The Video Game Afterlife of Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
While gothic horror of the Victorian period has frequently served as an atmospheric backdrop to video games of the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, direct adaptations of specific texts from the era have been relatively rare. And, in most instances, these adaptations are rather loose, as is the case with the many games inspired by Dracula. Contrary to this general trend, however, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has provided direct source material to a host of video games in the last several decades, from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1988), to Jekyll and Hyde (Microsoft Windows, 2001), to, most recently, MazM: Jekyll & Hyde (various platforms, 2017-2020). Whereas previous scholarship has focused solely on the 1988 game’s narrative structure and reconceptualization of characters, this paper will consider why Stevenson’s novella has provided such a fertile source text for video games, as well as the politics of these digital adaptations. In so doing, it will explore these games as a dynamic neo-Victorian terrain in which a superficial educational impulse masks an intervention into critical issues surrounding colonialism and gender. For instance, MazM: Jekyll & Hyde follows the novel’s plot while featuring new characters who provide “facts” about nineteenth-century culture. These “facts” recirculate problematic period notions of gendered violence (through anachronistic references to Jack the Ripper) and colonial economics (through engagement with seafaring merchants). Overall, this paper will argue for the significance of these video game adaptations as a nostalgic neo-Victorian ideological space in which the contemporary understanding of the Victorian era is being constantly remade, particularly in the imaginations of youthful gamers.
Stephen Grandchamp is an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and Literature at the University of Maine at Farmington. His research engages the intersection of traditional literary texts and emerging digital media like streaming platforms and video games. He is also Co-Director of the New Commons Project, a public and digital humanities initiative building an in-person and online cultural commons for the state of Maine, as well as Manager of the Digital Humanities Lab at the University of Maine at Farmington.
