I am returning to blog writing. While there is no theme for this month, I do have several posts planned out for the time being. This week, I am looking at a literary figure who many are aware of, without fully knowing him.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, has a unique place in literature. On its own, reading it without any cultural knowledge, the twist is pretty good. Yet, so many references to it in pop culture have spoiled the ending, to the point that people often miss its true meaning.

Even so, per my usual policy: ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Pretty much everyone knows that Hyde is Jekyll’s alter ego, the result of a potion the latter developed. The doctor is a calm, collected man; his other half, a violent ruffian more beastlike in demeanor.

This is where misinterpretations kick in, which I would argue is largely because many don’t read the book after it is widely spoiled.

In many adaptations and summaries, Dr. Jekyll is portrayed as the good side, with Mr. Hyde as evil. That is an intuitive angle on it, given literature’s common motif of good and evil as a dichotomy, usually between the protagonist and antagonist. In this mental model, Jekyll is the hero and Hyde the villain.

The original text, however, clues otherwise. The doctor’s letter in the final chapter gives a full rundown of his perspective (as the novel up to that point follows a different character, Utterson). It starts with Jekyll needing to drink the potion to become Hyde. Over time, he transforms into Hyde during sleep and eventually while awake. He needs the potion to turn back into Jekyll, which eventually wears off as he reverts to his wild persona.

During this time, his “evil half” attacks people and even murders someone. Jekyll tries to stop chugging the madman juice, but gives in, and continues a downward sprial. He runs out and permanently becomes Hyde, who eventually kills them both, a rare instance of double suicide.

What we can interpret from this is that Hyde is evil…

…and so is Jekyll, for causing it all.

The common interpretation is wrong. Jekyll (whose name literally means, “I kill”) is just as much the villain as Hyde. They are not benevolent and malevolent halves of a man, but two halves of an already evil person. His struggle is not between good and wickedness, but his desire to harm, and his fear of being caught.

If a guard knows that a prisoner is waiting to assault people, and willingly springs him from jail, he is accessory and accomplice to every crime he commits. Same is true for a client who hires a hitman. Because good people don’t give the wicked a free pass to hurt others.

The dichotomy in this story is one of civility and brutality; of supposed human intellect versus animalistic behavior. Jekyll is evil within the confines of societal upbringing, Hyde is evil when the leash comes off and a person can run wild.

This leads to a major point in the final chapter, where the doctor gives his explanation. When supply is running low, and he needs the potion to become himself again, Jekyll desperately tries to recreate the formula. One component, a salt, is not mixing as it previously had; he realizes that the salt he made the original potion with had an impurity he could not replicate. A direct parallel to how his intentions were never pure.

The potion largely removes inhibitions, revealing parts of him that civilization makes him hide (hence, “Hyde”). By all means, one could argue that Hyde is more of the doctor’s true self than Jekyll is.

Which could explain why the transformation back became more difficult. It could be symbolic of addiction, and it could also represent his subconscious desires overpowering his “rational” mind. The lock on the cage growing weaker every time it opens.

The influence of this concept reaches to today. The Incredible Hulk, an icon of Marvel Comics, takes inspiration from the novel. And, possibly added to the common modern perception. Bruce Banner is the genuinely good-hearted scientist that Jekyll is mischaracterized as, and the Hulk’s great size led to many adaptations making Hyde a similar huge creature (whereas in Stevenson’s book, the wild half is smaller than the doctor; not an ogre, rather a particularly bold goblin).

Through all of this, a reading of the book based on its true text is largely different from the common understanding. The way it has aged over the years has little to do with its contents (as the text holds relevance in the modern day), and more with how people are exposed to the story with misconceptions attached to it.

After over a century of publication, it still continues to teach.