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{{redirect2|Dr Jekyll|Mr Hyde|the protagonist of the novella|Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (character)|other men with the surname "Hyde"|Hyde (surname)|other uses|Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (disambiguation)}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
| title_orig        = Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
| translator        = 
| image             = Jekyll and Hyde Title.jpg
| caption           = Title page of the first London edition (1886)
| author            = [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]
| country           = United Kingdom
| language          = English
| genre             = {{hlist|[[Gothic fiction|Gothic]]|[[Horror fiction|horror]]|[[detective fiction|detective]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Ronald R. |title=Dreams of authority: Freud and the fictions of the unconscious |date=1990 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, N.Y. u.a |isbn=0801496942 |page=239 |edition=1. publ |quote=Like its predecessors in detective fiction, ''Jekyll and Hyde'' locates the expression of criminality in the common experience of dreaming.}}</ref>
}}
| publisher         = [[Longmans, Green & Co.]]
| release_date      = 5 January 1886
| pages             = 141 (first edition)
| isbn              = 978-0-553-21277-8
| wikisource        = Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
}}
'''''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'''''{{efn|Stevenson titled the book without "The" in the beginning for reasons unknown, but it has been supposed to increase the "strangeness" of the case.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dury |first=Richard |title=Strange language of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |journal=Journal of Stevenson Studies |year=2005 |volume=2 |page=34 |publisher=[[University of Stirling]] |issn=1744-3857 |url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/36939770/Dury_JSS_2_2005-libre.pdf?1426088343=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DStrange_Language_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyd.pdf&Expires=1737254393&Signature=XUDl2eswKiDrxs~7yBVzeK7PbUE~6QlokQtC-zYIw4PPMSMUx4zFB1PrlaPN8YcnqH97TsuJXwNGSvr4jxDKi6l-2sIY5DYNyvK20xXUyepSSPDVnKE4gba0LLHI-fkrJcLC4QMWq1rdSUNKFHukKSaOCPkhe93Pp~9Xaocrqx6oawX7G8Mq0Qd7wXMmjJHa7k-VJea4xY-vwnc3N1tyIeAG1WdVms60qWivtwmffKAWGQ7tk1v1olmfJV7wjEOK5ZM2fHvORf0Gl-51xAaSweOOqNdI8RMBkwu38-kKXiG2f4M8UWa~3vfqZAocMgq~WO~oNX3z4hfxicDixpafzg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=2 |access-date=19 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119014448/https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/36939770/Dury_JSS_2_2005-libre.pdf?1426088343=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DStrange_Language_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyd.pdf&Expires=1737254393&Signature=XUDl2eswKiDrxs~7yBVzeK7PbUE~6QlokQtC-zYIw4PPMSMUx4zFB1PrlaPN8YcnqH97TsuJXwNGSvr4jxDKi6l-2sIY5DYNyvK20xXUyepSSPDVnKE4gba0LLHI-fkrJcLC4QMWq1rdSUNKFHukKSaOCPkhe93Pp~9Xaocrqx6oawX7G8Mq0Qd7wXMmjJHa7k-VJea4xY-vwnc3N1tyIeAG1WdVms60qWivtwmffKAWGQ7tk1v1olmfJV7wjEOK5ZM2fHvORf0Gl-51xAaSweOOqNdI8RMBkwu38-kKXiG2f4M8UWa~3vfqZAocMgq~WO~oNX3z4hfxicDixpafzg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=2 |archive-date=19 January 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref> Later publishers added "The" to make it grammatically correct, but it was not the author's original intention. The story is often known today simply as '''''Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''''' or even '''''Jekyll and Hyde'''''.}} is an 1886 [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] [[horror fiction|horror]] [[novella]] by Scottish author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based [[Lawyer|legal practitioner]] who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old friend, [[Dr. Henry Jekyll|Dr Henry Jekyll]], and a murderous criminal named Edward Hyde.

