In the beginning of Chapter 2, the author tells the reader about how in Dr. Jekyll’s will, he leaves everything to Mr. Hyde, ”... it provided not only that in case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D, F.R.S., etc., all his possessions were to pass into the
At one point Utterson and his friend Enfield walk across Dr. Jekyll's residence and invite him for a walk. At this point, Dr. Jekyll transforms into a strange being. He closes the window and disappears from their view. This horrifies the two but Utterson does not follow up
Mr. Utterson, it turns out, is Dr. Jekyll’s lawyer, and we find out that in the event of Dr. Jekyll’s death or disappearance, his entire estate is to be turned over to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson, who thinks highly of Dr. Jekyll, is extremely suspicious of this whole arrangement. He resolves to get to the bottom of this mystery. He hunts down Mr. Hyde and is suitably impressed with the evil just oozing out of his pores. He then asks Dr. Jekyll about these odd arrangements.
Jekyll and Mr. Finch was their enemies. Mr. Hyde had no pity for Dr. Jekyll losing himself and wanted to take over his body as the side full of moral turpitude. Because of this, and Dr. Jekyll’s hidden love for immoral thoughts and actions, he started to consistently turn into Hyde. “Yes, I had gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde. How was this to be explained?
Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired;” (Page 93). When it says, “Jekyll was no worse”, it means that Hyde was the one who did all the physical action, but since Jekyll knew what was going on and didn't say anything it makes him as bad. Jekyll wanted to live a double life and do all the bad things he wanted to do as Hyde so he doesn't ruin his reputation. Even though Jekyll didn’t physically do anything so he wouldn’t ruin his reputation he still did something wrong. When people found out about the murder Hyde committed they blamed Jekyll.
But Utterson believes the letter was forged by Jekyll. With the servants of Jekyll scared, Utterson continues his investigation and finds Hyde dead from poison. Jekyll sents a letter to Dr. Lanyon to get something from his laboratory, but Hyde comes to pick it up who then
Jekyll’s butler, to break down the door of the doctor’s laboratory. They were breaking in to confront the person hiding there, who was impersonating Dr. Jekyll. On page 37 the narrator states, “The scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite dark. The wind, which only broke in puffs and draughts into that deep well of the building, tossed the light of the candle to and fro about their steps, until they came into the shelter of the theater, where they sat down silently to wait. London hummed solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only broken by the sounds of a footfall moving to and fro along the cabinet floor.”
However, Jekyll’s good psyche was quick to act and regain control of their mind. Months later, when Utterson is reading the full statement of the case, he discovered that “[t]he power of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll” (Stevenson 62). Jekyll has become sick literally and metaphorically from Hyde. The actions of Hyde in the murder caused Jekyll to become mentally ill from the constant fear of Hyde’s power. Jekyll is also “sick” with himself for creating the monster Hyde has become.
Jekyll demonstrates the better qualities of people, and the desire to live a respectable life. He represents goodness through many actions, including his final, unforgivable, sin that destroys himself and Hyde for the betterment of everyone (I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end”). Hyde’s represents the sinister, evil, parallel opposite of Jekyll, as he wishes only to do evil(“Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth”)(Stephenson 43). Hyde’s trampling of the girl, and killing Sir Danvers Carew for no apparent reason other than spite furthers the claims that has no apparent control over his morbid acts.
When the story opens, a story is being told about how Hyde trampled a young girl. Rather than stay on the scene, he retreats. It is Jekyll who provides the family with a check in order to keep them silent about the tragedy. Mutual friends of Jekyll’s, Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon, are suspicious of the possible individual who could be terrorizing London, and they begin to investigate on their own. Jekyll wanted to separate his good side from his evil impulses creating a potion that would allow him to do that physically.
This in itself is answered and directly bought up by Jekyll in the book, with the quote: I believe that this quote explains that Dr. Jekyll feels that although Hyde is pure evil, he knows that there is also an evil side to Jekyll – he allowed Hyde to exist, fully well knowing that Hyde would be dangerous. Alongside the titular Hyde and Jekyll is Utterson – Jekyll’s best friend who is only trying to find the truth and bring righteous justice – compared to his colleagues, he is a lot less judgmental of bad actions; and will only choose to judge when he has answers. Throughout the story, Utterson is trying to find out the truth about Hyde – who he is, and where he came from, et cetera – as well as Jekyll, wanting to know information like why he entrusted his fortune to such an unknown and shady person such as Hyde – as shown in the
Jekyll first finds out that Mr. Utterson wanted to talk about his will he immediately tries to change the topic this gives a sense of secrecy and mystery. This leaves the reader to wonder what Dr. Jekyll is trying to hide, furthermore when Mr. Utterson tries to pursue the topic by mentioning that he has “been learning something of young Hyde” The doctors features darkened “he grew pale to the very lips, and there came a blackness about his eyes” This is the first link Stevenson gives us between the Mr. Hyde who is almost shrouded in secrecy throughout the novel and the respectable Dr. Jekyll, this generates a sense of mystery in the reader trying to figure out what the relationship between the two are. Soon afterwards Jekyll convinces Mr. Utterson to keep Hyde a private matter and tells him everything is under his control and he can “be rid of Hyde” at any moment he pleases. However on the second reading the reader knows that the situation is in fact quite the contradiction to what he just said, so this gives an effect of dramatic irony.
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson is a book that intrigues one’s mind, because it makes us question ourselves about the balance between the two opposing forces. The story starts out with Mr. Utterson, a lawyer and a great friend of Dr. Jekyll, hearing about Hyde for the first time, who is very shady and somewhat misconfigured. Mr. Utterson hears about Hyde’s bad reputation, and his usage of Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory; therefore, Mr. Utterson suspects some kind of relationship between Hyde and Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Utterson’s friend Lanyon, who is a doctor, dies after Dr. Jekyll goes into seclusion; Mr. Utterson goes to Dr. Jekyll’s house to seek the truth behind Lanyon’s death, but he instead sees Hyde dead. Mr. Utterson
During this scene takes the place of a climactic mental battle between Jekyll and Hyde, with Hyde doing most of the fighting, swearing that he will completely take control of Jekyll. A short mourning scene for Lucy follows this, and then enters Utterson and Carew who narrate to the audience that Jekyll had finally given up his quest to help his father and settled to get married. During the wedding, Jekyll has a last transfiguration into Hyde, in which he grabs and kills Simon Stride, and then threatens to kill Emma. She sings to him and brings out Jekyll. Jekyll finally ends Hyde’s reign of terror by grabbing John’s sword and killing himself with it.
Jekyll wanted to release his inner self, but in doing so, he released a madman that murdered Sir Danver Carew. Hyde also indirectly caused another death in the novel; when Dr. Lanyon seen the transfiguration in the park and Hyde insisted that he go retrieve the ingredients for the potion to turn him back to Jekyll, he was traumatized by the whole incident. Not only did the appearance of Hyde begin to consume Jekyll, but also Jekyll began to grow weak and sick while Hyde grew stronger (Moss). Jekyll knew that Hyde was bad, but in the end, the power of Hyde and the overwhelming guilt from Hyde’s choices was too