Dylan Harris
English 1 Pre AP
4/24/15
Comparison of the Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde Book and Movie
As I began reading, I was expecting a boring forensic book, but was surprised by the fact it was actually rather interesting. The movie, although somewhat different from the book, was also very very interesting and is most likely the most eye-gripping black and white movie I’ve ever seen.
Negatives:
-The movie does follow the book for most of the story but does not follow the secretness of Dr. Jekyll’s experiments. In the book, Jekyll carries out his experiments in secret, while in the movie he openly talks about his endeavors at a dinner party. I suspect the director did this in order to show the movie as more of a view on Jekyll’s personal life instead of a crime solving or mystery movie.
-In the book, Mr. Utterson was one of the main characters who sought to solve the case between Jekyll and Hyde, so I was alarmed to find out that Utterson wasn’t in the movie. He was instead replaced by a combination of characters that made up Ivy Peterson, who is the young woman who was harassed by Hyde.
-In the book,the death of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde occurred when Utterson and Poole stormed into Jekyll’s office and found the body of Hyde dead on his back. However, in the movie the is a huge commotion in which Hyde is shot by Poole after he runs around, breaks glass, and charges Poole with a knife. Although the scene did add more action to the movie, it still wandered far from what actually happened.
Positives:
-Although Utterson was removed from the story, his replacement, Ivy Peterson, gives an accurate representation of the pain inflicted by Mr. Hyde. Not much of the book was from the perspective of Hyde, but because of the addition of Ivy, the movie was allowed to focus more on Hyde’s actions, instead of Jekyll and Utterson.
-The movie also shows more of Jekyll’s life rather than the mystery solving in the book. The movie shows how he lived, how he experimented with elixir, and how he was about to get married.
Overall:
-Worth reading the book and watching the movie. The book is short and easy, but good, read while the movie is pleasurable to watch.