I Will Forever Hold The Belief That Ford Said “Grammar, Stanley.” As A Sort Of Revenge For Making

Rouben Mamoulian: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

The feeling when you have just found out your theory of multiple personality is true, proven your scientific research by taking a drug that releases the evil side in yourself, felt great pride and joy in your work, laughed at your skeptics, and then your nosy servant interrupts and asks about strange noises.

“The real stab of the story is not in the discovery that the one man is two men; but in the discovery that the two men are one man. After all the diverse wandering and warring of those two incompatible beings, there was still one man born and only one man buried. Jekyll and Hyde have become a proverb and a joke; only it is a proverb read backwards and a joke that nobody really sees. But it might have occurred to the languid critics, as a part of the joke, that the tale is a tragedy; and that this is only another way of saying that the experiment was a failure. The point of the story is not that a man can cut himself off from his conscience, but that he cannot. The surgical operation is fatal in the story. It is an amputation of which both the parts die. Jekyll, even in dying, declares the conclusion of the matter; that the load of man's moral struggle is bound upon him and cannot be thus escaped. The reason is that there can never be equality between the evil and the good. Jekyll and Hyde are not twin brothers. They are rather, as one of them truly remarks, like father and son. After all, Jekyll created Hyde; Hyde would never have created Jekyll; he only destroyed Jekyll.”

— robert louis stevenson, g. k. chesterton

I love how there were (and are -_- ) ppl who interpret(ed) Stanford’s eagerness to sacrifice himself as him just wanting to Play the Hero™ like lmfao of course, bc that’s what someone with a lot of pride who wants the glory of being a savoir would do, be ready to lay down their life for everyone around them (and I do mean everyone, even fucking total strangers) at any given moment. Where they wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of the glory. Bc they’d be fucking dead. Ok. He’s not death seeking or being reckless with his own wellbeing for any other reason whatsoever, I’m sure.

“Stevenson’s story is one which chronicles Jekyll’s self inflicted and protracted destruction of his body and mind in an attempt to rid his life of internal conflict.” Pg 235

Oh Yeah, I forgot I edited these.

I edited these two pictures of Robert Cuccioli from the 1995 First US Tour of Jekyll & Hyde the Musical to be in color back in January.

*in a confession booth* i enjoy making jekyll a pretty boy so i can watch him ruin his life and cry and scream and whither and be beautiful while doing it. i enjoy giving him features i find very attractive and distorting them whenever he transfers into hyde.

i enjoy his outer beauty meaning nothing in the face of the ugliness inside himself

and what if I said Jekyll and Hyde isn’t about splitting yourself in two but about stretching yourself so thin you barely are a person anymore

I've seen a few people questioning if Jekyll knew about Lanyon's death at all seeing as it's never mentioned. I feel that as a long-time friend, there's no way he'd never find out what with people probably sending their condolences his way. I'd say a reason why he wouldn't mention it is that it's unspeakable.

He's rather blasé about his other known crimes. Trampling a child? Dammit, the family saw, but this is easily solved with money. Murdering a man? This is awful, but he didn't know him, he could just as well be any other man. And besides, this provides the perfect excuse to abandon the experiment forever.

Causing the death of one of his best friends? Unspeakable.

This is when he starts disassociating from Hyde altogether, trying to convince himself that he isn't Hyde, that no part of him is Hyde. He didn't just fatally shock his friend for a gloat! That was Hyde.

He won't even mention the consequences of Lanyon's horror, he cannot bear to think of it. He refuses to think of it because it wasn't him- it wasn't even real, it was a dream where Hyde acted of his own accord to turn one of Jekyll's dearest friends against him. The disdain with which Hyde treated Lanyon wasn't his own, he swears.

He doesn't attend the funeral- he's too worried that he'll turn into Hyde in public and doom himself. But the real reason is that he's afraid of facing the truth. If he doesn't attend the funeral, if he rejects visits from people trying to give their condolences, if he refuses to even write the words on paper, he never has to live in the reality where he killed his friend. Instead, he can pretend that Lanyon is just angry at him again, but it soon shall pass. It always does.

Utterson visits. He comes too often to be bearable, he's too genuine in his grief. He's breaking the illusion, send him away, Poole! He stands outside Jekyll's door, begging him to come out.

"He's gone, Henry. It's only the two of us now."

And Jekyll does not answer. Utterson stops visiting.

Progress of the earlier post. I have like ten pieces to draw for classes but absolutely don’t know where to start ok pal…if I want to get any sleep tonight I probably leave this for a while. And I don’t like jekyll’s face