Dark & Twisty

As I've been reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I started to think about all the characters similar to Hyde in Victorian England.  Of course, the first that comes to mind is Jack the Ripper. He is a very similar figure to Hyde, even though he didn't start killing until a year after this book was published. But I remember several other bloody characters besides Mr. Hyde.

One of the things that suprises me is how much Jekyll and Hyde seem like the Jack the Ripper cases.  I think I've seen too many Hammer Movies or other cinematic takes on the tale.  I looked up some things as well.

About a decade before the publication of the book and the Ripper murders, Victorians were haunted by a springheel Jack.  This was  a character or monster that looked like a human, committed murders and then sprang out of sight like he had, well, spring heels.  This is funny story but it is so much like Hyde and the Ripper that they fit together.  These tales might have even inspired Hyde.

Then there is of course the Demon Barber of Fleet Street Mr. Sweeny Todd.  He was before this time.  HE stalked around in the early 1800's penny dreadfuls, but his story was set earlier in the 1700's.

The thing is that Victorians, to have been so staunch and pragmatic, loved their bloody horror tales.  They seemed to relish in the gore of all these murders and what not.  That came up with wonder tales about the killers.  They saw a lot of death from disease and war, so bloody murders in real life and fiction and the mixtures of the two make sense for these folks.

I enjoy reading about these other bloody Victorians.  Just the other night my wife and I watched From Hell.  It was only the second time I watched it and her first.  I noticed so many similarities to Jekyll and Hyde though.