Line #3 YMMV/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde


1	!! The book provides examples of:
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The story itself floats the idea that the serum does absolutely ''nothing'' to Jekyll's personality and merely changes his appearance, thus allowing him to create an alternate identity to scapegoat for any crimes, and it's the intoxication of being able to get away with anything that leads Jekyll to act so evilly as Hyde. Many adaptations, especially recent ones, decide to eschew the idea that it changes his looks at all and represent the changes purely by acting. Notably, everyone who sees him insists that Edward Hyde somehow gives off the impression of being grotesque and deformed but, when pressed, cannot actually identify one specific feature which would explain this.
3	** In the book Jekyll pretty much admits that his motive for inventing the serum was nothing other than ForTheEvulz; he wants to be able to act immorally, but as Jekyll he has a respectable image to uphold and a conscience that will bother him if he does; Hyde has neither of these things (at worst, people might think he's blackmailing Jekyll to get his funds, or is a BastardBastard), so Jekyll feels free to indulge in EvilFeelsGood. And keep in mind that Jekyll chooses to keep turning into Hyde, even after Hyde ''severely injures an innocent child'' and has to give her family an enormous bribe so that they won't go to the police.
4	** A line Jekyll makes about Hyde growing in stature, as though conscious of a more generous tide of blood. Does he mean Hyde would have grown to hulk-like proportions (an idea that ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen took and ran with) or that he's just becoming healthier compared to the skinnier dwarf form he starts off as compared to the more hearty-stocked Jekyll?
5	*** Near the end of the story, Jekyll points out that Hyde seems to grow more powerful as he himself becomes more frail and sickly, suggesting something closer to the latter, or even that Hyde may have been leeching off of Jekyll's body.
6	** Is Hyde ''even a split personality''? Jekyll wants Utterson to think so, and probably [[NeverMyFault chooses to believe so himself]], but this might instead be [[GollumMadeMeDoIt just an excuse]] for waning impulse control bordering on InsaneTrollLogic. Certainly no one would be surprised if Jekyll had undergone some serious SanitySlippage by the time of his confession and as such might be genuinely HearingVoices; he might also just be a ManipulativeBastard to the very end, trying to at least salvage his reputation and legacy by turning "Hyde" into a SilentScapegoat.
7	** And then there's the implied Jekyll/Utterson context as seen below.
8	** Also, why ''is'' the beloved and apparently borderline saintly Sir Danvers Carew making his way through town in the small hours of the morning carrying a letter only to be read by his lawyer, rather than sending someone on his behalf? The answer is never given, but in a story about the hypocrisies and sins hidden under the personas of virtuous and righteous men, one could be forgiven for wondering about Carew's own possible secrets...
9	* CommonKnowledge: There are a few widespread misconceptions about the novel:
10	** The fact Jekyll and Hyde were one and the same was a ''twist'' is not often known ([[ItWasHisSled probably because the story is so famous]]).
11	** Despite multiple adaptions including this element, there are no love interests in the original story (in fact, there are no named female characters ''at all;'' the only female characters to play any kind of role are the little girl Hyde injures, the maid who witnesses him murdering Sir Danvers Carew and his landlady who dislikes him and is pleased to learn he might be in trouble).
12	** The pronunciation of "Jekyll". The correct (and little-known) pronunciation is "Jee-kyll", in accordance with Scottish rules of pronunciation (the novella's author was Scottish, and "Jekyll" is a real Scottish surname). The 1941 film adaptation popularized the pronunciation "Jeck-ul", and [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]] bought the rights to [[Film/DrJekyllAndMrHyde1931 the 1931 adaptation]] (which did pronounce Jekyll's surname as "Jee-kyll") and [[ScrewedByTheLawyers destroyed every print they could find]] [[MoneyDearBoy to avoid competition]]. The 1931 film was believed to be lost for several decades, and pretty much every film and stage play adaptation after 1941 pronounced Jekyll's surname as "Jeck-ul" to the point that the correct pronunciation is hardly known anymore outside of Scotland.
13	** Jekyll and Hyde being split personalities. This is very common in adaptations, but the story itself makes it clear that "Hyde" is merely Jekyll minus the conscience (had Freud published his work before the story had been written, he'd have probably been identified as Jekyll's Id) and a bit of height. Jekyll only starts considering him a separate person near the end of the story, and it's made clear that this is a combination of Jekyll's NeverMyFault tendencies and the stress from knowing that he would shortly be trapped as Hyde, who was at that point wanted for a high-profile murder.
