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Summary
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Chapter 2: “Search for Mr.
Hyde”
Utterson, prompted by
his conversation with Enfield, goes home to
study a will that he drew up for his
close friend Dr. Jekyll. It states that
in the event of the death or
disappearance of Jekyll, all of his property
should be given over immediately to a
Mr. Edward Hyde. This strange
will had
long troubled Utterson, but now that he has heard
something
of Hyde’s behavior, he
becomes more upset and feels convinced that
Hyde has some peculiar power over
Jekyll. Seeking to unravel the
mystery,
he pays a visit to Dr. Lanyon, a friend of
Jekyll’s. But Lanyon
has never heard of
Hyde and has fallen out of communication with
Jekyll as a result of a professional
dispute. Lanyon refers to Jekyll’s
most
recent line of rese
arch as
“unscientific balderdash.”
Later that night, Utterson is haunted
by nightmares in which a
faceless man
runs down a small child and in which the same
terrifying,
faceless figure stands
beside Jekyll’s bed and commands him to rise.
Soon, Utterson begins to spend time
around the run-down building
where
Enfield saw Hyde enter, in the hopes of catching a
glimpse of
Hyde. Hyde, a small young
man, finally appears, and Utterson
approaches him. Utterson introduces
himself as a friend of Henry
Jekyll.
Hyde, keeping his head down, returns his
greetings. He asks
Hyde to show him his
face, so that he will know him if he sees him
again; Hyde complies, and, like Enfield
before him, Utterson feels
appalled and
horrified yet cannot pinpoint exactly what makes
Hyde
so ugly. Hyde then offers Utterson
his address, which the lawyer
interprets as a sign that Hyde eagerly
anticipates the death of Jekyll
and the
execution of his will.
After this
encounter, Utterson pays a visit to Jekyll. At
this point, we
learn what Utterson
himself has known all along: namely, that the
run-down building that Hyde frequents
is actually a laboratory
attached to
Jekyll’s well
-kept townhouse, which
faces outward on a
parallel street.
Utterson is admitted into Jekyll’s home by
Jekyll’s