Jekyll and Hyde – Chapter 5 (Part 2)

[00:00:04] Welcome to Elaine Is reading the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Episode 10, Chapter 5, Part 2.

Most people who make movies and adaptations about Jekyll and Hyde focus solely on the final chapter of the book. They don’t care about the entire story. And I wonder if they have even read it all or if they just skip to the end and make up the rest. I think the entire story is.

And in my opinion, the story should have ended with Dr. Lanyon’s letter in chapter nine.

[00:00:49] So.

[00:00:51] He.

He wants to confirm.

[00:00:55] He says, shall I consider?

He’s like, I’ll. I’ll consider, you know, I’ll consider the letter. I’ll.

[00:01:03] I’ll take it home, figure out what to do.

[00:01:04] And he’s like, and now one more word.

[00:01:07] It was Hyde who dictated the terms in your will about that disappearance.

So he’s still trying to get confirmation. He’s still talking about this. If the letter was enough, if Jekyll’s word that Hyde was gone and he wasn’t coming back. And here’s this letter that shows, you.

[00:01:26] Know, we were just acquaintances and he.

[00:01:29] You know, he was in the wrong.

[00:01:30] And I had nothing to do with it.

[00:01:32] If that was enough, he would have just left, right? He would have just read it and.

[00:01:37] He would have gone home and that.

[00:01:39] Would have been the end of it. But he’s still inquiring, he’s still asking, he’s still saying. So it was Hyde that told you.

[00:01:47] To write that will where, you know.

[00:01:50] If anything happens to you, you leave.

[00:01:51] Him all your money and everything.

And the doctor seemed seized with a qualm of faintness.

[00:02:00] He shut his mouth tight and nodded. I knew it, said Utterson. He meant to murder you.

[00:02:08] You had a fine escape. Meaning, you know, you got out of this, you know, at the.

[00:02:13] At the right time. You got out of this clean.

[00:02:17] And Jekyll says, I have had.

[00:02:19] What is far more to the purpose.

I have had a lesson.

Oh, God, Utterson, what a lesson I have had.

And he covered his face for a moment with his hands.

That is one of those lines that stands out to me.

[00:02:40] Kind of like, you know, the scientific heresies in Balderdash.

That line sticks out to me. Yet as far as the underlying story.

[00:02:52] I consider Jekyll and Hyde to be an underlying story.

The little bits that you get hinted.

[00:02:59] At, you know, the little breadcrumbs that.

[00:03:01] Are being given to you a little at a time to sort of.

Not that you could possibly think of.

[00:03:07] This even back, especially back then. Now, of course, you kind of know what’s going on. But I’m saying if you were reading.

[00:03:13] This back then, you’re given just little, little tiny things. And honestly, the only two things that I have seen.

[00:03:22] Actually there’s.

[00:03:24] There’s three things that I have seen that I would consider to be breadcrumbs.

[00:03:28] That are about the underlying story of Jekyll and Hyde. One, what Lanyon says that, you know.

[00:03:38] I used to like Hyde, but he’s gone wrong and he’s become very fanciful. And all he does is talk about these scientific heresies.

That’s the first thing. Okay, what does that mean, he’s gone wrong? He’s fanciful scientific heresies?

[00:03:54] What is that?

[00:03:55] The second thing is how Dr. Jekyll.

[00:03:57] Talks about Dr. Lanyon.

[00:03:59] He says that he used to spend.

[00:04:01] Like to spend time with Dr. Lanyon, but he’s too pedantic, he’s too rigid in his thinking. He’s not open minded enough for me.

[00:04:13] Okay, what does he have to be open minded about?

[00:04:17] What, what are you doing scientifically speaking? That you need someone to be open minded, you know, and not rigid in how they believe, you know, what they believe in things.

That’s the second thing that’s kind of.

[00:04:33] Like, okay, something’s going on that’s science oriented. Something’s going on between two scientists that don’t agree.

That’s interesting.

The third thing is.

[00:04:48] This little line in here.

[00:04:54] I think they hinted at this before.

[00:04:56] Where Utterson talks about Dr. Jekyll and he lists all of the soup after Dr. Jekyll’s name.

[00:05:04] And I didn’t look up what all.

[00:05:06] Of the soup means, but there’s a.

[00:05:08] Lot of soup after Dr. Jek Jekyll’s name.

[00:05:10] And I think that that soup would give anybody educated a clue as to what kind of doctor he is and.

[00:05:18] What his specialities are.

[00:05:20] So I think that that probably also gives the reader a clue as to what might be the underlying mystery of this story.

So I didn’t look all of that.

[00:05:34] Stuff up at the time of reading it. So it kind of went over my head.

[00:05:38] But it stuck in my head enough for me to know that Dr. Jekyll.

[00:05:42] Isn’T just an ordinary doctor.

[00:05:45] He has a lot of degrees and doctorates and soup. And he must be into very complicated things.

[00:05:53] And I was interested in that, which is why I kind of looked all that stuff up later. But at the initial time I was reading it, it only stood out to.

[00:06:01] Me to say this guy is not just an ordinary doctor or scientist. He’s.

[00:06:07] He’s. Knowledgeable about a wide variety of things.

[00:06:12] So technically that would have been the third thing. But it.

[00:06:15] At the time I didn’t see it.

[00:06:17] What stood out to me as the.

[00:06:20] Third thing that indicates the underlying mystery.

[00:06:26] It says the doctor had bought the.

[00:06:29] House from the heirs of a celebrated surgeon.

And his own tastes being rather chemical than anatomical had changed the destination of the block at the bottom of the garden.

So I tend to be more interested in the subtleties.

[00:06:50] Not in chapters like I have this.

[00:06:52] Letter that clears you of all doubt.

[00:06:53] Not that stuff, but more what scientific.

[00:06:58] Heresies, what balderdash, what these little drops, these little.

[00:07:08] These little teeny tiny.

[00:07:10] Too fanciful gone wrong, too.

Too pedantic, too narrow minded.

And that his tastes, his own taste being rather chemical than anatomical.

[00:07:30] So he’s not that kind of doctor.

He’s not a surgeon.

[00:07:37] Like he’s called Dr. Jekyll. But we have never been introduced to what kind of doctor he is. Except for all of that soup. And again, if you don’t know what all of that soup means you’re looking for.

[00:07:50] Maybe Utterson goes to visit him at his practice or Dr. Jekyll goes to, you know, see patients or something like that.

[00:07:59] But we never get any of that in the story. He only meets Dr. Jekyll at home.

[00:08:03] Dr. Jekyll has a lot of parties.

[00:08:05] But we don’t know what Dr. Jekyll does. We don’t know what Dr. Lanyon does either.

[00:08:10] We don’t.

[00:08:11] I think he mentions that he has patients. But Dr. Jeckyll is never mentioned as having patients. He’s never mentioned as going out and.

[00:08:19] Doing any kind of particular doctoring.

[00:08:21] He’s a doctor of a lot of things, but he’s not necessarily that kind of doctor.

[00:08:27] So if you were reading this, you might want to look up all of.

[00:08:31] The soup after his name.

Which. Let me see if I can find where that is really quick and read it off to you so that if you’re. If you’re curious, you can.

You can see.

I want to say that it was very early in the book.

Yeah. The search for Mr. Hyde, which is chapter two. So it’s on the first page of chapter two.

[00:09:03] When Utterson goes back home.

[00:09:05] And he goes into his safe to look at the will it says.

[00:09:14] It.

[00:09:14] Provided not only that in the case of the decease of Henry Jekyll, M.D.DCL LLD FRS, etc.

So MD DCL LLD FRS, if you’re interested. So he is an MD but if you’re interested in all those Other things.

[00:09:43] Definitely look those up to get a little bit more.

[00:09:49] Insight.

[00:09:50] But it. It only stood out to me, like.

[00:09:53] I said at the time, to say.

[00:09:54] Oh, he’s, he’s a lot of things.

But this thing about his own taste being rather chemical than anatomical, that stood.

[00:10:04] Out to me as curious.

I thought it was a curious way of trying to.

[00:10:09] He’s more interested in chemistry than he.

[00:10:13] Is in sort of a physical anatomy of a person.

And he deals more with chemicals, that sort of science. So that stood out to me too. So you’re not getting a lot of information about the underlying mystery that writers.

[00:10:31] And directors and everybody else who does.

[00:10:33] Adaptations seem so fixated by and only.

[00:10:36] Makes movies about in the story.

[00:10:39] It’s very, very subtle.

[00:10:41] It’s.

I felt when I first read this.

[00:10:44] I got sort of mind blown by the end of the book because the.

[00:10:48] End of the book kind of gives you the end all.

[00:10:50] Be all of explanations.

[00:10:53] And you do get, you know, as.

[00:10:55] You get closer to the end, it starts to become more obvious.

[00:10:57] And there’s a chapter in which it’s.

[00:11:00] Very obvious what’s going on. But the final chapter, which is just.

[00:11:04] Jekyll’s diary, pretty much explains everything.

[00:11:06] It’s like the end of Psycho.

[00:11:08] The guy explains everything.

[00:11:09] It’s really annoying.

[00:11:11] But it’s very fascinating too because you get actually Jekyll’s words.

[00:11:16] His words, his journey, his experience for.

[00:11:19] The first time in the book.

So you don’t have a lot of information.

[00:11:25] You don’t know what the mystery is. You don’t understand what Hyde has to do with Jekyll, what Jekyll has to do with Hyde, why Hyde is murdering people. Why are these people involved together? Is it blackmail? What does this have to do with anything? And what does this have to do with science?

Where is the science in this book? There are two doctors in this book that don’t like each other. What does that have to do with Hyde? What does that have to do with.

[00:11:54] The murder of this respectable guy?

[00:11:58] What does any of this have to do with anything? There’s no very clear indications of the connections between all these characters. It does not exist except in little teeny tiny hints that you’re getting that when you get to the end of the book, you might look back and say, oh, okay, I see, right. But there’s nothing to tell you what.

[00:12:21] Is going on at all.

[00:12:23] There is no indication it is a rightful mystery in that regard.

You’re given no information.

[00:12:33] So I like that.

[00:12:37] There’s nothing that makes me think about.

[00:12:41] Jekyll and Hyde, aside from going, what. What’s going on? Who are these people? What do they have to do with anything?

[00:12:49] My interest is solely in the person who is trying to solve the mystery. Me and Utterson are trying to solve this mystery. We are following Utterson, who, like us, has no clue.

[00:13:01] And probably like us, has no scientific understanding. And is just going off of what he sees, what people tell him, Right?

That is, to me, a more interesting.

[00:13:16] Perspective than trying to pick apart breadcrumbs.

[00:13:19] That only tell me a portion of the.

[00:13:23] Of the story.

[00:13:25] I don’t care about something that I haven’t been given information on.

[00:13:28] I care about the mystery. I care about the little bits of information that I’m being given.

But Utterson is the one I am following. He is the one who is telling the story. He is. He is the one who’s going to Jekyll’s house. He is the one who is talking to Dr. Lanyon. He is the one who’s talking with his friend Enfield. And getting, you know, gossip and information about Hyde. He’s the one that the police are.

[00:13:51] Going to and saying, you know, do.

[00:13:53] You know this Hyde guy? He just murdered somebody. Dr. Utterson is the primary driving character of this story. Without him, we will not find out anything.

Why not just make a book?

[00:14:09] That is Jekyll’s journal, right? Jekyll’s journal.

[00:14:16] At the end, the very last chapter of this book. Is Henry Jekyll’s full statement of the case.

[00:14:26] It is.

[00:14:30] Long. It is the longest.

[00:14:35] I don’t know if you can see this.

[00:14:40] That is how long the final chapter is of this book.

It is the longest chapter of the whole book.

[00:14:55] I don’t think I can get that in any focus at all. But it’s a lot of pages.

[00:15:01] Every other chapter of this book is like five. Chapter four.

[00:15:04] Sorry, five pages, four pages.

The final chapter, which is basically a.

[00:15:12] Letter that.

[00:15:16] Utterson receives.

It’s an entire account of what Jekyll did.

It’s the longest chapter of the book. This is the whole story.

[00:15:27] This whole final chapter is what everybody.

[00:15:30] Makes their movies out of. This whole thing.

So the rest of the book is completely pointless. The rest of the book no one cares about. There’s 82 pages of a story here.

[00:15:44] That no one cares about.

[00:15:46] All they care about is from page 83 to page 106.

[00:15:53] That is all anybody cares about that makes adaptations. They don’t care about anything else.

[00:15:59] They don’t care about the lead up.

[00:16:00] They don’t care about the mystery. They don’t care about anything at all. They only care about Jekyll’s letter, his diary, his account of the story.

There are 82 other pages of this book.

[00:16:16] I don’t think anyone reads them. I don’t think anyone cares about them. I don’t think anyone who’s made a.

[00:16:22] Movie cares about any of that stuff.

