Character Analysis

Character Reference:

In the story of ‘Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are portrayed in some aspects as the same human beginning but with split personalities. The characters are shown as being good and evil but some readers may portray this as illness of extreme emotions, like schizophrenia or bipolar. Stevenson uses these characters to highlight that every human-being contains another side to them, an alter ego that hides within us while we all portray a more polite outer personality.

Dr Henry Jekyll: 

 Dr Jekyll is a doctor who is highly respected in his community and friend with Lanyon (physician) and Utterson (lawyer). He is also a man of a good finical income, known for his decency and charitable nature, however not living up to personality as much as Mr. Hyde embodies evil. However, Jekyll has always engaged in corrupt behavior therefore through experiments’, trying to separate his good from evil creates Mr. Hyde.

Mr. Edward Hyde: 

Hyde is violent and cruel man compared to Dr. Jekyll and is seen as an image of pure evil in some sort of ‘human’ form.  He is seen by others as an ugly and deformed man but everyone cannot explain why he is like this. Mr. Hyde really represents the dark side and has a pure hate for anything and everything which was first shown when he is seen running over the young girl. Overall, he represents evil and creates fear for everyone that encounters him. 

Why?:

I chose this or 'these' Characters for many reasons that I will again mention in blogs further in the future. Overall, I have chosen 'these' two characters to review my main study as they are firstly the main characters and have the most interesting background story. As well they are the two main characters are at complete opposite ends to each other meaning Jykell is nice and normal and Hyde is evil and nasty. I love the extreme personalities in the two characters and this is what has really drawn me too them and the possibility in design work for make-up and hair for me I believe would be very exciting and more to my taste as I would love to include more special effects work into this unit as it is one of my main skills.  

Conclusion:

Overall in the novel Dr Jekyll is only curious to control his bad side by releasing it in its pure form through science. As we later discover that while he is trying to hide this other side and almost person from society we can understand why the character is called Mr. Hyde (like hide), meaning that Dr. Jekyll wishes to hide away this hideous personality. On the other side, he wishes to release it as it states in this quote;'It explains how Jekyll, seeking to separate his good side from his darker impulses, discovered a way to transform himself periodically into a deformed monster free of conscience—Mr. Hyde. At first, Jekyll reports, he delighted in becoming Hyde and rejoiced in the moral freedom that the creature possessed'. As Dr. Jekyll wishes to be a part of himself without feeling guilty about his actions and free of his conscience. From reading the book I can understand that the author wishes this character to be portrayed as two and to highlight the fact that everyone has a bad side to them its whether it can be controlled. Later, in my study I would love to research further into other mental illnesses like bipolar as I believe that illnesses such as this may have been portrayed through this character but through fiction. I would also like to study into deformities as inspired by this quote in the book 'Encountering Hyde, Utterson is amazed by how undefinably ugly the man seems, as if deformed, though Utterson cannot say exactly how'. as I think this can really help me understand and relate to the characters and see how people in this era saw people with deformities compared to today as we are much more excepting to all kind of people. I will research into other films like the 'Elephant Man' as this was a key film that really show how people reacted and thought of people with deformities, implying they were freaks, weirdos and un-natural beings.