Maria Fernanda Arias TocaEnglish LiteratureMarch 26, 2015

SUMMARY: The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The book The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde narrates a mystery story about a man called Mr. Utterson and his friend Mr. Richard. These two men lived in London and liked to take walks on the streets. One day while they were in their usual walks, they were looking at an old building which only had a door in front and no windows, suddenly Mr. Enfield remembered a story about a man whose name was Edward Hyde and lived in that building. The story happens when one night this man had knocked down a little girl and to repair this incident, he had to pay 100 pounds to her family, so he paid them with pieces of gold and a cheque whose name was from a respectable man in society, not him. After Mr. Enfield finished telling the story he regretted having told it and stopped talking about it.

Another day in the evening, Mr. Utterson, who was a lawyer, took out an envelope from his office which contained doctor Jekyll's will. As he read, it stated that if Dr. Jekyll died all his money and property should go to his friend Edward Hyde, so after this Mr. Utterson wanted to discover the mystery behind this strange situation. A few days later while looking at Hyde, he decided to approach him out of the old building and they both had a short conversation that revealed Mr. Hydes ugly face and unpleasant personality. Then around the corner from this side street there was a house in which Mr. Utterson entered and discovered that Mr. Jekyll had ordered all the servants to obey Mr. Hyde because apparently he trusted him.

Afterwards, a fortnight, Jekyll gave a dinner and clearly Mr. Utterson tried to ask him what was going on, but he didn't say much, he just told him to trust him and made him promise to help Mr. Hyde get his rights, and so he promised. About a year later, in October, an important member of parliament called Danvers Carew was horribly murdered and according to his servant who had seen the murder scene, he was killed by Mr. Hyde who had used a stick, that Mr. Utterson had once given Jekyll, to hit his body until he died. Well ahead, Mr. Utterson brought the police to Mr. Hyde's house at Soho and when they entered he wasn't there, but they realized that the house was furnished luxury. Also, they found several elements like cheques and ashes right there, so they decided to blame him as the murderer.

Soon after, Mr. Utterson visited Mr. Jekyll and told him everything that had happened with Mr. Hyde and Jekyll gave Mr. Utterson a letter that Hyde had given to him in which he writes he's not going to cause him any trouble and finally he decided to give it to Utterson so that he could do anything he wanted with it. Also, he confessed that it was Mr. Hyde who made him write the paragraph in his will about what would happen if he disappearsThen a friend of Utterson called Mr. Guest, who was a handwriting expert, checked the letter and a posterior note Jekyll had sent to Utterson, and realized they were very similar, which frightened them.

Several months passed and life was beginning to return to normal. On 8th, January Jekyll, Utterson, and Dr. Lanyon dined as in old times. But the next day Utterson decided to return and visit Jekyll but he refused to see him and didn't let him in. Six days after he went to see Dr. Lanyon instead and he realized Lanyon was so sick and also that he didn't want to hear or see nothing from Jekyll, but he didn't tell the reason why. Due to this, Utterson wrote a letter, asking him why he had discussed with Lanyon and his answer didnt reveal much information about the issue with his friend, instead he wrote he had done wrong things and he wouldnt talk to Utterson now on.

A week afterwards, Dr. Lanyon died and when Mr. Utterson opened his will he found something strange, inside the envelope said Not to be opened until the death or disappearance of Dr. Henry Jekyll so he immediately linked this event to Mr. Hyde. On a Sunday, Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield were strolling along the same street and saw that old door, suddenly they thought about going to the front of Jekylls house and see if he was there, he was, although he wasnt willing to go out or receive any visitors and locked himself inside his house. Some time passed and in an evening, Dr. Utterson was at his house and received a sudden visit from Poole; one of Jekylls servants, who was really worried about his boss. He told Utterson there was something suspicious going on with him and took Utterson to his house. Being there, they all were afraid Mr. Jekyll had been killed because his voice was completely different and he didnt go out of his room for a week. Dr. Utterson and Poole got ready to enter the room, breaking the doorbell with an axe, they found the body of Hyde laying on the ground, he was dead and had poisoned himself a few seconds before. Subsequently he was checking the office and besides some chemicals on the desk, he noticed the new Jekylls will in which he stated Mr. Utterson as the new heir to his fortune. Also, he found a letter written by Dr. Lanyon long before in which he explained all he had to follow a lot of mysterious instruction instructions in order to help his friend Jekyll be out of danger or death.

Next, Dr. Jekyll explains how his two personalities; the serious and the playful man had with the time given him the idea of develop a theory about the two different natures of human beings; good and evil, and started to experiment on separating them by drinking a beverage he had created. His evil side would be represented by the figure of Edward Hyde. He explained how his life was pretending to be two different men; nevertheless he regretted all he had done because Hyde had turned into such an evil being that had murdered Danvers Carew. Thereby he narrated the story of is apparently strange changes and how Mr. Hyde would take over his body and end up killing himself as Mr. Jekyll did when he finished writing this letter.