Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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Chapter One Summary

Chapter 1 - Story of the Door

  • Utterson and Enfield are taking their regular Sunday stroll 
  • They come upon a neglected building, which seems out of place in the neighborhood, and Enfield relates a story in connection with it
  • Enfield was walking in the same neighborhood late one night, when he witnessed a shrunken, misshapen man crash into and trample a young girl. He collared the man.
  • The man, seeing himself trapped, bought them off with one hundred pounds, which he obtained upon entering the neglected building through its only door.
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Chapter Two Summary

Chapter 2 - Search for Mr Hyde

  • Utterson prompted by his conversation with Enfield goes home to study a will given to him by his friend Dr Henry Jekyll
  • In the dissapearance of Henry Jekyll all belongings are to be given to Mr Edward Hyde
  • Utterson becomes convinced that Hyde has some kind of power over Jekyll
  • Utterson has a nightmare about a faceless man looming over Jekyll 
  • After the nightmare Utterson goes to visit Jekyll only to be told by Poole he is not home
  • The run-down building that Hyde frequents is actually a laboratory attached to Jekyll’s well-kept townhouse, 
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Chapter Three Summary

Chapter 3 - Dr Jekyll was quite at ease

  • Two weeks later, Jekyll throws a well-attended dinner party.
  • Utterson stays late so that the two men can speak privately.
  • Utterson mentions the will, and Jekyll begins to make a joke about it
  • Jekyll looks uncomfortable when Utterson says he is learning about Hyde
  • "The moment I choose, I can be rid of Mr. Hyde."
  • Jekyll emphasizes the great interest he currently takes in Hyde
  • He makes Utterson promise that he will carry out his will and testament.
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Chapter Four Summary

Chapter Four - The Carew Murder

  • One year later, the scene opens on a maid who witnesses a murder take place in the street below.
  • She sees a small, evil-looking man, whom she recognizes as Mr. Hyde, encounter a polite, aged gentleman; when the gentleman offers Hyde a greeting,
  • Hyde suddenly turns on him with a stick, beating him to death.
  • The police find a letter addressed to Utterson on the dead body, and they consequently summon the lawyer.
  • He identifies the body as Sir Danvers Carew, a popular member of Parliament and one of his clients.
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Chapter Five Summary

Chapter 5 - Incident of the Letter

  • Utterson calls on Jekyll, whom he finds in his laboratory looking deathly ill
  • Jekyll feverishly claims that Hyde has left and that their relationship has ended
  • He also assures Utterson that the police shall never find the man
  • Jekyll then shows Utterson a letter and asks him what he should do with it, since he fears it could damage his reputation 
  • Utterson asks if Hyde dictated the terms of Jekyll’s will - Jekyll says yes
  • Utterson consults his trusted clerk, Mr. Guest, who is an expert on handwriting. Guest compares Hyde’s letter with some of Jekyll’s own writing and suggests that the same hand inscribed both;
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Chapter Six Summary

Chapter 6 - Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon

  • Jekyll becomes healthier-looking and more sociable, devoting himself to charity.
  • To Utterson, it appears that the removal of Hyde’s evil influence has had a tremendously positive effect on Jekyll
  • After two months of this placid lifestyle, Jekyll holds a dinner party, which both Utterson and Lanyon attend, and the three talk together as old friends
  • A few days later, when Utterson calls on Jekyll, Poole reports that his master is receiving no visitors.
  • Utterson goes to visit Lanyon, hoping to learn why Jekyll has refused any company. 
  • He finds Lanyon in very poor health, pale and sickly, with a frightened look in his eyes.
  • Lanyon explains that he has had a great shock and expects to die in a few weeks
  • Lanyon dies a few weeks later, fulfilling his prophecy
  • Utterson takes from his safe a letter that Lanyon meant for him to read after he died.
  • Inside, Utterson finds only another envelope, marked to remain sealed until Jekyll also has died
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Chapter Seven Summary

