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- A pillar of society. He is a good and respectable man. He's known for his charitable work and reads religious texts.
- Socialises in upper-class circles. He frequently hosts dinner parties and is sociable and friendly, with "every mark of capacity and kindness".
- Very aware of how people view him. He carries his "head high" and is "fond of the respect" given to him by the public,
- However, he suppresses his darker side. He has a "deeper trench" than most between his good and bad side, and hides his desires with an "almost morbid sense of shame". As a result, he is committed to a "profound duplicity of life".
- He is an ambitious scientist, experimenting with "transcendental medicine" that crosses the boundary from the material world to the supernatural. Dr Lanyon dismisses his work as "unscientific balderdash".
- He is devoted to his work and wishes to improve the world by it. He hopes to cast off "the curse of mankind", has a desire to be "relieved of all that was unbearable", and willingly "risked death" in pursuit of his aims.
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- Jekyll is an idealised Victorian gentleman - he is sociable and respectable; despite this, he has animalistic desires which he is ashamed of and represses. This shows Stevenson's idea that evil is a trait common to all people in varying degrees.
- When contrasted to Dr Lanyon, Jekyll's role is to push the boundaries of science. His ambitiousness and readiness to question religious doctrine has mixed results. Lanyon calls it "unscientific balderdash".
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- Jekyll increasingly loses control of Hyde as time goes on. At first, he insists that he can "be rid of Hyde"at the moment he chooses. However, one morning he wakes up as Hyde without taking the potion. He admits he's "slowly losing hold of my original and better self". Later on he loses control and Hyde kills Carew with "ape-like fury"
- For a time Jekyll is "at peace", however he suddenly withdraws from society. His contrasting and confusing behaviour is indicative of an internal struggle between the two sides of his personality.
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- "I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man"
- "I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements"
- "Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit"
- "At any moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr Hyde"
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