Part 5: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Summary and Plot Development

. . . I have to ask you to be alone in your consulting room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man who will present himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of my reason.

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

What does the reader learn about Dr. Jekyll from his letter to Dr. Lanyon?
✔ He needs Lanyon’s help and is grateful for it.

How does Dr. Jekyll’s letter help build suspense?
✔ Jekyll does not give a reason for his request

How does Dr. Jekyll’s letter move the plot forward?

After reading the letter, Dr. Lanyon breaks into Dr. Jekyll’s cabinet and takes his drawer.

This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance, struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity) was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him in every measurement—the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his haunches, and the collar sprawling wide upon his shoulders. . . . there was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me—something seizing, surprising and revolting . . .

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

How does this part of the letter create suspense? Check all that apply.

A. by describing a mysterious visitor
B. by describing an ordinary visitor
C. by not stating the identity of the visitor
D. by revealing Dr. Lanyon’s feelings about the E. visitor
by calling the visitor “laughable”

A, C, D

He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my eyes—pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll!

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

What important event in the plot does Dr. Lanyon’s letter reveal?

Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll are the same person.

What is the second step in summarizing plot events?

Identify the main events and details in each part of the plot.

What can letters do that are used as plot devices? Choose four answers.

A. move a story forward

B. share internal thoughts and feelings of other characters

C. reveal perspectives and experiences of other characters

D. summarize the story from the author’s perspective

E. add to the suspense of a story

A, B, C, E

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"It is well," replied my visitor. "Lanyon, you remember your vows: what follows is under the seal of our profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors—behold!"

He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth . . .

The point of view in the excerpt allows the reader to

know Hyde’s thoughts and feelings through his dialogue and actions.

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Twelve o’clock had scarce rung out over London, ere the knocker sounded very gently on the door. I went myself at the summons, and found a small man crouching against the pillars of the portico.

"Are you come from Dr. Jekyll?” I asked.

He told me "yes” by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance into the darkness of the square. There was a policeman not far off, advancing with his bull’s eye open; and at the sight, I thought my visitor started and made greater haste.

How does this part of Lanyon’s letter help create suspense?

by describing a mysterious and nervous stranger

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

He [Hyde] put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

Which is the best summary of the events described?

Hyde drinks from the glass and begins staggering around. Lanyon watches Hyde’s features change and leaps back in horror.

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

And the next moment, in a voice that was already fairly well under control, "Have you a graduated glass?” he [Hyde] asked.

I rose from my place with something of an effort and gave him what he asked.

He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders. The mixture, which was at first of a reddish hue, began, in proportion as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce audibly, and to throw off small fumes of vapour. Suddenly and at the same moment, the ebullition ceased and the compound changed to a dark purple, which faded again more slowly to a watery green. My visitor, who had watched these metamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass upon the table, and then turned and looked upon me with an air of scrutiny.

Which is the best summary of the events described?

Hyde asks for a glass. Lanyon gives it to him, and Hyde creates a mixture in it. After the mixture stops transforming, Hyde sets down the glass and looks critically at Lanyon.

Read the following excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

How could the presence of these articles in my house affect either the honour, the sanity, or the life of my flighty colleague? If his messenger could go to one place, why could he not go to another? And even granting some impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in secret? The more I reflected the more convinced I grew that I was dealing with a case of cerebral disease . . .

The point of view in the excerpt allows the reader to

know Lanyon’s thoughts directly.

How does Jekyll’s letter to Lanyon in the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde create suspense in the story?

Jekyll fails to reveal a reason for his request.

Jekyll’s letter in the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reveals that

Jekyll is in a desperate situation and needs help from Lanyon.

The author includes Jekyll’s letter within Lanyon’s letter to

add another perspective to the story.