Extract from ‘The Prelude’ by William Wordsworth – the Boat Stealing Incident

Extract from ‘The Prelude’ by William Wordsworth.

The poem in a nutshell….

A poem written in a conversational style, ‘the real language of men’ in which the speaker confronts the difference between the human and the non-human world and learns.

Context: William Wordsworth was a romantic poet. We don’t mean he wrote love poems, but he wrote poems about the world we live in which challenged people and the way they thought at the time. During this time ‘epic’ poems of large length were common, as were poems that looked at the world and man’s place within it. This extract is from a much larger poem (‘The Prelude’ – 14 books) that looks at the spiritual and moral development of a man growing up, ‘the growth of a poet’s mind’ and ‘the child is father of the man’: events in childhood shape us as adults.

An example of poetry of the Romantic Movement (Romanticism may be regarded as the triumph of the values of imaginative spontaneity, visionary originality, wonder, and emotional self-expression over the classical standards of balance, order, restraint, proportion, and objectivity. Its name derives from romance, the literary form in which desires and dreams prevail over everyday realities.’ Oxford Companion to English Literature (7 ed.)) — it’s a revelation, an epiphany, an example of what Wordsworth called ‘spots of time’.

The incident took place on Ullswater, in the Lake District where Wordsworth grew up—‘The Boat Stealing Incident’

Themes: The poem is quite hard to relate to conflict and power. However, there is a sense of conflict between man and nature where nature is eventually shown to be more powerful in the end.

Boating along:

During the poem the setting is of a journey in a boat. The journey represents a more spiritual journey and it becomes more rough and hostile along the way. At first, nature is shown at peace with the poet, later as it gets darker and he tries to reach the horizon it becomes harsh and predatory, putting man back in his place.

 

Structure: Written as part of a much larger piece. This section is 44 lines in blank verse (no real structure). The work is in iambic pentameter to give it a consistent pace. As the poem progresses, the journey the poet is on becomes rougher and words like ‘and’ are repeated to give it a breathless pace and feel.

Mountain:

“a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct, Upreared its head.”

The mountain is shown in the poem like a great angry entity and represents the full might and power of nature. It seems to take offence at the poet going too far or too ‘lustily’. You could imagine it like a game of ‘chicken’ where the poet is rowing toward the mountain, the closer he gets the more menacing it appears before he backs away.

3 key quotes:

Quote: ‘Troubled pleasure’

Method: Oxymoron

What effect is created? Contains the paradox the child feels: they are aware they have broken a social taboo, yet feel pleasure, and so are ‘troubled’ (line 6).

Quote: ‘straight I unloosed her chain’ and ‘lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake’

Method: Effective language. Juxtaposition/contrast

What effect is created? Reflects the speaker’s confidence and possible arrogance and excitement. This juxtaposes with language later in the poem when the power of nature is realised.

Quote: ‘struck and struck again’ and ‘trembling oars’

Method: Effective language. Juxtaposition/contrast

What effect is created? Reflects the speaker’s fear and panic in the wake of the huge mountain he encounters. This juxtaposes with language earlier in the poem before the power of nature is realised.

Aspects of Power or Conflict

Dialogue or fruitful conflict between the human and non-human worlds which results in growth in our understanding of the universe and our place in it.

Human beings must realise the limitations of their power.

Adults must acknowledge their debt to their childhood.

Poems that can be linked: ‘Storm on the Island’, ‘Émigrée’, ‘Tissue’, ‘Ozymandias.

BY THE END OF THIS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

HIGHER MARKS

LOWER MARKS

-The poem symbolically uses the journey on the river to mirror the poet’s own spiritual journey of reflection.   -The poem is structured to show the contrast of the serene and peaceful start where we work with nature, to the dark and disturbing battle with nature shown from when he tries to control his journey through rowing.   -The conflict between man and nature is caused by man’s attempt to manipulate nature, nature still contains a power and majesty beyond mankind’s ability to command.

-The poem is about a journey on the river.     -The poet is at peace but by the end of the journey he becomes troubled.   -The journey helps show how mankind is a part of nature but does not rule over it.

