The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a famous gothic story. From the very beginning I felt that the book was very dark and emotionless. I could easily tell from the beginning that the book had kind of an eerie feeling to it and that there was kind of some mystery and darkness to it. Like for example when they talk about the setting in the book
“by-street in a busy quarter of London. The street was small and what is called quiet, but it drove a thriving trade on the weekdays. The inhabitants were all doing well, it seemed and all emulously hoping to do better still, and laying out the surplus of their grains in coquetry; so that the shop fronts stood along that thoroughfare with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen. Even on Sunday, when it veiled its more florid charms and lay comparatively empty of passage, the street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well-polished brasses, and general cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye of the passenger.” Pg.2
I could tell that the characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were keeping so many secrets and that there would be many crazy events that would happen in the story involving them. Something that I thought gave the book its personality was the amount of suicides , deaths and tramples that happened in it. Although I found the book a mystery for some time and I enjoyed reading most parts of it there were definitely some parts that had a dark twist to them like when Jekyll took his own life so that he wouldn’t have to live as Mr. Hyde. Another moment which i found just as crazy was when Mr. Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew the murder was pretty brutal but there weren’t any emotions to it, it was kind of just like an act of violence that happened without reflection. This made me think about the good and bad inside all of us. These things all made me think of the idea that we all have good and evil inside of us. Jekylls struggle with his evil side can show how different people can easily lose control over their actions and it really made me think, if he ended his life instead of facing the consequences of his actions and fixing things, making it right, it kind of made me wonder if he ever accepted himself as a good person or not. One more thing that this book made me think about was the evil that certain people contain and how easily we or they can be affected by it.