Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde question

[gina7894]

hey,
this is really just a simple question but i don't want to get it wrong so yeah.
is the genre of the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde gothic ??
if so what would you write about it being gothic ?? if not then what is it or what would you put it under ??
thanks

[CookieBallerina]

Jekyll & Hyde doesn't really have a particular genre that it fits into.

Parts of it fit with the "Sherlock Holmes" crime & detective genre, mystery genre, "ghost story", terror & horror gothic. It was written a little later than the big gothic novels such as Frankenstein, Vathek, Udolpho etc, and doesn't fit in with everything the gothic genre entails -- unlike gothic novels, which are set in countries in Eastern Europe, like Transylvania, (making it less scary, as these things are set far from home [less believable that it could happen to you]), Jekyll & Hyde is set in London, a place where the British public reading are familiar with/possibly live in/near. However, the storyline does have something "frankenstein-ish" about it, typical of gothic novels.

Hope that helps -- it confused me too when I studied it.

CB:)

[Wilde woman]

There are some science fiction elements in the story. You could also argue that it's one of the first modern psychological mysteries, because it explores the contradictory desires of a single man.