Plot and structure

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a short novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1886 and set in Victorian London.

Mr Utterson, a lawyer, is worried about his friend Dr Jekyll, a respected doctor. Jekyll has made a will leaving everything to Mr Hyde, a violent, repulsive man. Utterson investigates, and after a murder, a death and a locked door, the truth is revealed: Hyde and Jekyll are the same man. Jekyll created a potion that turns him into Hyde, his evil side, and lost control of it.

The novel has ten chapters, each with a title.

1. Story of the Door. On a Sunday walk, Enfield tells Utterson how he saw a man trample a little girl, then pay compensation with a cheque signed by a respected gentleman. The man went in through a shabby door.
2. Search for Mr. Hyde. Utterson rereads Jekyll's will, which leaves everything to Hyde. Dr Lanyon says he and Jekyll have fallen out. Utterson waits by the door, meets Hyde, and is filled with disgust.
3. Dr. Jekyll was Quite at Ease. At a dinner, Utterson raises the will. Jekyll refuses to discuss it, but asks Utterson to help Hyde if anything happens to him.

4. The Carew Murder Case. A year later, a maid sees Hyde beat Sir Danvers Carew, an MP, to death. Hyde escapes.
5. Incident of the Letter. Jekyll shows Utterson a letter from Hyde. Utterson's clerk notices that the handwriting is like Jekyll's, and Utterson fears Jekyll has forged it to protect Hyde.
6. Incident of Dr. Lanyon. Hyde has vanished and Jekyll seems happier, but then he shuts himself away. Lanyon, after a terrible shock, dies, leaving a sealed letter for Utterson.
7. Incident at the Window. Utterson and Enfield see Jekyll at his window. Suddenly his face fills with ‘abject terror and despair’ (Chapter 7), and he slams the window shut.

8. The Last Night. Jekyll's butler, Poole, fetches Utterson: the voice in Jekyll's locked room is not his master's. They break down the door and find Hyde dead, a ‘self-destroyer’ (Chapter 8), wearing Jekyll's clothes. Jekyll is nowhere. Utterson takes the papers left for him.
9. Dr. Lanyon's Narrative. Lanyon's letter explains that he watched Hyde drink a potion and turn into Jekyll. The shock destroyed him.
10. Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case. Jekyll explains everything: his double life, his experiments, how Hyde grew stronger, and how he ran out of the drug that changed him back.

For eight chapters, we see events through Utterson, who doesn't know the truth and keeps guessing wrong: blackmail, then forgery. Like him, we are kept in suspense, as in a detective story.

Only at the end do we read two documents: Lanyon's narrative, an eyewitness account of the transformation, and Jekyll's statement, his own confession. Saving the explanation until last keeps the mystery alive, and the documents feel like evidence in a legal case.

The novel ends in Jekyll's own voice, as he is about to become Hyde for ever.