"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson: Long before it was parodied on "Gilligan's Island" or made into a lame musical starring David Hasselhoff, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" was a work of literature. The names Jekyll and Hyde are so ingrained in our collective consciousness, it's almost impossible to imagine a time when they didn't exist. It's one of those stories that everyone knows even if they haven't actually experienced the written word. And that's a shame. Because much like Mary Shelly's brilliant "Frankenstein," the original work far exceeds the version so familiar to today's audience.
By now, everyone knows the story. Dr. Henry Jekyll, a true gentleman and well-respected member of the London community, drinks an experimental solution of his own concoction and is transformed into the despicable Edward Hyde, a man of pure evil. Growing up, I was always under the impression that the transformation was an accident, that Dr. Jekyll fell victim to a miscalculation or an error in measurement, that it was never his intention to unleash the villainous Mr. Hyde. Whether or not it was the influence of time that warped future generations of the tale or merely the misguided perceptions of a child, that's how I always remembered the story. Well, either way, I was misinformed.
Mr. Stevenson makes two pivotal decisions in the construction of the story, the combination of which makes "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" a spectacular piece of fiction. The first is the motivation behind Dr. Jekyll's experiments. He didn't stumble upon the sinister serum and unwittingly fall prey to his inner demons; it was quite the contrary, in fact. Despite his civilized exterior, the good doctor was keenly aware of inner demons, or as he describes it, "a certain impatient gaiety of disposition." In other words, he enjoyed dabbling in pleasures of the flesh and all sorts of other questionable behavior. Yet because of his upbringing, place in society, and sense of religious morality, Dr. Jekyll's darker impulses created a raging conflict in his soul. He was two distinctly different men living within one body. He began to think of ways he could live his upstanding, moralistic life without surrendering his shameful ways. Naturally, his mind turned to the laboratory table.
Dr. Jekyll enters into his experiments in hopes of discovering a mixture capable of rending his two selves into separate identities; thus allowing his devious side to indulge without hesitation or remorse, while his upright twin continues on his righteous path of integrity, completely free of any disgrace associated with the other's sins. Of course, Dr. Jekyll never dreams he'll actually succeed in his quest, and when he does, his unscrupulous alter ego proves too powerful for him to control, leading to murder and personal ruin.
Aside from the decision to make Dr. Jekyll a flawed man desperate to embrace debauchery, Mr. Stevenson's other masterstroke is in how he tells the story. A lesser writer would have made Dr. Jekyll the focus from the start, perhaps even relating things in the first person from the doctor's perspective. No, the genius of Mr. Stevenson is in working in the third person, opening the book from the perspective of Mr. Utterson, Dr. Jekyll's friend and lawyer. A chance remark while out for a walk triggers a friend to tell Utterson of a revolting character he once saw trample a small girl in the street. The vile creature's name was Mr. Hyde, and Utterson's companion tracked the fiend to the door of a dwelling Utterson knew belonged to Dr. Jekyll. It's not the first time Utterson had heard the name Hyde connected with that of the good doctor. Much earlier, Jekyll had sent Utterson a new will, naming Mr. Edward Hyde as his benefactor in case of death or any unexplained absence of more than three calendar months. Utterson found the conditions of the will to be absurd, not to mention highly suspicious, but agreed to honor the document out of respect for his long friendship with its author. However, hearing for the first time of this hitherto unknown Mr. Hyde, and finding him to be a dastardly sort, sends Utterson's indignation to new heights. He simply can't sit idly by and allow some scoundrel to manipulate his friend. Utterson sets out to discover exactly who this mysterious Mr. Hyde is, and why he seems to hold some strange power over Henry Jekyll.
Mr. Stevenson protects the secret of Jekyll and Hyde, not revealing the truth of their shared identity until late in the story. Of course, one approaches the book already knowing the mystery's solution, but one can imagine the suspense and great awe initial readers of the tale must have experienced when the manuscript was first published in 1886.
"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a remarkable achievement, both in structure and in its examination of the duality of man. Who among us is perfect? Everyone has a Mr. Hyde lurking somewhere, waiting impatiently for his chance at freedom. And once he tastes it, how will he ever be contained again?
Oh, and the story clocks in at a crisp 87 pages, so if you haven't read it yet, there's really no excuse for ignoring it a moment longer.
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