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            The story of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” has been well-examined in terms of the broader issues it covers, most notably drug abuse and the concept of multiple personalities. Considering the interdependence of all the characters, how everyone seems to be tied into one central character, either directly or through a close relation, it appears that there’s a closer bond between everyone in this world than what is seen on first inspection. Every character appears to tied into each other so well that they could not exist without one another. With this in mind, it seems to be more than a tale of the multiple, competing personalities of one man, and that the entire world written up in the book is a land of fantasy, written as a suggestive tale, with characters taking the place of personalities, for the madness that lives within the minds of every person.

            Every major character in the book, from Mr. Utterson to the butler Poole, has a distinctly different personality and is attached in some important way to another character. Beyond the living in this fantasy world, the locations used are filled with symbolism and highly suggestive to the individual traits and personalities of the perspective characters, while the objects, such as the provocative letters and state-altering drugs, involved are a figurative representations with deeper meanings into what is truly occurring within the doctor.

            It can be seen that every character of note both begins and ends with Dr. Jekyll, suggesting that he is the original, integral personality. He, as a person, seems nearly incomplete, finding himself far too fixated on one aspect of life and dedicated to his career. Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson, his two oldest and closest friends, fill out his personality, elements of himself that have spun out and away much earlier. The former is a man of similar background, but they differ in their beliefs between mysticism and pure scientific logic. Lanyon is a man who is readily able to enjoy life, to laugh with company, and quicker to enjoy an emotional whim than Jekyll allows himself to. Utterson, on the other hand, is the serious, business-like side that the doctor doesn’t have. He is cold, standoffish, and granted with the social graces of the polite businessman. Jekyll confides in and trusts his secrets with Mr. Utterson, however he is compelled to keep his darker secret of Hyde from him, in the belief that Utterson will compel him to step forward and do what his responsible, to rid himself of Hyde once and for all.

             Poole, a second-tier character created to deal with Jekyll’s inability to take care of himself, is a loyal servant to the end, directly responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the doctor. He is the voice of reason that is too-often overlooked, yet continues to do what needs to be done for the doctor’s best, as long as he is permitted. In the end, he is willing to go into the lab after Hyde to avenge the doctor’s death, if that situation arose.

            Finally, there is Hyde, the beast of a man that lives symbiotically with Jekyll. He is everything that the latter could never be, a wild man living on the heart’s whims. This dual life continues for awhile, until the lust for the lightness of heart becomes too enticing for Jekyll and he starts to lose control. When Jekyll eventually starts to fight against his darker half, Hyde begins to fight back, struggling to stay in control. Sensing that this is a battle he can never truly win, Jekyll eventually decides that the only approach he can take to subdue Hyde is by taking his own life.

            Complementing each of the personalities is a different world in which they live in, a home that somehow reflects their tastes and character.

Lanyon’s home is seen as beautiful and well decorated, a busy man who understands his tastes and enjoys reveling in them, but perfectly content to sit to dinner without company, should the evening end that way. Utterson’s home is functional and necessary, carrying the things a man of his trade and stature need, including a safe, desk, and many books. It doesn’t have much life in it, as it is a place mainly for work, the lawyer being a man of seriousness and good work ethic. Utterson is also the only person who shows any form of regular mobility throughout the world, crossing thresholds and interacting with all the varying personalities in the hopes of pulling them together to solve the inexplicable issues revolving around Dr. Jekyll. The doctor’s home, however, is quite dissonant. In the front, in the world visible to all, there is a more than modest house, showcasing a house owned by a man of wealth and in good social standing. This is Dr. Jekyll’s entrance, a place Hyde is never allowed through. Hyde comes through a back entrance, a façade that has not received care in years, marked by dark windows and a shoddy door. Jekyll and Hyde meet together in the middle of this building, in the lab that is a cross between both of their worlds. The lab had been previously used for dissections and medical research but is now filled with the sensible living style of the doctor and the vices of the beast.

The mysterious concoction that Dr. Jekyll partakes of to create Hyde is representational of a drug abuse problem. Initially, he takes the drug to lose his inhibitions and to let out a part of himself that he feels is suppressed, which releases Hyde onto his psyche, giving him a face and a name to the part of himself he could never quite describe. As his cycle of abuse continues, he feels more and more compelled to release his chained inner-demon, in effect locking himself away inside in exchange for setting Hyde free. When Hyde is in control, Jekyll is able to dimly watch on at first, not in control but aware of the acts that go on around him. As he continues to abuse the drugs and allow Hyde more room to run with, he becomes increasingly distanced from Hyde and his madness, losing touch to such an extent that Hyde is able to separate and become his own, distinct personality. Just as Jekyll begins to fear Hyde, for his loss of control, Hyde seems to try to oppress Jekyll as well, forcing himself to the forefront more and more often. When Jekyll tries to quit, which he succeeds at doing for several months, he eventually finds that he cannot, as he’s become too dependent on the effects of this so-called freedom he finds in suppressing himself and losing the inhibitions he has had ingrained. His spiral further and further into desperation and drug abuse are represented by his constant demand for stronger doses of the drug to have any noticeable effect, nearly requiring the drug now to keep him lucid from the pains of transformation that comes from withdrawal. The story eventually ends with Dr. Jekyll being unable to find any of this proper drug with the proper purity and unable to get his next dose.

Now being unable to maintain his original level of functioning, Jekyll oscillates through wild swings back and forth as he and Hyde struggle for dominance. Hyde, having already won the first battle, is now more the dominant man than his predecessor Jekyll, in that he is the one to normally live while Jekyll must rely on the drugs to regain his position and to subdue Hyde, even though the effect is only temporary. Even when he is able to become himself for any period of time, he seems to have become a hybrid, perhaps a third person who is able to come through somewhere between Jekyll and Hyde, intelligent and with a purpose, but with the same wild and uncontrollable behavior that Hyde has been known for. This third person, though never quite acknowledged, lives as a sort of go-between for Jekyll and Hyde. Jekyll, though buried, is still quite active, as evidenced in how he is able to eventually pen his final letter and is clearly aware of the effects of the drugs.

Utterson, the responsible confidant personality tasked with uncovering the truth behind the lies Jekyll put up in order to eventually save him, was too late in discovering the dark secrets and was unable to bring help in time to save the doctor from his death, enacted in desperation to not only take himself from the world, but also to remove Hyde, in the hopes of preventing himself from causing any further problems. With Jekyll, Hyde, and Lanyon all dead, the story ends with Utterson, the sole trustee, now left in control of the life of the man who had been previously known as Doctor Jekyll.