Chapters 9 & 10

Test yourself

Chapter 9: Dr Lanyon’s Narrative

Here's a summary of what happens in Chapter 9:

Lanyon's letter

This chapter contains the contents of Lanyon’s letter.
Lanyon says he received a letter from Jekyll. He transcribes the letter. The letter tells Lanyon to go to Jekyll’s house and break into one of his drawers to find some powders, a phial and a paper book. He then asks Lanyon to return to Cavendish square to give Jekyll the powders.
The second instruction asks him to allow a man, who calls himself Hyde, into his office that night, and to hand over to him the drawer with the powders. Jekyll says that he may die if Lanyon fails to complete these actions, and that his death would be Lanyon’s fault. He places his confidence in him and signs the letter.

Lanyon's findings

Lanyon then writes in his narrative that he completed the action, making sure that there was a “blood-red liquor” and some white powder.
There was a book in the strange package that contained a list of dates: some had the word “double” written next to the dates, and some had “total failure!!!”.
Lanyon says he waited up for the visitor to knock on his door.
At twelve o’clock, he says he found a small man crouching against his door.

The strange man

Lanyon describes the strange man as an abnormal creature, “surprising and revolting.” He turned a “dreadful smile” as Lanyon handed him the package. He unpacked it and mixed some of the blood-red powders in with the powders.
Lanyon watched the man drink the mixture in one gulp. A cry followed, he reeled, staggered and clutched the table, gasping as his face swelled and “the features seemed to melt.” Lanyon writes: "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!"

Lanyon's response

Lanyon says he was absolutely terrified and shocked. He could not even write on paper what Jekyll had told him after the events that night - all the medical theories that he once regarded as “balderdash” turned out to be true!
Lanyon believes that his life is shaken to the roots and that he is near death as a result. He says that this man was Hyde and that he was wanted for the death of Carew.

Chapter 10: Henry Jekyll's Full Statement of the Case

Here's a summary of what happens in Chapter 10:

Jekyll's experiment

This chapter transcribes a letter that Jekyll wrote shortly before his death. He explains his reasons for developing a medicine that could separate the dual sides of good and evil in man.
Jekyll noticed that he had two “provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man's dual nature". He said there is a “primitive duality of man” and he dreamt of separating these two natures, because he recognised that he was radically both good and evil.
Jekyll admits that he was tempted to discover this medical theory, with the hope of creating an angelic man who would do “good things” - even though he knew he would be risking death if it went wrong.

Downfall

He took a potion and immediately felt both extreme pleasure and extreme wickedness.
Jekyll describes the first night he transformed into Hyde - he felt “more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil.”
He took the potion and transformed back into Dr Jekyll. He therefore did not succeed in creating someone who was wholly good and wholly evil, but rather he created a wholly evil version of himself.

Repressing Hyde

One morning, Jekyll woke up to find that he had turned into Mr Hyde without taking any drugs.
Hyde had grown taller as his evil personality was uncontrollable. Jekyll panicked and retrieved the potion from across the house to turn himself back.
Jekyll decided to stop taking the potion that turned him into Hyde, and for two months led a good and respectable life.

Longings and murder

But because he repressed his desires for too long, he returned eviler than ever. He was soon tortured with throes and longings to be Hyde again.
Jekyll gave into temptation and took the potion. That night, he brutally murdered Carew. Jekyll writes that “my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring” - no man morally sane could have been guilty of such a horrific crime. “I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow.”
Hyde enjoyed and gained pleasures of “glee and delight” from killing, and this caused Jekyll to feel very guilty when he transformed back into his original self.

Analysis of his soul

Jekyll writes that he turned into Hyde in the middle of the day while he was sitting in the park: “the animal within me licking the chops of memory”. He started to sin again and transformed into the immoral and depraved Hyde.
Ironically, just as Jekyll was feeling good for being a virtuous man, satisfied by his own “goodwill”, he transformed into Hyde: this shows that the balance of his soul was unequal.

Character tension

Jekyll says he “hated the brute that slept within me”.
This shows he wanted to enjoy his bad side, but without feeling so much shame for his immoral actions.
As Jekyll got weaker, Hyde got stronger, which caused tension between the two sides of his character.
Jekyll signs off the letter with: “as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end”.

1Plot Summary

1.1Chapters 1-10

1.1.1Chapters 1 & 2

1.1.2Chapters 3 & 4

1.1.3Chapters 5 & 6

1.1.4Chapters 7 & 8

1.1.5Chapters 9 & 10

1.1.6End of Topic Test - Chapters 1-6

1.1.7End of Topic Test - Chapters 7-10

2Characters

2.1Jekyll & Hyde

2.1.1Dr Henry Jekyll

2.1.2Jekyll - Name & Quotes

2.1.3Mr Edward Hyde

2.1.4Jekyll/Hyde Quotes - Chapters 1-9

2.1.5Jekyll/Hyde Quotes - Chapter 10

2.1.6End of Topic Test - Jekyll & Hyde

2.1.7Exam-Style Questions - Mr Hyde

2.2Other Characters

2.2.1Mr Gabriel John Utterson

2.2.2Dr Hastie Lanyon

2.2.3Minor Characters

2.2.4End of Topic Test - Other Characters

3Gothic Genre

3.1Gothic Elements

3.1.1Gothic Conventions

3.1.2Gothic Settings & Symbolism

3.1.3End of Topic Test - Gothic Conventions

4Key Themes

4.1Key Themes & Quotes

4.1.1Science

4.1.2Dual Nature of Man

4.1.3Religion & Sin

4.1.4Violence & Horror

4.1.5Victorian Gentlemen

4.1.6End of Topic Test - Key Themes & Quotes

5Context & Author

5.1Context & Author

5.1.1The Victorian Era

5.1.2Deacon Brodie & Freud

5.1.3End of Topic Test - Context & Author

6Literary Techniques

6.1Literary Techniques

6.1.1Language

6.1.2Structure & Form

6.1.3End of Topic Test - Literary Techniques

7Grade 9 - Key Character & Theme Questions

7.1Key Character & Themes - Linked Questions

7.1.1Grade 9 - Key Characters & Themes

7.1.2Extract Analysis - Jekyll

7.1.3Extract Analysis - Duality

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