Robert Louis Stevenson - novel - 1886 - p. 160    

The Gothic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is focalized through lawyer Gabriel John Utterson, who grows intrigued and perplexed by the unclear relationship between his friend Henry Jekyll and a villain named Edward Hyde. Utterson believes that Hyde may be blackmailing Jekyll, but Jekyll refuses to discuss the matter. Mysterious circumstances perdure until Utterson finally discovers that Dr. Jekyll, finally dead, has been using a serum he invented to turn himself into Hyde, through which persona he could indulge his devious desires without consequence.

The story deals with themes including good and evil and consciousness and unconscious drives as well as social mores and the public/private divisions they enforce.

Key elements: crime, Europe, Gothic, mental illness, suicide