When Mr. Utterson, a London solicitor, learns that his old friend Dr. Jekyll has secretly bequeathed everything to the detestable Mr. Hyde, he embarks on an investigation that leads from fog-shrouded doorways to murder and finally to a terrible revelation: Jekyll has been chemically transforming himself into his own darker counterpart, only to find that Hyde grows stronger with each emergence while the drug that sustains him slowly fails. The consequences of playing God with one's own soul unfold with relentless inevitability toward a conclusion where neither self survives intact.
Determined to find answers, Utterson visited his old friend Dr. Lanyon, but left the visit with more questions than he had arrived with. Returning home, he found no rest and instead took to the streets to watch for Hyde himself.
Mr. Utterson calls upon Dr. Lanyon, seeking intelligence about the mysterious Hyde and the troubling will that would leave everything to such a man. The visit yields little. Lanyon, a robust and genial man with prematurely white hair, greets his old friend warmly, but has not seen Jekyll in a decade. The rupture came over Jekyll’s drift into what Lanyon dismisses as fanciful nonsense—unscientific notions that would have divided the closest of friends. When Utterson inquires about a protégé named Hyde, Lanyon has never heard the name. The lawyer returns home burdened only by fresh questions.
That night, Utterson lies awake until dawn, his mind besieged. What had been an intellectual puzzle now enslaves his imagination. Visions unroll before him: lamplit streets, a running child, a brutal figure that strikes her down and passes on. He sees his friend Henry Jekyll asleep in a fine house, smiling at pleasant dreams—until the bed-curtains are torn open and a figure with power over him appears at the bedside, compelling obedience even at that dead hour. Through every dream the figure pursues him, faceless, melting away whenever he tries to see it clearly. An obsessive need takes root: he must look upon the real Mr. Hyde’s features.
From then on, Utterson keeps watch over the sinister door. Morning, noon, and night, through fog and lamplight, he haunts the by-street. At last, on a crisp evening when frost hangs in the air and the shops stand shuttered, he hears a light, quick step approaching. A small, plainly dressed man comes down the street, key in hand, making straight for the door. Utterson steps from the shadows and touches his shoulder, asking if he is Mr. Hyde.
The man recoils with a sharp hiss of alarm, but quickly masters himself. He answers coolly, refusing to meet Utterson’s gaze. The lawyer introduces himself as Jekyll’s old friend and asks to be admitted. Hyde refuses—Jekyll is away—then demands to know how Utterson recognized him. Utterson deflects and asks instead to see the man’s face. After a moment’s hesitation, Hyde turns with a defiant air and lets the lawyer study his features. Utterson now has what he came for. Hyde gives an address in Soho, then laughs savagely and slips through the door.
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