In reading the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one of the most prominent aspects to be discussed is the relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The true nature of the relationship is only revealed at the end of the short story through Henry Jekyll’s Statement of the Case. However, because this statement comes from Dr. Jekyll, it is steeped in his viewpoint and basis of the situation. It is in the final paragraph of his statement that Dr. Jekyll makes most clear his opinion of Mr. Hyde – or at least the opinion that he may want the reader to have.
In this last paragraph, Jekyll sees Hyde and himself as separate beings, removed from each other’s actions: “Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? or will he find the courage to release himself at the last moment? God knows; I am careless; this is my true hour death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself” (66). Jekyll’s questioning of Hyde’s motives and actions suggests a distance between the two individuals. In this statement, while Jekyll says that their actions are separate, he does not deny that the results of these actions can affect each other. Jekyll seems to want to separate himself from Hyde but not separate himself from the consequences of Hyde. After reading the story, Hyde and Jekyll seem to be connected in that their actions are of one another and affect one another. They are physically connected in body, mentally separate in thought, and morally connected in deeds. Throughout the entirety of his final statement, Dr. Jekyll has simultaneously combined and interchanged his own identity with Hyde’s identity; however, in his last paragraph he tries to establish a separation from Hyde. Even as he tries to create a separation in the end, the connection between the two men remain – because when Dr. Henry Jekyll dies, so too does Mr. Edward Hyde.
-Toria F.
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