Chapter One: Story of the Door
As they take their regular Sunday walk together, Richard Enfield tells his friend Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer, a story related to a neglected doorway in a quiet street. One winter night, Enfield saw a repulsive-looking man named Mr Hyde trample a young girl in the street. When Hyde was put under pressure by angry witnesses to the scene, he went into the door to fetch a cheque for a hundred pounds, as recompense to the girl and her family. Enfield was surprised at the name on the cheque, as it was someone very respectable, while the repulsive Hyde could not have appeared less so. Utterson is sure he knows the name of the man who signed the cheque, even though Enfield has not revealed it. Both men are reluctant to delve into other people’s business, and agree not to mention the story again.
Chapter Two: Search for Mr Hyde
Utterson looks over a will which was entrusted to him by Dr Henry Jekyll, which places all of Jekyll’s property in the hands of Edward Hyde. Mr Utterson disapproved of the will previously, but now he knows more about Hyde, he is even more concerned about it. He goes to seek the advice of his friend Dr Hastie Lanyon. He and Lanyon are old friends of Jekyll’s, but Lanyon admits he has seen little of Jekyll recently, as they have differed over a scientific matter. Lanyon has never heard of Hyde.
Utterson cannot sleep for thinking of the matter that night, and is determined the next day that he shall find Hyde. He haunts the door pointed out to him by Enfield at all times of day and night. Eventually, his patience is rewarded. He accosts Hyde as he is about to enter the door, and introduces himself. Hyde gives him his address and allows him to see his face, so he will know him again. Utterson is unable to explain the horror and loathing inspired by Hyde’s face, and pities Jekyll for having come under the power of such a man. He calls at Jekyll’s and is told that Jekyll is out, but that Hyde recently came in through the laboratory. The mysterious door is in fact a back entrance to Jekyll’s house. Utterson concludes that Hyde must be blackmailing Jekyll based on a dark secret from his wild youth. He is determined to do something about it, perhaps by finding an even blacker secret of Hyde’s to use against him.
Chapter Three: Dr Jekyll Was Quite at Ease
After a dinner at Jekyll’s house, Utterson presses him further on the matter of the will and Hyde. Jekyll is clearly disturbed that Utterson has met Hyde, but will only say that although he could be rid of him if he wished, he takes a great interest in him, and he extracts a promise from Utterson to look after him when Jekyll is gone.
Chapter Four: The Carew Murder Case
Nearly a year later, Hyde is seen murdering the MP, Sir Danvers Carew. Carew was carrying a letter for Utterson, so the police call on him. Utterson identifies the cane used to murder Carew as belonging to Jekyll. Utterson takes a police officer to Hyde’s house, where they find elegant rooms that have recently been ransacked, and ashes from papers that have been burnt. A charred remnant of a cheque book leads to the discovery of Hyde’s bank account. The officer hopes to catch him by waiting for him to come to withdraw money from the bank.
Chapter Five: Incident of the Letter
Utterson calls on Jekyll, who says he has had a ‘lesson’ and swears he is finished with Hyde. Jekyll gives Utterson a letter from Hyde saying that he is safe, which Jekyll says came by hand rather than post. He asks Utterson what to do about it. Utterson agrees to think about it. Jekyll’s servant Poole, however, when Utterson questions him, is certain that no letters came by hand that day. Utterson shows the letter to his clerk Mr Guest. Guest notices that the handwriting is almost identical to Jekyll’s. Utterson now thinks the letter has been forged by Jekyll to protect Hyde.
Chapter Six: Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon
Hyde disappears, and Jekyll begins a renewed life of friendship and virtue which lasts for over two months. However, it suddenly comes to an end and Jekyll secludes himself in his house, seeing no one. Utterson goes to see Lanyon and finds him physically weak, mentally traumatised and not far from death. Lanyon refuses to discuss Jekyll and dies shortly afterwards. Utterson receives a letter from Lanyon which he is not to open until after the death or disappearance of Jekyll. Utterson gradually visits Jekyll less and less, as the reports from Poole are unvarying: Jekyll secludes himself for most of the time in a cabinet (a small room) above the laboratory, sometimes even sleeping there.
Chapter Seven: Incident at the Window
On their regular Sunday walk, Enfield and Utterson discuss Hyde again as they pass the door, which Enfield now realises is a back entrance to Jekyll’s house. They look up at the windows of Jekyll’s house and see Jekyll at one of them. After a short conversation, during which he refuses Utterson’s invitation to join them on their walk, Jekyll’s face is suddenly filled with terror and despair and he rapidly shuts the window. Utterson and Enfield are both horrified by what they have witnessed.