 

 

ASKING AND GIVING OPINIONS – AGREEING AND DISAGREEING IN ENGLISH

1. Giving Opinions:

• As far as I’m concerned …
• In my opinion … In my view …
• From my point of view …
• The way I see it is (that) …
• To my mind …
• Well, I reckon (that) …
• I (strongly) believe (that) …
• I (honestly) think (that) …
• I (really) feel (that) …
• Personally speaking, I believe …
• As for me, I reckon …

2. Asking Opinions:

• What do you think/reckon?
• Do you see what I’m getting at?
• Do you know/see what I mean?
• Do you agree with me?
• Would you go along with that?
• Would you agree with me that … ?
• What are your thoughts on that?
• Don’t you think (that) … ?

3. Agreeing:

• I (totally) agree with you / that.
• I couldn’t agree more.
• I’d go along with that.
• I feel the same.
• You’re absolutely right.
• Absolutely / Definitely / Exactly.
• No doubt about it.
• That’s a good point. / I see your point.
• I see where you’re coming from.

4. Disagreeing:

• I’m afraid I disagree.
• I don’t agree with you / that.
• I’d be inclined to disagree.
• That’s not the way I see it.
• I don’t think so. / I don’t feel the same.

5. Partly agreeing:

• I see your point but …
• I kind of agree with you / that.
• I agree with you to an extent, however, …
• You make a good point, but …

 

London by William Blake

London by William Blake.

The poem in a nutshell…. Very negative in tone. Reflects Blake’s disillusionment with state. A walk through London reveals it to be a place where freedom is restricted and poverty is rife. Institutions such as the Church and the monarchy are riddled with hypocrisy as money is spent on their upkeep rather than improving the life chances of the poor.

Context:

William Blake was a poet in Victorian/Georgian England, he wrote a selection of poems in his anthologies songs of innocence and experience, most of those poems had a counterpart. The experience poems were often more bitter or cynical whereas the innocence poems were often naïve and simple. London is one of the few without a counterpart. The poem is set during a time in England where there was poverty, child labour and a horrific war with France. Women had no rights, death rates from disease and malnutrition were high and the industrial revolution has resulted in many large oppressive factories. Blake’s poems often railed against these and how London, arguably the greatest city in the world at that time, was so dirty and corrupt. London was published in 1793, four years after the outbreak of the French Revolution. Is Blake calling for the poor people of London to rise up and seize power? London was becoming more and more industrial. Blake expresses his concerns on impact for city and its people.

Themes:

Looking at power and conflict this is a poem which is more about the lack of power and abuse of power. The poem is set in the capital of the most powerful country in the world and yet words like ‘manacles’ suggest slavery while the soldiers sigh ‘runs in blood down palace walls’ a clear contrast between those with power and those without.

Revolution and People Power: During this time France had thrown off and executed their king. The People’s revolution was meant to show that all men are equal and have power. In Britain, a country with an old monarchy and aristocracy, this was scary. Blake is perhaps supporting revolution, asking people to throw off the ‘manacles’ of their belief that they should be told what to do.

Structure: Written in four stanzas with an regular alternate rhyme scheme. This may reflect the regular walking pace of the narrator as he walks around London. The last line in each stanza tends to deliver a powerful statement which sums up the rest of the stanza. Stanza 1 focusses on misery, Stanza 2 on peoples refusal to stand tall, Stanza 3 about the way people are sacrificed for the rich and powerful, Stanza 4 how all this poverty is corrupting everything good about family and life.

3 key quotes:

Quote: “And mark in every face I meet/ Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”

Method: Repetition of ‘mark’, emphasises physical misery that London inhabitants display

What effect is created? Reader is forced to acknowledge inescapability of physical damage caused by London. Do we too feel imprisoned by repetition?

Quote:  “The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.”

Method: Metaphor

What effect is created: Sympathy from the reader as the restrictions on freedom are caused by the mind.