''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is one of the most famous pieces of [[English literature]], and is considered to be a defining book of the gothic horror genre. The novella has also had a sizeable impact on popular culture, with the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" being used in vernacular to refer to people with an outwardly good but sometimes shockingly evil nature.<ref>{{cite news |title=Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |url=https://www.britishlibrary.cn/en/works/jekyllandhyde/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |publisher=British Library}}</ref>

==Inspiration and writing==
 {{Multiple image|total_width = 300
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| image2            = Brodie by night.jpg
| image1            = Brodie by day.jpg
| footer            = [[Tavern sign]] depicting the 18th-century Edinburgh figure [[Deacon Brodie]]: by day, a respectable citizen; by night, a thief. He was an inspiration for Jekyll and Hyde.}}

Stevenson had long been intrigued by the idea of how human personalities can reflect the interplay of [[good and evil]]. While still a teenager, he developed a script for a play about [[William Brodie]], a Scottish cabinet-maker, [[Deacon#Scots usage|deacon]] of a trades guild, and Edinburgh city councillor, who maintained a secret life as a burglar in order to fund his [[Mistress (lover)|mistresses]] and [[gambling addiction]], which Stevenson later reworked with the help of [[William Ernest Henley|W. E. Henley]] and which was produced for the first time in 1882.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swearingen |first1=Roger G. |last2=Stevenson |first2=Robert Louis |title=The Prose Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson: A Guide |date=1980 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-333-27652-5 |page=37 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Real Jekyll & Hyde? The Deacon Brodie story |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31018496 |access-date=30 April 2025 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

Inspiration may also have come from the writer's friendship with an Edinburgh-based French teacher, [[Eugène Chantrelle]], who was convicted and executed for the murder of his wife in May 1878.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chantrelle |first1=Eugène Marie |url=https://archive.org/details/trialofeugnema00chanuoft |title=Trial of Eugène Marie Chantrelle |last2=Smith |first2=Alexander Duncan |publisher=Toronto, Canada Law Book Co |year=1906 |oclc=1085960179 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref> Chantrelle, who had appeared to lead a normal life in the city, poisoned his wife with opium. According to author Jeremy Hodges,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hodges |first1=Jeremy |title=Lamplit, Vicious Fairy Land |url=https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/?page_id=20277 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913220850/https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/?page_id=20277 |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 September 2022 |website=RLS Website }}</ref> 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 teacher 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".<ref>{{cite news |title=Real-life Jekyll & Hyde who inspired Stevenson's classic |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/real-life-jekyll-hyde-who-inspired-stevensons-classic-612461 |work=The Scotsman |date=16 November 2016 }}</ref>

The novella was written in the southern English seaside town of [[Bournemouth]] in [[Dorset]], where Stevenson had moved in 1884 to benefit from its sea air and warmer climate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hainsworth |first1=J. J. |title=Jack the Ripper—Case Solved, 1891 |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9676-1 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref> Living then in Bournemouth was the former Reverend [[Walter Jekyll]], younger brother of horticulturalist and landscape designer [[Gertrude Jekyll]],<ref name="Queen of the mixed border">{{cite news |last1=Sinclair |first1=Jill |title=Queen of the mixed border |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview7 |work=The Guardian |date=16 June 2006 }}</ref> whom Stevenson befriended and from whom he borrowed the name Jekyll.<ref name="Queen of the mixed border"/> Jekyll was almost certainly gay,<ref>Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance'', Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1987, pp23-24, 29-30</ref> and having renounced his Anglican vocation, and exiled himself to [[Continental Europe|the Continent]] for several years, had clearly struggled to find his place in society.<ref>Sarah Festing, ''Gertrude Jekyll'', Viking, London 1991, pp175-176, 243</ref> Stevenson was friends with other homosexual men, including [[Horatio Brown]], [[Edmund Gosse]], and [[John Addington Symonds]],<ref>Claire Harman, ''Robert Louis Stevenson: a biography'', HarperCollins, 2008, p210.</ref> and the duality of their socially suppressed selves may have shaped his book.<ref>Claire Harman, ''Robert Louis Stevenson: a biography'', HarperCollins, 2008, p305.</ref> Symonds was shocked by the book, writing to Stevenson that "viewed as an allegory, it touches one too closely."<ref>Claire Harman, ''Robert Louis Stevenson: a biography'', HarperCollins, 2008, p214.</ref>

