{"id":850,"date":"2025-09-28T13:04:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T13:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=850"},"modified":"2025-09-28T13:04:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T13:04:56","slug":"the-strange-blog-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=850","title":{"rendered":"The Strange Blog of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey Blog! This week, I thought I would start reviewing some of the books needed for my English Literature GCSE next year. There will be a series of these, but this is the first instalment &#8211; and covers a book by Robert Louis Stevenson, which has since become widely known in popular culture: <em>The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I only read the book for the first time this week. However, I had already been aware of the author. Only a few weeks ago, I mentioned Treasure Island, another of his books, and I have also read his <em>A Child\u2019s Garden of Verses<\/em>. Unrelated to the inventor of the steam engine (though many, including me, have made that mistake!) Stevenson had a difficult childhood and so took to novels as a way to get out of reality. I <s>sometimes<\/s> most of the time do something similar. But while <em>Treasure Island<\/em> is a tale of adventure, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is more of a crime drama-cross-science fiction &#8211; even though it would be some years before the latter genre took off with H. G. Wells\u2019 <em>The War of the Worlds<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plot opens with the introduction of Utterson, a lawyer and the principal protagonist. It also begins an anecdote of an encounter with one Mr. Edward Hyde, delivered from Utterson\u2019s friend Enfield. Quickly, the story moves to a dark crime drama of a will, a murder, and a hunt for suspects in the back streets of London. However, still darker turns are yet to come, as Henry Jekyll\u2019s personality shifts and Edward Hyde\u2019s appearances grow<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The novel popularised the idea of the split personality, and is a part of the wider gothic style, popular in the 1800s. It was seen as a cheap \u201cshilling shocker\u201d, a quickly written short read at the time, but has since had a large impact. The idea of a villain who can transform, shifting from the outwardly respectable figure on the side of good, to the sinister figure of darkness who scares the living daylights out of the protagonist \u2013 and anyone watching the movie or reading the book \u2013 has since been seen in almost every genre and type of plotline. It certainly makes for a good story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And talking of darkness and light, that is another of the central themes of the story. The amount of times those words, or synonyms for good and evil, are mentioned highlights the dual-natured personality of Jekyll and Hyde. It hints at the war within the character, and between the characters. Intertwined in this good-v-bad is a science-v-religion conflict, where the philosophical beliefs of consciousness are tampered with by the technical application of chemistry and biology. The dedication, too, includes a note on this \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s ill to loose the bands that God decreed to bind\u201d. All this was very in keeping with the burgeoning scientific advances and ethical questions being raised at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The duality of human nature \u2013 or triality, or even more, as Henry Jekyll states at the end \u2013 is one of the other focuses of the novel. The other side of this is a social respectability facet. Even Mr. Hyde, alone among all people in being solely bad, wants to avoid pariah status, showing a complex idea of what it is to be evil. The secret lives of all the characters make the story a twisty one, which, while knowing Hyde is the villain, leaves everyone guessing who Hyde is. Although, if you just look at the title, you know immediately. Should have just done that first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think, in all, <em>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em> is an interesting and excellent read. I certainly find Stevenson easier to understand than Dickens, who was writing about the same time. For content, I think it is an amazing and original exploration of sci-fi, body-changing, dark crime, and horror, all with a fairly confidant tone: perfect for a 1800s short novel, ideal to be adapted and adopted over the next century. I will continue to study it and it is a firm possibility for the exam next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey Blog! This week, I thought I would start reviewing some of the books needed for my English Literature GCSE next year. There will be a series of these, but this is the first instalment &#8211; and covers a book by Robert Louis Stevenson, which has since become widely known in popular culture: The strange [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-ed-in-a-shed-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Strange Blog of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Home Ed in a Shed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Strange Blog of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Home Ed in a Shed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hey Blog! This week, I thought I would start reviewing some of the books needed for my English Literature GCSE next year. 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