Jekyll and Hyde Chapter Summaries

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Chapter Chapter Summary Key Quotes Context Themes
Mr Enfield tells the story of a ‘..something displeasing, We see the clear class Appearances
Chapter 1 man that he saw trample something downright detestable’ separation that was apparent Violence
Story of the Door over a young girl to Mr ‘trampled calmly.. like some in Victorian society at the Class distinction
damned Juggernaut’
Utterson. When asked to pay ‘..so ugly that it brought out the
time, through the contrast of Reputation
off the girl’s family, the man, sweat on me like running’ Mr Enfield and Mr Utterson,
Hyde, produces a check ‘..sick and white with the desire two wealthy men, and Hyde.
signed with a different to kill him’ It is also clear how classes
signature to his own. We are ‘..wild as harpies’ are linked to actions: Due to
told, through Enfield, that he ‘..a kind of black, sneering Hyde’s apparent lower class,
coolness…like Satan’
may be blackmailing the upper class gentlemen
‘..gives a strong feeling of
someone. deformity’
presume that he is
blackmailing someone.

We find out about the ‘..Hyde should step into…Jekyll’s The ‘Freak Shows’ that were Curiosity
Chapter 2 oddness of Dr Jekyll’s will – shoes without…delay’ a key part of life in the Class distinction
Search for Mr Hyde he is leaving everything to ‘..hearty, healthy, dapper, red- Victorian era, it is suggested Appearances
faced gentleman
Hyde. ‘..he began to go wrong, wrong in
in many ways that Hyde is a
Curious, Utterson speaks to the mind’ type of ‘Freak’ that is
Dr Lanyon about Hyde and ‘Such unscientific balderdash … speculated upon, most
then camps out to meet him. would have estranged Damon prominently by Utterson,
He finally speaks to Hyde and and Pythias’ who is desperate to see his
then proceeds to talk to ‘…face of a man…without bowels ‘deformities’
of mercy’
Jekyll, who is not in.
‘…hissing intake..’

Jekyll hosts a dinner party, to ‘ a large, well-made, smooth- This chapter links rather Curiosity
Chapter 3 which Utterson is invited. faced man of fifty with…a slyish nicely to the façade that Pretence
Dr Jekyll Was Quite at Ease Once the rest of the guests cast’ many Victorians would put Appearances
‘a sincere and warm affection’
have departed, Utterson ‘..an ignorant, blatant pedant.’
up to conceal whatever was
seizes the opportunity to ‘grew pale to the very lips...there going on beneath the surface
question Jekyll about his came a blackness about his and behind closed doors.
acquaintance with Hyde. eyes..’ Jekyll seems cheerful and
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Jekyll grows defensive and ‘I can be rid of Mr Hyde’ happy on the outside to his
tells Utterson to leave him ‘I beg you to let it sleep’ guests, but underneath there
alone. is something far more dark
and sinister lurking.
We hear of the murder of Sir ‘..small and…wicked-looking’ This chapter, yet again, links Good and evil
Chapter 4 Danvers Carew, a wealthy ‘,like a district of some city in a to the violence that was Appearances
The Carew Murder Case man who was beaten to nightmare’ caused by the poorer and Violence
‘broke out of all bounds and
death by Hyde. Utterson, clubbed him to the earth’
cast out members of society. Curiosity
along with Inspector ‘hailing down a storm of blows’ The dichotomy between the
Newcomen, goes to Hyde’s ‘bones were audibly shattered’ classes in the Victorian era is
house as part of the enquiry ‘incredibly mangled…insensate also emphasised through the
and speaks to his land lady. cruelty’ contrasting descriptions of
They look into the rooms, ‘aged and beautifully man with Carew and Hyde.
white hair’
which look like they have
‘madman’
been ransacked and there is ‘his habits were very irregular’
a burnt cheque book on the ‘recently and hurriedly ransacked
floor.
Mr Utterson pays another ‘dingy, windowless structure..’ Through Mr Guest, we see Pretence and deceit
Chapter 5 visit to Dr Jekyll. When ‘distasteful sense of strangeness’ Freud’s theories highlighted Suspicion
Incident of the Letter Utterson mentions the ‘three dusty windows barred yet again, as he studies Repression
with iron’
murder, Jekyll tells him he ‘light falling dimly through the
handwriting in order to
has nothing more to do with foggy cupola’ discover people’s
Hyde. Jekyll then shows ‘Dr Jekyll [was] looking deadly personalities. We also see
Utterson a letter, allegedly sick’ the common Victorian façade
written by Hyde, stating that ‘I swear to God…it is all at an end’ put up around Jekyll as he
Hyde was thankful for Jekyll’s ‘I am quite done with him’ deceives Utterson again.
‘need labour under no harm for
kindness and was now
his safety’
leaving him in peace. ‘with a qualm of faintness’
Utterson visits his employer ‘The fog…slept on the wing above
Mr Guest*, a studier of the drowned city’
handwriting, who compares ‘muffle and smother of these
the letter from Hyde to a fallen clouds’
dinner invite from Jekyll – ‘rolling in through the great
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the writing is the same. arteries’
*Could be a nomenclature ‘a murderers autograph’
which tells us that he guesses ‘his blood ran cold in his veins’
the connection between
Jekyll and Hyde: Guest and
Guess

