Enfield and Utterson often take walks together and in this chapter during their walk they walk down a small street where it is remarked that it seems all the inhabitants of the houses are doing well. 2 doors from the corner on the left hand going east, and at that point, ‘a sinister block of building thrust forward’. It was 2 storeys high and had no windows, nothing but a door on the lower storey. The door had neither a doorbell of door knocker. It was ‘blistered and distained,’ with tramps sitting on the doorstep lighting matches on the door. ‘Children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings.’ These descriptions all show that this house is seriously neglected and brings into question whether anyone even lives there. These descriptions also contrast quite drastically with the surrounding areas where it was already remarked that it looked as though the people living in the other houses were ‘doing well’. This door matches very well the genre of the story, horror, which is just how this door can be described, a horror that stains the area and surroundings. This is now doubt in relation to how Stevenson views humans, that the world is such a beautiful place full of beauty and wonder, but is destroyed by the carelessness and selfishness of humans. The building sets an atmosphere of mystery and darkness and when the reader hears the story of Mr Hyde trampling over the child like a ‘juggernaut’ he suits this door very well. Mr Enfield describes Hyde as having ‘something wrong with his appearance’, Enfield also says that he was downright detestable and gave off a ‘strong form of deformity.’ These descriptions of Mr Hyde add to the tension that the reader feels, the reader by now, even so short into the book, wants to know what is behind the door and who Mr Hyde is, and why when ordered to pay compensation to the child who was trampled, did he enter the derelict building and pay with the cheque signed by a respectable Dr. Henry Jekyll.
In the second chapter, Search for Mr. Hyde, Mr Utterson is at home looking at the will he’s been given. We, the reader, find out that Utterson wouldn’t help make the will even though his profession is that of a lawyer, and Dr. Jekyll is one of his best friends. He won’t help in the writing of the will as the content of the will says that everything is to be left to, ‘friend and benefactor Edward Hyde.’ Not is it only this that outrages Mr. Utterson, but it carries on to state that if in the disappearance of Dr. Jekyll or unexplained absence for over three months then Hyde should step into Jekyll’s shoes ‘without further delay.’ This leads Utterson to think that Jekyll is being blackmailed by Hyde though he doesn’t know what for.
The things that are interesting in the will, is that Jekyll used the word disappeared a strange thing to use, normally when people write a will they use the word death, but Jekyll uses the word disappearance as though he expects this to happen and is preparing for it.
Utterson has a nightmare about Hyde and pictures him as the ‘juggernaut’. He decides to keep visiting the house and the door where Enfield said he saw him enter. Eventually Utterson meets Hyde and asks to see Hyde’s face. Utterson describes him as ‘pale and dwarfish’ and says Hyde gave the impression of ‘deformity without any namable malformation’ It appears that Hyde doesn’t want to talk and doesn’t care how Utterson feels towards him. This is also significant and relates to Hyde’s name, Hyde sounds just as it is pronounced, Hide. This is just how Mr. Hyde acts, hiding from people not wanting to talk, Mr. Utterson mentions this attitude, ‘he be Mr. Hyde, I be Mr. seek.’ Utterson is saying that he will go out and find Hyde no matter how hard Hyde tries not to get caught.
Utterson visits Jekyll’s home, and finds that Jekyll is out but the butler confirms that Hyde has entered the house by another door, and says that Hyde has a key and the staff have been told to take orders from Mr. Hyde as well as Dr. Jekyll, the butler also tells Utterson that they see little of Hyde as he comes and goes ‘by the laboratory.’ Utterson then makes a vow to find out Hyde’s secret so he can help his dear friend Dr. Jekyll as he believes Jekyll is being blackmailed by Hyde. He no longer feels Jekyll is helping Hyde at will, but is being forced too.
