Dueling Monsters: Dr. Jekyll and Dorian Gray

Heather at Age 30+ A Lifetime of Books and Jill at Fizzy Thoughts host a wonderful challenge in October pitting two monsters against each other in a fight fit for the season. This year the contenders are Dorian Gray (hosted by Jill) and Jekyll/Hyde (hosted by Heather).

Originally, I only signed up to read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde since I had to re-read it anyway as I'm teaching it in my Intro to Literature course the last two weeks of October and first two of November. But once I finished Dorian, my greedy fingers itched to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, especially since I have never read it before, a severe lack in my halloweenish reading.

I reviewed Dorian Gray back in Spring, and my general thoughts on the book still stand. As Jekyll and Hyde was new to me, I just reviewed it yesterday. Be ware of plot spoilers ahead.

THE QUESTION OF BLAME
Dr. Jekyll and Dorian Gray both bring about their own destruction. Jekyll creates a potion which allows him to become that darker part of himself for bits of time and revel in his more base nature. Dorian transfers his soul to a painting, allowing him to engage in vile behavior with no visible consequences on his own body. Each takes his self-deceptive freedom from blame as a sort of allowance for bad behavior. I think the primary difference between the two is that Jekyll seems more at fault to me. He is the instrument of his own destruction entirely: he is the one feeling a need for release, he develops the plan, he carries it out, and he allows it to continue. In Dorian's case, the seed is planted by two of his friends: Basil instills in Dorian a love of his own beauty and Henry instills in him a fear of losing it. Also, Dorian is heavily influenced by Henry's strange philosophies urging the experience of sensual pleasure (as in senses, not as in sex). Not that Dorian isn't at fault; he really, really is, but there are outside influences on him, especially in the beginning when he is an impressionable, narcissistic but generally sweet dispositioned young man.

Conclusion: Blame resides more heavily on Jekyll's shoulders than Dorian's possibly making him a bit more of a monster.

THEIR EVIL ACTS
The evil acts committed by Jekyll...er...Hyde and Dorian are primarily alluded to in the texts rather than directly revealed. Each one does, however, have certain atrocities narrated. Two events are revealed in detail to the reader regarding Hyde's dirty work. First, we hear a story about Hyde walking down a street, running into a small girl, and "[trampling] calmly over the child's body and [leaving] her screaming on the ground." This sort of callousness, a disregard for hurting others, is mirrored in Dorian. Dorian, towards the beginning of the book, falls in love with a young, innocent actress. Well, he falls in love with her ability to act anyway; when she fails him as an actress, he breaks off their engagement, breaking her heart cruelly with no regard for her. When he finds out she committed suicide because of his behavior, he blames her and feels nothing for the loss of the girl.

It is, however, the second stories detailed that truly reveal the evil natures of these two characters. A young maid, gazing out her window sees Hyde beat another man to death with his cane. Dorian murders one of his best friends because he spoke harshly to him, calling him out on his bad behavior. Murder, not so good for either of our characters. Other evil acts are alluded to for both characters; although Dorian's are more specifically mentioned such as corrupting the youth (in a much more lurid way than Socrates), opium use, and probably deflowering virgins.

I think a big difference between the two lies in the way they feel about their evil acts.  Jekyll expresses deep remorse and a desire for punishment for his actions. Dorian, from time to time, gets a bit weepy and desires to be a better man, but even at his most remorseful, he assigns blame to everyone but himself and his "good intentions" seem less than sincere.

Conclusion: Both of them are nasty buggers, but I think Dorian takes the cake here because his evil acts are more fully detailed, his thoughts better explained and more callous, and he just does more bad things than Jekyll.


THE STORIES THEMSELVES
Overall, I liked The Picture of Dorian Gray ten times more than I did The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But I don't necessarily think it is fair to straight up compare the two this way. While both authors wrote eloquently and elegantly, the thematic and structural complexity of Dorian far surpasses that of Jekyll. Also, I much prefer to read a book in which the characters are doing something rather than reading a book which focuses on characters talking about what other characters have done. Then there's the clincher: Lord Henry Wotton, one of my favorite literary characters of all time. As Dorian's friend and mentor, Lord Henry is a fascinating study. He is a man of espousing hedonistic philosophies, and yet most readers and even characters in the novel can see that he is more interested in philosophical discussions than in acting on any of his philosophies. It is Dorian who acts, and in doing so, perverts Henry's many and sundry expressed beliefs. No character in Jekyll and Hyde came close to being as interesting to me. Actually character development was sorely lacking in Jekyll in my opinion. It was more about tone and atmosphere.

So the winner is: