“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
The
story begins with the description of a lawyer named Mr. Utterson. Mr. Utterson
is a well-respected man “that was never light by a smile; cold, scanty and
embarrassed in discourse.” Mr. Utterson has a relative and close friend, named
Mr. Enfield. The two friends enjoy going on walks together. One night they are
walking through an affluent part of town and they see an old beat down house
that seems out of place. Enfield recalls a memory about this old house. Enfield
says he once saw a man run into a little girl. A crowd joins around the man and
threatens to ruin his reputation. The man quickly runs into the house and comes
out with a check for 100 pounds. The man was described as hideous, but Enfield
can’t say exactly why. Utterson and Enfield find out the ugly man is named
Hyde. Utterson recalls a will he drew up for a man Jekyll. The will states that
upon Jekyll’s death, Hyde will claim all of Jekyll’s belongings. Jekyll is a
very wealthy man, why would he allow Hyde to be the heir of his wealth? A theme
in “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is reputation. Mr. Utterson is well-respected and wealthy, so he acts
very calm and formal to keep his reputation the same. Mr. Jekyll is
well-respected and very wealthy, but why would he give Mr. Hyde the rights to
his fortune. Mr. Hyde is an extremely ugly looking man that lives in the ghetto
and goes around bumping into little girls and clubbing Parliament members to
death. Why is Mr. Hyde, a man with a lousy reputation, the heir to Dr. Jekyll?
1) What
makes Mr. Hyde appear ugly?
2) What
is the importance of the will?
Mr. Hyde appears ugly because he is a horrible person. We later find out that he is all of the bad and evil parts of Dr. Jekyll. The importance of the will is that it shows us there is a strange and unexplained relationship between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
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