Chapter Eight: The Last Night
Poole comes to fetch Utterson to Jekyll’s house. He fears foul play. Utterson agrees to break into the cabinet where Jekyll has hidden himself, and where Poole believes Hyde has murdered him, and remains in hiding. When they break in, Utterson and Poole find the dead body of Hyde, who has killed himself. He has left behind a will in Utterson’s favour and an account for him to read, with instructions to read Lanyon’s first. Utterson returns to his house to read the two accounts which will explain the mystery.
Chapter Nine: Dr Lanyon’s Narrative
Lanyon describes how he received a letter from Jekyll instructing him to have a locksmith open his private cabinet in order to retrieve a drawer containing various chemicals. Lanyon was then to await a visitor at midnight who would come on Jekyll’s behalf. The visitor was Hyde, and Lanyon beheld with complete horror the transformation of Hyde to Jekyll after he had taken the chemicals. Jekyll confessed to Lanyon the terrible history of his experiment, but Lanyon would not write it down. After seeing this horrific thing, Lanyon knew his days were numbered.
Chapter Ten: Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case
Jekyll describes how he lived a double life, wanting to have a respectable professional persona while also indulging secretly in shameful vices. In order to resolve the terrible sense of divided personality, he sought and found a way of changing his body, so that he could take on that of Edward Hyde, who was not a mixture of good and evil like Jekyll, but pure evil. Jekyll did this by taking a mixture of chemicals which he had discovered through his scientific investigations. He enjoyed the liberty of being completely unrestrained by any moral scruples, and became addicted to regular adventures as Hyde. To make his adventures less risky, he arranged various safeguards: he rented rooms for Hyde and opened a bank account for him, as well as inventing handwriting for him by sloping his own writing backwards.
One morning, Jekyll awoke after having been out the previous night as Hyde. He had returned to his normal appearance before going to bed, but by the time he awoke, he had reverted, without taking any chemicals, to the appearance of Hyde. Afraid that he might become Hyde permanently if he continued to indulge his vices, Jekyll resolved to give up his transformations. He succeeded in this for two months, but then, when he gave in to temptation, Hyde was more evil than ever, and murdered Sir Danvers Carew.
After the murder, Jekyll realised that he could no longer be Hyde, as Hyde was wanted for murder, and he was relieved to think that this would help him not to give in to temptation again. He entered upon a reformed life, determined to make up for his past evil. But when indulged his vices once more, although he did it as himself, he soon afterwards turned into Hyde without any chemicals to provoke the transformation. From that point onwards, he continually turned into Hyde without any chemicals, and continually had to use the chemicals to revert to Jekyll. He had to remain in his house, close to his chemicals; it was not safe to go out. Finally, his original supply of chemicals ran out, and he could not find another supply that was exactly alike. There was some unknown impurity in the original supply which rendered it effective. When he realised this, Jekyll knew that he would soon turn permanently into Hyde, and would die either of suicide or of execution for murder.
THE BIG IDEA - WHY DOES THIS TEXT EXIST?
(you can use this to create your thesis statements and build your essay arguments)
Jekyll and Hyde is about the duality in society and inside us all.
duality = double / two opposites
TOP ESSAY QUESTIONS
CHARACTERS & QUOTATIONS*
Utterson is moral and trustworthy.
‘last good influence’
‘If he be Mr Hyde, I shall be Mr Seek’
‘Ghost of some old sin’
Dr Jekyll is troubled.
‘smooth faced’
‘Man is not truly one but truly two’
‘thick cloak’
‘terror... as sudden and startling as the crash of cymbals’
‘Chief of sinners, chief of sufferers’
Mr Hyde is violent and uncontrollable.
‘trampled calmly’
‘Satan’
‘ape-like fury’
‘deformed’
Hyde burns Jekyll’s letters and destroys his father’s portrait.
Dr Lanyon is moral and terrified.
‘unscientific balderdash’
‘soul sickened’
‘shock of hair’ ‘bald’
SETTING
CONTEXT & THEMES
Good vs Evil
In Victorian society, people had strong faith in God. They believed God had created humans as superior beings with a soul, who could choose to be good and suppress any evil. Contrary to these views, in 1859, Charles Darwin published his Theory of Evolution, stating that human beings evolved from apes and have animalistic instincts within us.
How does Stevenson explore this in the novel?
Science vs Religion
There were many scientific developments in the Victorian era. Some religious Victorians were afraid of science because they offered new explanations of the world that sometimes went against what they believed. For example, Charles Darwin’sTheory of Evolution stated that human beings evolved from apes, which went against the idea that God created the world.
How does Stevenson explore this in the novel?
Honesty vs Secrets
In Victorian society, there were very strict codes of behaviour that people were expected to follow. Strong religious believers criticised drinking, expressing sexual desire and being too loud or boisterous; they praised people who were strict with themselves and stopped themselves from doing things they enjoyed as a mark of their faith. This meant many people did immoral things in secret, without anyone knowing.
How does Stevenson explore this in the novel?
STRUCTURE:
VOCABULARY*