Jekyll and Hyde chapter by chapter summary.

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Chapter 1: Story of the Door

Summary:

The narration of the novel begins with two men, Mr. Utterson, a quiet, respectable lawyer and his distant relative Mr. Richard Enfield, taking a walk through a crowded street in London. On their way, they encounter a mysterious cellar door which prompts Mr. Enfield to recount a strange experience that happened on this very street.

At three o¹clcok one night, Mr. Enfield was coming through town when he saw a disfigured man, "a Juggernaut," maliciously trample an eight-year old girl (who was in the street because she was sent for a doctor) in the street. After apprehending the man, Enfield, the doctor, and the family of the girl decides that, instead of sending for the police, they would blackmail the man to give a hundred pounds to the girl¹s family. Amenable, the mysterious man, later identified as Mr. Hyde, disappears behind the strange door that Utterson and Enfield originally encountered. He returned with ten pounds in gold and a check signed by a very respectable third party. Fearing that the check is a forgery, the doctor, Enfield, and the family force the man to stay with them until the banks open and he can cash the check. When the banks open, Enfield cashes the valid check, assuming Hyde has possession of the check because of blackmail. Throughout the narrative, the man whose name was on the check was not revealed. At the end of Enfield¹s story, Utterson, under a great "weight of consideration" asks if the man used a key to get into the door. Enfield confirms this and the two vow never to speak of the incident again.

Analysis:

The opening chapter of Jekyll and Hyde brilliantly begins a novel that is largely allegorical. First, the structure of this novella is unique in that it is not cast entirely as a first-person narration, as it would have been possible to tell the story in the manner of a confession from Jekyll¹s point of view. Stevenson deliberately opted for a discursive treatment in three distinct parts, the first of which is employed here, a leisurely account of the two main characters and some distant connection between the two. The structural and linguistic devices employed by Stevenson create an unusual atmosphere which surrounds the story. This atmosphere  one of controlled suspense, a gradual building up of a sense of horror and destruction  is achieved through a slow accumulation of unemotional detail, which begins in this chapter.

The well-known basic theme of the novel involves the duality between good and evil, but it also involves a study in hypocrisy, as encompassed by Jekyll and Hyde. The book has been referred to as "one of the best guidebooks of the Victorian times," because of its piercing description of the fundamental dichotomy of the 19th century  outward respectability and inward lust. Making a child the first victim of Hyde¹s cruelty emphasizes the moral awfulness of his behavior from the beginning. The description of the street in the first chapter reinforces this theme of duality. The street is described as merely an anonymous street in London, whose shop fronts "like rows of smiling women" have a brightness that stands out in contrast to the dingy neighborhood. And yet on this street, two doors from the corner, stands a dreary, Gothic house, which "bore in every feature the marks of prolonged and sordid negligence." As we proceed further in the novel, Jekyll¹s house itself will be seen to have an innate duality: congenial, prosperous, respectable, as well as threatening, mysterious, and sinister. This duality is manifested by each of its two facades: the respectable, Jekyll side of the house stands out in contrast with the seediness of its neighboring structures. The Hyde façade is bleak, neglected, and lowering on a street in which it stands out among thriving, well-kept, and prosperous commercial structures. The theme of duality is also marked by the symbolic nature of the name, Hyde. Hyde derives from the more familiar word Œhide,¹ and stands for the hidden aspects of Jekyll as encompassed by Mr. Hyde. Indeed, later in Chapter 2, Mr. Utterson claims that "If he shall be Mr. Hyde . . . I shall be Mr. Seek."

The first chapter also contains elements foreshadowing the evilness and future crimes of Mr. Hyde. In the end of chapter 1, Enfield refers to Hyde as "really like Satan." A few lines later, Hyde remarks "No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene," is the first hint that we have that Hyde is an ally, or a manifestation, of the devil. Stevenson is playing on the well-known remark of Percy Bythe Shelly¹s in Peter Bell the Third that "The devil is a gentleman." Hyde¹s assertion that he is a gentleman (especially considering his recent behavior) with the class implications of the word represents the irony implicit in the way Stevenson uses the word.

The symbolic nature of the mysterious cellar door that Hyde disappears through is important to note, which is referred to five times in the space of two pages of text. Doors are traditionally powerful and mysterious symbols, representing the possibility of things hidden or revealed, or traditional moments of finality. Stevenson himself wrote a 1882 short store, "The Sire of de Maletroit¹s Door,¹ in which the young Denis de Bealui reaps the consequents, of walking through the wrong door. In addition, doors have powerful allegorical reference in biblical works, works Stevenson read throughout his childhood. In Genesis 4:7, it reads "sin lieth at the door," which means that the sinner must avoid sin. The door, in this case, then represents the literal path to evil.

It is also interesting to note the absence of female characters in this novel, especially compared to theatrical or film adaptations of the novel. There is female which plays a large part in this novel, instead, it is a novel concerned for the most part with middle-age gentlemen (with the possible exception of Hyde, but even he is described as a gentleman in this chapter).

Chapter 2:

Summary:

That evening, Mr. Utterson returned home and removes Dr. Jekyll¹s will, which had strange stipulations. It provided that in the case of the death of Henry Jekyll, all possessions should revert to the mysterious Edward Hyde. Even stranger, in case of the disappearance of Dr. Jekyll for three months, Edward Hyde should step into Henry Jekyll¹s shoes without delay. After considering the implications of the will with what he has learned about Edward Hyde, he sets off for the residence of Dr. Lanyon, another dear friend of Dr. Jekyll. When they begin talking about Jekyll, Utterson discovers that Lanyon has not been friends with Jekyll for ten because of a disagreement over "unscientific balderdash." He, however, had never heard of Hyde.

After leaving Lanyon, Utterson begins to imagine the scene described by Enfield with Mr. Hyde, as well as the reason behind the relationship of Hyde and Jekyll, and ponders that if he can only see the face of Hyde, he might see a reason for his friends¹ relationship with the man. From that point forward, Utterson begins to haunt the streets around the mysterious door, looking for Mr. Hyde. One night, he runs into Mr. Hyde and confronts him as he was about to enter the door. Utterson introduces himself as an old friend of Dr. Jekyll, and Hyde questions how Utterson knew him. Hyde then asks for Utterson¹s address and Utterson, in response, gives him a business card. Utterson, not replying, asks for a favor, to be able to see Hyde¹s face. After complying, Hyde asks how Utterson knew him, and Utterson replies by description, claiming that they have common friends, Jekyll for instance. Mr. Hyde angrily replies that Jekyll never told you anything and disappears into the door.

After leaving this scene, Utterson goes to see Dr. Jekyll, but only Poole, his butler, is home, Jekyll is out. Utterson gleans from his conversation, however, that Jekyll¹s house, around the corner from the mysterious door, is in an L shape, and that Hyde only enters by the old dissecting room door, but does not dine in the house. After leaving Jekyll¹s home, Utterson walks home and decides that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll. In an effort to remedy this situation, he decides to look for something in Hyde¹s past to blackmail him with, if Jekyll will let him.

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Analysis:

It is interesting to note the description of Mr. Hyde, as he first appears in the novel during this chapter. Although the reader is continually reminded that Hyde is akin to the devil and evil, Hyde¹s qualities are never attached to any nameable detail. We are meant to think that decent people instinctively know that there is something morally wrong with him. Stevenson makes him seem less than a fully evolved human, more akin to animals than the rest of mankind, with imagery as the "hissing intake of breath" in this chapter. Shortly after Hyde leaves Utterson in ...

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