[00:16:25] I think the first 82 pages are the most interesting.

I think the first 82 pages are what gives you a reason to care about the last pages, all of the.

[00:16:42] Stuff that builds up to it. If the book just ended before that and you never got Jekyll’s diary, if you never got his account of the story.

I still think the book would be good.

[00:16:59] I think, if it ended, if.

[00:17:01] I recall where it ends.

[00:17:09] So the first 82 pages ends with two letters. One is a letter from Lanyon.

[00:17:18] One is a letter from Jekyll, which explains everything.

[00:17:21] But Lanyon’s letter actually is where the.

[00:17:25] Story should have ended.

I think.

I think that if you ended this book with Lanyon’s letter. And when we get to it, you’ll understand why.

[00:17:35] I think it still would have been good.

The last chapter, which is Jekyll’s explanation, his feelings, his manifesto, his whatever.

[00:17:49] I could care less.

[00:17:52] Like I said, like the explanation at the end of Psycho.

[00:17:55] You don’t need all of that.

[00:17:59] You don’t need the person telling you.

[00:18:04] I suppose people want to know how.

[00:18:06] It happened, how he did it, how he figured it out, how he dealt with it.

[00:18:11] All that stuff. I don’t care. To me, that’s a spin off.

The whole back end of this book is a spin off.

[00:18:22] I think it should have stopped.

It should have left you.

[00:18:28] Guessing and.

[00:18:29] Feeling and thinking, right?

[00:18:32] When you read someone’s manifesto of the.

[00:18:34] World and about their selfishness and about what they want to do and what.

[00:18:39] They want to figure out.

[00:18:40] And what they’re trying to preach to you. It kind of.

[00:18:42] Kind of takes away from, obviously, your own interpretation about how you feel about it.

[00:18:49] Like, if you had to sit and.

[00:18:50] Guess what Jekyll was doing. If you had to sit and wonder why he did it. Or, you know, those could be very.

[00:18:57] Interesting discussions going, you know, through generations, right?

[00:19:04] Decades of talk about, why did this guy do this and what was he trying to do.

[00:19:09] When you explain it all at the.

[00:19:10] End, you’re just like, this guy was an asshole, basically, is what it comes down to.

[00:19:16] But I think the whole first 82 pages of this book is worth getting into. I think Utterson and Lanyon and Poole.

[00:19:26] And All the people that are suffering.

[00:19:28] And trying to just live through the world that Jekyll and Hyde inhabitants, their.

[00:19:36] Story is worth reading and worth paying attention to. Their story, their telling of the story.

[00:19:41] Utterson’s journey through the story is what the story is.

[00:19:46] The story is not just the last chapter.

That’s not the story. That is the explanation for the events that happen in the story. But that is not the only story that exists. That is not the most important part.

[00:20:01] If you didn’t have the first 82 pages then you would just have an entire book that is just this one.

[00:20:07] Guy’S letter explaining himself and that would be boring and that wouldn’t be interesting. You need a lead up. You need to see what he caused.

[00:20:17] You need to see what his ideations and his beliefs and his experiments caused.

The havoc that they caused in the.

[00:20:29] World that Utterson and Lanyon and Poole live in.

If you only care about the crazy person and not about the damage that.

[00:20:38] The crazy person does, and you don’t.

[00:20:41] Have alternative perspectives of the victims, then I think you’re missing half the story.

Right.

Wasn’t there a show recently about Dahmer.

[00:20:57] The one that Niecy Nash was so.

[00:21:01] Outstanding in and wasn’t it about her.

[00:21:04] Because she was his neighbor and about how this woman, this very real woman was trying to, you know, alert the.

[00:21:15] Police and trying to like save people’s.

[00:21:17] Lives because she knew something was wrong.

[00:21:20] About him and something was going on and no one believed her.

[00:21:23] Isn’t that what that whole show was about? So someone looked at Dahmer and his, you know, his whole life and pulled.

[00:21:33] Out this woman that no one knew.

[00:21:35] The name of, that no one even.

[00:21:36] Knew existed for a long period of time and brought her perspective to the forefront and it made for a much.

[00:21:45] More interesting, well rounded story of Dahmer’s killing spree.

[00:21:52] Right?

[00:21:52] Because you’re getting the perspective of someone.

[00:21:55] Around him, someone in the peripheral. It’s not just about the people he murdered. It’s not just about the cops that tried to catch him.

