User blog:Vremyanova/Vremya Contemplates "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

I bought "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" off the Google Play Store for just $1. It has illustrations and possibly the cheapest one available in the entire store.

I've read the book's summaries in Wikipedia, but I've grown curious to the real deal. And I also wanted to compare it with Type-Moon's Jekyll and Hyde.

Though, the protagonist of the novel is Utterson, a lawyer and a close friend of Jekyll. But the final chapter was narrated by Jekyll himself.

Jekyll is described as a good-natured man who tends to overthink things. He's friendly in general and have been a longtime friend of Utterson and Lanyon, a physician in the city. Jekyll is a man of high society and he owns a large house in the center of City of London.

Now, then...

Hyde was described as an extreme sociopath, hedonist, and violent. He does not care about anything other than himself. He trampled over a girl who ran into him and he beat a man to death with a walking cane. He deliberately allows Lanyon, another good friend of Jekyll's, watch him transform into Jekyll. People in the novel describes his appearance as "too disgusting, and it brought about hatred just by looking at it."

A lot of people interpreted their relationship as a "battle between good vs evil that dwells within one person." Type-Moon also portray them as such, with Jekyll's My Room line mentioning that he "loves humanity's virtue," while Hyde barges in that he "loves humanity's atrocities." It's clear what kind of interpretation Type-Moon goes with.

I've read the entire book, while the language is kinda heavy (especially for me who's not a native English speaker), it's really worth reading it.

The way I see it, it was not "A battle between good and evil" at all. The reason Hyde exists, after all, is from Jekyll's very own will. Jekyll desired to try committing atrocities and "sinful" actions (though he does not describe what kind of actions these are) but he couldn't because of his status as upper class citizen. As a doctor, he decided to experiment to create some kind of medicine that could alter his appearances.

And thus, Dangerous Game: The Secret Game of Sin, was born.

However, one thing that Jekyll did not expected is that his alter ego is a violent sociopath with little to no sympathy for other people.

Towards the end of Jekyll's narratives, it's revealed that Jekyll is slowly losing control of Hyde. Hyde manifests even without elixirs, in his sleep, and even in waking hours while he's in public. Jekyll panicked as the elixir can't even contain Hyde anymore, and after realizing that he will soon permanently become Hyde, he wonders whether Hyde will kill himself or turn himself for trial if he was found.

Looking towards Fate's interpretation of Jekyll and Hyde, it perfectly captures their respective personality, Jekyll is seen as friendly and willing to do whatever it takes to help people (in London chapter, he voluntarily becomes Hyde to help the protagonist fight). Hyde is seen as violent sociopath from the way he fights, his sprite's artwork, and his interlude.

Although one thing that kinda bugs me is while Jekyll constantly mentions his previous summoning, he never mentioned people like Utterson and Lanyon. We all see in Ushiwakamaru's My Room lines that she talks about her brother a lot, and from Okita's My Room lines that she talks about the other members of Shinsengumi. Lanyon is one of his oldest friend, and he died of shock after seeing Hyde transforms into Jekyll. Utterson is the man who has been trying to help Jekyll with Hyde's problem, yet he never talked about them. (I remember a note saying that Jekyll mentioned Utterson in Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Blue and Silver, but idk about it.)

I love Jekyll, I love him so much. He's a precious cinnamon roll that needs to be protected, but his writing is still kinda lacking. I wanted to know more about Jekyll's past from his own perspective.

Hopefully Sakurai would add more into this.

"Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end."

''--- Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case. [The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]''