Dr Jekyll

Outer characterization

Dr Henry Jekyll is the most important character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll is described as “a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty, with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness.” (p. 18). Jekyll is good-looking, wealthy, and respectable. He is a medical doctor and scientist, and he lives in a large house in London with a number of servants. 

When Mr Utterson mentions that he has “been learning something of young Hyde”, Dr Jekyll looks frightened: “The large handsome face of Dr Jekyll grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes.” (p. 18). It is notable that even the mention of Mr Hyde causes Dr Jekyll to change his appearance and the “blackness” in his eyes hints at the evil inside him, even very early in the story. 

Towards the end of the novella, we learn that Dr Jekyll has invented a drug that turns him into Mr Hyde, who embodies all of the evil parts o...