Stevenson's Use of Mysteries in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

How does Stevenson maintain the reader’s interest in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Stevenson keeps the readers interested by using the supernatural and horror side of things to make it scary because when the story first came out they weren’t used to scary stories. He also uses mysteries to keep the readers wondering, guessing and wanting to know more. He includes moral messages in the story to keep people/the readers questioning themselves wondering if they are more similar to Mr. Hyde than they think.

Stevenson sets all the action in the story during the night. He does this because the night is dark and concealing which explains the reason why Stevenson chose to place the action in his story during the night. Stevenson uses the windows as a symbol to suggest that the secrets and events happening are being hidden but also being watched. Most of the darker events happen through windows/doorways.

“Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth.”

A woman witnessed Hyde beating a gentleman to the ground from a window this is a darker and more graphic thing for someone to see. That incident happened during the night, which makes the murder seem all the more dark and evil. Mr. Utterson hears about Mr. Hyde from Enfield in a gossipy way and decides to seek this man out. He does this not only because of the gossipy information he got from Enfield but because he is suspicious of Dr. Jekyll’s will.

“If he be Mr. Hyde, he had thought,’ I shall be Mr. Seek’ ”

This is a pun as he is going to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson then stakes out and paces around the area that Mr. Hyde was supposedly in from the gossip he heard.

“Mr. Utterson began to haunt the door in the by street of shops.” The ‘haunt’ is as if he’s like a ghost hoveri...

... middle of paper ...

...trol over Hyde.

“...Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth.”

It sounds like Mr. Hyde just lost control and attacked this man. Dr. Jekyll is kind and far too nice to lose control and beat a man to the ground so this is definitely showing him losing control over Hyde.

Stevenson uses a combination of: horror, supernatural, moral messages, and mysteries. The use of horror captures us because it’s normally shocking and frightening to think about. When you combine that with mystery you get an effect that makes you feel edgy and nervous to read on but you want to read on because if you don’t you’ll never get the answers to your questions. His uses of moral messages is effective in keeping the reader’s interest because it will make the reader question and doubt themselves on things because they might feel more like Hyde than they would like to.