14	** Hyde is frequently portrayed as monstrous, but in the original text itself Hyde is portrayed as simply younger and shorter than Jekyll. Due to Utterson initially believing him to be Jekyll's son we can come to the conclusion there might even have been a resemblance between the two, in contrast to adaptations that make them really different in appearance.
15	* FandomEnragingMisconception: Do ''not'' pronounce the titular doctor's surname as "Jeck-ul" in front of a Scottish fan. It is supposed to be pronounced "Jee-kyll"; Creator/RobertLouisStevenson was Scottish, and "Jekyll" is a real Scottish surname.
16	* HarsherInHindsight: Hyde's crimes were heinous enough, but soon after the book was published, the UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper murders took place. Even worse, one of the suspects was an actor who ''played'' Jekyll and Hyde onstage; his performance was so convincing that people began to believe it wasn't an act.
17	* HoYay:
18	** It's really easy to read some Utterson/Jekyll into the former's concern for the latter, with his fears that Hyde was Jekyll's son or lover and was using that to blackmail him.
19	** Homosexual undertones were read into the book early on, and a few of Stevenson's gay friends chided him for possibly bringing them to light at all. The recent passing of homosexual legislation up north meant that closeted homosexuality wasn't just a hot-button issue at the time, but that Stevenson could possibly have had it on the mind while writing. A closer look at the edits from the second manuscript seems to support this theory, as Utterson himself starts to read a little bit more into Jekyll and Hyde's perceived relationship. Then again, this was a time when two men could have a completely platonic PseudoRomanticFriendship and not be chided for it.
20	** A short story by Creator/KimNewman, "Further Developments in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", riffs on this; [[spoiler: Essentially, Hyde is a separate person. And he's Jekyll's lover.]]
21	* ItWasHisSled: The original story is a mystery about what connection the upstanding Jekyll could have to the shady Hyde. Pretty much everyone nowadays already knows the answer; Jekyll and Hyde are one and the same, the result of Jekyll taking a potion that split him into two selves, one normal and one totally evil. Often enough, the twist is the only thing they know about the story, and a lot of adaptations don't even treat it as a twist, starting off with Jekyll creating and taking the potion that turns him into Hyde.
22	* JerkassWoobie: Jekyll, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation if you believe he truly had good intentions.]]
23	* MainstreamObscurity:
24	** Most people don't know that the dual identity was originally a TwistEnding, and it is not uncommon to see adaptations of references where Hyde is a hulking monster rather than simply an evil, apelike man.
25	** A lot of people will assume the two girlfriends are part of the book's plot as well; they were [[CanonForeigner introduced in the very first stage play]] and added to many subsequent versions.
26	* MisaimedFandom: Some people will use the idea of being a "Jekyll and Hyde" as an excuse for either their own bad behaviour or that of their loved ones. This arguably inverts the moral of Stevenson's story, where Jekyll's refusal to take responsibility for Hyde's actions was a big part of what caused things to go badly.
27	* MoralEventHorizon: Clearly, when Hyde brutally murders Sir Danvers Carew for absolutely no reason, he has reached this point. Even Jekyll denounces him. However, Jekyll's decision to keep changing into Hyde despite the horrific consequences and harm it has done to others -- such as the little girl that Hyde severely injures in the very first mention we get of him -- that he is fully aware of is one in and of itself.
28	* SelfFanservice: Mr. Hyde is described in the book as "dwarflike" and with some sort of facial feature that had him dip into UncannyValley territory, and some adaptations turn him into a hulking monster. A lot of fan-art (and some other adaptations) prefer to portray him as being a slightly more deranged-looking-yet-sexier version of Jekyll. The good doctor himself also gets this, often being made younger (and [[{{Bishonen}} prettier]] to better contrast the more rugged Hyde) than he was in the novel.
29	* ValuesResonance: As mentioned on the main page, a lot of modern-day readers see parallels between Hyde and those who use anonymity on the internet as an excuse for behaving badly without consequences, with some likening Jekyll to a person's normal account and Hyde to an alt account they use for {{Trolling}}.
30	* ViewerPronunciationConfusion: According to the author it should be "''Jee''-kyll", not "''Jeh''-kyll". Not that that's ever stopped anybody from pronouncing it "''Jeh''-kyll" for over a century.
31
32	!!The Noah Smith play provides examples of:
33	* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Helen and Cybel]] end up defeating Hyde by tricking him into [[spoiler:taking the serum as written, which includes a typo that would lead to near-instant death]].

Context YMMV / TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde