The strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde

The strange case of

Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde

The story: Summary

OPENING SITUATION:

The story begins with the description of one of the main characters, Mr.Utterson, a well-known London's lawyer. One day Mr.Utterson and his cousin Mr.Enfield were taking their afternoon walk. They entered a dark, narrow street and came upon a gloomy building with only a door in it and no windows.

That sight reminded to the latter a terrible scene he witnessed no longer before. He was going home at three o'clock in the morning when he suddenly saw two people: a little girl who was running as fast as she could and a man who was walking quickly ahead of him. Then a terrible thing happened: the man just stepped on the child who was fallen down. Mr.Enfield saw it, ran after the man and caught him.

The family of the injured girl wanted money from him for not telling that story to everyone and for not discredit him, so he accepted. The man took them to that building, went in by that door and soon came back with a cheque, which was signed with a well-known name. The stranger told them that his name was Hyde and Mr.Enfield didn't trust him, but when they went together to the bank for the money the signature was perfectly good.

When he ended the story, Mr.Utterson understood that there was a connection between Mr.Hyde and Dr.Jekyll, his friend and client, because that building was in fact a wing of his house, serving as laboratory.

MAIN EVENTS:

Back home he reread Dr.Jekyll's will, of which he took charge when it had been made, and discovered that Mr.Hyde was his only heir, also in case of Dr.Jekyll's "disappearance or unexplained absence". Mr.Utterson decided to investigate, so he went to Dr.Lanyon, a friend of him, but he couldn't give him any useful information.

A year later, another strange fact happened: an old respectable man, Sir Danvers Crew, was found beaten to death in an alley near the river. Moreover, thanks to the testimony of a servant girl who saw the murder from a window, Mr.Hyde was accused of having committed that horrible crime. Mr.Utterson wanted to find out the truth and went together with a police inspector to Mr.Hyde's house, in Soho. There they found the other half of the stick, because one part laid beside the body of the dead man, and also a half-burnt chequebook: finally, their suspicions were confirmed.

A few days later Mr.Utterson went to Dr.Jekyll to pay him a visit and his friend looked weak and ill. He told him that he had received a letter from Mr.Hyde, who had ned to kill him. Mr.Utterson went back home, took the letter with him and discovered that that was the same handwriting of Dr.Jekyll.

Another few months passed. One day he met Dr.Lanyon again, who was very ill, and he told him that he was in that condition because of Dr.Jekyll, but he didn't want to add anything more. In fact, after a few weeks he died and left to Mr.Utterson an envelope, which hadn't to be opened until the death or disappearance of Dr.Jekyll.

Time passed. Mr.Utterson tried hard to see his friend, but he always refused and he was really worried about this fact. One night Dr.Jekyll's butler went to him: he was in despair, because his master locked himself in his laboratory a week before and kept ordering certain chemicals, and some strange cries and animal sounds came from there. Mr.Utterson also thought that that situation was too strange, so they decided to take action. After breaking into Dr.Jekyll's laboratory, they found Mr.Hyde lying dead on the floor: he had taken a poison to kill himself. There was no trace of his friend, so they thought that probably Mr.Hyde murdered him because of receiving the money of his will, but Mr.Utterson found some letters addressed to him and a new will of which he was the only heir.

FINAL SITUATION:

The story ends with two letters. The first is Dr.Lanyon's letter, in which there is described a terrible secret of unimaginable horror: in fact, he saw Mr.Hyde transforming himself into Dr.Jekyll, and this event was so shocking that led him to illness. The second letter is Dr.Jekyll's confession, which explains the reasons why he began taking the liquid that changed him into Mr.Hyde and the final uncontrollable effects of that terrible experiment.