[00:22:02] It’s not just Dahmer’s perspective himself.

[00:22:06] You’re getting someone else’s perspective, a real person.

There are other people in the world other than Henry Jekyll. There are people whose lives are affected by, by his existence.

[00:22:20] That is a story worth telling because.

[00:22:22] You’Re going to get a whole other perspective on what it means to inhabit a world with somebody like Dr. Jekyll in it. Dr. Jekyll is not the end all, be all of people.

[00:22:34] He is someone who creates havoc. He’s someone who destroys lives.

[00:22:40] His presence in the world effectively killed two people.

Why are you so fascinated by that?

[00:22:50] What about the people who died? What about the people who suffered as.

[00:22:55] A result of this? What about those people?

That’s what I mean when I say the world would be so much more interesting if people cared about other people.

[00:23:09] If people thought.

[00:23:10] Thought that maybe there’s other perspectives, maybe there’s other ways of seeing a situation from another viewpoint.

And maybe those viewpoints are worth exploring.

[00:23:24] And worth learning about to give me.

[00:23:26] More insight into the world at large.

Jekyll and Hyde is very much a story like that. If you care about the world as a whole, you’ll get a much more different perspective. If you only care about the last.

[00:23:42] Chapter and you only care about Jekyll’s perspective, you’re missing a bunch.

[00:23:49] Because I guarantee you that Henry Jekyll does not care about anybody.

He doesn’t care about the world. He doesn’t care about what he’s doing.

[00:24:00] To the rest of the world or to people in it.

[00:24:04] He only cares about himself, his own.

[00:24:07] Journey, his own realizations, the mysteries that he wants to solve for himself.

[00:24:17] It’s selfish.

[00:24:20] It’s incredibly selfish.

[00:24:21] If you only care about the selfish.

[00:24:23] Perspective, you’re missing a lot.

And I think that anyone who just.

[00:24:30] Negates the first 82 pages of this book, just pretends they don’t exist, is doing such a disservice to the entire story.

[00:24:43] That said, Utterson, I like that he questions Jekyll. I like that he says.

[00:25:00] He’S still.

[00:25:00] Trying to confirm information.

[00:25:02] He’s still trying to like. He doesn’t feel settled, right?

[00:25:06] He can’t rest.

[00:25:09] He doesn’t feel settled in.

[00:25:11] Just Jekyll’s explanation and the letter that he’s given.

[00:25:15] He’s still asking questions. Where’s the envelope?

Did Hyde make you.

[00:25:21] So let me get this right.

[00:25:22] Hyde made you write this will, right? He’s still trying to get confirmation.

[00:25:31] When he leaves.

[00:25:34] After Jekyll says that great.

[00:25:37] Line, what a lesson I’ve had.

That’s something that kind of is what.

[00:25:41] Prompted me to talk about the last chapter.

[00:25:43] What a lesson I’ve had. He’s, you know, and it’s not a.

[00:25:47] Very clear lesson, okay.

[00:25:49] Because he didn’t really learn anything.

[00:25:51] Let’s be honest.

[00:25:52] He says, what a lesson I’ve had.

[00:25:54] But it just.

[00:25:56] It’s not really a lesson learned, let me put it that way.

But again, it gives you. That’s that.

[00:26:02] That’s that third or Fourth thing that gives you an indication of the underlying mystery. I’ve had a lesson.

[00:26:09] Oh, God, Utterson, what a lesson I’ve had.

[00:26:12] What is that? Right? What is that about?

[00:26:14] So that’s like it just these little teeny, tiny, you know, that make you go, what?

[00:26:21] What do you mean?

[00:26:21] What is he saying? Right?

[00:26:23] So as soon as Utterson leaves.

[00:26:28] Poole.

[00:26:28] Is walking him out, and he says, by the by, there was a letter handed in today. What was the messenger like?

These are the questions I love again, where’s the envelope?

Who brought this letter?

He’s not settled.

He’s not being taken in by this.

He’s not just trusting his friend 100%.

He’s suspicious. And I think that that’s probably a little painful for him.

Right?

[00:27:04] It’s gotta be.

[00:27:05] But I love that he asks the questions anyway.

[00:27:09] I love that he is literally walking out of the man’s house asking questions.

[00:27:13] About him behind his back.

[00:27:15] You know, a letter came.

[00:27:17] Who brought it?

And of course, Pool’s like, we didn’t get any letters.