According to Stevenson's essay "A Chapter on Dreams" ([[Scribner's Magazine|''Scribner's'']], Jan. 1888), after racking his brains for days over a possible plot for the story, he had a dream that gave him "three scenes, and the central idea of a voluntary change becoming involuntary".<ref name="plains">{{cite book |last1=Stevenson |first1=Robert Louis |title=Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays |date=1915 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/614/pg614-images.html |language=en}}</ref> Biographer [[Graham Balfour]] quoted Stevenson's wife, [[Fanny Stevenson]]: <blockquote>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<!--bogey is the correct quoted spelling--> tale." I had awakened him at the first transformation scene.<ref name="Balfour">{{cite book|last=Balfour|first=Graham|title=The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEdAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA15|access-date=28 December 2012|volume=II|year=1912|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|pages=15–6}}</ref></blockquote>

[[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."<ref name="Balfour" />

As was customary, Mrs Stevenson would read the draft and offer her criticisms in the margins. Stevenson was confined to bed at the time from a [[Hemorrhage|haemorrhage]]. In her comments in the [[manuscript]], she observed that in effect the story was really an [[allegory]], but Stevenson was writing it as a story. After a while, Stevenson 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 thus 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.<ref name=Guardian /> In another version of the story, Stevenson came downstairs to read the manuscript for his wife and stepson. Enraged by his wife's criticism, he went back to his room, only to come back later admitting she was right. He then threw the original draft into the fire, and stopped his wife and stepson from rescuing it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Doyle |first1=Brian |title=Findings: A Bogey Tale |url=https://theamericanscholar.org/a-bogey-tale/ |work=The American Scholar |date=1 June 2006 }}</ref>

[[File:The life of Robert Louis Stevenson for boys and girls (1915) (14778510921).jpg|thumb|right|Stevenson's house Skerryvore in the southern English coastal town of [[Bournemouth]] where he wrote ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'']]
Stevenson rewrote 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]].<ref>Possibly with the help of cocaine, according to William Gray's revisionist history ''Robert Louis Stevenson: A Literary Life'' (2004). {{ISBN|978-0-333-98400-0}}.{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref> 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 inexpressibly". He continued to refine the work for four to six weeks after the initial revision.

==Plot summary==
Mr Utterson, a reserved and morally upright lawyer, and his lighthearted cousin Mr Enfield are on their weekly walk when they reach the door of a mysterious, unkempt house located down a by-street in a bustling quarter of London. Enfield recounts to Utterson that months prior, he witnessed a malevolent-looking man named Edward Hyde deliberately trample a young girl after a seemingly minor collision. Enfield forced Hyde to pay her family a large sum of money to avoid a scandal. Hyde brought Enfield to this door and gave him a cheque signed by a reputable [[gentleman]] later revealed to be Dr Henry Jekyll, Utterson's friend and client. Utterson fears Hyde is [[blackmailing]] Jekyll, as Jekyll recently changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary in the event of Jekyll's death or disappearance. When Utterson tries to discuss Hyde with Jekyll, Jekyll says he can get rid of Hyde when he wants and asks him to drop the matter.

A year later in October, a servant sees Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew, another one of Utterson's clients, to death and leave behind half a broken cane. The police contact Utterson, who leads officers to Hyde's apartment. Hyde has vanished, but they find the other half of the broken cane, which Utterson recognises as one he had given to Jekyll. Utterson visits Jekyll, who produces 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, appearing almost rejuvenated, but in early January, he abruptly begins refusing all visitors, deepening the mystery and concern surrounding his behaviour. Dr Hastie Lanyon, a mutual friend 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 his laboratory window. Jekyll suddenly slams the window shut and disappears, shocking and concerning Utterson.

