Stevenson, Robert Louis - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

During a walk, Mr Utterson (a lawyer) and his cousin Richard Enfield found themselves near a discoloured, cracked door in a street of a quarter of hardworking people. Seeing it, Enfield told Utterson a strange event that had happened to him in that place: it was 3 o’clock in the morning, he was coming back home when he saw an 8-10 year old girl running along that street who bumped into a man. Unexpected, the man trampled over the child’s body, making her cry, then he kept on walking tranquilly. Enfield chased him and took him back: the girl wasn’t injured, but they (Enfield and the little girl’s parents) asked the mysterious man, Mr Hyde, for a compensation. Since he had no money with him, he went into his house (the “strange ”door) and gave them a cheque signed by a respectable gentleman (Dr Jekyll). Enfield thought it was fake but actually it was authentic.

Utterson kept in a safe Jekyll’s last will which decreed that, in case of death or disappearance, he left all his fortunes to his friend Hyde. Utterson met Lanyon (Jekyll and Utterson’s friend) in order to ask him information about Hyde but, since he couldn’t tell him anything,(he hadn’t seen Jekyll for long time since they had had a dispute over his research) the lawyer decided to lie in waiting nearby the “famous” door and meet him. Only after several days he managed to speak with him and see his face. After talking, Utterson went to Jekyll’s house, he wasn’t at home. However, Utterson was told by Poole (the butler) that Mr Hyde was allowed to go into the dissecting room through a side entrance and the servants had to satisfy all his demands. The lawyer began to suspect that Hyde was blackmailing his friend, so he wanted to help him.

After two weeks, after dinner, Jekyll and Utterson remained alone and spoke about the doctor’s last will: Utterson didn’t approve it, Jekyll, even though he appreciated his friend’s worry, claimed that there was nothing to be worried about, he could free himself from Hyde when he wanted.

Few days later, un unpleasant event happened: a housemaid saw Mr Hyde killing Danvers Carew with a stick, the old gentleman had with him a letter for Utterson who was called by the police to identify the body.
They went to Hyde’s home but he had disappeared. In the afternoon, the lawyer visited Jekyll who was very depressed, he was done with Hyde.Then he gave to Utterson a letter, written by Hyde, which had been delivered by another person.( Utterson asked Poole to describe him the man who had brought the letter but he answered he hadn’t received any/seen anybody).Back to his office, Utterson made Guest( his assistant and also critic of handwriting) compare Jekyll’s and Hyde’s handwriting, they were identical and this made the lawyer perplexed because he couldn’t understand the reason why Jekyll was defending Hyde.

After Hyde’s disappearance, Jekyll became different, he came out his seclusion, renewed the relationship with his friends, but after two months, suddenly, he didn’t want to see anybody and started to live secluded in the dissecting room. After two weeks Lanyon died, Utterson found in his friend’s house a letter for him which “didn’t have to be opened till the disappearance or death of Jekyll”. He decided to respect Lanyon’s will.
On Sunday, during a walk, Utterson and Enfield saw Jekyll at the window, they were chatting when a disturbing expression appeared on Jekyll’s face terrifying the lawyer and his cousin. Some evenings after that accident, Poole visited Utterson and told him that for several days a person lived secluded in the dissecting room, kept asking for drugs/medicines because the ones he had received didn’t work. This person looked like Hyde.
Both Utterson and Poole thought that Jekyll had been murdered by Hyde, so they broke down the door of the laboratory in order to discover the truth. When they went in, they found the dead body of Hyde who had poisoned himself, but there was no sign of Jekyll. On the business table Utterson found a letter to him by Jekyll promising to explain everything. Utterson took the document home, where first he read Lanyon's letter; it revealed that Lanyon's deterioration and eventual death had been caused by the shock of seeing Mr. Hyde take a potion and metamorphose into Dr. Jekyll. After reading Lanyon’s letter, Utterson read Jekyll’s confession where he revealed all the details about his double personality.