Frankensteine and Jekyll
Dr. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde begins with Mr. Utterson Mr. Richard Enfield on a walk in London.
Although the two men are initially silent, after passing a mysterious cellar door in a basement, Mr.
Enfield launches into a strange occurrence that centered around the door. Late one night, while he
was on his way home, he chanced upon a deformed, short man who trampled a girl in the street
who was on her way to get a doctor. The girl's family and Mr. Enfield catch the mysterious man and
instead of getting the police, they decide to blackmail him and force him to give the girl's family
money. Agreeable, the mysterious man disappears into the same cellar door and comes out with a
check bearing not his own name, but that of the respectable Dr. Jekyll. Surprisingly, the check was
not a forgery.
After hearing the story, Utterson returns to his home where he removes Dr. Jekyll's mysterious will,
which he recently filed with Mr. Utterson. Jekyll's will stated that in case of his death, his substantial
estate will pass to Mr. Hyde, but even stranger, in case of his disappearance for more than three
months, Hyde will assume Jekyll's life without delay. He also realizes that the mysterious door is
connected, in an L shape way, to Jekyll's home. Utterson decides that Jekyll is being blackmailed
by Hyde. After tracking Hyde down, he is initially civil but turns angry when Utterson proceeds in
the conversation.
One year later, Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew with a cane. With help from Utterson, the police
find Hyde's apartment ransacked. After leaving, Utterson proceeds to Jekyll's and confronts him for
harboring a murder. Jekyll claims that he is done with Hyde and promises that he has nothing left
to do with him. He does, however, have a farewell note from Hyde. Utterson examines the note
and his clerk, Mr.Guest, later discovers that the handwriting from the note matches a dinner
invitation written by Dr. Jekyll. Angrily, Utterson assumes that Jekyll has forged a letter for a
murderer.
More time passes, and we learn that although Hyde has not been located, Dr. Jekyll becomes
more and more social until one day Utterson attended a dinner party at Jekyll's where Lanyon was
present. Shortly there after, Jekyll secluded himself and Dr.Lanyon fell ill and died. After his death,
Dr. Lanyon left Jekyll a letter than instructed him not to read it for ten years. After these mysterious
events, Enfield and Utterson again walk by the mysterious door. Through one of the windows, they
witness Jekyll having a frightening seizure through the windows of the cellar.
About a week later, Poole, Jekyll's butler, approaches Utterson, who is afraid because Jekyll has
locked himself in the basement and the only things that hear is strange sounds, including crying.
The only communication that has come is letters desperately asking for a specific type of salt.
Utterson follows Poole to Jekyll's house and breaks down a red cabinet where the body of Hyde is
found. In the laboratory, the two discover a large envelope addressed to Mr. Utterson. Inside, Jekyll
urges Utterson to read the package from Lanyon and if he wished to know more, read the further
description that Jekyll provided within the envelope.
Lanyon's narrative begins by describing a strange letter he received from Henry Jekyll, the night
after a dinner party at Jekyll's residence. The letter urges Lanyon to go to Jekyll's house and get
the contents of a drawer in the laboratory. Afterwards, a strange caller will come to Lanyon's house
in Jekyll's name and recover these same items, powder, a phial, and a paper book. Lanyon does
as much, thinking that Jekyll is crazy, and Mr. Hyde appears at the subscribed time. He gives Hyde
the ingredients; Hyde mixes them into a potion, and after drinking it transforms into Dr. Jekyll. This
shock, the pure evilness of the situation, was what brought about Lanyon's subsequent death.
After reading the account of Dr. Lanyon, Utterson then reads Jekyll's own account of his failed
experiment. Jekyll believed that the soul is made up of two separate distinctions: evil and the good.
These two separate beings live in continuous and inherent conflict with each other. Slowly, Jekyll
begins an experiment where he makes two potions and transforms himself into Edward Hyde.
Shortly after becoming Hyde, he drinks a second potion and once again becomes Henry Jekyll.
This experiment begins Jekyll's exploration of his other self, a side that he freely explores and feels
no remorse for the negative and evil actions of Mr. Hyde.
For some months, this behavior continued until one moment, "I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had
awakened Edward Hyde." Alerted that the character of Hyde might irrevocably stay, Jekyll chose to
give up the freedom of Hyde and for two months his decision held weight. Unfortunately, he was
tortured with Hyde's longing and he once again took the potion and brutally murdered Carew.
Because of the manhunt for Hyde, he swore this character off forever and set out to try to remedy
the evil.
