Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Character Analysis

Garrett Harting
3/12/14
Junior British Literature
Characterization in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A novel’s characters may be described in multitudes of ways. Keeping this thought in mind, the three main characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Utterson are highlighted by Stevenson. He developed each character individually through their actions and by comparing them in a comprehensive manner with which a reader can understand and ultimately, relate with. In this way Stevenson shows the reader who the characters really through their actions that he portrays throughout the story. Stevenson portrays Dr. Jekyll as a good man with a passion to delineate the line between good and evil, this is the main reason for the potion and becoming Mr. Hyde. Throughout the story, it is clear that he actually enjoys being Mr. Hyde. However, he eventually loses control of his own creation and is no longer able to control it. Jekyll is also a very prideful man and eventually that becomes a trait that will cost him his life. At
one point he sit on a bench comparing his, “Active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of other men.”(78). Thoughts like this eventually turn him into Hyde without having to drink his potion, therefore rendering him incapable of separating his inner good from his inner evil(78). The reader should hold Mr. Hyde in stark contrast to Dr. Jekyll for the simple reason that they are just that, two sides to the same coin. While Dr. Jekyll is esteemed and prideful, Hyde is disgraceful and has no shame at all. The reader can see a description of Hyde in the first five pages: “The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground (78)”. After doing this he is immediately detained by a small mob and is then forced to pay them the agreed sum of 100 pounds for his release(4). He is flawed in his physical appearance almost as much as in his psyche and actions. Hyde, “pale and dwarfish, giving an impression of deformity, and topped with a displeasing smile (15).” He is also described ranked with the whole of mankind as purely evil (69). As the story develops, Hyde’s evil becomes more and more apparent , for example, he brutally beats an old defenseless man to death in cold blood (23) and is singularly described as hideous and generally malformed (69). Contrasted again from Hyde is the “dreary yet lovable” (1) Mr.
Utterson. He is loyal to everyone he knows, as he takes daily walks with his relative, Enfield (1). He is also a very determined man, once finding out about the fiendish Hyde, he resolves that he will find him. As Utterson says in the book, “If he be Mr. Hyde, ‘he had thought, ‘then I shall be Mr. Seek” (13). Prior to their meeting, Utterson had stayed up late many nights before finally meeting the mysterious Hyde (14). His greatest trait however, is his trustworthiness. After his good friend Dr. Lanyon dies, Utterson receives a letter from Lanyon that contains another letter on whose envelope is written, “Not to be opened until the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll” (37). He resists the urge to open the letter and proves his trustworthiness; instead he hides the letter in his home safe until the eventual death of Dr. Jekyll
(37). Stevenson eloquently portrays the personalities and traits of all his characters in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He does this through gradual character development and by exemplifying each of their traits. Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Utterson through their actions and not through their words.