Quote: “And blights with plagues the marriage hearse”

Method: Juxtaposition

What effect is created? Striking for reader as two images, ‘marriage’ and ‘hearse’, aren’t normally associated are placed together. London is a city of duplicity and a difficult environment in which to sustain happiness. Is this an attack on the Church and the hypocrisy of this institution?

Aspects of Power or Conflict:

Power of state – individuals are powerless to restrictions imposed from above ‘chartered streets’

Political conflict – Church and King are reinforcing the inequality of society. Poor are victims.

Potential power of people – if they were to rise up in revolution.

Poems that can be linked:  Storm on the Island

BY THE END OF THIS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

HIGHER MARKS	LOWER MARKS
– The poem is an ironic look at misery in the greatest city in the world. – Blake’s views are revolutionary for the time, challenging the idea that man is worth more than slavery. – Blake challenges the establishment in their ‘palaces ‘and ‘churches’ which are marked by the blood and blackening of good people.	– The poem is about the misery of life in London. – The poet is upset at the loss of joy and innocence. – People in power are living on the pain of others.

 

 

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The poem in a nutshell…. The narrator of Shelley’s poem says he met a traveller from an “antique” (ancient) land and then tells us the story the traveller told him. The man had seen the remains of a huge statue in the desert. There were two enormous legs without a trunk and next to them lay a damaged “visage” (face). At the foot of the statue were words which reflected the arrogance and pride of Ozymandias. Those words seem very hollow now as the magnificent statue is destroyed and none of the pharaoh’s works have lasted.

Context

• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is one of the most famous poets in all of English literature. He was one of a group of poets who became known as The Romantics. He came from a wealthy family, but was expelled from university for writing about atheism (not believing in God) which led to him to fall out with his father who disinherited him.
• Shelley was well known as a ‘radical’ during his lifetime and some people think Ozymandias reflects this side of his character. Although it is about the remains of a statue of Ozymandias (another name for the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II) it can be read as a criticism of people or systems that become huge and believe themselves to be invincible.
• Written by Shelly in a collection in 1819, it was inspired by the recent unearthing of part of a large statue of the Egyptian Pharoah, Ramesses II. The Egyptian Pharaohs like Ramesses believed themselves to be gods in mortal form and that their legacy would last forever. The reference to the stone statue is likely a direct reference to the statues and sculptures like the one which was unearthed, which the ancient Egyptians made.
• On the base of the statue is written (translated) “King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.”

Themes:

Looking at power and conflict we can imagine Ozymandias as a powerful ruler who sees himself as a ‘king of kings’, perhaps a great warrior and one of the most powerful men in the world.

The poem is almost being ironic, pointing out that now all that remains is an arrogant boast on a ruined statue. Perhaps the poet feels sorry for him or is laughing at his expense. Either way it looks about the inevitable downfall of all rulers and tyrants, and how nothing, not even power, lasts forever.

Allegory:

The statue in the poem, broken and falling apart in the desert with nobody to care is an allegory of Ozymandias and of every powerful man or woman, the idea that they will also drift away until they are just another grain of sand.

Structure: Written in a sonnet with loose iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is pairs (iams, of sounds da-dum) with 5 (pentameter, think of pent like in pentagon) in a line making 10 syllables overall. Sonnets were generally popular romantic or love poems, perhaps this being a love poem about Ozymandias, a joke about the ruler’s ego. Or simply to capture the romantic and exotic tone of a lost legend. The Rhyme scheme is irregular, perhaps symbolic of the broken statue itself, no longer perfect.

3 Key Quotes

Quote: ‘king of kings’

Method: Repetition / dramatic irony / juxtaposition

What effect is created? The repetition of ‘kings’ shows how arrogant Ozymandias was, yet when compared to the crumbling ruins of his statue, the poem undermines him and shows that he did not last forever as he thought he would.

Quote: ‘boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Method: Alliteration

What effect is created? Alliteration is used three times in this quote, drawing attention to the words that show the ruin and destruction of time, and how even the mightiest of civilisations will eventually be forgotten and decay into dust.

Quote: ‘Nothing beside remains.’

