Reviews with content warning for Suicide - El bizzar cas del Dottor Jekyll e del Scior Hyde

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

El bizzar cas del Dottor Jekyll e del Scior Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

118 reviews

sleepy_nightfall's review against another edition

3.75

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

curiousbibliophile's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious fast-paced

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

fallon_reads's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The conflict between two different minds sharing one body was intriguing. This look at split personalities in the 1800s highlights the shame and pain of living uncontrollably, at a time where so much was unknown in that area. Although it was unfortunate, the battle for the body was captivating on both sides, especially with such starkly different morals and goals when hosting the physical form.

Content Warnings

p1tabread's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Jekyll and Hyde is one of those stories that everyone KNOWS, but very few that know it have actually READ the original story. The story (and particularly the central character) have become so ubiquitous that Jekyll/Hyde's condition is the name OF said condition or character archetype. More people understand this cultural context rather than the story itself.

Reading this story really felt refreshing for someone who knew enough about it but hadn't known the original story, so the actual text came with a lot of fun surprises:

-Jekyll and Hyde's dual-sided personality is actually a twist ending the original text. This is fairly profound considering that the entire basis of the character in public knowledge is that exact twist--regardless, reading it with this foreknowledge allows you to understand the incredible foreshadowing RLS leaves you with.

-Jekyll/Hyde is not the narrator or the main POV character--that role is held by his lawyer, Mr. Gabriel Utterson. Having been used to the Jekyll/Hyde story being a POV from his perspective, Utterson is a much more even-keeled detective-type who wants to figure out exactly who the mysterious Hyde is. This gives the story much more of a mystery genre feel rather than a pure horror of its common connotation.

-Jekyll/Hyde in contrast to some portrayals is fully aware (though not necessarily in control) of his escapades as Hyde. It is communicated as though it is some sort of subconscious. In this sense and the POV, we don't get any "where was I last night" werewolf-esque scenes that I have seen in other depictions.

-Likely due to some level of Victorian censorship, very little is said specifically about the lifestyle Hyde lives and the bad deeds he does. Outside of the two crimes of murder and harassment that occur in the narrative (thought notably, not even on page) it is all left up to vague allusions of "selfishness" and "liberty," which allows the modern reader to fill in the blank as to what morally repugnant behavior Hyde is engaging in. This actually has aged the text well, because some Victorian icks may not have had the same weight over one hundred years later.

Overall, this is a fantastic short read and the philosophical remnants of the original text still hold incredibly true. Jekyll pursuing the Hyde serum as a way to enact his libertine tendencies without losing face as the upstanding and moral doctor in his public life, the hubris is too palpable when the serum begins to take hold and starts to transform him without his consent. It's a remarkably human story and in the age of openness of information it has even gotten MORE relevant. The idea that we could have a second life outside of our own, sheltered by our own anonymity online has become more and more possible. It's clear that the desire to be repugnant as RLS was touching upon is still apparent today.

Content Warnings