Major Characters:
Dr. Henry Jekyll: Main character. He’s a good man who plays by the rules. He reads about
religion, does charity work, and throws dinner parties. He has a secret though; he has an
appetite for evil. Makes a potion to try and separate good and evil sides.
Mr. Edward Hyde: Dr. Jekyll’s evil ego and indulges in malicious acts. He’s compared to a
monkey or ape to describe his inhumanity and bestiality. He is very violent and he finds
pleasure in it.
Mr. Gabriel Utterson: Lawyer who is the perfect gentlemen. Has known his friends since
he was a kid. Goes to bed no later than midnight, perfect manners. Once your friend, he is
very loyal. Pursues Dr. Jekyll’s case.
Dr. Hastie Lanyon: Mr. Utterson, Dr. Jekyll, and Dr, Lanyon have been friends since ten
years before the book. Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Lanyon have an intense scientific argument and
so they are not as close and friendly. Dr. Lanyon witnesses Dr. Jekyll turn into Dr. Hyde
and dies from horror and shock.
Mr. Enfield: Comes up twice during the book during the Sunday afternoon walks. When
they walk past the door he tells them his curious “story of the door.”
Poole: Dr. Jekyll’s butler. He is a great butler because he tells Mr. Utterson that he knows
Dr. Jekyll’s footsteps and voice. He was a butler for over 20 years.
Plot:
Two friends, Mr. Enfield and Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, go for a walk one afternoon
while telling each other a story about a brute of a man who knocked down a little girl. The
man offered to pay a lot of money and disappeared through the nearest door only to
return with a large check drawn from Dr. Jekyll’s bank account. The nasty man is Mr. Hyde.
Mr. Utterson is actually Jeckyll’s lawyer which we find out if in the event of Dr. Jekyll’s
death or disappearance, his entire estate is to be turned over to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Utterson, is
suspicious and wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. A year later, a maid sees a
murder occurring and points to Mr. Hyde as the culprit. Everyone tries to hunt him down
while Dr. Jekyll is in great health and spirits which includes entertaining his friend Dr.
Lanyon. Two months later, both Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Jekyll fall terribly ill and Dr. Lanyon
dies, leaving mysterious documents in to Mr. Utterson only to be opened only if Dr. Jekyll
dies or disappears. One evening, Poole visits Mr. Utterson and persuades him to break
into Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. They find Mr. Hyde dead on the floor, with Dr. Jekyll nowhere
to be found. Mr. Utterson finds several documents left to him, and goes back home to read
both Mr. Lanyon’s narrative and Dr. Jekyll’s narrative which both turn out to be two parts
of the same story. So we discover by means of a potion, Dr. Jekyll was able to transform
into Mr. Hyde and give in to a world of pleasure and self-serving crime. In his narrative, Dr.
Jekyll writes that Mr. Hyde became ever more powerful and ever harder to control.
Literary Terms:
Satire: literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up
to scorn, derision, or ridicule.
Irony: technique of indicating, as through character or plot development an intention or
attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
Parody: the genre of literary composition represented by a humorous or satirical
imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing.
Dystopia: a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease and
overcrowding.
Atmosphere: The emotional feelings inspired by a work.
Metaphor: the comparison of two unlike things.
Simile: the comparison of two unlike things using like or as
Personification: giving human qualities to animals or objects.
Imagery: language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting,
smelling, touching.
Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words.
Theme: the general idea or insight about life that a writer wishes to express. All of the
elements of literary terms contribute to theme. A simple theme can often be stated in a
single sentence.
Diction: the choice of language used by the speaker or writer.