In the third chapter, Dr Jekyll Was Quite at Ease, Dr. Jekyll is described as “a large, well made, smooth faced man of 50 with something of a slyish cast perhaps, but every mark of capacity and kindness.” The most likely effect this has on the reader is that it if they originally had considered the fact that Jekyll might be in fact be Hyde, this idea is thrown out of the window as it seems that Jekyll couldn’t have done the things that Hyde is supposed to have done without having a mark on his face. Also Dr. Jekyll is a respectable member of society and of living in a bigger house that matches his reputation, he lives in a small house, in a small street. This contrast has obviously been chosen on purpose by Stevenson, but why. Maybe to show that the contrast between good and evil isn’t always an obvious one and in life good and evil wont stick out. We have to look for them. And that good can sometimes be found in places where you wouldn’t expect it to be. During this chapter talk of the Will arises, Utterson again says that he disapproves of it. When Utterson says he has learnt things of Hyde, Jekyll ‘grew pale to his very lips and there came a blackness about his eyes.’ This maybe because Jekyll thinks that Utterson has worked out his other identity. Jekyll states he can get rid of Hyde whenever he wants to but has an interest in him and if Jekyll is no longer around he wants Utterson to promise that Hyde will have justice. Utterson agrees, bitterly. The reason Jekyll says this is the last chapter, in his letter he states that one morning he woke up and his hand stayed that of Hyde’s, maybe Jekyll is realising that soon Hyde will consume all of Jekyll’s body and he will have to live his life out as Mr. Hyde. It is no doubt the belief of Stevenson that if we let the evil within us, in Dr Jekyll’s case – Mr Hyde, come out and show itself to others, and if we start to grow towards this new ‘wild’ side of ourselves, then it will destroy us. We all have evil contained inside of us, but we mustn’t let it ‘come to the surface’ to often then it will become us.
It comes a year later when a maid is the witness to a horrific murder. She says she saw, ‘an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair’ meet a ‘small gentlemen’. The smaller man is Hyde whom she recognises as Hyde. She says that Hyde was carrying a cane and then all of a sudden ‘he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on like a mad man’. The old man stepped back and Hyde ‘broke out of all bounds, and clubbed him to the earth’. The next moment ‘with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under-foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered.’ There the victim lay ‘incredibly mangled.’ This shows even more than the child trampling incident, how inhuman and emotion free Hyde is. The way he clubbed the man to death. The cane was split in two, one half left in the gutter, the other presumably taken by the murderer. The way in which Hyde left the scene with no remorse and even left half the cane at the crime scene shows that he was either not thinking properly or he simply had no remorse and didn’t care if he was caught. Also the witness was a maid who is clearly biased and in favour towards the victim who later turns out to be Sir Danvers Carew MP, the murder is still appalling and sickening. The Carew murder is an important one as his first victim, or the first victim we know about, is that of a young child whereas this recent victim is a respectable MP, showing that Mr. Hyde does not care who he hurts as long as he is able to do as he pleases. The description of the murder, ‘the bones were audibly shattered’ is because as already mentioned the maid who was the only witness is biased and may have exaggerated what she saw. The maid clearly contrasted between the two men, saying one was ‘an aged and beautiful gentleman’, the other simply a ‘small gentleman.’
The Incident of the Letter is used by Stevenson to give a clue to the reader that
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the same person. Utterson visits Jekyll and says that Jekyll was looking, ‘deadly sick’. Utterson comes right out and says what he feels, he asks Dr Jekyll if he was hiding the murderer, Hyde. Jekyll replies that he is done with him, and would never set his eyes on him again. Jekyll also says he has received a letter and didn’t know what to do with it, Utterson takes it and reads it. The letter says that Jekyll ‘need labour under no alarm for his safety,’ meaning don’t worry about me, the letter is signed by Hyde.
Jekyll also tells Utterson that Hyde had dictated the terms of the will and that he ‘had a lesson’ from the whole incident with Hyde. This sentence shows that when Dr Jekyll becomes Hyde he has no control over himself and Hyde takes total control, and instead of feeling free, which is what Jekyll had wanted, he is now controlled and dictated by an even greater force. I think Stevenson is saying that no ever how big the temptation is evil can never be controlled.
Utterson checks with Poole who says that no letter was delivered that morning. Once more Stevenson is dropping in a hint to the final ending; if the letter wasn’t delivered then it must have already been there. Utterson also doubting his friends word so he has the letter checked by his head clerk, Mr Guest, who reads it and tells Utterson that it is very similar to a note that had arrived from Jekyll, except that they are differently sloped. This leaves not only Utterson but the reader as well, wondering why Jekyll would ‘forge for a murderer.’
In this chapter Stevenson has partly revealed Jekyll’s dual nature, this is done by Stevenson including Utterson’s description, ‘bade him welcome in a changed voice.’ Jekyll is changing; he is becoming more Hyde like, and will eventually become entirely Hyde. If the reader hasn’t worked out the ending of the story, which is unlikely then this chapter adds hugely to the suspense and tension.
The Incident at the Window is all about Utterson and Enfield on one of their walks when they pass Jekyll’s house and see him at the window. Utterson talks to him for a short period when suddenly and unexpectedly the smile disappears from Jekyll’s face and the window is pulled down immediately with quite a strong force. Jekyll’s face is described with having, ‘an expression of such abject terror and despair.’ This little chapter re-in forces what is expressed in the previous chapter that Dr Jekyll is being taken over and controlled by Hyde. Jekyll is weak and Utterson sees this and shows it in the chapter, he says ‘God forgive us.’ This fear in the characters is designed to create fear in the reader, by now the reader feels as though they are directly involved in the story, and they transpires from the characters to the reader.
This chapter, The Last Night, could be described as the true last chapter, although it doesn’t explain the story it does show the ending. It starts off with Poole, Jekyll’s butler, visiting Utterson to say he is afraid and can take me no more. Utterson goes back with Poole to the laboratory. They are met by a maid who is equally afraid, this is meant to show that all the staff are afraid and represent that all people who meet Hyde have a feeling of fear, form the evil he gives off. At the lab, they hear Jekyll’s voice, it has changed lots, he says he wont let them in. Poole points out that the voice isn’t that of his masters, and that he was ‘made away with eight days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God.’ Poole then shows Utterson some handwritten orders, saying that the previous powder bought from the chemist wasn’t pure enough. Utterson explains to Poole, who doubts whether Jekyll wrote the orders, that his master had one of those ‘maladies that both torture and deform the sufferer’. Poole is adamant that it is not his murder and that ‘there was murder done’. Utterson then asks if he thought the thing inside was Hyde, Poole says that he does and that he had heard it ‘weeping like a woman or a lost soul.’
They break down the door ‘right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching’. The body is that of Hyde, wearing Jekyll’s clothes that were too big for him- a crushed phial lay in his hand, ‘Utterson knew he was looking at the body of a self-destroyer’. The reason that the phial is crushed, isn’t necessarily important but it might signify that either he was in so much pain that he crushed the phial in his hand, or in his last moments he didn’t want anyone to get hold of the phial and have them go through the pain and agony he has been through. In his last moments alive he thought of the people he cared for.
Another important thing in this chapter is that Jekyll, is not found as himself but in the form of Hyde, Stevenson is trying to show that good doesn’t always overcome evil, as in most books its made out to be. Also Stevenson lived in Victorian times when religion was an integral part of life, but also during this time Charles Darwin had made his claim about us being descendants of apes, maybe he was including his opinion, through Hyde, who looked very ape like, hairy, short, hunched, hunched being used to describe an animal – something that is inhuman. Jekyll might not just release his anger when he drinks the potion but instead is transformed into his descendant, an ape, who doesn’t fit into society and expresses himself through anger and rage, doesn’t know how to behave or understands human emotions. Another thing to note is that Utterson’s name is written in full on the envelope, maybe signalling that although Jekyll was in such a state he was still able to write the name of his best friend. Also as it appears in the end of the chapter it is a signal to the reader that the next chapter is serious and will explain the story in full.
In the last two chapters the narrative is from a first person view and told through letters of dead people. It is told in first person perspectives to show that the ending is opinionative and not factual. This also makes the reader feel that they are being included in the experience and the story, all along it has been told to them. Also it is told in a first person narrative to get all the emotions and feelings that Stevenson has across, he is only able to do this through his characters. And as Victorian times were controversial, any ting that people might have disagreed with he would be ale to defend himself by simply saying that is what the character felt like. Stevenson want to include emotion in his story, not facts, he wants his story to be exciting, and by doing through Jekyll he can let the reader sympathise with Jekyll, after all, all Jekyll wanted was freedom which is something we all want. Stevenson writes the final part from Jekyll’s point of view and includes some history, he basically says in the beginning that he started off honest and true and being kind to people but somewhere along the way, this wasn’t enough, he wanted more, he wanted to be free, but he realises that it wasn’t just his own feelings that had made him feel this way, but others around him, the people he had tried to please, he wanted to be free of them and their judgements, he was almost forced by them to turn to Hyde. This is true of Victorian society, as it was a culture that was very restrictive and demanding. This is a great story for showing how humans feel deep down inside, the way Utterson thought he was Jekyll’s best friend and that Jekyll would tell him anything, but Jekyll kept this secret, whether to protect Utterson or because he was too ashamed we don’t know, but what we do know is that from the moment the potion touched Jekyll’s lips for the first time, he had sealed himself to death, for the temptation for him was too much, and although not true, we should take this story as an example that if we let things get too far there is no turning back.