Do we like them?

Do we like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

A character from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

Our score: 3 out of 10. Jekyll means well and is brilliant, but his vanity and secrecy cause real harm. Hyde is a menace. We wouldn't back this pair.

Robert Louis Stevenson's novella is set in foggy Victorian London. The lawyer Utterson investigates after hearing of Edward Hyde, a cruel and repellent man who has a strange hold over his old friend, the respected Dr Henry Jekyll. Jekyll has even changed his will in Hyde's favour.

Jekyll is well liked, charitable and clever, but he is restless under the pressure to keep up a flawless public image. Hyde seems to be everything that image is not: unpredictable, brutal and unwilling to answer for what he does. Together they make a study in hypocrisy and the darker side of human nature.

The twist is that they are the same man. Jekyll takes a potion that lets him become Hyde and act on his worst urges without consequence. He thinks he can control it, but the changes begin to happen on their own, and his choice to keep experimenting rather than stop costs others dearly. That choice is why he scores low despite his good intentions.