I already know what that story is about.
Today I’m going to talk about stories you think you know. The stories you already know what it is all about even before you read it. The story, so to speak, has entered the common vernacular. You know what Romeo and Juliet is about. Star crossed lovers that commit suicide. You that Dracula is about a blood sucking vampire. You know the background of so many other stories simply because they are in our common vernacular. I had the same thoughts about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was about a doctor that changed into an evil counterpart he had no control over. And, it turns out, I was mostly wrong.
One of the problems with the common vernacular is that, even though it is usually partially right, it is mostly wrong. Romeo and Juliet is more than just two people that can’t get together, there are layers of local political intrigue and a fair amount of comedy. It isn't just the star crossed lovers, although that’s a whole lot easier to put on a poster. For those of you that have read Dracula, I being partially one of them, knows that Dracula isn’t just about a vampire. There is so much more and it really is quite interesting how much is left out of the adaptations.
As it turns out my forethoughts of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were completely wrong. My knowledge has come from a common language and many different iterations of the story told. One of my favorites is a Warner Bros. cartoon starring Bugs Bunny called Hyde and Hare. It starts out with Bugs playing a rare character for him, the cute little bunny. He hops over to a kind old man who feeds him carrots every day. Bugs being Bugs decides that there has been too much work involved in getting the carrots every day, and jumps into the old man’s arms and convinces the man, who turns out to be Dr. Jekyll, to take him home as a pet. Well, things go great until Bugs sees a monster roaming the house and does everything he can to save Jekyll. The cartoon has many gags where Jekyll and Bugs run into rooms to hide and Jekyll turns into Hyde. I definitely suggest checking it out.
Here I am going to blow your mind, that’s not how the story unfolds. I know, you say that Bugs and his pals always did true adaptations of classics. But this time they were wrong. First off, Jekyll, a sweet natured little old man turns into the behemoth of a green Hyde. In fact, in almost every adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde I can think of, Hyde is the big hulk of a character where Jekyll is a meek and small one. In the original story Hyde is the alter ego, but he is much smaller in stature. He is all evil, but he’s not some crazed monster. There is still some of Jekyll in him. Jekyll has some control but the evil impulses of Hyde reign supreme.
My original idea about Jekyll and Hyde was completely different from the original story. I thought that Jekyll was a sort of drug addict that couldn’t help but take the potion to turn him into Hyde. I always thought that when Jekyll transformed into Hyde it was like an Incredible Hulk transformation with ripped clothing and then Hyde would run off and smash things. I also thought that Jekyll and Hyde was about the rampages of Hyde and how Jekyll tried his best to conceal that they were one and the same. I always thought that Jekyll had to take the potion to turn into Hyde. I almost wish that I’d never heard all of these because it ruined my reading.
The story is really about one of Jekyll’s friends and lawyer, Mr. Utterson, who hears evil stories relating to an Edward Hyde who is the main benefactor if Jekyll disappears. Hyde almost kills a little girl and Hyde beats a man to death. Mr. Utterson spends most of the story trying to find Hyde and understand him and in turn tries to convince Jekyll to change his Will because a man as vile as Hyde would ruin the good name of Jekyll. The story ends with two letters, one from another friend to Mr. Utterson to be read upon the death or disappearance of Henry Jekyll and another written by Jekyll as a sort of confession. We find out that Jekyll cannot control the Hyde side of his life at the end. It isn't that he’s addicted to being Hyde, Hyde simply takes over. For instance, Jekyll will fall asleep as himself and wake as Hyde. By the end of his life we find out he is doing everything he can to shirk the life of Hyde but he cannot find the right ingredients. One of the final things ruined by common vernacular, I always thought that the story was called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Turns out, it’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The title alone shows the story is different than my understanding. The story is not about the titular characters and their escapades, it is about the case and understanding who they are.
Bonus question: as I was finishing the last pages, I got this thought. What if the whole transformation was just in Jekyll’s mind? Is that possible? Maybe he just got an evil look about him and the drug only affected him mentally, causing him to hallucinate his transformation. The pain he suffered during this hallucination was so real that it caused him to bend over in pain and to stretch his face into an evil grin.