The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The book provides examples of:

  • Based on a Dream: Allegedly, the idea for the story came from a fever dream. Many rumors tie the origins of the story to Stevenson's cocaine addiction.
  • Creator Breakdown: The popular story is that Stevenson wrote the novel after a particularly vivid nightmare. Even if this isn't true, then the novel's themes of duality and of a man suffering drastic personality shifts and driven to ruin by what is essentially an escalating drug addiction probably rang true with the author, who was not unfamiliar with such situations.
  • Life Imitates Art: Jekyll theorizes that every man may be more than just two men, each with their own role. Roughly thirty years later, Sigmund Freud publishes the ideas of the id, ego and superego.
  • Parody Failure: That infamous Incredibly Lame Pun about playing "Mr. Hyde and Mr. Seek" or "Mr. Hyde-And-Seek" is in fact made in the original book.

Gabriel Utterson: If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek.

  • Science Marches On: Utterson's and Guest's conclusions about Jekyll's and Hyde's handwriting (obviously the same person's but deliberately altered) have been used to contribute to Alternative Character Interpretations of whether Hyde is a clinical alternate personality or just a hypocritical Jeckyll.
    • Jeckyll mentions he deliberately changed his handwriting when he was Hyde, because both their handwritings were normally identical.

The 1941 movie provides examples of:

  • Fake Brit: All the main players.
  • Playing Against Type: Ingrid Bergman was cast as Jekyll's virtuous girlfriend Bea and Lana Turner was supposed to play Ivy, the slutty barmaid (and implied prostitute). Bergman, bored with playing righteous heroines, requested that the roles be reversed, and they were.

The 1988 video game provides examples of: