Dr Jekyll and Lord Hyde. Anger, Deviance, and Intersectional Trauma in Penny Dreadful

Ever since Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was first published as a shilling shocker in the winter of 1886, it has transcended its textual boundaries and risen to become one of the most enduring myths of Gothic popular culture. In fact, Robert Louis Stevenson’s seemingly simplistic allegory of the good-evil antithesis lurking in all men has led to an array of inter- and transmedia adaptations, most of which have been subject to a variety of scholarly interpretations. In what follows, I will focus on the third and final season of the TV series Penny Dreadful (2016), directed by John Logan, which presents a unique reimagining of the Jekyll-Hyde dyad within a postcolonial discourse, interwoven with intersectional trauma. After a concise overview of the scholarly literature and major adaptations of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, I will analyse how Logan’s recasting of Dr Jekyll as a chemist of Anglo-Indian descent challenges the traditional association between Mr Hyde and the threat of colonial otherness (Daly 2007) while contextualising Dr Jekyll’s ill temperament within a personal and collective history of imperial oppression. Moreover, I will focus on the series’ problematisation of the archetype of the mad scientist, as Penny Dreadful imbues Dr Jekyll with sadistic traits which redefine Victorian notions of deviance and clinical gaze according to a presentist framework.