Dr J And Mr H Essay, Research Paper

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.