Mr Utterson visited Dr Jekyll, who had also heard of the murder. Jekyll had received a letter from Hyde that said Hyde had gone and Jekyll didn't need to worry about his own safety anymore. Later, Utterson found out that Jekyll might have written that letter, because the handwriting was similar to the handwriting of Jekyll's will. Time passed and Mr Hyde hadn't appeared. Dr Jekyll was happy and invited friends to his house until, suddenly, on January 12th he refused to see any more.
Utterson visited Lanyon who was terribly ill and it seemed as if him and Jekyll were no longer friends.
A week later Lanyon died. After Lanyon's death, Utterson received a letter from him in which was written: "Not to be opened until the death or disappearance of Dr Henry Jekyll".
One day in March Poole, Dr Jekyll's servant, visited Mr Utterson. He asked him to come to Jekyll's house because Jekyll had locked himself for more than a week in his laboratory. They thought Dr Jekyll had been murdered. They thought that Mr Hyde had murdered Jekyll and was in the room. So they broke the laboratory door down with an axe. Inside lay the body of Edward Hyde, who had taken some poison.
Utterson found the new will of Dr Jekyll, in which the doctor had left everything to Gabriel John Utterson. As Utterson discovered that the will was written on that day, he thought Jekyll had left it and ran away.
Then Utterson found another note from Jekyll in which he said Utterson should go home and read Lanyon's letter. This letter said that Dr Jekyll had begged Lanyon to fetch chemical powders, a small bottle and a book from Jekyll's laboratory to Lanyon's house. Lanyon did this and later Hyde came to his house. He drank the liquid and changed into Henry Jekyll. Since then Lanyon couldn't sleep and felt as if he had not long to live. Then Utterson read Jekyll's confession.
Harriet and David, two normal adults, meet at an office party, they get together and buy a large Victorian style house. After a while they decide to get married. For all her life Harriet had wanted eight children. They have four of them, perfectly normal children, but as the fifth child is conceived it causes some problems. This is to be no ordinary pregnancy. The fifth child is born and their lives are forever changed, Ben who is the fifth child is not like a normal boy, he is savage and animal like. Ben totally wears Harriet out and many of his relatives don’t want anything to do with her or her child, accept her mother. She is exhausted and even Ben’s own father rejects him. Harriet takes Ben to see a doctor,, the doctor tells Harriet it was over excitement and having too much energy. Harriet takes his advice but after a few more weeks she can’t take it any longer. David sends Ben to a mental institution behind Harriet’s back; she doesn’t think much of it at first as it gives him a good break. The family gets back to normal and forgets about Ben but Harriet cannot help thinking what he is going through. So she goes to the mental institution and sees how badly he is being treated, she sees enough to immediately take his away from the institution. From then onwards Ben gradually gets back to normal, still not understanding the things that are happening around him.
Although the plots are very different there are many similarities between the novels.
Both Ben and Hyde are described as animals. Ben when in Harriet’s womb is described as a “savage thing inside her” which could be some kind of beast, which could be seen to have immense power. He was also believed to have hooves as Harriet could feel him cutting into her flesh. The writer also uses sounds like roar in “roared out his triumph” “yell” and “raucous” to show this animal-like being. Hyde is described like a snake or cat “hissing” or an ape in “ape like fury” again, a very unnatural being.
Both writers suggest that Ben and Hyde are not human in the way that they are deformed or have a disability. Lessing said Ben is like a troll or hobgoblin, which sounds and shows deformity and inhumanity. Hyde is described to have an ugly face, be very short and stumpy and a deformed body.
Ben and Hyde both seem to have something mentally wrong with them, or that the evil inside of them is being expressed. Like when Hyde, “he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly crunched.” He is not just walking over but stamping down really viciously, the blows are described as being very hard by the word “storm”. Also the bones under his feet are crunching and very loudly. I think Ben’s evil is expressed when he attack the family’s dog, the dog is brutally murdered and this power seems overwhelming for his age.
I think the writers have deliberately made Ben and Hyde males as it gives the reader a much more realistic feeling, as men are more often associated with violence and evil doings.
Hyde and Ben are both outcasts, Ben has been rejected from his family and is locked away in his room with barred up windows. Hyde seems to be an outcast as he is not known by anyone and is only to be seen at night.
Both Ben and Hyde have little freedom. Ben was sent to an institution for his evil character where he was treated appallingly. Harriet sees some of the other children there and Lessing describes “a baby like a comma, great lolling head on a stalk of a body” and “a lanky boy was screwed, one half of his body sliding away from the other.” The institution could be a way in which Lessing has portrayed evil, not through the central character but by the way, in which she thinks other people in the world act. Hyde has little freedom because he cannot be known or seen by anyone. As he is a murderer and is trying to hide the fact that he is Jekyll. He also cannot really go out, as his characteristics are frightening.
There are many similarities but also some differences.
Ben and Hyde have different ages. Hyde is quite clearly
Harriet and Jekyll, from which the main characters come about, are also both very similar. They both create evil and regret what they have done. The difference is that Jekyll created his evil purposefully, and could have prevented it. Harriet was expecting a normal child and had no choice.
I think that the books are joined in that they both contain evil characters created by mankind, and that these characters in someway have control over what they are doing. Ben has a better excuse of behaving in this way as he is young and has never been taught anything different. Hyde on the other hand is just a nasty, hellish, twisted murderer.
