I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the first time a couple months ago. It is one of the books on my list of classics and since my parents already had a copy I figured, why not? It is also a whopping 103 pages so I figured I would read through it quickly, making it the perfect book to begin during the final weeks of my final semester in college. Yup, I read this book for the first time while I was in college, while my sister read this book for the first time when she was in Jr. High. Why is this relevant? I was reading her book, complete with all of her excessive highlighting, and notes. The notes were almost more entertaining than the actual novel. According to the back jacket of the book this was her “8th grade first real reading assignment.” She was utterly confused by half of what she read and if the blue highlighting indicates the words she didn’t understand than she must have had to look up at least 5 words on every page. “These are very hard words!” is written in my sister’s handwriting; right alongside the words “I’m confused and unconfused all at the same time.” I felt as if my sister and I were reading the book at the same time and I so wanted to explain to her everything that was going on. I’m happy that I waited to read this book at my advanced age of 26 so that I could fully understand it. It was less than I expected and it was also more. Everything I knew about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde I knew from popular culture and much of what I knew was wrong. Mary Reilly anyone??? A movie starring Julia Roberts as Dr. Jekyll’s timorous maid??? That character doesn’t exist in the original tale. The portrayal of a diminutive Dr. Jekyll and a hulking Mr. Hyde in the ridiculous A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Reverse that image and you would have a correct picture of the characters actual physiques.
Everyone knows that essentially the story is about one man and his transformation into another. More than that, the story is about man’s struggle with the two parts of his nature. Dr. Jekyll believes that “man is not truly one, but truly two.” He tires of the struggle between his two selves and longs to separate these two beings inside of him so that each can live free of the other. Mr. Hyde is at first small and weak because he had lost in the moral struggle for so long. Dr. Jekyll is himself strong and robust, considered to be a good man, in good health. As the story progresses Mr. Hyde gains strength and stature, Dr. Jekyll exercises and empowers his immoral side and weakens the side of his nature that is good. In the end he becomes permanently Mr. Hyde—purely evil, despicable Hyde. He had lost his original self; evil had finally triumphed over the good in the internal struggle.
Would I have understood this book so well if I had read it when I was 12? 13? Would I have enjoyed it? I think that I read this book at the perfect time. This last semester all I did in one class was talk about the nature of good and evil, write about the nature of good and evil, philosophize about the nature of good and evil. I was mentally prepared for this book. It represented more than it would have had I read it before. Now I just have to see the musical. Do you think the musical has a timorous maid as well??
