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Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Chapter summary table

Title of Chapter

From which perspective(s) is the narrative told?

Summary of events

Story of the Door

Third person narrator - concentrating on Mr Utterson First person narrator – Mr Enfield

Mr Utterson and Enfield pass a door on one of their walks. Enfield tells the story of an incident he witnessed when a strange man walked over a child. Enfield and others blackmailed the man – the cheque used to pay £100 was in the name of Dr Henry Jekyll

Search for Mr Hyde

Third person (limited) – concentrates on Mr Utterson

Mr Utterson looks at Dr Jekyll’s will – Mr Hyde is named as sole benefactor. Mr Utterson meets Mr Hyde and gets his address

Dr Jekyll was quite at ease.

Third person (omniscient) – conversation between Mr Utterson and Dr Jekyll

Mr Utterson visits Dr Jekyll in order to talk about Mr Hyde and the will. Dr Jekyll reassures Mr Utterson. He asks him not to mention the matter again.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Title of Chapter

From which perspective is the narrative told?

Chapter summary table Summary of events

Third person limited for the maid – third person limited switches to Utterson

The maid witnesses Carew’s murder. Carew was carrying a letter addressed to Mr Utterson. Mr Utterson recognises the murder weapon (a walking stick he gave to Dr Jekyll), but doesn’t tell the police whom it belonged to. Utterson and Newcomen travel to Mr Hyde’s Soho house. Mr Hyde has left. There is no trace of him

Third person omniscient – focuses mainly on Utterson

Utterson visits Jekyll, concerned. Jekyll gives Utterson a letter that is supposedly from Mr Hyde; the letter states that Jekyll need not worry about Hyde as he has escaped. Jekyll swears that he will have nothing more to do with Hyde. Poole tells Utterson that no letters have been delivered to the house. Utterson seeks Mr Guest for advice. They drink some wine. A servant enters with a note from Dr Jekyll. Mr Guest notices that the handwriting is exactly the same as Hyde’s, except for the fact that it is sloped differently.

Third person omniscient and limited (focusing on Mr Utterson)

Dr Jekyll becomes his old self – he even becomes religious. There is no sign of Mr Hyde. After two months Dr Jekyll stops seeing people. Utterson goes to see Dr Lanyon. Dr Lanyon appears to be dying – he has had a terrible shock. He says that he will have nothing more to do with Dr Jekyll. Utterson writes to Jekyll and receives a reply that makes him think Jekyll is mad – it says that he wants no more contact with the outside world. Dr Lanyon dies and leaves some documents for Mr Utterson, not to be opened until Dr Lanyon’s death and the death or disappearance of Jekyll.

The Carew Murder Case

Incident of the Letter

First person letter from Dr Jekyll The Remarkable Incident of Dr Lanyon

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Title of Chapter

From which perspective is the narrative told? Third person limited – focuses on Mr Utterson

Chapter summary table Summary of events Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield see Dr Jekyll in a window at the back of his house. They begin to talk but Dr Jekyll stops the conversation as a look of horror spreads across his face. Utterson and Enfield leave.

Incident at the Window

Third person omniscient (especially when describing the night) Third person limited (focusing on Utterson) First person as Poole tells his story

Poole visits Utterson to tell him that he is worried about his master. They go to the house and to the door of Jekyll’s ‘cabinet’ (his rooms). The voice inside is not Jekyll’s. Poole tells Utterson that it’s not Jekyll in the room – he thinks it was Hyde. Utterson and Poole break into the room. They find the body of Hyde on the floor, dressed in clothes that are too big for him. There is a drug in the room. On Jekyll’s desk is a new will that names Utterson as the benefactor, and a document. Jekyll has left a note saying that Utterson should read the documents that Lanyon left before reading his own testament.

First person – Dr Lanyon’s narrative, in the form of a package left to Mr Utterson.

The events in Dr Lanyon’s narrative occur before Utterson discovers Hyde’s body. In his narrative Dr Lanyon recounts how Dr Jekyll asked him to fetch some drugs from his rooms and to wait for a visitor at midnight. The visitor is Mr Hyde, who arrives and takes the drugs. He turns into Dr Jekyll before Dr Lanyon’s eyes. Dr Lanyon is so shocked by this that he dies soon after; his life’s beliefs and work appear to have crumbled before his eyes, while Dr Jekyll’s ‘unscientific balderdash’ has resulted in the phenomenon of Mr Hyde.

The Last Night

Dr Lanyon’s narrative

In this narrative Dr Lanyon receives a letter from Dr Jekyll, which is another first person narrative. This chapter is complicated! First person (from Dr Jekyll’s point of view) mixed with 3rd person when describing Mr Hyde’s actions. Dr Jekyll sometimes confuses the two.

Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case

Dr Jekyll explains what happened from his point of view. He claims that he always wanted to find a way to separate his good, public self from the side of him that wanted to be free to do whatever it wanted. He says that he used to be an ‘ordinary, secret sinner’, but when he found a way to separate his two sides he was able to indulge his desires as Mr Hyde. He claims that he was free of the responsibility of his actions. After Mr Hyde kills Sir Danvers Carew he manages to resist taking the potion, but eventually succumbs to temptation (note that we are never told what Dr Jekyll’s sins are) and takes the potion again. Mr Hyde begins to take over Dr Jekyll – he needs larger and larger doses of the potion in order to become Dr Jekyll again. Eventually the potion runs out and he is unable to make a new batch. Hyde kills himself – maybe because he feared being hanged for the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, although this is not entirely clear. Perhaps he had other reasons?