Cover of Puck Magazine

The Artifact

Puck Magazine was an American publication founded by an Austrian born cartoonist, Joseph Keppler. It started off as a German language publication in 1876. Puck’s first English language edition was printed in 1877. This cover of Puck magazine was published September 21, 1888 at the height of the hysteria surrounding Jack the Ripper. It shows the back of a man who holds a bloody knife, Jack, looking at several drawings of what people thought he would have looked life. The bottom reads “Jack the Ripper. Who is he? What is he? Where is he?”  

Background of Jack the Ripper

In the 1880’s Britain experienced a large influx of immigrants from Ireland, Jewish refugees, and other foreigner’s from Eastern Europe. They mostly congregated in the slums of the East End by the parish of Whitechapel. This area became very overcrowded with the lower class, and there became a high population of low class prostitutes. On March 12, 1888 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde debuted as a play, and in late August of 1888 the first Ripper murder happened. Jack the Ripper sent a collection of letters to the police mocking them for not being able to catch him. He has 5 confirmed victims, and there are 6 murders after the canonical five that were never fully confirmed to be his. The media was a big part for establishing the famous idea that Jack the Ripper was at least a middle class man, making it easy for him to get away from the crime scenes. The police believed that it was a foreign man, most likely a Jewish man or a middle eastern. Jack the Ripper’s case has become one of the most famous serial killer stories of all time. He has showed up in many works of literature, movies, and television shows.

Media Sources and Quotes

New York Times

“There is a bare possibility that it may tun out to be something like the case of Jekyll and Hyde, as Joseph Taylor, a perfectly reliable man, who saw the suspected person this morning in a shabby dress, swears that he has seen the same man coming out of a lodging house in Wilton street very differently dressed….What adds to the weird effect they exert on the London mind is the fact that they occur while everyone is talking about Mansfield’s “Jekyll and Hyde” at the Lyceum.”

The London Times

“The series of shocking crimes perpetrated in Whitechapel, which on Saturday culminated in the murder of the woman Chapman, is something so distinctly outside the ordinary range of human experience… this murderer’s brutish savagery.”

Jekyll and Hyde

“God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say?” (42)

“Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness…” (41)

“Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged. With a transport if glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight in every blow.” (87)

“The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll. And certainly the hate that now divided them was equal on each side.” (91)

Jack the Ripper and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Jack the Ripper has been compared to Jekyll and Hyde many times through history. If we go back to the New York Times article a witness reported seeing a man in shabby clothes go into a lodging station and then come out “very differently dressed.” (New York Times) Although the police had the idea that the suspect was a foreigner, even though there was not a lot of evidence supporting that idea, the media and the public were fixed on the idea that this murderer could easily stay hidden by being a regular englishman. Looking at both through the lense of Darwin’s work also brings to light similarities. Darwin states that rudimentary organs are always present in man, not matter how successfully they are suppressed they are still able to become active should reversion occur. As is seen in both Jack the Ripper and Mr. Hyde they have reverted and used the ‘rudimentary organ’ that would have caused them to become murderous. Darwin also describes primitive man as having a large jaw with canine teeth and as being hairy. Hyde is referenced by Jekyll as having hairy hands. If the cartoon is examined again several of the figures have wild beards or other hairy attributes, including the figure who is looking at the poster.  

Discussion Questions

Is there anything regarding both Jack the Ripper and Jekyll and Hyde as they relate back to the texts by Darwin that would explain why they’ve both stayed in the public eye for so long?

How do you think these events, both Jack the Ripper and the publication of Jekyll and Hyde, affected the British public’s view of Darwin and his work? Do you think they influenced the imperialist views of the British?

Sources

• Curtis, L.. Jack the Ripper and the London Press, Yale University Press, 2002. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wheatonma-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3419898.
• Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Edited by Martin A. Danahay, Broadview Editions, 2005.
• “Puck.” U.S. Senate: Puck, United States Senate, 23 Jan. 2017, www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/puck/puck_intro.htm.