Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Key Facts

full title  ·  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

author  · Robert Louis Stevenson

type of work  · Novel

genre  · Gothic mystery story

language  · English

time and place written  ·  1885, Bournemouth, England

date of first publication  · January 1886

publisher · Longmans, Green and Co.

narrator  · The narrator is anonymous and speaks in the third person. Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll each narrate one chapter of the novel via a confessional letter.

point of view  · For most of the novel, the narrative follows Utterson’s point of view; in the last two chapters, Lanyon and Jekyll report their experiences from their own perspectives.

tone  · Mysterious; serious

tense  · Past

setting (time)  · The late nineteenth century

setting (place)  · London

protagonist  · Henry Jekyll

major conflict  · Jekyll attempts to keep his dark half, Edward Hyde, under control and then to prevent himself from becoming Hyde permanently.

rising action  · Utterson attempts to discover the truth about the Jekyll-Hyde relationship.

climax  · One could argue for two different climaxes. The moment when Utterson breaks down the door to Jekyll’s laboratory and finds Hyde’s corpse constitutes a climax in that Utterson finally admits and accepts that something terribly wrong has taken place. But one might also see the novel’s climax as arising within Lanyon’s letter, at the moment that he witnesses Hyde’s transformation into Jekyll and the mysterious connection between the personas is finally explained.

falling action  · Utterson leaves Jekyll’s laboratory, goes home, and reads the letters from Lanyon and Jekyll, which explain all.

themes  · The duality of human nature; the importance of reputation

motifs  · Violence against innocents; silence; urban terror

symbols  · Jekyll’s house and laboratory; Hyde’s physical appearance

foreshadowing  · While a general mood of impending disaster pervades the novel, there are few instances of explicit foreshadowing.