Dr. Jekyll

The character that I am most drawn to is by far Mr. Jekyll. Throughout the book, Jekyll has been acting peculiarly. He was associated with Mr. Hyde several times as well. For example, in the will, it was stated that if Jekyll disappeared for three months, then Hyde should step into his shoes. This is abnormal, as no one can predict if they were going to be absent from the world for a set amount of days. Another situation when these tow men were associated was when the cane which Hyde beat Carew with, was in Jekyll's house! A question arose in me if Jekyll could have committed the murder. Later on in the story, another unusual moment occurred. Guest received the written samples of Hyde and Jekyll, and he concluded that their handwriting's were similar. I previously concluded that these two were always with each other, and the probably knew each other well, but similar handwriting's showed that these two men had similar traits! Even when Jekyll received the letter, he told Utterson that he burned the envelope. During this moment I thought, "was there a need for that? If so, why would he do that?" Jekyll often has mood swings in the story as well. At one time in the story he will be happy and sociable, and in another part of the story he will become upset and morose. This is quite a large mood swing. Going back to the beginning of the book, Jekyll wrote a cheque for Hyde. These two individuals have been having a weird connection. Lanyon has been telling Utterson that Jekyll has been up to nonsense as he was performing his scientific experiments. He took it to an extent too far of those of average scientists. Basically, throughout the story, Jekyll has been a static and unpredictable character. He has an abnormal connection to Hyde, and combining all these facts along with my knowledge of the multiple personality disorder, it is possible that Jekyll could actually be Hyde! If this is true, a possible theme that Stevenson could have reinforced is that when a matter is taken too seriously, and is abused to a certain extent, then results could turn out to be negative, and in my theory, inhumane.