Method: Caesura

What effect is created? The caesura highlights to the reader how Ozymandias is no longer known and feared, despite his arrogance. The clear and blunt language perhaps also reveals how the narrator is unsympathetic towards the now long-gone ruler.

Aspects of Power or Conflict:

Even the mightiest will fall: Ozymandias thought his works would last forever and would be above everyone else’s. Not true. Nothing is left intact and his own statue is in ruins.

You can’t beat time. Even a king dies and so will all the things he has built.

Pride comes before a fall. Ozymandias’ boasts about his own greatness seem very hollow now.

The power of art and words. The only thing that does last is part of the statue and the powerful words on the inscription.

Poems that can be linked:  My Last Duchess; Tissue.

BY THE END OF THIS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

HIGHER MARKS	LOWER MARKS
-The poem is an ironic memorial to the ego of an ancient Pharaoh -The statue is an allegory for the eventual end of power that everyone must suffer, especially the proud -Power, like the statue, is lost to the sands which in turn represent time	-The poem is about the statue of a long dead king -The statue is breaking down, this shows how people are forgetting the dead king -Power does not last forever

 

Allusions in Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

ALLUSIONS IN STEVENSON’S THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1886)

(Original article by Philip V. Allingham, Contributing Editor, Victorian Web; Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario – slightly adapted)

 

An ALLUSION in a literary text is a reference, either explicit or oblique, to a well-known person, place, or event, or to another literary text. The writer explains neither the nature nor the relevance of the reference. Rather, the effect of the allusion depends upon the reader’s knowledge and his or her recognition of the reference. Prior to the twentieth century, authors could reasonably presume that educated readers would recognize references to the Bible and the classics; this may not be the case today. An allusion is an economical means of calling upon the history or the literary tradition that the author and reader share.

BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS

Stevenson, brought up in a Presbyterian home, found that biblical allusions were a useful way of delineating good and evil. In the first chapter, for example, the narrator Utterson remarks quaintly that he inclines to Cain’s heresy–he “lets his brother go to the Devil” (e.g., be as dissolute as he likes). The reference to the Genesis 4 functions here not merely as a clever quip, but as foreshadowing, for the good brother (Jekyll) must murder the evil brother (Hyde) to save the world from the actions of a sadist. The irony, of course, is that in Genesis it was the evil brother (Cain) who slew the good brother (Abel); however, the reference is appropriate since Hyde wishes to take over the body and possessions of his elder brother. Indeed, Hyde’s physical deformity, which produces revulsion in anyone who sees him, may be related to his bearing the mark of Cain, the first murderer.

Another biblical allusion is “Babylonian finger on the wall” (a reference to the end of King Belshazzar’s empire, popularized in the expression “the writing on the wall”) However, whereas the eastern potentate’s empire is destroyed by external forces (an invading army), Hyde’s house of cards is destroyed by Jekyll’s conscience momentarily reasserting itself in time to destroy the evil twin with whom Jekyll shares mind and body just as Hyde is about to assume full control.

 

CONTEMPORARY OR TOPICAL ALLUSIONS

In British-controlled India, at Puri in Orissa, the followers of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, Jagannath (‘Lord of the World’), annually dragged in procession a statue of the deity on an enormous car, under the wheels of which many devotees are said to have flung themselves to escape the cycle of karma- samsara (reincarnation). Hence, Hyde tramples the child as if he were “some damned Juggernaut.” Hyde is identified with barbaric rituals and an un-Christian religion, with senseless passion, and with suicidal audacity. The exotic, the foreign, the disreputable aspects of Hyde are exactly what attract Jekyll to him, but in attaching himself to Hyde Jekyll assures his own moral and physical destruction.

 

CLASSICAL ALLUSIONS

For the British writer and reader, both schooled in Latin and Greek, such allusions to the history, philosophy, and mythology of Greece and Rome were extremely useful, there being no danger of ‘blaspheming’ by citing scripture out of context or for one’s own ends. For example, Dr. Lanyon likens the early relationship between himself and Jekyll to that of Damon and Pythias, whose friendship was so strong that the former put up his life as bail for the latter, sentenced to death by King Dionysius. The term, then, connotes self- sacrifice and altruism. Although former schoolfellows and fellow medical practitioners, after a lifetime of shared confidences, Jekyll and Lanyon are no longer “Damon and Pythias”; indeed, Jekyll has replaced Lanyon as his bosom companion with his own creation, for whom he is prepared to sacrifice all that he has attained in life, and even life itself. Ultimately, however, Jekyll sacrifices himself in order to destroy the menace he has unleashed upon the world.

The “captives at Philippi” is probably both a classical and a Shakespearean (literary) allusion since, at the end of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and after the battles at that Macedonian city in 42 B. C., the captives (former supporters of the conspirators Cassius and Brutus) were released by the magnanimous victors, Antony and Octavius, given liberty instead of death as traitors. Hyde is unexpectedly (and undeservedly) liberated from his prison to cause further havoc.

 

Thus, we may conclude that Stevenson is utilising allusions coherently, to underscore certain fundamental themes of the novella. Although these underlying meanings appear coded to modern readers, they would have been transparent to educated nineteenth-century readers.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde chapter 10 summary

Quick summary

This final chapter presents a transcription of Jekyll’s confession letter to Utterson. Jekyll explains that he had wanted to study man’s dual nature and after many years had developed a potion which transformed him into his negative alter ego. He explains that he enjoyed living as Hyde and exploring his evil side. Sadly, soon he was no longer able to control when he became Hyde. During one

transformation he murdered Carew and in the following months Hyde came back regularly and carried out more crimes. Finally, no longer able to find the ingredient that allowed him to transform back into Jekyll, he realized he had to transform himself permanently into Hyde.

More detailed summary

This chapter offers a transcription of the letter Jekyll leaves for Utterson in the laboratory. Jekyll writes that upon his birth he possessed a large inheritance, a healthy body, and a hardworking, decent nature. His idealism allowed him to maintain a respectable seriousness in public while hiding his more frivolous and indecent side. By the time he was fully grown, he found himself leading a dual life, in which his better side constantly felt guilt for the transgressions of his darker side. When his scientific interests led to mystical studies as to the divided nature of man, he hoped to find some solution to his own split nature. Jekyll insists that “man is not truly one, but truly two,” and he records how he dreamed of separating the good and evil natures.

Jekyll reports that, after much research, he eventually found a chemical solution that might serve his purposes. Buying a large quantity of salt as his last ingredient, he took the potion with the knowledge that he was risking his life, but he remained driven by the hopes of making a great discovery. At first, he experienced incredible pain and nausea. But as these symptoms subsided, he felt vigorous and filled with recklessness and sensuality. He had become the shrunken, deformed Mr. Hyde. He hypothesizes that Hyde’s small stature owed to the fact that this persona represented his evil side alone, which up to that point had been repressed.

Upon first looking into a mirror after the transformation, Jekyll-turned-Hyde was not repulsed by his new form; instead, he experienced “a leap of welcome.” He came to delight in living as Hyde. Jekyll was becoming too old to act upon his more embarrassing impulses, but Hyde was a younger man, the personification of the evil side that emerged several years after Jekyll’s own birth. Transforming himself into Hyde became a welcome outlet for Jekyll’s passions. Jekyll furnished a home and set up a bank account for his alter ego, Hyde, who soon sunk into utter degradation. But each time he transformed back into Jekyll, he felt no guilt at Hyde’s dark exploits, though he did try to right whatever wrongs had been done.

It was not until two months before the Carew murder that Jekyll found cause for concern. While asleep one night, he involuntarily transformed into Hyde—without the help of the potion—and awoke in the body of his darker half. This incident convinced him that he must cease with his transformations or risk being trapped in Hyde’s form forever. But after two months as Jekyll, he caved in and took the potion again. Hyde, so long repressed, emerged wild and vengefully savage, and it was in this mood that he beat Carew to death, delighting in the crime. Hyde showed no remorse for the murder, but Jekyll knelt and prayed to God for forgiveness even before his transformation back was complete. The horrifying nature of the murder convinced Jekyll never to transform himself again, and it was during the subsequent months that Utterson and others remarked that Jekyll seemed to have had a weight lifted from his shoulders, and that everything seemed well with him.

