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Danielle Steinger
Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, The strange case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was first publish in 1886 and since then has been remade in countless movies and other literature. But how true can these cinematic replicas truly get to the the original mystery thriller that brought about the split personality in all of us? Taking a look there at them there are many differences and similarities betwixt the two. Using the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Victor Fleming we will look at four categories of operation: addition,substitution,deletion, and re-ordering.
Addition:
If we are too look at the additional things added to the 1941 version of the 1886 novella we will see that there has been an introduction to the cast. Two female love interest were added to the film, one for Jekyll and one for Hyde. Both of these love interest take up a large amount of space in the plot line and seem to take over as emotional pegs for both the good, personable doctor and the evil lustful creature. While it is understandable to add the two woman for audience appeal as well as to add tension where the movie could not make up for the psychological feelings expressed in the novella. Ivy Peterson, the bartender that grabs Hyde's attention is darker and more open while Beatrix Emery is more angelic with her blond hair and small features, this helps to create a physical contrast between the mental states of both Hyde and Jekyll as well as making for a very eerie tension between Hyde and the misguided Ivy.
In terms of added scenes, the dinner scene with Dr. Jekyll as he talks about how and what he plans to do with his experimentation on animals doesn't ever occur in the book. In this scene, the good doctor explains about the split he wishes to make between the ties that hold both our animal impulses of 'evil' and out better judgment impulses of 'good'. While this does happen in the novella at the end, the way of delivery and the social interactions of Jekyll are a switch,causing the mystery from the novella to become to driving force of the film.
Deletion:
There are many small things that have been deleted from the novella on it's way to becoming a movie. First of all, the opening scene with Lanyon and Utterson that occurs at Jekyll's lab door has been removed. the sense of dread that came over both men about the mysterious mister Hyde is gone. Leaving the viewer of the movie with no prior knowledge of Hyde before the transformational. In fact, Utterson is completely eradicated from the film and replaced with Lanyon and Lanyon's original characteristics being replaced and dubbed upon Heath. With the deletion of Lanyon's breaking of friendship with Jekyll after finding the truth about Hyde, it is jut only pressing more upon the film that they simply took it more in the direction of a horror film of the inner evil of men and how they can overcome them instead of the mystery of who is Hyde and how we always must pay for our actions one way or another.
Another part deleted from the movie that is present in the book is the act of cruelty Hyde does on a little girl. The trampling of the little girl at the beginning of the novella being left out of the movie probably had a lot to do with the introduction of the older woman in the beginning, The hellish things that Hyde does to them making up for the vulgarity that would have befallen the nine or ten year old girl. As Enfield states in the novella,"It is nothing to hear about but was hellish to see." this only pushes the point that the imagery of a small girl being trampled and left screaming on the street might have been a bit strong for audiences in 1941.
Substitution:
In the film, there is one main thing substituted that changes the whole original idea of the Novella, the way that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's transformations are centered. Since Hollywood relies on special effects and shock value to make ends met, Jekyll's transformation into Hyde had to happen sooner then it did in the novella. In the film the transformation takes place not even fifteen or twenty minutes into the viewing, Jekyll's face fading with resolves into Hyde. This is the flow of the movie, the main part of Hyde and Jekyll being the transformation that causes horror and fear.
In the novella, it is a mystery who this Hyde is therefor giving away the fact that Hyde and Jekyll are one and the same would ruin the ending.Looking into the novella, Stevenson cannot rely on the visual effects as well and instead makes the reader squeamish with a look into themselves with the lines,
the most raking pains succeeded: a grinding in the bones,deadly nausea,and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceed at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly to subside,and I came to myself as if out of great sickness. There was something strange in my sensations, Something indescribable new and,from it's very novelty,incredible sweet. I felt younger,Lighter,happier in body:I was conscious of a heady recklessness,a current disorder sensual images running like a mill race in my fancy,a solution of bonds of obligation,an unknown but not an innocent freedom of soul.I knew myself,at the first breath of this new life,to be more wicked,tenfold more wicked,sold as a slave to my original evil:And the thought in that moment,braced and delighted me like wine. I stretched out my hands,exalting in the freshness of these sensations:and in the act I was suddenly aware that I had lost in stature.(Page 50)
It is impossible to recreate these emotional feelings that Jekyll goes through as he transforms into Hyde on the big scene. The dark sweetness that Jekyll describes a mirror of any human begins darker side, the 'solution of bonds of obligation' and the 'sold to his original evil' are all sinister feelings people feel within themselves, thus reaching out the the readers in a way the movie can not. Touching there darker thoughts and perceptions with bone chilling results.
The 'solution of bonds of obligation' is repeated twice in the novella, labeling it as the essence of Jekyll's change. The Dr. loosing the longing to have to follow to rules and expectations of others that he has tried so long to hold onto in his life. As repeated in Regent park and shadowed over slightly in the movie, after trying to cancell out Hyde for all thew wrong that he had done. Jekyll sits down on a park bench and finds he is no longer in control of his transformation into Hyde, slowly morphing into him after so long and without the aid of the elixir.
And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuttering. These passed away and left me faint: and then as in it's turn faintness subsided, I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness,contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation.
The repeated phrase only targets the fact that Hyde is Jekyll's freedom from the social bonds that have been placed on him. The movie betrays this as best it can with the difference in class and culture of the two girls, Ivy and Bea. While Bea is upper class and full of obligations to her father and what is expected of her, Ivy is headstrong and does what she wants to get what she wants. This mirrors both Hyde and Jekyll in there solution and attachments to Bonds in there life to Obligations. Jekyll's reliance on them for who he is and Hyde's purification from them as an outcast from society's rules.
Reordering:
The novella and Movie do have similar things that take place at different times.for example, Dr. Jekyll, as stated earlier introduces his theories early in the film, well before at a dinner party to a group of friends and their other persons. In the novella, Jekyll only reveals his research once he has killed himself. The truth being revealed in Lanyon's confrontation and confession as well as the final letters to Utterson. This reordering is again, due to how the film is geared verses how the novella is geared. The mysterious verse the Horror.
Another point that was switched around in the time line is the beating scene. Near the end of the film, Hyde returns to see Beatrix, and possibly inflict harm upon her and beats her father to death with a cane breaking it in two. While the novella has a different victim the actions are more or less the same, In the middle of the novella Hyde beats and kills a member of parliament (Sir Danvers Carew) with a cane breaking it in two.
Things that Stayed the Same:
With all that was dramatized for the scene there are still things that stay the same more or less from the novella. With the relationships of the two woman changing the storyline greatly, they also show the horror that is Hyde and the gentleness that Is Jekyll in a more visual matter that Stevenson could not transfer to the screen with his psychological appeal. The story still contained, more or less, the same ending with the revealing of Hyde as Jekyll. Also the scene with Lanyon and Hyde in Lanyon's office, though changed slightly, stayed similar with Lanyons choice to leave and not witness the transformation or stay and see the horror that Jekyll had done to himself.
Though both the novella and movie were well done, the extreme differences of going about the elements of how Hyde and Jekyll would be revealed put them on two different paths. One being lead towards a horror story full of woman, sex, and murder and the other being a murder mystery full of intrigue and questions with a important lesson learned at the end. Both version do a wonderful job compelling an audience to continue, to see what will happen next and to be left with the sobering reminder that not everything about humanity can be controlled.