Chapter 6 Jekyll appears to be a ‘became once more their familiar We see the oddness and Appearances
Remarkable Incident of Dr changed man, and things guest and entertainer’ unpredictability of Jekyll’s Suspicion
Lanyon seem to go back to the way ‘his face seemed to open and actions, linking to Freud’s Reputation
brighten’
they were ten years ‘the doctor was at peace’
theories about the mind. We
previously, when Lanyon, ‘ he had his death-warrant writer also see most clearly the
Utterson and Jekyll were legibly on his face’ contrasts between Jekyll’s
inseparable. Suddenly, Jekyll ‘flesh had fallen away’ disturbed behaviour and his
does not wish to see anyone ‘swift visible decay’ now apparent ‘normal’ one
and shuts himself away. Dr ‘testify some deep seated terror that he has gone back to now
of the mind’
Lanyon dies and Utterson that Hyde has gone.
‘declared himself a doomed man’
opens the letter from him, ‘face changed and he held up a
but must wait until Jekyll’s trembling hand’
death to read the contents. ‘If I am the chief of sinners, I am
He stops visiting Jekyll. the chief of sufferers also’
‘the dark influence of Hyde’
‘lead a life of extreme seclusion’

The following Sunday, ‘very cool and a little damp, and This chapter links Appearances
Chapter 7 Utterson and Enfield are full of premature twilight’ undoubtedly to the Suspicion
Incident at the Window taking their regular stroll. ‘high up overhead, was still bright unshakable devotion to God Good and Evil
with sunset’
They pass the infamous door ‘like some disconsolate prisoner’
in the Victorian era, by the
and peer into the windows, ‘the smile was struck out of his way Utterson and Enfield
to find Jekyll looking out and face’ called to God when they felt
enjoying the air. When told ‘as expression of such…terror and endangered.
to join them on their walk, despair’
Jekyll says he cannot leave ‘froze the very blood of the two
gentlemen’
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the house. Then, just as they ‘both pale; and there was…horror
resume polite conversation, in their eyes’
a look of terror seizes his ‘God forgive us, God forgive us’
face, and he quickly shuts the
window and vanishes.
Utterson and Enfield depart
in shocked silence.

Poole comes to visit Utterson ‘I think there’s been foul play’ This chapter links to Darwin’s Appearances
Chapter 8 seeking his aid saying that he ‘pale moon, lying of her back as theory about evolution, by Fear
The Last Night fears that Jekyll has been though the wind had tilted her’ the way in which Hyde is Suspicion
‘he had never seen…London so
murdered. Utterson arrives deserted’
described as a monkey. Violence and murder
at Jekyll’s house and finds ‘very white and nervous’ We also see the faith people
the servants gathered in the ‘The steps fell lightly and oddly’ placed in God in the
hall. He breaks down the ‘Weeping like a woman or a lost Victorian era, through Poole
door to Jekyll’s cabinet to soul’ and Utterson when they
find Hyde, dead on the floor. ‘masked thing like a monkey’ were preparing to break into
‘rosy glow playing on the roof’
They find Jekyll’s will has Jekyll’s cabinet.
‘the fire sparkling in a hundred
been altered, leaving repetitions’
everything to Utterson, and a ‘your unworthy and unhappy
letter from Jekyll telling him friend’
to read the letter from
Lanyon.

