially describes the transformation in a positive way: Jekyll felt “younger, lighter, happier in body”. This suggests that Jekyll feels liberated from the expectations that restricted the lives of Victorian gentlemen. Yet it is clear that this liberation quickly changes as Jekyll’s “devil had long been caged; he came out roaring”. Because his behaviour had been so strictly repressed, Hyde quickly indulged in wild, hedonistic, and destructive actions – including trampling the young girl and murdering Danvers Carew. It is notable that in Jekyll’s confession, he admits to killing Carew himself: “I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow”. The slip from describing Hyde’s actions to retelling the story as if Jekyll was the criminal is an interesting one, as it reminds us that Jekyll and Hyde are one and the same – and that each of has the capacity for evil.
Amy Smith Literature 