The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. This book is a classic and has been very successful; therefore it has been turned into several films and theatre productions. The book seizes the reader’s attention and gets straight into drama and action, making it hard to put down. This well thought out and complicated book touches on many topics and themes. There are many reasons why Stevenson has done such a good job of making it very hard to put down this novel, for example, Stevenson’s strong characters, the setting, the plot, how the book is written and the several themes.
There are countless themes in the book, one being good verses evil. There are two foremost characters clearly identified in the book from the very beginning, Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll. These characters are unquestionably the opposite of each other. Mr Hyde is ‘something displeasing, something downright detestable.’ Mr Utterson, a main character and a lawyer solving the mysterious crimes in the book has many strong views of Mr Hyde. He says ‘I never saw a man so disliked and yet I scarce know why.’ This is a very strong view of someone, consequently Stevenson has clearly made Mr Hyde the depraved and evil character in the book; Mr Hyde’s character reflects many characters of those in Victorian times, for example the well known Jack the Ripper or many other villains who committed crime. Having such a strong and ruthless character immediately urges the reader to find out what the character will do next, what crime he will commit, or who he will upset. Hence this suggests that Stevenson created such an extreme character like Mr Hyde to draw the reader intensely into the book and to make the story grabbing and scary.
There are also many descriptions of Hyde’s appearance in the novel. Mr Utterson describes Hyde’s appearance as having ‘ something