Eventually, though, Jekyll grew weary of constant virtue and indulged some of his darker desires—in his own person, not that of Hyde. But this dip into darkness proved sufficient to cause another spontaneous transformation into Hyde, which took place one day when Jekyll was sitting in a park, far from home. As Hyde, he immediately felt brave and powerful, but he also knew that the police would seize him for his murder of Carew. He could not even return to his rooms to get his potions without a great risk of being captured. It was then that he sent word to Lanyon to break into his laboratory and get his potions for him. After that night, he had to take a double dose of the potion every six hours to avoid spontaneous transformation into Hyde. As soon as the drug began to wear off, the transformation process would begin. It was one of these spells that struck him as he spoke to Enfield and Utterson out the window, forcing him to withdraw.

In his last, desperate hours, Hyde grew stronger as Jekyll grew weaker. Moreover, the salt necessary for the potion began to run out. Jekyll ordered more, only to discover that the mineral did not have the same effect; he realized that the original salt must have contained an impurity that made the potion work. Jekyll then anticipated the fast approach of the moment when he must become Hyde permanently. He thus used the last of the potion to buy himself time during which to compose this final letter. Jekyll writes that he does not know whether, when faced with discovery, Hyde will kill himself or be arrested and hanged—but he knows that by the time Utterson reads this letter, Henry Jekyll will be no more.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – chapter 9 summary

Quick summary

Chapter nine consists of the text of Lanyon’s letter to Utterson, which he was instructed not to open until Lanyon and Jekyll had both died (or Jekyll had disappeared). Lanyon explains Jekyll had shown him that Hyde could transform into Jekyll by drinking a potion. The shock had been so tremendous for Dr Lanyon that he felt he was sure to die of the shock (after writing the letter).

More detailed summary

This chapter constitutes a word-for-word transcription of the letter Lanyon intends Utterson to open after Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s deaths. Lanyon writes that after Jekyll’s last dinner party, he received a strange letter from Jekyll. The letter asked Lanyon to go to Jekyll’s home and, with the help of Poole, break into the upper room—or “cabinet”—of Jekyll’s laboratory. The letter instructed Lanyon then to remove a specific drawer and all its contents from the laboratory, return with this drawer to his own home, and wait for a man who would come to claim it precisely at midnight. The letter seemed to Lanyon to have been written in a mood of desperation. It offered no explanation for the orders it gave but promised Lanyon that if he did as it bade, he would soon understand everything.

Lanyon duly went to Jekyll’s home, where Poole and a locksmith met him. The locksmith broke into the lab, and Lanyon returned home with the drawer. Within the drawer, Lanyon found several vials, one containing what seemed to be salt and another holding a peculiar red liquid. The drawer also contained a notebook recording what seemed to be years of experiments, with little notations such as “double” or “total failure!!!” scattered amid a long list of dates. However, the notebooks offered no hints as to what the experiments involved. Lanyon waited for his visitor, increasingly certain that Jekyll must be insane. As promised, at the stroke of midnight, a small, evil-looking man appeared, dressed in clothes much too large for him. It was, of course, Mr. Hyde, but Lanyon, never having seen the man before, did not recognize him. Hyde seemed nervous and excited. He avoided polite conversation, interested only in the contents of the drawer. Lanyon directed him to it, and Hyde then asked for a graduated glass. In it, he mixed the ingredients from the drawer to form a purple liquid, which then became green. Hyde paused and asked Lanyon whether he should leave and take the glass with him, or whether he should stay and drink it in front of Lanyon, allowing the doctor to witness something that he claimed would “stagger the unbelief of Satan.” Lanyon, irritated, declared that he had already become so involved in the matter that he wanted to see the end of it.

