The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Character Guide

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Gabriel John Utterson (Mr. Utterson)

A reserved, loyal London lawyer who narrates much of the investigation into his old friend Jekyll's strange affairs. Austere and undemonstrative, he is nonetheless the last good influence in many troubled men's lives.

Dr. Henry Jekyll

A respected, wealthy physician and Utterson's old friend, known for his scientific work. He has written a will leaving everything to a mysterious younger man named Edward Hyde, which alarms his friends.

Edward Hyde (Mr. Hyde)

A small, oddly repellent young man who is Jekyll's named heir and tenant of a house in Soho. Nearly everyone who meets him feels an inexplicable, intense revulsion toward him.

Richard Enfield

Utterson's distant kinsman and a well-known man about town, who first tells Utterson the story of witnessing Hyde trample a child in the street.

Dr. Hastie Lanyon

An old friend of both Utterson and Jekyll, a fellow physician who has grown estranged from Jekyll over a scientific disagreement.

Poole

Jekyll's loyal, long-serving butler, who grows increasingly worried about strange changes in his master's behavior and habits.

Sir Danvers Carew

An elderly, courteous, well-regarded gentleman and client of Utterson's who is introduced as a figure of gentle respectability.

Glossary

cabinet

A private study or laboratory room, as in Jekyll's 'cabinet' where he keeps his drugs and conducts experiments.

hansom

A two-wheeled, horse-drawn cab common in Victorian London, used for quick travel through the city streets.

holograph

A document written entirely in the author's own hand, as Jekyll's will is described.

gin palace

A garishly decorated, cheap Victorian drinking establishment, used here to evoke the seediness of Hyde's neighborhood.

phial

A small glass bottle or vial, used for holding the mysterious transformative liquid/drug.

ebullition

A bubbling or boiling; used to describe the chemical reaction when Jekyll mixes his transformation potion.

cheval-glass

A full-length mirror mounted on a swiveling frame, found in Jekyll's cabinet.

troglodytic

Cave-dweller-like; primitive or brutish in appearance, used by Utterson to describe the indescribable wrongness of Hyde's look.

the old story of Dr. Fell

An allusion to a well-known rhyme about disliking someone for no definable reason ('I do not love thee, Dr. Fell'), invoked to capture Utterson's inexplicable revulsion toward Hyde.

à propos

French phrase meaning 'by the way' or 'speaking of which,' used in period dialogue.

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