Told in Lanyon’s point of ‘If you fail me to-night I am lost.’ This chapter links to the Appearances
Chapter 9 view. ‘In my extreme distress of mind’ Victorian beliefs about the Fear
Dr Lanyon’s narrative We read the letter left to ‘charged your conscience with power of medicine and its Curiosity
my death or the shipwreck of my
Lanyon by Jekyll that reason’
seemingly limitless abilities,
Utterson acquired after his ‘labouring under a blackness of due to the new scientific
death. The letter gave distress’ medical breakthroughs being
Lanyon instructions, which ‘whetted my curiosity’ made at the time:
he follows: Go to Jekyll’s ‘policeman…advancing with his anaesthetic was invented in
bull’s eye open’
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house, get the draw of ‘the shipwreck’ 1846 which was a great step
powders, meet a man, give ‘debility of constitution’ forward. No-one really knew
him the draw. However, ‘some resemblance to incipient how powerful medicine was
rigour’
when Lanyon meets the ‘disgustful curiosity’
so what it could be used for
‘man’ it turns out to be Hyde, ‘abnormal…creature…something was fantasised by many at
who drinks the powders seizing, surprising, and revolting’ the time.
from the draw in front of
‘on fire with sombre excitement’
Lanyon and turns into Jekyll. ‘icy pang along my blood’
‘approaches of the hysteria’
‘his face became black…the
features seemed to melt and
alter’
‘There stood Henry Jekyll’

Chapter 10 We finally hear Jekyll’s point ‘…provinces of good and ill which In this chapter, we see how Duality
Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of view, from when he made divide and compound man’s dual powerful medicine was seen Appearances
of the Case the potion and turned into nature’ to be in the Victorian era, Curiosity
‘man is not truly one, but truly
Hyde for the first time, to his two.’
through the fact that, by Good and evil
ultimate death. This chapter ‘dreadful shipwreck’ drinking a simple, Pretence
also references directly the ‘thorough and primitive duality of homemade draught, one Freud
main theme in the novella: man’ could turn into another
duality. ‘housed in separate identities’ person: their dark side. This
We discover that the main ‘polar twins’ follows on from the similar
‘I felt younger, lighter, happier …
reason Jekyll made the context in Chapter 9, and
conscious of a heady
potion was in his attempt to recklessness’
emphasises it further.
separate our ID (evil side) ‘innocent freedom of the soul’ We also see Freud’s beliefs
from our good side, which ‘good shone upon the elaborated on in this chapter
resulted in grave countenance of one evil was through the contrast of the
consequences. written broadly…on the face of ID (Hyde) and the Super Ego
The more Jekyll turns into the other’ (Jekyll)
‘imprint of deformity and decay’
Hyde, the stronger Hyde
‘Edward Hyde…was pure evil’
gets, until he has to begin ‘my new power tempted me until
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taking the potion to turn I fell into slavery’
back into himself, and finally, ‘Hyde would pass away like the
he starts changing without stain of breath upon a mirror’
‘Hyde alone, that was guilty’
taking the draught at all. ‘It was the hand of Edward Hyde’
At the end of the novella, ‘My blood changed into
Jekyll decides to kill himself something exquisitely thin and
to take the cowards way out: icy’
escape the gallows and his ‘I was slowly losing hold of my
actions original and better self’
‘My devil had long been caged
and he came out roaring’
‘The spirit of hell awoke in me
and raged’
‘…so recently chained down,
began to growl for licence’
‘…known murderer, thrall to the
gallows’
‘That child of hell had nothing
human’