In early March, Jekyll's butler Poole visits Utterson and says Jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory for weeks. Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory and find Hyde's lifeless body grotesquely draped in Jekyll's clothes, with the scene suggesting a 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 an elixir that turned him into Jekyll. Jekyll's letter explains he held himself to strict moral standards publicly, but indulged in unstated vices and struggled with shame. He found a way to transform himself and thereby indulge his vices without fear of detection. Jekyll's transformed body, 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. Despite this, one night he had a moment of weakness and drank the serum. Hyde, his desires 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, needing help to avoid capture, wrote to Lanyon in Jekyll's hand, asking him 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 the serum to reverse. It was one of these transformations that caused Jekyll to slam his window shut on Utterson.

Eventually, the supply of salt used in the serum ran low, and subsequent batches prepared from new stocks failed to work. Jekyll speculated that the original ingredient had some impurity that made it work. Realising that he would stay transformed as Hyde, Jekyll wrote out a full account of the events. Jekyll concludes by confessing that he is uncertain whether Hyde will face execution or muster the courage to end his own life, but it no longer matters to him: Jekyll's consciousness is fading fast, and whatever fate awaits, it is Hyde's alone to endure.

==Characters==
===Mr Utterson===
Gabriel John Utterson, a lawyer, has been a close loyal friend of Jekyll and Lanyon for many years. Utterson is a measured and, at all times, emotionless bachelor – who nonetheless seems believable, trustworthy, tolerant of the faults of others, and indeed genuinely likeable.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mr Gabriel Utterson in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2yg7hv/revision/4 |access-date=28 February 2026 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> However, Utterson is not immune to guilt, as he is quick to investigate and judge an interest in others' downfalls, which creates a spark of interest not only in Jekyll but also regarding Hyde. He concludes 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.

===Dr Henry Jekyll / Mr Edward Hyde===
{{main|Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (character)}}
Based in [[Soho]] in London's West End, Dr Jekyll is a "large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stevenson |first1=Robert Louis |title=The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |edition=2nd |date=2005 |publisher=Broadview Press |isbn=978-1-55111-655-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bi8wCEHnssQC&pg=PA44 |quote-page=44 |quote=To this rule, Dr. Jekyll was no exception: and as he now sat on the opposite side of the fire—a large, well made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness—you could see by his looks that he cherished for Mr. Utterson a sincere and warm affection. }}</ref> who sometimes feels he is battling between the good and evil within himself, 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 separate this hidden evil from his personality. In doing so, Jekyll transformed into the smaller, younger, cruel, remorseless, and 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 throughout the book.

===Mr 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 deliberately trampling over a little girl. He is the person who mentions to Utterson the actual personality of Jekyll's friend, Hyde. Enfield witnessed Hyde recklessly running over a little girl in the street 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 Lanyon===
Dr Hastie Lanyon is a longtime friend of Dr Jekyll, and disagrees with Jekyll's "scientific" concepts, which Lanyon describes as "...too fanciful". He is the first person to discover Hyde's true identity when 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. After he witnesses the transformation process (and subsequently hears Jekyll's private confession, made to him alone), Lanyon becomes shocked into critical illness and, later, death.

===Poole===
Poole is Jekyll's butler who has been employed by him for many years. Poole serves Jekyll faithfully and attempts to be loyal to his master, but the growing changes and reclusiveness of his master cause him tremendous concern. Fearing that his master has been murdered and that his murderer, Mr Hyde, is residing in Jekyll's chambers, Poole enlists the aid of Mr Utterson. Joining forces, the two men uncover the truth. He chops down the door towards Jekyll's lab to aid Utterson in the climax.

===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===
An aged, kindly, Member of Parliament. The maid claims that Hyde, in a murderous rage, killed Carew in the streets of London on an October night. At the time of his death, Carew is carrying on his person a letter addressed to Utterson, and the broken half of one of Jekyll's walking sticks is found by his body.

===Maid===
A [[maid]], whose employer{{Snd}}presumably Jekyll{{Snd}}Hyde had once visited, is the only person who has witnessed the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. She saw Hyde murder 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==
[[File:Jekyll-mansfield (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Richard Mansfield]] was mostly known for his dual role depicted in this [[Multiple exposure|double exposure]]. The [[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887 play)|stage adaptation]] opened in Boston in 1887, a year after the publication of the novella. Picture from 1895.]]

[[Literary genre]]s that critics have applied as a framework for interpreting the novel include religious allegory, [[fable]], [[detective story]], [[Sensation novel|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 expressed as an inner struggle between good and evil, with variations such as human versus animal, [[civility]] versus [[Primitive culture|barbarism]] sometimes substituted, the main point 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.<ref name="multiple">{{cite book |last1=Sanford |first1=John A. |title=Evil: The Shadow Side of Reality |date=1981 |publisher=Crossroad |isbn=978-0-8245-0526-4 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref> In [[Freudian]] theory, the thoughts and desires banished to the [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]] mind motivate the behaviour of the [[conscious]] mind. Banishing [[evil]] to the unconscious mind in an attempt to achieve perfect [[Good and evil|goodness]] can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to one's [[Moral character|character]].<ref name="multiple" /> 

In Christian theology, 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.<ref name="multiple" /> This idea is suggested when Hyde says to Lanyon, shortly before drinking the famous potion: "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 a sin, as it is the precursor to evil itself.<ref name="multiple" />

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.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |chapter=Introduction |first1=Vladimir |last1=Nabokov |date=2003 |publisher=Signet Classic |pages=7–34 |chapter-url=https://bostoncollege.instructure.com/courses/1398054/files/53102834/download }}</ref>

===Id, ego and superego===
According to [[Sigmund Freud]]'s theory of [[id, ego and superego]], which he introduced in 1920, Mr Hyde is the id which is driven by primal urges, instincts, and immediate gratification, the superego is represented by the expectations and morals of Victorian society, and Dr Jekyll is the rational and conscious ego which acts as a balance between the id and superego. When Jekyll transforms into Hyde, the ego is suppressed, and the id is no longer held back by either the ego or the superego.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chakraverty |first1=Aditi |title=Into the Brains of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by RL Stevenson |journal=International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development |volume=5 |issue=4 |date=2022 |url=http://www.ijsred.com/volume5/issue4/IJSRED-V5I4P81.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Singh |first1=ShubhM |last2=Chakrabarti |first2=Subho |title=A study in dualism: The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |journal=Indian Journal of Psychiatry |date=2008 |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=221–223 |doi=10.4103/0019-5545.43624 |pmid=19742237 |pmc=2738358 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===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.<ref name="Saposnik">{{cite journal |last1=Saposnik |first1=Irving S. |title=The Anatomy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |journal=Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 |date=1971 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=715–731 |doi=10.2307/449833 |id={{ProQuest|1297401011}} |jstor=449833 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Nightmare 1996">''Nightmare: Birth of Victorian Horror'' (TV series) "Jekyll and Hyde...." (1996)</ref>

===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 wider Britain and the English language, respectively, and also the repressive effects of the [[Church of Scotland]] on the Scottish character.<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=James |title=The beast within |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/13/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde-stevenson |work=The Guardian |date=13 December 2008 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref>''Robert Louis Stevenson and His World'', David Daiches, 1973</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/721207/Edinburgh-Where-Jekyll-parties-with-Hyde.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412041255/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/721207/Edinburgh-Where-Jekyll-parties-with-Hyde.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=12 April 2014 | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Edinburgh: Where Jekyll parties with Hyde | date=25 July 1998 | access-date=24 May 2010}}</ref>

