Summary

SUMMARY

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886 and is one of the best known of Stevenson’s novels. It concerns the way in which an individual is made up of contrary emotions and desires: some good and some evil. Through the curiosity of Utterson, a lawyer, we learn of the ugly and violent Mr Hyde and his odd connection to the respectable Dr Jekyll who pays out a cheque for Hyde’s despicable behaviour. A brutal murder follows. The dead man is one of Utterson’s clients, Sir Danvers Carew. The murder weapon was, unbelievably a cane Utterson had given to Jekyll. As such, the lawyer becomes entangled in the strange world of the physician Jekyll who it transpires has created a drug that separates his good and evil natures - purifying the doctor himself but with the ghastly side effect of periods spent as the monstrous Hyde. We follow Utterson as he investigates with Poole, Jekyll’s butler, the seeming contradictions in the doctor’s actions and his increasingly hermit-like existence in his laboratory. As the truth is about to surface, tragic events occur that end the whole affair dramatically and conclusively. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a great success and it followed 1883’s fame-bringing Treasure Island .