Total Page : 62
Publisher : Prentice Hall College Div
Publication Date : 1981 06
>> 3 5 Stars Doesn t Hold Up
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been called a Victorian parable and it must have been groundbreaking in its time but Robert Louis Stevenson seems to draw heavily on this passage from the Apostle Paul I do not understand what I do For what I want to do I do not do but what I hate I do it is no longer I myself who do it but it is sin living in me Romans 7 15 17 He explores this spiritual struggle with unabashed fervor in a tale still talked about over a hundred years later
The story no longer than a novella reads quickly Told through second hand accounts and letters similar to Stoker s Dracula the tale s violence and mayhem are never directly experienced through the eyes of a victim or the perpetrator which made it more palatable for its original audience but makes it somewhat distant for those bred on Silence of the Lambs We have no clear protagonist no clear definition of the next victim of Mr Hyde s brutality we have only snippets of letters and glimpses of a broken body Stevenson manages to create a sense of foreboding and the good doctor s final confessions are chilling in that they describe the common struggle that all humans encounter within fighting for the moral and ethical high ground
Sadly the story doesn t hold up as well as hoped to the test of time It lacks true suspense and there s little mystery to be found In an era of Victorian virtue though it was surely shocking to have a writer admit to that struggle within and portray it in vivid terms
I m glad to have read the book for myself and I believe it was foundational in the evolution of psychological suspense
>> Not Really About a Split Personality
Jekyll and Hyde is commonly evoked to describe someone with a split personality Stevenson s novel is not really about a split personality but rather a dual physical and spiritual nature struggling for control of one person In this struggle Dr Jekyll doesn t just assume a different personality he actually becomes Mr Hyde
Presbyterian Pastor Tim Keller has a good brief analysis of parts of the Jekyll and Hyde story in his book The Reason for God Belief in an Age of Skepticism Hardcover Keller pinpoints a key point in the story noting that it s in a moment of vainglory that Dr Jekyll involuntary transforms into Mr Hyde This transformation occurs as Dr Jekyll sits on a bench in Regents Park thinking about all the good he has been doing and how much better man he was despite Edward Hyde than the great majority of people
All this to say that Stevenson s novel goes far deeper than a psychoanalytic study of a split personality it s about a profound spiritual struggle of the evil and good nature within a person
>> Timeless
This is a great classic This story brings to life the battle each one of us has within ourselves Dr Jekyll calls it his dualtiy of purpose The struggle of good versus evil told in that colorful language of classics