=== Addiction ===
Some scholars have argued that addiction or [[substance abuse]] is a central theme in the novella. Stevenson's depiction of Mr Hyde is reminiscent of descriptions of substance abuse in the nineteenth century. Daniel L. Wright describes Dr Jekyll as "not so much a man of conflicted personality as a man suffering from the ravages of addiction".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Daniel L. |title='The Prisonhouse of My Disposition': A Study of the Psychology of Addiction in ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' |journal=Studies in the Novel |date=1994 |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=254–267 |jstor=20831878 }}</ref> Patricia Comitini argues that the central duality in the novella is in fact not Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but rather Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and Utterson, where Utterson represents the rational, unaddicted, ideal Victorian subject devoid of forbidden desires, and Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde constitutes his opposite.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Comitini |first1=Patricia |title=The Strange Case of Addiction in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |journal=Victorian Review |date=2012 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=113–131 |id={{Project MUSE|546074}} |doi=10.1353/vcr.2012.0052 |s2cid=161892546 }}</ref>

=== Darwin ===
The publication of ''The Origin of Species'' had a significant impact on Victorian society. Many did not fully understand the concepts of evolution, and assumed [[Charles Darwin]] meant humans had evolved directly from apes, and that if it was possible to evolve into humans, it was also possible to degenerate into something more ape-like and primitive. This was coined [[Devolution (biology)|devolution]], and was a prominent anxiety at the time.<ref>{{cite web |date=2013 |title=Fear, Loathing, and Victorian Xenophobia |url=https://www.academia.edu/1241320 |accessdate=2025-03-06 |website=academia.edu}}</ref>
As Mr Hyde is described as a more primitive and less developed version of Dr Jekyll, and gradually Hyde becomes more bestial as his degeneration progresses, Stevenson can be seen to explore these anxieties in his work.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gTV9jLGsOFQC&dq=%22In+the+Victorian+era%2C+many+wrongly+assumed+that+Darwin%27s+theory%22&pg=PA20 Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema]</ref>

=== Homosexuality ===
The novel was written at a time when the [[Labouchere Amendment]] was published; criminalising homosexuality.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Berisha |first1=Shyhrete |title=Two Sides of the Same Coin : Understanding Homophobia in The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |date=2022 |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-41359 |oclc=1337537921 }}</ref> The discourse on sex in general had become a secret and repressed desire, whereas homosexuality was not even to be thought about. It has been theorized that this could represent Mr Hyde, whose purpose is to fulfil all of Dr Jekyll's repressed desires.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Mendlinger |first1=Olivia |title=Repressing Deviance: The Discourse of Sexuality in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Portrait of Dorian Gray |date=7 May 2020 |url=https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/39/ }}</ref> The lack of prominent women in the novel also help point to a homosexual interpretation, since there is a focus on romanticising bachelor boyhood for men.<ref>{{cite journal |id={{ProQuest|89071142}} |last1=Koestenbaum |first1=Wayne |title=The Shadow on the Bed: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and the Labouchere Amendment |journal=Critical Matrix |volume=4 |issue=1 |date=31 March 1988 |page=35 }}</ref> There were some things that Dr Jekyll did as Mr Hyde that he was too embarrassed to confess for, even on his deathbed, which could follow the historically-noted secrecy and shame of homosexuality in the Victorian era. Lanyon also refused to speak, sparing Jekyll the scandal and overall criminality of possibly being a homosexual.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanna |first1=Antonio |title=Silent Homosexuality in Oscar Wilde's Teleny and The Picture of Dorian Gray and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |journal=Law and Literature |date=2012 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=21–39 |doi=10.1525/lal.2012.24.1.21 |jstor=10.1525/lal.2012.24.1.21 |s2cid=143314418 }}</ref>

