The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Difference between revisions

 

 

The book begins with a mystery. When a girl is brutally attacked late one night, her attacker, calling himself Mr Edward Hyde, buys off the witnesses with a cheque for a small fortune, signed by the eminently respectable Doctor Henry Jekyll.

* [[Van Helsing]] had Hyde as the first monster the titular Van Helsing fights. Like the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" version, Hyde is an ape-like monster, though in this version no justification is given. Also Hyde turns back into Jekyll on his death, unlike the original story.

** He turns back into Jekyll because the potion wears off; the fact that he dies moments later is coincidence.

* A direct-to-video version starring [[Candyman|To]][[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier|ny To]][[Final Destination|dd]] in 2009. Unlike most adaptations, it tried to remain close to the novel by giving the impression that Jekyll & Hyde were two different people. At least until about two-thirds of the way into the movie.

* [[Stan Lee]] notably subverted the concept in [[The Mighty Thor]] in the 1960s with a villain named Mr. Hyde. Unlike the original story, where Henry Jekyll was a generally upstanding and honest man, Lee's version of Jekyll (named Calvin Zabo) is actually a thieving, spiteful bastard who deliberately seeks to unleash his inner monster and willingly embraces his power, using it to indulge his grudges and sadistic urges.

{{tropelist}}

* [[All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"]]: The work is [[Mainstream Obscurity|well-known by name]], but all that most people have heard about it is [[Jekyll and Hyde|the twist ending]]. Many do not even know that the dual identity story was originally a twist at all, and most newer adaptations treat it as a foregone conclusion. Some even make Hyde himself some sort of ugly were-monster rather than just a really evil man, most notably in the infamous NES game released by Bandai.

* [[Applied Phlebotinum]]: The means by which Hyde is created. This was a time when science, chemistry (alchemy was still trendy), and especially the workings of the human mind were [[Clarke's Third Law|still considered magic]].

* [[Bastard Bastard]]: Hyde is not only smaller but younger-looking than Jekyll, and Utterson briefly wonders if he's the by-blow of Jekyll's youthful indiscretions (though the story phrases it far less bluntly):

{{quote|"Poor Harry Jekyll," he thought, "my mind misgives me; he is in deep waters! He was wild when he was young; a long while ago to be sure; but in the law of God, there is no statute of limitations. Ay, it must be that; the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace: punishment coming, ''pede claudo'', years after memory has forgotten and self-love condoned the fault."}}

* [[Body Horror]]

* [[A Darker Me]]: See [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]—a possible subtext of the book is that Hyde is only evil because [[GIFT|Jekyll's anonymity lets him get away with it]].

* [[Dead Man Writing]]: Jekyll wrote a complete briefing about what happened to him (it's the last chapter of the book), but it mustn't be opened before of his [[Split Personality Takeover|disappearance]] or death.

** Also used in the Fredric March version, where its clear Jekyll uses Hyde to indulge his frustrated sexual desires.

* [[Evil Is Not a Toy]]: Releasing Hyde—Easy. Getting rid of him—Not so much.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: See "alternative character interpretation" above. He's turning evil? Really? Or maybe he just needs an excuse to act on his repressed urges? It doesn't get more Freudian than that, does it. Notably, it predates Freud's development of psychoanalysis by a few years.

* [[Go Mad from the Revelation]]: Dr. Lanyon after he sees Hyde transform into Jekyll for the first time.

* [[The Napoleon]]: Hyde is frequently described as being "small" and "shorter than average". This is explained as being because Jekyll never indulged in his evilness before, so his evil side is "underdeveloped".

* [[Never My Fault]]: Even when writing his final letter, Jekyll still insists that, even now, he doesn't consider Hyde's actions ''his'' actions. ([[Hypocrite|His choice of pronouns says otherwise]].)

* [[No Pronunciation Guide]]: It should be "JEEK-il", not "JECK-il".<ref>Not that THAT has stopped anybody from pronouncing it "JECK-il" for years.</ref>

* [[Professor Guinea Pig]]: The [[Ur Example]], beating out ''[[The Invisible Man (novel)|The Invisible Man]]'' by a decade.

* [[Shadow Archetype]]

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: One of critics' favorite subjects is how no nominal women appear in the original book or even get involved in the plot except as spectators or victims.<ref>[[Tropes Are Not Bad]], and the novella is great anyway.</ref> For some reason, you would never know this from most adaptations...

* [[Split Personality Takeover]]

* [[Technicolor Science]]: The potion starts out red and then turns purple before settling on green.

* [[This Is Your Brain on Evil]]: The addiction metaphors are obvious... and appropriately creepy. This was written at a time when the effects of opium addiction were just coming to light.

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[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]

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