Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is a novella that was written by Robert Louis Stevenson or Scottish decent. It is a very old work of literature published over a century ago in 1886. It is indeed a strange case and its relevance to this day still remains. It revolves around a lawyer from London known by the name, Gabriel John Utterson doing an investigation of strange happenings to his lifetime friend, Dr. Jekyll and his enemy known as Edward Hyde. In modern days, the tale is commonly known as “the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. The work is mainly connected with the rare mental situation usually known as split personality as is defined in the psychiatry area as a dissociative identity disorder in which there are various personalities in one single body.

Personalities in one body

In this tale, there two main personalities inside Dr. Jekyll – one side is seemingly bad and the other side is quite good. The impact of the novella is in a way that it has formed a portion of the dialect specifically about the “Jekyll and Hyde” phrase used to imply an individual who is immensely different in terms of moral uprightness from one condition to the other.

The idea of bringing two personalities in one person seems like creating a real scenario representative of a real society of both extremes. Trying to be too good and at the same time too evil is unheard of. However, the most important thing is that the audience can relate with the setting and the message being put across.

Author’s thematic concerns

The author, Stevenson was for a very long time intrigued through the notion of the manner in which personalities affected a person and the way in which the evil and good interplay could be incorporated in a tale. During his early age, Stevenson came up with a play script concerning Deacon Brodie which he rewrote later assisted by one Henley and came into production in 1882.

For those who have tried to be overly good, it has not been the best of times and easy moments. People can easily go crazy but the author’s motive is well understood when he brings out a pursuit for happiness while a person’s inner wild being wants to show up. All those things that could never be imagined of came in form of a completely opposite personality of a somber individual. The author created this change ego to highlight realities of both ends.