==Reception==
===Publication===
The book was initially sold as a paperback for one shilling in the UK. These books were called "shilling shockers" or [[penny dreadful]]s.<ref name=":0" /> 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 3,000 copies, only 1,250 of them bound in cloth. Initially, stores did 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 40 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.<ref>Graham Balfour, ''The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson Volume II'', pp. 17-18{{missing date}}</ref> By 1901, it was estimated to have sold over 250,000 copies in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Middleton |first1=Tim |chapter=Introduction |pages=vii–xvii |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FfaDcn2fO0C&pg=PR9 |quote-page=ix |quote=estimated 250,000 pirated copies in the United States |title=Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with the Merry Men and Other Stories |date=1993 |publisher=Wordsworth Editions |isbn=978-1-85326-061-2 }}</ref>

===Stage version===
Although the book had initially been published as a "shilling shocker", it was an immediate success and 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.<ref name="Saposnik" />

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 some elements of romance to the plot. The addition of female characters to the originally male-centred plot 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 10 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|last=Stevenson|first=Robert Louis|publisher=Broadview|year=2015|isbn=978-1-55481-024-6|editor-last=Danahay|editor-first=Martin A.|edition=3rd|location=Canada|page=24}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
[[File:Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) by John S. Robertson.webm|left|thumb|220px|The 1920 film ''[[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920 Paramount film)|Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'']]
{{main|Adaptations of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde{{!}}Adaptations of ''Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''}}
There have been numerous adaptations of the novella, including over 120 stage and film versions alone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/derivative-works|title=Derivative Works - Robert Louis Stevenson|work=Robert Louis Stevenson}}</ref>

There have also been many audio recordings of the novella, with some of the more famous readers including [[Tom Baker]], [[Roger Rees]], [[Christopher Lee]], [[Udo Kier]], [[Anthony Quayle]], [[Martin Jarvis (actor)|Martin Jarvis]], [[Tim Pigott-Smith]], [[John Hurt]], [[Ian Holm]], [[Gene Lockhart]], [[Richard Armitage (actor)|Richard Armitage]], [[John Sessions]], [[Alan Howard (actor)|Alan Howard]], [[Rory Kinnear]] and [[Richard E. Grant]].

[[Jekyll & Hyde (musical)|A 1990 musical based on the story]] was created by [[Frank Wildhorn]], [[Steve Cuden]], and [[Leslie Bricusse]].

There have also been several video games based on the story, such as the 1988 [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] game ''[[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (video game)|Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'', the 2001 PC game ''[[Jekyll and Hyde (video game)|Jekyll and Hyde]]'' and the 2018 game ''MazM: Jekyll and Hyde''.

==Illustrated versions==
[[S.G. Hulme Beaman]] illustrated a 1930s edition,<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/illustrations-to-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-1930 Illustrations to Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1930] ''bl.uk/collection-items'', accessed 11 August 2018</ref> and in 1948 [[Mervyn Peake]] provided the newly founded Folio Society with memorable illustrations for the story.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |url=https://www.foliosociety.com/row/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqvPsUknbHklkY1AMges1FZzHp85nb1XTwNfH0rd9KBjnksK544 |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=The Folio Society |language=en}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Katherine B. Linehan, ed. (2003). ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''. Norton Critical Edition, W. W. Norton & Co. Text, annotations, contextual essays, and criticism. {{ISBN|0-393-97465-0}}

== External links ==

{{Commonscat}}

* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/robert-louis-stevenson/the-strange-case-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde|Book Title=The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde}}
*[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Jekyll%20Hyde%20mediatype%3Atexts ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde''][https://archive.org/details/strangecaseofdr00stevuoft] from [[Internet Archive]]. Many antiquarian illustrated editions.
* {{gutenberg|no=43|name=The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/13/dr-jekyll-mr-hyde-stevenson "The Beast Within"], Freudian fable, sexual morality tale, gay allegory&nbsp;– the novella has inspired as many interpretations as it has film adaptations. By James Campbell, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 13 December 2008
* [https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_50-11-19_ep050-Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde.mp3 1950 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{librivox book | stitle=Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde | dtitle=Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | author=Robert Louis Stevenson}}

{{Robert Louis Stevenson}}
{{Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde}}
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{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde|access_date=2026-03-06}}