This, however, failed because Hyde was an irrevocable part of Jekyll's character. One night, while
contemplating the deeds of Hyde, Jekyll was once again transformed into Edward Hyde. Realizing
that he could not return to his house, he sent the letter to Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Poole and went
immediately to a hotel. He went home once again but every time he would fall asleep, he would
revert to Mr. Hyde. Soon, his potions began to fail to work and he ran out of the salt needed for the
potion. Hyde launches a desperate search across London for this potion, but was unsuccessful. In
the end, Hyde kills himself and therefore lets both Jekyll and Hyde free.
FRANKENSTEIN
Frankenstein begins with the letters of Captain Robert Walton to his sister. These letters
form the framework for the story in which Walton tells his sister the story of Victor
Frankenstein and his.
Walton set out to explore the North Pole. The ship got trapped in frozen water and the
crew, watching around them, saw a giant man in the distance on a dogsled. Hours later
they found Frankenstein and his dogsled near the ship, so they brought the sick man
aboard. As he recovered, Frankenstein told Walton his story.
Frankenstein grew up in a perfectly loving and gentle Swiss family with an especially
close tie to his adopted cousin, Elizabeth, and his dear friend Henry Clerval. As a young
boy, Frankenstein became obsessed with studying outdated theories about what gives
humans their life spark. In college at Ingolstadt, he created his own "perfect" human from
scavenged body parts, but once it lived, the creature was hideous. Frankenstein was
disgusted by its ugliness, so he ran away from it.
Henry Clerval came to Ingolstadt to study with Frankenstein, but ended up nursing him
after his exhausting and secret efforts to create a perfect human life. While Frankenstein
recovered from his illness over many months and then studied languages with Clerval at
the college, the monster wandered around looking for friendship. After several harsh
encounters with humans, the monster became afraid of them and spent a long time living
near a cottage and observing the family who lived there. Through these observations he
became educated and realized that he was very different from the humans he watched.
Out of loneliness, the monster sought the friendship of this family, but they were afraid of
him, and this rejection made him seek vengeance against his creator. He went to
Geneva and met a little boy in the woods. The monster hoped to kidnap him and keep
him as a companion, but the boy was Frankenstein's younger brother, so the monster
killed him to get back at his creator. Then the monster planted the necklace he removed
from the child's body on a beautiful girl who was later executed for the crime.
When Frankenstein learned of his brother's death, he went back to Geneva to be with
his family. In the woods where his young brother was murdered, Frankenstein saw the
monster and knew that he was William's murderer. Frankenstein was ravaged by his
grief and guilt for creating the monster who wreaked so much destruction, and he went
into the mountains alone to find peace. Instead of peace, Frankenstein was approached
by the monster who then demanded that he create a female monster to be the monster's
companion. Frankenstein, fearing for his family, agreed to and went to England to do his
work. Clerval accompanied Frankenstein, but they separated in Scotland and
Frankenstein began his work. When he was almost finished, he changed his mind
because he didn't want to be responsible for the carnage another monster could create,
so he destroyed the project. The monster vowed revenge on Frankenstein's upcoming
wedding night. Before Frankenstein could return home, the monster murdered Clerval.
Once home, Frankenstein married his cousin Elizabeth right away and prepared for his
death, but the monster killed Elizabeth instead and the grief of her death killed
Frankenstein's father. After that, Frankenstein vowed to pursue the monster and destroy
him. That's how Frankenstein ended up near the North Pole where Walton's ship was
trapped. A few days after Frankenstein finished his story, Walton and his crew decided
to turn back and go home. Before they left, Frankenstein died and the monster appeared
in his room. Walton heard the monster's explanation for his vengeance as well as his
remorse before he left the ship and traveled toward the Pole to destroy himself so that
none would ever know of his existence.
COMPARING BOTH BOOKS
Both Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ‘ and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ tell
tales of scientists abusing their creative powers to exist in another sphere where they cannot be
directly blamed for their actions .Though Frankenstein’s creation is a creature distinct from his
creator while Dr. Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde ,the double of each protagonist progressively
grows . By doing so he symbolizes his creator’s repressed desiers in a stifling society .
The stories have parallel structures in four main ways . First, both Dr. Jekyll and Frankenstein are
scientists who, though welcomed by society , find it constraining and often alienated themselves.
Each creates an alter ego for himself to live out his liberated passions, HYDE for JEKYLL and the
CREATURE for FRANKENSTEIN.
Jekyll creates his with intention for evil and Frankenstein with the idea of building a supreme being.
Both Hyde and Frankenstein choose children for their first victims.
Frankenstein has a penchant for working alone ; like Dr. Jekyll, he is also emotionally detached
from a society that expects him to fulfill various obligations, and he accordingly responds with
physical detachment .
Dhruv Mahajan and Siddharth Rajan