Chapter 7 - Incident at the Window

  • The following Sunday, Utterson and Enfield are taking their regular stroll
  • He notes that the story that began with the trampling has reached an end, as London will never again see Mr. Hyde.
  • Enfield mentions that  he has learned that the run-down laboratory they pass is physically connected to Jekyll’s house, and they both stop to peer into the house’s windows, with Utterson noting his concern for Jekyll’s health
  • Jekyll is at the window, enjoying the fresh air. Jekyll complains that he feels “very low,” and Utterson suggests that he join them for a walk, to help his circulation.
  • Jekyll refuses, saying that he cannot go out.
  • A look of terror seizes his face, and he quickly shuts the window and vanishes.
  • Utterson and Enfield depart in shocked silence.
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Chapter Eight Summary

Chapter 8 - The Last Night

  • Jekyll’s butler Poole visits Utterson one night after dinner. He says  that he believes there has been some “foul play” regarding Dr. Jekyll; he quickly brings Utterson to his master’s residence. 
  • The night is dark and windy, and the streets are deserted
  •  When he reaches Jekyll’s house, he finds the servants gathered fearfully in the main hall.
  • A strange voice responds to Poole when asked, sounding nothing like that of Jekyll; the owner of the voice tells Poole that he can receive no visitors.
  • Poole declares that the person he saw come out of the lab was smaller than his master—and looked, in fact, like none other than Mr. Hyde.
  • Utterson resolves that he and Poole should break into the laboratory
  • Once inside, the men find Hyde’s body lying on the floor, a crushed vial in his hand. 
  • They find a large envelope addressed to Utterson 
  • The first is a will, much like the previous one, except that it replaces Hyde’s name with Utterson’s. The second is a note to Utterson, with the present day’s date on it.
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Chapter Nine Summary

Chapter 9 - Dr Lanyon's Narrative

  • Lanyon writes that after Jekyll’s last dinner party, he received a strange letter from Jekyll.
  • The letter asked Lanyon to go to Jekyll’s home and, with the help of Poole, break into the upper room—or “cabinet”—of Jekyll’s laboratory.
  • The letter instructed Lanyon then to remove a specific drawer and all its contents from the laboratory, return with this drawer to his own home, and wait for a man who would come to claim it precisely at midnight.
  • The locksmith broke into the lab, and Lanyon returned home with the drawer. Within the drawer, Lanyon found several vials, one containing what seemed to be salt and another holding a peculiar red liquid.
  • The drawer also contained a notebook recording what seemed to be years of experiments, with little notations such as “double” or “total failure!!!” scattered amid a long list of dates. for him.
  • Hyde paused and asked Lanyon whether he should leave and take the glass with him, or whether he should stay and drink it in front of Lanyon, allowing the doctor to witness
  • Lanyon, irritated, declared that he had already become so involved in the matter that he wanted to see the end of it.
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Chapter Ten Summary

Chapter 10 - Henry Jekyll's full statement of the case

  • Jekyll writes that upon his birth he possessed a large inheritance, a healthy body, and a hardworking, decent nature.
  • By the time he was fully grown, he found himself leading a dual life, in which his better side constantly felt guilt for the transgressions of his darker side.
  • Jekyll insists that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he records how he dreamed of separating the good and evil natures.
  • He had become the shrunken, deformed Mr. Hyde. He hypothesizes that Hyde’s small stature owed to the fact that this persona represented his evil side alone, which up to that point had been repressed.
  • It was not until two months before the Carew murder that Jekyll found cause for concern. While asleep one night, he involuntarily transformed into Hyde—without the help of the potion—and awoke in the body of his darker half.
  • In his last, desperate hours, Hyde grew stronger as Jekyll grew weaker. 
  • He thus used the last of the potion to buy himself time during which to compose this final letter. Jekyll writes that he does not know whether Hyde will kill himself or be arrested and hanged—but he knows that by the time Utterson reads this letter, Henry Jekyll will be no more.
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Themes in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

  • Duality
  • Science & Religion
  • Secrecy
  • Good and Evil
  • Desire
  • Repression
  • Friendship
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