Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde vs. The Mortal Immortal

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is set in the non-traditional setting of London streets, instead of your usual gothic favorite of swamps or forests. There are no castles or abandoned abbeys. Although, I found myself getting very bored with the slow progression of this novel, I found it intriguing that Mr. Stevenson decided to take a new spin on “gothic” and create his own terms of gothic-ness.

I liked that the essential “monster” quality of the tale, is  the mystery behind Mr. Hyde himself. There is no ghost or helmet flying through the air. The mystery and gossip behind Mr. Hyde is what gives him all of his grotesque characteristics. You want to be disgusted with him but you are drawn in because you need to know more.

I feel like it is the same sort of thing with “The Mortal Immortal.” The story’s monstrous quality stems from something that the character does to himself. In both stories, the main character creates the mystery and suspense and the grotesque by making himself something that the reader despises.  In “The Mortal Immortal,” you feel so bad for him and his wife, that you actually wish him to be dead too, just so that he could have his happy ending. In “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” you love Dr. Jekyll so much that you want to stop Hyde from benefitting from anything until you realize the he is actually Dr. Jekyll himself.

There are gothic qualities to both of these tales but the qualities were not quite as obvious in “The Mortal Immortal” as they have been in past novels. Both stories were alright, but I didn’t particularly enjoy either one of them. Northanger Abbey was way better.