Task of Introduction to Literature Subject
By:
Yuliana Asiari
THE STATE INSTITUTE OF
ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
SULTAN AMAI GORONTALO
TARBIYAH AND TADRIS
FACULTY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
2012
Ø
The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
v
Colour Cover : Gray blackish
v
Picture : Man and Shadow
v
Tittle : The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
v
By : Robert Louis Stevenson
v
Thick : 74
pages
Ø Intrinsic
Elements
v
Theme : The Duality of Human
Nature
v Setting/latar : Slope of the mountain-slopes, in
the vineyard, near the prings under the
acacia tree, in the public baths, madrasas, in the garden Ana Khatun, in the
Garden Al-Din, in the market, hardware store, in a mansion.
v Plot/Alur :
Flashback
v Figure
and Character
a.
Dr.
Henry Jekyll -
A respected doctor and friend of both Lanyon, a fellow physician, and Utterson,
a lawyer. Jekyll is a seemingly prosperous man, well established in the
community, and known for his decency and charitable works. Since his youth,
however, he has secretly engaged in unspecified dissolute and corrupt behavior.
Jekyll finds this dark side a burden and undertakes experiments intended to
separate his good and evil selves from one another. Through these experiments,
he brings Mr. Hyde into being, finding a way to transform himself in such a way
that he fully becomes his darker half.
b.
Mr.
Edward Hyde -
A strange, repugnant man who looks faintly pre-human. Hyde is violent and
cruel, and everyone who sees him describes him as ugly and deformed—yet no one
can say exactly why. Language itself seems to fail around Hyde: he is not a
creature who belongs to the rational world, the world of conscious articulation
or logical grammar. Hyde is Jekyll’s dark side, released from the bonds of
conscience and loosed into the world by a mysterious potion.
c.
Mr.
Gabriel John Utterson -
A prominent and upstanding lawyer, well respected in the London community.
Utterson is reserved, dignified, and perhaps even lacking somewhat in
imagination, but he does seem to possess a furtive curiosity about the
more sordid side of life. His rationalism, however, makes him ill equipped
to deal with the supernatural nature of the Jekyll-Hyde connection. While not a
man of science, Utterson resembles his friend Dr. Lanyon—and perhaps Victorian
society at large—in his devotion to reasonable explanations and his denial
of the supernatural.
d. Dr. Hastie Lanyon - A
reputable London doctor and, along with Utterson, formerly one of Jekyll’s
closest friends. As an embodiment of rationalism, materialism, and skepticism,
Lanyon serves a foil (a character whose attitudes or emotions contrast with,
and thereby illuminate, those of another character) for Jekyll, who embraces
mysticism. His death represents the more general victory of supernaturalism
over materialism in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
e. Mr. Poole - Jekyll’s butler. Mr. Poole is a
loyal servant, having worked for the doctor for twenty years, and his concern
for his master eventually drives him to seek Utterson’s help when he becomes
convinced that something has happened to Jekyll.
f. Mr. Enfield - A distant
cousin and lifelong friend of Mr. Utterson. Like Utterson, Enfield is reserved,
formal, and scornful of gossip; indeed, the two men often walk together for
long stretches without saying a word to one another.
g. Mr. Guest - Utterson’s clerk and confidant. Guest is
also an expert in handwriting. His skill proves particularly useful when
Utterson wants him to examine a bit of Hyde’s handwriting. Guest notices that
Hyde’s script is the same as Jekyll’s, but slanted the other way.
h. Sir Danvers Carew - A
well-liked old nobleman, a member of Parliament, and a client of Utterson.
Ø Summary
Chapter by Chapter
v Chapter 1 :
“Story of the Door”
Mr. Utterson is a wealthy, well-respected London
lawyer, a reserved and perhaps even boring man who nevertheless inspires a
strange fondness in those who know him. Despite his eminent respectability,
he never abandons a friend whose reputation has been sullied or ruined.
