The Strange Case of DR. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Saramsha Dotel

CHARACTERS :

1. Dr. Jekyll (The protagonist; an old professor in medical studies and an expert in medicines)
2. Mr. Hyde (The antagonist; a man with no specific identity with deformed body and short height; a murderer)
3. John Gabriel Utterson (A lawyer who is Jekyll’s best friend; the narrator)
4. Dr. Lanyon (A medical specialist and old friend of Jekyll)
5. Richard Enfield (The cousin of Mr. Utterson)

MAIN THEME:

Man is a combination of good and evil. If one character out of the two gets enraged, then the body gets imbalanced and uncontrollable.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY:

Mr. John Gabriel Utterson was a professional lawyer who witnessed an unusual door in the London Street. He came to know from Richard Enfield that Mr. Hyde lived in that house. He was an ugly faced, short and hairy fellow. Utterson had read a note entitled Dr. Jekyll’s Will’, which stated that in case of Jekyll’s dissapearance and death, all his propety would be given to Mr. Hyde. Although he was an old friend of Jekyll, he had never heard of Hyde. So, he had doubt that Hyde might have threatened Jekyll to state such a will. However, Dr. Jekyll said that Hyde was a man to be trusted. Utterson even discussed this matter with Dr. Lanyon, who also knew Jekyll very well but never had heard of Hyde. The servant of Jekyll revealed to Utterson that Hyde usually used to come and go by the laboratory only. The matter was silent for some while but one day, a shocking news of murder of Sir Carew, an old friend of Utterson and Jekyll came about.

One eye witness reported that the murderer was an ugly, hairy fellow which made Utterson sure that the murderer was the very man, Mr. Hyde. This gave sufficient grounds to Utterson to prove that the man is not trustworthy but the doctor was not changing his mind anyways. One day, Utterson found a letter in Jekyll’s house sent by Hyde which had odd and shabby writing. Later on, he found that there was similarity in Jekyll’s and Hyde’s style of writing. Few days later, Utterson himself got a letter from Hyde stating the same Dr. Jekyll’s will. Utterson wanted to discuss this matter with Jekyll but Jekyll had shut himself in his room and didn’t meet any of his friends. Jekyll’s servant reported that there were changes in his master’s voice, height and attitude and suspected that the man inside was Hyde instead of Jekyll. Utterson tried to find out the fact and broke into the room, where he found the dead body of Hyde and chemicals and lubricant lying on the table. There, Utterson also found Dr. Jekyll’s confession letter. The letter explained the real case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Actually, Dr. Jekyll had invented a supernatural medicine which could separate the two characters i.e. good and evil from human body into individual components as a result of which man would be totally good or totally evil.

In the same way, Jekyll had used the medicine to enrage his good character but due to irregularity in dose, he changed into totally evil character and introduced himself as Hyde. In course of changing back and forth, the change in his body got irregular and his good character got diminished. Through his evil character, he had committed the crimes and had stated the will. In this way, Jekyll had decided to forfeit his good character forever and live as Hyde till death.

MY OPINION (EVALUATION):

This is an exciting story full of fiction, suspense and mystery. It is a nice portrayal of man’s attitude and how it is related with science. It also gives us the insight that science is a good servant but a bad master. Jekyll, if he had not used overdose of the medicine, would not have been dominated by his evil side. The whole story is full of suspense and the interesting role of Jekyll, both as the protagonist and the antagonist. The people who love fiction and suspense should not miss it reading. Readers get very curious and the suspense in the story gives them joy to flip the pages without a pause. The book has also shown about friendship and loyalty. It has also shown how kind a man is and how cruel he can turn into, which is the real portrayal of today’s society. It is an interesting book for all-aged readers as it has a simple and well understandable language. The book can also be an inspiration for young scientists to investigate into the Jekyll’s supernatural medicine. I enjoyed a lot reading this book. As a whole, the book is a mixture of suspense, fiction, mystery, anguish, emotions and portrayal of human attitude.

Reviewed by: SARAMSHA DOTEL

Grade: X

GEMS, Lalitpur