The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The tale, told largely from the perspective of Gabriel Utterson, a London lawyer and friend of Dr. Henry Jekyll, begins quietly, with an urbane conversation between Utterson and his cousin, Mr. Enfield. The latter tells how, returning home in the early hours of the morning, he witnessed a “horrible” incident: a small girl, running across the street, is trampled by a man who leaves her screaming on the ground. “It sounds nothing to hear,” Enfield concludes, “but it was hellish to see.” Such reticence is characteristic of Stevenson’s retelling of this classic gothic story of “the double,” the notion of a man pursued by himself, of a second personality inhabiting the true self. Stevenson gradually discloses the identity of the “damned Juggernaut,” Mr. Hyde, who disappears behind the door of the respectable, and well liked, Dr. Jekyll.