Taking up the glass, Hyde told Lanyon that his scepticism of “transcendental medicine” would now be disproved. Before Lanyon’s eyes, the deformed man drank the glass in one gulp and then seemed to swell, his body expanding, his face melting and shifting, until, shockingly, Hyde was gone and Dr. Jekyll stood in his place. Lanyon here ends his letter, stating that what Jekyll told him afterward is too shocking to repeat and that the horror of the event has so wrecked his constitution that he will soon die.

Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde – summary chapter 8

Quick summary

Weeks afterwards, Jekyll’s butler comes to Utterson’s house, upset and very worried about Jekyll who has been locked in his office for weeks. The two of them go to Jekyll’s. A strange voice refuses to come out. The butler believes Jekyll has been murdered and the murderer is in the office. The man in the office has been demanding a particular medicine which the butler has not been able to find. They break in and find the body of a small man who appears to have poisoned himself. They assume it is Hyde. On Jekyll’s table, Utterson finds a new will of Jekyll’s that leaves all possessions to Utterson, not Hyde. There is also a note for Utterson asking him to read first Dr Lanyon’s sealed letter, then Jekyll’s letter. They say nothing of the documents to the police, hoping even now to be able to save Jekyll’s reputation.

 

More detailed summary

Jekyll’s butler Poole visits Utterson one night after dinner. Deeply agitated, he says only that he believes there has been some “foul play” regarding Dr. Jekyll; he quickly brings Utterson to his master’s residence. The night is dark and windy, and the streets are deserted, giving Utterson a premonition of disaster. When he reaches Jekyll’s house, he finds the servants gathered fearfully in the main hall. Poole brings Utterson to the door of Jekyll’s laboratory and calls inside, saying that Utterson has come for a visit. A strange voice responds, sounding nothing like that of Jekyll; the owner of the voice tells Poole that he can receive no visitors.

Poole and Utterson retreat to the kitchen, where Poole insists that the voice they heard emanating from the laboratory does not belong to his master. Utterson wonders why the murderer would remain in the laboratory if he had just killed Jekyll and not simply flee. Poole describes how the mystery voice has sent him on constant errands to chemists; the man in the laboratory seems desperate for some ingredient that no drugstore in London sells. Utterson, still hopeful, asks whether the notes Poole has received are in the doctor’s hand, but Poole then reveals that he has seen the person inside the laboratory, when he came out briefly to search for something, and that the man looked nothing like Jekyll. Utterson suggests that Jekyll may have some disease that changes his voice and deforms his features, making them unrecognizable, but Poole declares that the person he saw was smaller than his master—and looked, in fact, like none other than Mr. Hyde.

Hearing Poole’s words, Utterson resolves that he and Poole should break into the laboratory. He sends two servants around the block the laboratory’s other door, the one that Enfield sees Hyde using at the beginning of the novel. Then, armed with a fireplace poker and an axe, Utterson and Poole return to the inner door. Utterson calls inside, demanding admittance. The voice begs for Utterson to have mercy and to leave him alone. The lawyer, however, recognizes the voice as Hyde’s and orders Poole to smash down the door.

Once inside, the men find Hyde’s body lying on the floor, a crushed vial in his hand. He appears to have poisoned himself. Utterson notes that Hyde is wearing a suit that belongs to Jekyll and that is much too large for him. The men search the entire laboratory, as well as the surgeon’s theater below and the other rooms in the building, but they find neither a trace of Jekyll nor a corpse. They note a large mirror and think it strange to find such an item in a scientific laboratory. Then, on Jekyll’s business table, they find a large envelope addressed to Utterson that contains three items. The first is a will, much like the previous one, except that it replaces Hyde’s name with Utterson’s. The second is a note to Utterson, with the present day’s date on it. Based on this piece of evidence, Utterson surmises that Jekyll is still alive—and he wonders if Hyde really died by suicide or if Jekyll killed him. This note instructs Utterson to go home immediately and read the letter that Lanyon gave him earlier. It adds that if he desires to learn more, Utterson can read the confession of “Your worthy and unhappy friend, Henry Jekyll.” Utterson takes the third item from the envelope—a sealed packet—and promises Poole that he will return that night and send for the police. He then heads back to his office to read Lanyon’s letter and the contents of the sealed packet.