Utterson nurtures a close friendship with Mr. Enfield,
his distant relative and likewise a respectable London gentleman. The two seem
to have little in common, and when they take their weekly walk together they
often go for quite a distance without saying anything to one another;
nevertheless, they look forward to these strolls as one of the high points of
the week.
As the story begins, Utterson and Enfield are taking
their regular Sunday stroll and walking down a particularly prosperous-looking
street. They come upon a neglected building, which seems out of place in the
neighborhood, and Enfield relates a story in connection with it. Enfield was
walking in the same neighborhood late one night, when he witnessed a shrunken,
misshapen man crash into and tramples a young girl. He collared the man before
he could get away, and then brought him back to the girl, around whom an angry
crowd had gathered. The captured man appeared so overwhelmingly ugly that the
crowd immediately despised him. United, the crowd threatened to ruin the ugly
man’s good name unless he did something to make amends; the man, seeing himself
trapped, bought them off with one hundred pounds, which he obtained upon
entering the neglected building through its only door. Strangely enough, the
check bore the name of a very reputable man; furthermore, and in spite of
Enfield’s suspicions, it proved to be legitimate and not a forgery. Enfield
hypothesizes that the ugly culprit had somehow blackmailed the man whose name
appeared on the check. Spurning gossip, however, Enfield refuses to reveal that
name.
Utterson then asks several pointed questions
confirming the details of the incident. Enfield tries to describe the nature of
the mysterious man’s ugliness but cannot express it, stating, ”I never saw a
man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why.” He divulges that the culprit’s
name was Hyde, and, at this point, Utterson declares that he knows the man, and
notes that he can now guess the name on the check. But, as the men have just been
discussing the virtue of minding one’s own business, they promptly agree never
to discuss the matter again.
v Chapter 2 :
“Search for Mr. Hyde”
Utterson, prompted by his conversation with Enfield,
goes home to study a will that he drew up for his close friend Dr. Jekyll. It
states that in the event of the death or disappearance of Jekyll, all of his
property should be given over immediately to a Mr. Edward Hyde. This strange
will had long troubled Utterson, but now that he has heard something of Hyde’s
behavior, he becomes more upset and feels convinced that Hyde has some peculiar
power over Jekyll. Seeking to unravel the mystery, he pays a visit to Dr.
Lanyon, a friend of Jekyll’s. But Lanyon has never heard of Hyde and has fallen
out of communication with Jekyll as a result of a professional dispute. Lanyon
refers to Jekyll’s most recent line of research as “unscientific balderdash.”
Later that night, Utterson is haunted by nightmares in
which a faceless man runs down a small child and in which the same terrifying,
faceless figure stands beside Jekyll’s bed and commands him to rise. Soon,
Utterson begins to spend time around the run-down building where Enfield saw
Hyde enter, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Hyde. Hyde, a small young
man, finally appears, and Utterson approaches him. Utterson introduces himself
as a friend of Henry Jekyll. Hyde, keeping his head down, returns his
greetings. He asks Hyde to show him his face, so that he will know him if he
sees him again; Hyde complies, and, like Enfield before him, Utterson feels
appalled and horrified yet cannot pinpoint exactly what makes Hyde so ugly.
Hyde then offers Utterson his address, which the lawyer interprets as a sign
that Hyde eagerly anticipates the death of Jekyll and the execution of his
will.
After this encounter, Utterson pays a visit to Jekyll.
At this point, we learn what Utterson himself has known all along: namely, that
the run-down building that Hyde frequents is actually a laboratory attached to
Jekyll’s well-kept townhouse, which faces outward on a parallel street.
Utterson is admitted into Jekyll’s home by Jekyll’s butler, Mr. Poole, but
Jekyll is not at home. Poole tells Utterson that Hyde has a key to the
laboratory and that all the servants have orders to obey Hyde. The lawyer heads
home, worrying about his friend. He assumes Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll,
perhaps for some wrongdoings that Jekyll committed in his youth.
v Chapter 3 :
“Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease”
Two weeks later, Jekyll throws a well-attended dinner
party. Utterson stays late so that the two men can speak privately. Utterson
mentions the will, and Jekyll begins to make a joke about it, but he turns pale
when Utterson tells him that he has been “learning something of young Hyde.”
Jekyll explains that the situation with Hyde is exceptional and cannot be
solved by talking. He also insists that “the moment I choose, I can be rid of
Mr. Hyde.” But Jekyll emphasizes the great interest he currently takes in Hyde
and his desire to continue to provide for him. He makes Utterson promise that
he will carry out his will and testament.
v Chapter 4 :
“The Carew Murder Case”
Approximately one year later, the scene opens on a
maid who, sitting at her window in the wee hours of the morning, witnesses a
murder take place in the street below. She sees a small, evil-looking man, whom
she recognizes as Mr. Hyde, encounter a polite, aged gentleman; when the
gentleman offers Hyde a greeting, Hyde suddenly turns on him with a stick,
beating him to death. The police find a letter addressed to Utterson on the
dead body, and they consequently summon the lawyer. He identifies the body as Sir
Danvers Carew, a popular Member of Parliament and one of his clients.
Utterson still has Hyde’s address, and he accompanies
the police to a set of rooms located in a poor, evil-looking part of town.
Utterson reflects on how odd it is that a man who lives in such squalor is the
heir to Henry Jekyll’s fortune. Hyde’s villainous-looking landlady lets the men
in, but the suspected murderer is not at home. The police find the murder
weapon and the burned remains of Hyde’s checkbook. Upon a subsequent visit to
the bank, the police inspector learns that Hyde still has an account there. The
officer assumes that he need only wait for Hyde to go and withdraw money. In
the days and weeks that follow, however, no sign of Hyde turns up; he has no
family, no friends, and those who have seen him are unable to give accurate
descriptions, differ on details, and agree only on the evil aspect of his
appearance.
v Chapter 5 :
“Incident of the Letter”
Utterson calls on Jekyll, whom he finds in his
laboratory looking deathly ill. Jekyll feverishly claims that Hyde has left and
that their relationship has ended. He also assures Utterson that the police
shall never find the man. Jekyll then shows Utterson a letter and asks him what
he should do with it, since he fears it could damage his reputation if he turns
it over to the police. The letter is from Hyde, assuring Jekyll that he has
means of escape, that Jekyll should not worry about him, and that he deems
himself unworthy of Jekyll’s great generosity. Utterson asks if Hyde dictated
the terms of Jekyll’s will—especially its insistence that Hyde inherit in the
event of Jekyll’s -“disappearance.” Jekyll replies in the affirmative, and
Utterson tells his friend that Hyde probably meant to murder him and that he
has had a near escape. He takes the letter and departs.
On his way out, Utterson runs into Poole, the butler,
and asks him to describe the man who delivered the letter; Poole, taken aback,
claims to have no knowledge of any letters being delivered other than the usual
mail. That night, over drinks, Utterson consults his trusted clerk, Mr. Guest,
who is an expert on handwriting. Guest compares Hyde’s letter with some of
Jekyll’s own writing and suggests that the same hand inscribed both; Hyde’s
script merely leans in the opposite direction, as if for the purpose of
concealment. Utterson reacts with alarm at the thought that Jekyll would forge
a letter for a murderer.
v Chapter 6 :
“Incident of Dr. Lanyon”
As time passes, with no sign of Hyde’s reappearance,
Jekyll becomes healthier-looking and more sociable, devoting himself to
charity. To Utterson, it appears that the removal of Hyde’s evil influence has
had a tremendously positive effect on Jekyll. After two months of this placid
lifestyle, Jekyll holds a dinner party, which both Utterson and Lanyon attend,
and the three talk together as old friends. But a few days later, when Utterson
calls on Jekyll, Poole reports that his master is receiving no visitors.
This scenario repeats itself for a week, so Utterson
goes to visit Lanyon, hoping to learn why Jekyll has refused any company. He
finds Lanyon in very poor health, pale and sickly, with a frightened look in
his eyes. Lanyon explains that he has had a great shock and expects to die in a
few weeks. “[L]ife has been pleasant,” he says. “I liked it; yes, sir, I used
to like it.” Then he adds, “I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more
glad to get away.” When Utterson mentions that Jekyll also seems ill, Lanyon
violently demands that they talk of anything but Jekyll. He promises that after
his death, Utterson may learn the truth about everything, but for now he will
not discuss it. Afterward, at home, Utterson writes to Jekyll, talking about
being turned away from Jekyll’s house and inquiring as to what caused the break
between him and Lanyon. Soon Jekyll’s written reply arrives, explaining that while
he still cares for Lanyon, he understands why the doctor says they must not
meet. As for Jekyll himself, he pledges his continued affection for Utterson
but adds that from now on he will be maintaining a strict seclusion, seeing no
one. He says that he is suffering a punishment that he cannot name.
Lanyon dies a few weeks later, fulfilling his
prophecy. After the funeral, Utterson takes from his safe a letter that Lanyon
meant for him to read after he died. Inside, Utterson finds only another
envelope, marked to remain sealed until Jekyll also has died. Out of
professional principle, Utterson overcomes his curiosity and puts the envelope
away for safekeeping. As weeks pass, he calls on Jekyll less and less
frequently, and the butler continues to refuse him entry.
v Chapter 7 :
“Incident at the Window”
The following Sunday, Utterson and Enfield are taking
their regular stroll. Passing the door where Enfield once saw Hyde enter to
retrieve Jekyll’s check, Enfield remarks on the murder case. He notes that the
story that began with the trampling has reached an end, as London will never
again see Mr. Hyde. Enfield mentions that in the intervening weeks he has
learned that the run-down laboratory they pass is physically connected to
Jekyll’s house, and they both stop to peer into the house’s windows, with
Utterson noting his concern for Jekyll’s health. To their surprise, the two men
find Jekyll at the window, enjoying the fresh air. Jekyll complains that he
feels “very low,” and Utterson suggests that he join them for a walk, to help
his circulation. Jekyll refuses, saying that he cannot go out. Then, just as
they resume polite conversation, a look of terror seizes his face, and he
quickly shuts the window and vanishes. Utterson and Enfield depart in shocked
silence.
v Chapter 8 :
“The Last Night”
Jekyll’s butler Poole visits Utterson one night after
dinner. Deeply agitated, he says only that he believes there has been some
“foul play” regarding Dr. Jekyll; he quickly brings Utterson to his master’s
residence. The night is dark and windy, and the streets are deserted, giving
Utterson a premonition of disaster. When he reaches Jekyll’s house, he finds
the servants gathered fearfully in the main hall. Poole brings Utterson to the
door of Jekyll’s laboratory and calls inside, saying that Utterson has come for
a visit. A strange voice responds, sounding nothing like that of Jekyll; the
owner of the voice tells Poole that he can receive no visitors.
Poole and Utterson retreat to the kitchen, where Poole
insists that the voice they heard emanating from the laboratory does not belong
to his master. Utterson wonders why the murderer would remain in the laboratory
if he had just killed Jekyll and not simply flee. Poole describes how the
mystery voice has sent him on constant errands to chemists; the man in the
laboratory seems desperate for some ingredient that no drugstore in London
sells. Utterson, still hopeful, asks whether the notes Poole has received are
in the doctor’s hand, but Poole then reveals that he has seen the person inside
the laboratory, when he came out briefly to search for something, and that the
man looked nothing like Jekyll. Utterson suggests that Jekyll may have some
disease that changes his voice and deforms his features, making them
unrecognizable, but Poole declares that the person he saw was smaller than his
master—and looked, in fact, like none other than Mr. Hyde.
Hearing Poole’s words, Utterson resolves that he and
Poole should break into the laboratory. He sends two servants around the block
the laboratory’s other door, the one that Enfield sees Hyde using at the
beginning of the novel. Then, armed with a fireplace poker and an axe, Utterson
and Poole return to the inner door. Utterson calls inside, demanding
admittance. The voice begs for Utterson to have mercy and to leave him alone.
The lawyer, however, recognizes the voice as Hyde’s and orders Poole to smash
down the door.
Once inside, the men find Hyde’s body lying on the
floor, a crushed vial in his hand. He appears to have poisoned himself. Utterson
notes that Hyde is wearing a suit that belongs to Jekyll and that is much too
large for him. The men search the entire laboratory, as well as the surgeon’s
theater below and the other rooms in the building, but they find neither a
trace of Jekyll nor a corpse. They note a large mirror and think it strange to
find such an item in a scientific laboratory. Then, on Jekyll’s business table,
they find a large envelope addressed to Utterson that contains three items. The
first is a will, much like the previous one, except that it replaces Hyde’s
name with Utterson’s. The second is a note to Utterson, with the present day’s
date on it. Based on this piece of evidence, Utterson surmises that Jekyll is
still alive—and he wonders if Hyde really died by suicide or if Jekyll killed
him. This note instructs Utterson to go home immediately and read the letter
that Lanyon gave him earlier. It adds that if he desires to learn more,
Utterson can read the confession of “Your worthy and unhappy friend, Henry
Jekyll.” Utterson takes the third item from the envelope—a sealed packet—and
promises Poole that he will return that night and send for the police. He then
heads back to his office to read Lanyon’s letter and the contents of the sealed
packet.
v Chapter 9 :
“Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”
This chapter constitutes a word-for-word transcription
of the letter Lanyon intends Utterson to open after Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s
deaths. Lanyon writes that after Jekyll’s last dinner party, he received a
strange letter from Jekyll. The letter asked Lanyon to go to Jekyll’s home and,
with the help of Poole, break into the upper room—or “cabinet”—of Jekyll’s
laboratory. The letter instructed Lanyon then to remove a specific drawer and
all its contents from the laboratory, return with this drawer to his own home,
and wait for a man who would come to claim it precisely at midnight. The letter
seemed to Lanyon to have been written in a mood of desperation. It offered no
explanation for the orders it gave but promised Lanyon that if he did as it bade,
he would soon understand everything.
Lanyon duly went to Jekyll’s home, where Poole and a
locksmith met him. The locksmith broke into the lab, and Lanyon returned home
with the drawer. Within the drawer, Lanyon found several vials, one containing
what seemed to be salt and another holding a peculiar red liquid. The drawer
also contained a notebook recording what seemed to be years of experiments,
with little notations such as “double” or “total failure!!!” scattered amid a
long list of dates. However, the notebooks offered no hints as to what the
experiments involved. Lanyon waited for his visitor, increasingly certain that
Jekyll must be insane. As promised, at the stroke of midnight, a small,
evil-looking man appeared, dressed in clothes much too large for him. It was,
of course, Mr. Hyde, but Lanyon, never having seen the man before, did not
recognize him. Hyde seemed nervous and excited. He avoided polite conversation,
interested only in the contents of the drawer. Lanyon directed him to it, and
Hyde then asked for a graduated glass. In it, he mixed the ingredients from the
drawer to form a purple liquid, which then became green. Hyde paused and asked
Lanyon whether he should leave and take the glass with him, or whether he
should stay and drink it in front of Lanyon, allowing the doctor to witness
something that he claimed would “stagger the unbelief of Satan.” Lanyon,
irritated, declared that he had already become so involved in the matter that
he wanted to see the end of it.
