Book Review - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde By Robert Louis Steverson

Why I chose the book

I chose this book because I like tales shrouded with mystery. I had watched the ‘Looney Tunes’ version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when I was young and had always wanted to read the original version of the book.

Summary of the book

The story began with the introduction of Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, who was told by his distant cousin Mr. Enfield of a strange experience he had. Mr Enfield had seen a person who looked and behaved like a monster. Mr Enfield had witnessed him ruthlessly trod on a little girl on his way home. Mr Utterson soon found out that the man was called Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde was the sole beneficiary of a will belonging to Dr Jekyll, Mr Utterson’s good old friend. Mr Utterson had written the will for Dr Jekyll. Mr Utterson, after much investigation, soon found out that Mr. Hyde was actually Dr. Jekyll. Mr Hyde was created from an experiment conducted by Dr Jekyll.

Character analysis of some of the main characters of the book who interest me

Dr Henry Jekyll

Dr Jekyll was a scientist who was known to be a friendly, upright distinguished gentleman in public. However, Dr Jekyll led a double life. He had an evil side which he kept a secret. He was thinking of an idea to create a split personality where one was the evil personality and the other wholly good. This led to the fateful experiment, the creation of Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll soon lost control of his evil personality, Mr Hyde. He caused the death of his own self.

Mr Edward Hyde

Mr Hyde was a cruel person hated by all. His looks were inhuman and his behaviour monster-like. He was the personification of Dr. Jekyll’s evilness.

Mr Utterson

Mr Utterson was a good old friend of Dr. Jekyll. He was also Dr. Jekyll’s lawyer. Mr Utterson was in charge all the documents concerning Dr Jekyll’s will. These documents included the account of Dr Lanyon (Dr Jekyll’s and Mr Utterson’s good friend) on his discovery of Dr. Jekyll‘s dark secret. Dr. Jekyll’s final words which he wrote before he totally lost control of his evil side were also among the documents.

My Opinion and recommendation

To me, this is a good book worth reading. This story conveys to us that we should not play god and take extreme risks without considering the dire consequences. Otherwise, this would have disastrous effects. We can take Dr Jekyll as an example. He was a very good scientist. However, he was tempted to separate his evil and good parts into two different personalities which he could control. The experiment resulted in a wholly evil personality, known as Mr. Hyde, taking over Dr Jekyll’s body. It reached a point when his original personality totally lost control of his evil side. This book is most suitable for people who like mysteries and books that keep them in suspense.