Plot summary in each chapters Flashcards
1
Q
Chapter 1: The story of the door
A
- The main character Mr Utterson is a wealthy, well-respected lawyer. The writer states that despite his respectability, Utterson never abandons a friend whose reputation has been ruined.
- He is described with the adjective dusty meaning they have not been touched for a long time as if they are left alone on a shelf. Utterson is Lonely but loyal.
- He is loyal till the end until “The downfall” of his friend.
- This foreshadows how the massive downfall of his good friend Henry Jekyll is going to have throughout this play.
- Utterson religiously goes on a Sunday walk with his distant kingsman Mr Enfield.
- While they are on their walk Enfield tells Utterson the story of the door.
- Enfield says one night when he was coming back from doing no good he saw 2 people a young girl running on the road and a man coming from the opposite direction and collide
- This man instead of apologising “Trampled calmly over the girl” The use of the word calmly shows how he did it easily and inflicted pain
- Enfield sees this and grabs the man threatens him and demands compensation
- He goes to the door and gets a check but it’s not in his name but is in Henry Jekyll’s name
- Utterson asks are you sure he used a key to get into the house because that means he has access to the house
- Enfield doesn’t tell him whose name it was on the check
2
Q
Chapter 2: The search for Mr Hyde
A
- Utterson goes home and is a bit troubled by what he has seen
- He takes out the will of Jekyll and suspects that Hyde and Jekyll have some link
- He opens the will and sees that Jekyll has written “ If something happens to me then everything I own should go to Hyde”
- Utterson sees this and is confused as he knows Hyde tramples over girls
- When Utterson goes to bed that night he has a terrible nightmare of Jekyll being controlled by Hyde which again foreshadows
- Utterson becomes obsessed. Not only is he a lawyer but is behaving like a detective in this chapter
- He stands and watches the door waiting for Hyde to come one day to open the door and approach him
- After waiting and waiting he finally meets Hyde one night opens the door and goes to stop him
- He is shocked and everyone that had met him says that there is something wrong with him but is not quite sure why
- Utterson says the same thing
- IMPORTANT: Hyde is disfigured and wrong not from his appearance but just wrong to the core. He gets a gut feeling that something is up but can’t point out what it is
- He is convinced that Hyde is black-mailing Jekyll and is the reason why he is helping Hyde because his lovely friend would never do that
3
Q
Chapter 3: Dr. Jekyll Was Quite at Ease
A
- Jekyll is hosting a party and Utterson goes to it
- Utterson questions him about the will as he’s not happy with it
- Jekyll says look relax it’s fine what you are thinking isn’t true and I’m not getting black-mailed
- He compared Uttersons worries to Layons concerns about Jekyll as a scientist
- He says that they are thinking too much and that they shouldn’t worry about him as he is fine
- He says 2 things to Utterson that are IMPORTANT:
- If something happens to Jekyll make sure he carries out his will and everything he has goes to Hyde. It shows the importance of Jekyll doesn’t care what other people think about Hyde but making sure everything goes to him
- He then says he can be rid of Hyde whenever he wants this quote comes back later and bites him back
4
Q
Chapter 4: The Carew Murder Case
A
- A year later
- Set again at night
- A maid of a house went upstairs and looked down upon the street and told the story of what she saw
- She says she saw Sir Danvers Carew a rich powerful member of society walking down the street
- On the other side she saw someone walking the other way
- These 2 men came face to face and as Carew said hello
- Hyde who was the other man got a cane and battered Carew and fell to the ground. Hyde continued the blows over and over
- Talks about how you can hear the bones cracking
- Wasn’t a stabbing of the knife or a gunshot but a vicious murder
- As though there is a deep hatred between these 2 men
- From trampling over a young girl he has now killed which shows how his evil is growing
- On Carew’s dead body they find a letter that was addressed to Utterson and the Cane
- So the cops go over there and Utterson sees the Murder weapon and realised it’s his friend Henry Jekyll’s Cane that he gave to him as a present
- They realise this must be Hyde and go to find him at his house and find the other half of the cane
- Hyde doesn’t do a good job of covering his tracks
- They wait to find Hyde but there is no sign of Hyde ever again
- Hyde targets innocent people like an old man who is rich and powerful and a young girl who is poor and helpless
- IMPORTANT: Hyde attacking that young poor girl highlights a fundamental flaw in society in the 19th century
- Him trampling calmly over a girl shows how a capitalist society tramples calmly over poor people like this girl all of the time their lives are terrible
- When Hyde attacks Sir Danvers Carew it is almost as if he attacks the people who are responsible for the suffering of the people like this innocent girl
5
Q
Chapter 5: Incident of the Letter
A
- Utterson visits Jekyll
- Jekyll looks ill, sick, and pale
- Asks Jekyll have u heard or seen Hyde
- Jekyll says no and says that Hyde wrote him this letter to say that he is done and is splitting ways and tells Utterson to have a look
- On the way out Utterson asks Jekyll’s butler who gave/brought Jekyll this letter to the house
- The butler is confused as he doesn’t know about the letter and says that no one has been to the house in ages
- This sparks some suspicion for Utterson and goes to visit Mr guest who is an expert in handwriting
- Utterson gives him the letter that was supposedly written by Hyde and gives him the writing that was written by Jekyll and tells him to compare them to see if they are different or from the same person.
