The dangers of going Schizo....
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The book begins with two men, Mr. Utterson and his cousin Mr.
Richard Enfield, on a walk in London. Although the two men are
initially silent, after passing a mysterious cellar door in a
basement, Mr. Enfield launches into a strange occurrence that
centered around the door. Late one night, while he was on his way
home, he chanced upon a deformed, short man who trampled a girl in
the street who was on her way to get a doctor. The girl's family
and Mr. Enfield catch the mysterious man and instead of getting the
police, they decide to blackmail him and force him to give the
girl's family money. Agreeable, the mysterious man disappears into
the same cellar door and comes out with a check bearing not his own
name, but that of the respectable Dr. Jekyll. Surprisingly, the
check was not a forgery.
After hearing the story, Utterson returns to his home where he
removes Dr. Jekyll's mysterious will, which he recently filed with
Mr. Utterson. Jekyll's will stated that in case of his death, his
substantial estate will pass to Mr. Hyde, but even stranger, in
case of his disappearance for more than three months, Hyde will
assume Jekyll's life without delay. He also realizes that the
mysterious door is connected, in an L shape way, to Jekyll's home.
Utterson decides that Jekyll is being blackmailed by Hyde and seeks
to search to see his face in order to understand why. After
tracking him down, he is initially civil but turns angry when
Utterson proceeds in the conversation.
One year later, Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew with a cane. With
help from Utterson, the police find Hyde's apartment ransacked.
After leaving, Utterson proceeds to Jekyll's and confronts him for
harboring a murder. Jekyll claims that he is done with Hyde and
promises that he has nothing left to do with him. He does, however,
have a farewell note from Hyde. Utterson examines the note and his
clerk, Mr. Guest, later discovers that the handwriting from the
note matches a dinner invitation written by Dr. Jekyll. Angrily,
Utterson assumes that Jekyll has forged a letter for a
murderer.
More time passes, and we learn that although Hyde has not been
located, Dr. Jekyll becomes more and more social until one day
Utterson attended a dinner party at Jekyll's where Lanyon was
present. Shortly there after, Jekyll secluded himself and Dr.
Lanyon fell ill and died. After his death, Dr. Lanyon left Jekyll a
letter than instructed him not to read it for ten years. After
these mysterious events, Enfield and Utterson again walk by the
mysterious door. Through one of the windows, they witness Jekyll
having a frightening seizure through the windows of the
cellar.
About a week later, Poole, Jekyll's butler, approaches Utterson,
who is afraid because Jekyll has locked himself in the basement and
the only things that hear is strange sounds, including crying. The
only communication that has come is letters desperately asking for
a specific type of salt. Utterson follows Poole to Jekyll's house
and breaks down a red cabinet where the body of Hyde is found. In
the laboratory, the two discover a large envelope addressed to Mr.
Utterson. Inside, Jekyll urges Utterson to read the package from
Lanyon and if he wished to know more, read the further description
that Jekyll provided within the envelope.
Lanyon's narrative begins by describing a strange letter he
received from Henry Jekyll, the night after a dinner party at
Jekyll's residence. The letter urges Lanyon to go to Jekyll's house
and get the contents of a drawer in the laboratory. Afterwards, a
strange caller will come to Lanyon's house in Jekyll's name and
recover these same items, powder, a phial, and a paper book. Lanyon
does as much, thinking that Jekyll is crazy, and Mr. Hyde appears
at the subscribed time. He gives Hyde the ingredients; Hyde mixes
them into a potion, and after drinking it transforms into Dr.
Jekyll. This shock, the pure evilness of the situation, was what
brought about Lanyon's subsequent death.
After reading the account of Dr. Lanyon, Utterson then reads
Jekyll's own account of his failed experiment. Jekyll believed that
the soul is made up of two separate distinctions: evil and the
good. These two separate beings live in continuous and inherent
conflict with each other. Slowly, Jekyll begins an experiment where
he makes two potions and transforms himself into Edward Hyde.
Shortly after becoming Hyde, he drinks a second potion and once
again becomes Henry Jekyll. This experiment begins Jekyll's
exploration of his other self, a side that he freely explores and
feels no remorse for the negative and evil actions of Mr.
Hyde.
For some months, this behavior continued until one moment, "I had
gone to bed Henry Jekyll, I had awakened Edward Hyde." Alerted that
the character of Hyde might irrevocably stay, Jekyll chose to give
up the freedom of Hyde and for two months his decision held weight.
Unfortunately, he was tortured with Hyde's longing and he once
again took the potion and brutally murdered Carew. Because of the
manhunt for Hyde, he swore this character off forever and set out
to try to remedy the evil.
This, however, failed because Hyde was an irrevocable part of
Jekyll's character. One night, while contemplating the deeds of
Hyde, Jekyll was once again transformed into Edward Hyde. Realizing
that he could not return to his house, he sent the letter to Dr.
Lanyon and Mr. Poole and went immediately to a hotel. He went home
once again but every time he would fall asleep, he would revert to
Mr. Hyde. Soon, his potions began to fail to work and he ran out of
the salt needed for the potion. Hyde launches a desperate search
across London for this potion, but was unsuccessful. In the end,
Hyde kills himself and therefore lets both Jekyll and Hyde
free.