Taking up the glass, Hyde told Lanyon that his
skepticism of “transcendental medicine” would now be disproved. Before Lanyon’s
eyes, the deformed man drank the glass in one gulp and then seemed to swell,
his body expanding, his face melting and shifting, until, shockingly, Hyde was
gone and Dr. Jekyll stood in his place. Lanyon here ends his letter, stating
that what Jekyll told him afterward is too shocking to repeat and that the
horror of the event has so wrecked his constitution that he will soon die.
v Chapter 10: “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the
Case”
This chapter offers a transcription of the letter
Jekyll leaves for Utterson in the laboratory. Jekyll writes that upon his birth
he possessed a large inheritance, a healthy body, and a hardworking, decent
nature. His idealism allowed him to maintain a respectable seriousness in
public while hiding his more frivolous and indecent side. By the time he was
fully grown, he found himself leading a dual life, in which his better side
constantly felt guilt for the transgressions of his darker side. When his
scientific interests led to mystical studies as to the divided nature of man,
he hoped to find some solution to his own split nature. Jekyll insists that
“man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he records how he dreamed of separating
the good and evil natures.
Jekyll reports that, after much research, he
eventually found a chemical solution that might serve his purposes. Buying a
large quantity of salt as his last ingredient, he took the potion with the
knowledge that he was risking his life, but he remained driven by the hopes of
making a great discovery. At first, he experienced incredible pain and nausea.
But as these symptoms subsided, he felt vigorous and filled with recklessness
and sensuality. He had become the shrunken, deformed Mr. Hyde. He hypothesizes
that Hyde’s small stature owed to the fact that this persona represented his
evil side alone, which up to that point had been repressed.
Upon first looking into a mirror after the
transformation, Jekyll-turned-Hyde was not repulsed by his new form; instead,
he experienced “a leap of welcome.” He came to delight in living as Hyde.
Jekyll was becoming too old to act upon his more embarrassing impulses, but
Hyde was a younger man, the personification of the evil side that emerged
several years after Jekyll’s own birth. Transforming himself into Hyde became a
welcome outlet for Jekyll’s passions. Jekyll furnished a home and set up a bank
account for his alter ego, Hyde, who soon sunk into utter degradation. But each
time he transformed back into Jekyll, he felt no guilt at Hyde’s dark exploits,
though he did try to right whatever wrongs had been done.
It was not until two months before the Carew murder
that Jekyll found cause for concern. While asleep one night, he involuntarily transformed
into Hyde—without the help of the potion—and awoke in the body of his darker
half. This incident convinced him that he must cease with his transformations
or risk being trapped in Hyde’s form forever. But after two months as Jekyll,
he caved in and took the potion again. Hyde, so long repressed, emerged wild
and vengefully savage, and it was in this mood that he beat Carew to death,
delighting in the crime. Hyde showed no remorse for the murder, but Jekyll
knelt and prayed to God for forgiveness even before his transformation back was
complete. The horrifying nature of the murder convinced Jekyll never to
transform himself again, and it was during the subsequent months that Utterson
and others remarked that Jekyll seemed to have had a weight lifted from his
shoulders, and that everything seemed well with him.
Eventually, though, Jekyll grew weary of constant
virtue and indulged some of his darker desires—in his own person, not that of
Hyde. But this dip into darkness proved sufficient to cause another spontaneous
transformation into Hyde, which took place one day when Jekyll was sitting in a
park, far from home. As Hyde, he immediately felt brave and powerful, but he
also knew that the police would seize him for his murder of Carew. He could not
even return to his rooms to get his potions without a great risk of being
captured. It was then that he sent word to Lanyon to break into his laboratory
and get his potions for him. After that night, he had to take a double dose of
the potion every six hours to avoid spontaneous transformation into Hyde. As
soon as the drug began to wear off, the transformation process would begin. It
was one of these spells that struck him as he spoke to Enfield and Utterson out
the window, forcing him to withdraw.
In his last, desperate hours, Hyde grew stronger as
Jekyll grew weaker. Moreover, the salt necessary for the potion began to run
out. Jekyll ordered more, only to discover that the mineral did not have the
same effect; he realized that the original salt must have contained an impurity
that made the potion work. Jekyll then anticipated the fast approach of the
moment when he must become Hyde permanently. He thus used the last of the option
to buy himself time during which to compose this final letter. Jekyll writes that
he does not know whether, when faced with discovery, Hyde will kill himself or
be arrested and hanged—but he knows that by the time Utterson reads this
letter, Henry Jekyll will be no more.
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