When I read the original story of Jekyll and Hyde, I was struck by how little actually happens in it. All of the adaptations over the years have added so much the original feels like a let down. We never even find out why Jekyll felt moved to create his alter-ego Hyde — we know that he has some repressed urge he needs an outlet for, but we never know what it is. As modern readers, we assume it’s sex, but there is no inkling of sex in the original which is as repressed and buttoned down as it’s possible to be. In a way, this is one of the strengths of the story, because it lets the reader put in their own repressed desires.
As I retold it, as erotica of course the missing urge is sex, but it’s more than that. These characters just want to feel something, and if they have to turn into different people and employ whips to feel anything at all, that’s what they are going to do.