Book Title: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Type of work: Novel
Genre: Gothic mystery work

Characters

Dr. Henry Jekyll - A respected doctor and friend of both Lanyon, a fellow physician,
and Utterson, a lawyer.
Mr. Edward Hyde - A bizarre, unpleasant figure who appears to be pre-human. Hyde
is aggressive and vicious, and everyone who sees him describes him as ugly and
deformed—yet no one can identify exactly why.
Mr. Gabriel John Utterson - A famous and well-respected lawyer in the London
community.
Dr. Hastie Lanyon - A reputable London doctor who was formerly one of Dr. Jekyll's
closest pals, along with Utterson.
Mr. Poole - The butler of Dr. Jekyll.
Mr. Enfield - Mr. Utterson's distant relative and lifelong buddy
Mr. Guest - Utterson’s clerk and confidant.
Carew, Sir Danvers - A well-liked old aristocrat, member of Parliament, and Utterson
client.

Summary

The story opens with Mr. Enfield telling Mr. Utterson about how he once saw a man
named Hyde come out of Dr. Jekyll's house, carrying a check for nearly one
hundred pounds. Mr. Utterson is curious, so he goes to Dr. Jekyll's house to
investigate. He finds out that the door in question leads to a laboratory that connects
to Dr. Jekyll's house. Inside the laboratory, he finds that Hyde has killed a girl.

After his walk with Mr. Enfield, Utterson returns home and goes straight to his study.
There he finds a copy of Dr. Jekyll's will, which stipulates that should Dr. Jekyll
disappear or perish, Edward Hyde will inherit his estate. Certain that something is
wrong, Utterson visits his friend Dr. Jekyll to inquire about his beneficiary. Dr. Jekyll
assures Mr. Utterson that his will is correct and he intends to pass on everything to
Hyde. However, he also refuses to talk about his connection to Hyde, which vexes
Mr. Utterson.

A year has passed, and a maid sees a man attack another, elderly man, killing him
with a club. She recognizes the murderer; it is Edward Hyde. His victim was a man
named Sir Danvers Carew, a respected gentleman and one of Mr. Utterson’s legal
clients. Following the gruesome murder, Utterson goes with the police inspector to
look for Hyde, but they can’t find him. Mr. Utterson worries for Dr. Jekyll’s safety, and
goes to his friend to ask after his connection to Edward Hyde. Once more, Dr. Jekyll
will not go into detail, but promises that he won’t have dealings with Hyde anymore.
He shows Mr. Utterson a letter from Edward Hyde, promising not to hurt Dr. Jekyll.
Mollified, Mr. Utterson lets the matter drop.

A friend of Dr. Jekyll's, Dr. Lanyon, suddenly falls ill and dies a few weeks later. Mr.
Utterson is given a letter by Lanyon before he dies which instructs Mr. Utterson not
to open it until after Lanyon's death.

Before Mr. Utterson can read the letter, he and Mr. Enfield witness a shocking event:
Dr. Jekyll's home turns into Hyde's home, and Dr. Jekyll is speaking with them out
his window. They are both shocked when Hyde suddenly appears, and it is only
after Utterson goes into Dr. Jekyll's laboratory that he confirms the truth: Hyde is
dead on the floor, in Dr. Jekyll's clothes. Utterson finds a letter on the body from Dr.
Jekyll.

In a letter, Dr. Lanyon tells Mr. Utterson that Dr. Jekyll had been having problems
with the side effects of a drug he was working on, and that he had asked for
Lanyon’s help. Lanyon describes how Dr. Jekyll, while under the influence of the
drug, transformed into Edward Hyde, shocking Lanyon into his sickness and death.
Mr. Utterson continues reading the letter, learning that the drug Dr. Jekyll was
working on was meant to test whether or not man has a dual nature good and evil.
With the drug, Dr. Jekyll could separate out his evil side, embodied by Edward
Hyde. Unfortunately, the more Dr. Jekyll worked with the drug, the less predictable
it was, so that he could no longer control when he turned into Edward Hyde or what
Hyde would do when in control. He knew that if Hyde won, he’d cease to be Dr.
Jekyll, and all of his goodness would be gone. So, he decided to take his own life.