- Mr Guest confirms that the writing is very similar and Utterson believes that Jekyll has forged this letter pretending to be Hyde so that people think his link between them has finished
- Utterson does nothing about it
- IMPORTANT: Structure of a 19th-century text
. Suspense is building and building and building until the very end with the big reveal then the book finishes
6
Q
Chapter 6: Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon
A
- The reader is told that Jekyll Is becoming a good man again and is doing so much charity work
- It raises the question of why is he doing so much good all of a sudden out of nowhere
- Hyde is still nowhere to be found
- As time passes Utterson tries to see Jekyll and it is reversed. From being super happy and we learn he has fallen into a slumber and isn’t seeing anybody
- Utterson being worried about his friend goes to see Lanyon. Lanyon is their friend also and is another scientist
- Lanyon is also sick and pale and worried and says to Utterson my life is done and I am finished because of what he has seen and experienced it is too much but can’t tell Utterson
- Utterson weeks later receives news that Lanyon has passed away and gets a letter
- It says it can’t be opened until the death or disappearance of Jekyll
- Out of respect Utterson takes the letter and puts it into his safe and doesn’t open it
- IMPORTANT: He shouldn’t have done that as it says wait until Utterson’s other friend is dead. ibr if one of my friends died and gave me a letter saying to wait till our other friend died I wouldn’t listen and open it straight away coz who is gonna find out
- Does Utterson not open the letter because he is a loyal friend or is it because he is scared of finding out the truth as he would have to get involved more
7
Q
Chapter 7: Incident at the Window
A
- Utterson and Enfield go on their walk like usual
- They walk to Jekyll’s house
- Utterson wants to see Jekyll but Jekyll refuses to come outside and is up there in the windows
- There are 3 windows. One is closed on the left the one on the right is closed. But the one in the middle is open halfway
- IMPORTANT: This halfway open window could symbolise a split personality
- He is talking to them from the window
- For a split second something happens that makes the hairs of Utterson and Jekyll stand up
- Jekyll’s face changes for a split second and looks evil and looks like Hyde
- When that happens the window slams shut
8
Q
Chapter 8: The Last Night
A
- Paul (Jekyll’s Buttler)
- Visits Utterson and says something is wrong and he is a little bit stressed as he is worried about Jekyll
- They go to Jekyll’s house from the back where the laboratory is and the doors shut
- The person on the other side is begging them not to come in
- Utterson and Paul recognise that it isn’t Jektll’s voice but Hyde’s
- They decide to smash the door down and find on the floor a dead Hyde and think he has committed suicide
- They look around as they suspect that Jekyll will be somewhere there
- They can’t find him but Utterson finds a will and a letter from Jekyll
- Jekyll has not disappeared and Utterson goes home to read the 2 letters. Dr. Lanyon’s letter as Jekyll has now disappeared and then has to read Jekyll’s letter
9
Q
Chapter 9: Dr Lanyon’s Narrative
A
- Lanyon tells Utterson that one day he receives a letter from Jekyll
- The letter says to go to his lab and pick up some chemicals and take them back with him and somebody will come and collect them
- Lanyon follows the instructions and goes to the lab gets the chemicals and comes back
- Lanyon says that a man came to visit him. A small, ugly, and evil man which was Hyde
- Hyde takes the chemicals off Lanyon and says do you want to be here to see what happens next because there is no going back
- Lanyons says that he is too involved and there is no going back for him and wants to see it through
- Hyde drinks the chemicals and transforms from Hyde into Jekyll
- IMPORTANT: the first time it was clearly revealed that Hyde and Jekyll are the same person
- So if Hyde is dead than Jekyll is also dead
10
Q
Chapter 10: Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the case
A
- Jekyll says how Hyde was a creation born out of curiosity
- Jekyll created Hyde because he was curious and wanted to split his desires
- Every man has 2 desired good and bad
- Jekyll says he wanted to store all his bad in a different being but under his control
- So if he wanted to be good he could be Jekyll and if he wanted to be bad he could turn into Hyde
- But as one-off occurrences to get some freedom for a little while
- As time went on from trampling over a little girl to killing Carew it eventually took his life
- The evil side of Jekyll which is Hyde
- Grew more and more and more powerful until it overpowered Jekyll’s good side
- Once it took over Jekyll became an addict to evil and doing bad
- Hence why he lost all control of Hyde
11
Q
What does this text tell us
A
- Human beings are capable of creating other human beings
- Jekyll in trying to create Hyde went against religion
- Showed us the idea that if we were allowed to human beings would surcome to their desires
- Good or bad and become slaves to their evil side
- The prophecy of Utterson became true
- Utterson was loyal to Jekyll until the end. Until his absolute downfall
- But did nothing to prevent it. like a person watching a movie
- He watched every single scene play out in front of him but did nothing to intervene
