Zach Maly
Pre-AP English I
4/23/15

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Comparative Essay

I love mysteries. I love the suspense created when I don’t know what will happen next. As i watch, listen, or read, I itch for the moment when I am told the discovery of the mystery and everything is revealed in one heap of a moment leaving all shocked with what was revealed.
Though I have seen and read many mysteries that were unbelievingly well thought-out and well-written, my favorite one was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The author of the book and director of the movie both thought out how they would convey this idea of evil being separated from the good in a human being. Though they both had parts in their scenes that seemed to be different, each one of them possessed the same meaning with their scenes or events. I have created a comparison chart:

Epilogue
Characterization
Hyde will no longer be seen
Book: Opens up with Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield walking and they come across a street where Mr. Enfield remembers a scene of how Mr. Enfield witnessed Mr. Hyde run over a little girl. Stephenson depicts Hyde’s evil by expressing his evil through his actions of completely ignoring the fact that he ran over a little girl.
Book: Stephenson depicts Hyde as being a short in stature, lean man, who creates an ominous mood towards anyone who dares to draw near him in his state of evil doings.
Book: Stephenson presents the idea that Hyde will no longer be seen as a exclamation by Dr. Jekyll that he can control whether he transformed into Mr. Hyde or not. this statement is presented in the time in which Dr. Jekyll is talking with Dr. Utterson.
Movie: Opens with them in a church where a man loses his mind and expresses a great deal of evil with a maniacal laugh and speaking. The evil side of people is shown through the event of a man yelling evil curses at the church priest and causing ruckus with a maniacal laugh.
Movie: the director presents Hyde as looking presumably identical to Dr. Jekyll in stature. The only way he was shown as being different was in his hair being strung about his head and his face seemed older around his eyes and he seemed to have an evil smile in place of his normal straight or smiling face.
Movie: The director presumably presented that scene of the book through a new character named Ivy. ivy is being tortured by Mr. Hyde, so she decide to go see Dr. Jekyll for help in which he “assures” her that Mr. Hyde will never bother her again. Once again showing that he believes he can control his transformation.
Analysis: I believe it adds to the novelists intent because it shows what caused Jekyll to do the experiments he got himself into tampering with the good and evil sides of mankind. These two openings give us a general understanding of the evil that is brought upon people throughout the book and movie.
Analysis: Though these differences seem to completely depict each other with no similarities as to what he looks like, but they both help the audience see the evil in Hyde and how and why he creates an ominous mood when one is around him.
Analysis: The scenes, though different in their presentation, both present how Dr. Jekyll does not realize the little amount of control he has in preventing and taking control of Dr. Jekyll’s body making him the evil Mr. Hyde that everyone in town fears and despises so much
Following the information provided by this chart, one could see that though both the movie and the book are both about the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, they are different in the way they present the story. These differences can be viewed strongly in the epilogue and Dr. Jekyll’s assurance that Mr. Hyde will disappear.
The first time one may witnessed a difference between the book and movie is in the epilogue of both versions. In the opening scene, Dr. Jekyll, his fiance Beatrice, and her father, are all in a church service when a man breaks out in a maniacal laughter and evil cursings towards the priest of the church. This scene of evil display helps the audience picture why Dr. Jekyll got into his experiments of tampering with the good and evil sides of mankind. Though the movie opens up with this visual representation of evil, the book provides us with a scene in which Hyde, the very monster that Jekyll created, tramples over a little girl with no regards as to what he has just done and continues to walk away from the fallen girl. This scene may not provide us with a clear representation to the evil of Mr. Hyde, but it rather shows the mind of Mr. Hyde and how he has no care towards what he does to other people, as opposed to his good Dr. Jekyll. These two scenes, though different, depict the overall evil that is involved in Jekyll’s experiments and how the evil in one, if strong, will express itself.
Both the author and the director then present the idea of Dr. Jekyll assuring that Mr. Hyde will not return once again are both in similarities, but they were presented towards different characters. In the book, the author has just explained the murder that Mr. Hyde performed in which he killed Sir Danvers Carew when Mr. Utterson confronts Jekyll about this murder in which Dr. Jekyll explains to him that he promises he has nothing more to do with Mr. Hyde and that he will be seen no more. Though Dr. Jekyll promised Utterson that Hyde would be no longer seen, Jekyll was not able to control the transformation, and Hyde was seen once again. Then, in the movie, almost the same outcome and sequence of the events took place except that the murder took place after he assures that Hyde will no longer be seen and he assures Ivy instead that he will no longer be seen. He then finds he can not control it and transforms once again into Hyde in which he then goes back to harm Ivy once more and soon… Commit the murder.
These two versions of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde differ in how each element is presented including sequencing of events, characterizing, and overall settings, but these differentiation’s all come back to the same general idea in which they show the results and wrongs of Dr. Jekyll deciding to tamper with what should not be tampered with. The good and the evil of mankind.