[00:27:23] The only thing that came, nothing had.

[00:27:26] Come except by post and only circulars. And by that.

So he’s confirming he already feels unsettled.

[00:27:39] And as he’s. He literally walks out of the guy’s.

[00:27:41] Office, gets escorted to the front door, and he’s still asking questions.

Did a letter get delivered?

So he goes home.

[00:27:54] And he’s really.

[00:27:56] Really.

[00:27:58] Just questioning so many things.

[00:28:01] So he wants to ask somebody’s advice.

[00:28:05] And he has a friend, his head.

[00:28:07] Clerk, whose name is Mr. Guest.

[00:28:11] And by head clerk, I think the clerk is.

I don’t want to say like a.

[00:28:18] Secretary, like an assistant, someone who assists him in his law firm.

He greatly respects this guy, Mr. Guest, and he said there was no man from whom he kept fewer secrets than Mr. Guest.

And he was not always sure that he kept as many as he meant.

You love that line.

Why?

[00:29:01] Speaker D: Especially if you’re comfortable with them.

[00:29:03] Oh, yeah.

To.

[00:29:05] Speaker D: But you don’t want them in on this part of your life.

[00:29:08] Yeah.

[00:29:09] Speaker D: But I can understand where, if you’re comfortable and enjoying your time together or whatever, that you might let a few things escape that. Then later in the day or the next morning, you’re like, oh, shoot, I.

[00:29:20] Shouldn’T have said that. Yeah.

[00:29:23] Speaker D: Based on our relationship.

[00:29:27] That is a really good line. And you’re right. Like it’s. There’s a fine line.

[00:29:30] Right.

[00:29:30] He.

[00:29:31] He’s comfortable with him.

[00:29:32] He works for him. But he also, you know, it confides in him about things. And there’s A. There’s. There’s a line between how much you tell.

That’s part of the law business.

That’s not like telling the business of your clients. But also, you may want his advice with some things.

[00:29:50] So.

[00:29:50] Yeah, I. I also like that line for the same reason Mr. Guest had also been to business at Dr. Jekyll’s house.

[00:29:59] So he knew of him. He knew Poole.

[00:30:02] It says Guest had often been on.

[00:30:04] Business to the doctors. He knew a pool. He could scarce have failed to hear about Mr. Hyde’s familiarity about the house.

He might draw conclusions.

Right. Was it not as well then that he should see a letter which put that mystery to write? And above all, since Guest, being a great student and critic of handwriting, would consider the step natural and obliging the Kirk, besides was a man of counsel. He could scarce read so strange a document without dropping a remark.

[00:30:38] So I like that. You know, Utterson says it is not, you know, he was looking for advice.

[00:30:48] And it was not to be had directly, but perhaps he thought it might be fished for and then goes on.

[00:30:53] To talk about this guy. So he, he knows very well he needs some advice. He doesn’t want to, you know, put it out there. He’s going to fish for it.

[00:31:00] Right? Which I love.

[00:31:01] I love that he admits this. I’m just going to fish.

[00:31:04] But he also describes Mr.

[00:31:06] Guest so well, and I see this as like a young guy who’s very like, sort of intrigued with things and very detail oriented. And he knows that if he puts this in front of him, he’s going to get into it and he’s not going to not be able to say something about it. He’s not going to be able to not offer his thoughts and not say something about, you know, give Utterson some advice that he didn’t necessarily asked for, but just by giving it to him, he knows he’s gonna get a mouthful of stuff.

[00:31:36] There are people that kind of treat.

[00:31:38] Me the same way, I have to say.

[00:31:42] People know that if they drop something.

[00:31:44] In front of me, I’m gonna go off about it for like two hours and they’re gonna be able to get all kinds of information without even having to ask because it can’t be helped. I’m just gonna, you know, it’s. I’m gonna talk about it, I’m gonna say something about it. It’s inevitable. And Guest is someone I am drawn to instantly and I wish we had some more information about him. Again, I’m drawn to these little characters that no one seems to care about. But I think his personality is really interesting.

And I like the way that Utterson uses him and uses that personality quirk to show him this letter and get his unsolicited advice and commentary on it.

But what’s interesting to me is he.

[00:32:29] Is calculating all this in his head. He’s familiar with Jekyll. He’s been to Jekyll’s house.

[00:32:35] He surely knows, you know, he’s heard about Mr. Hyde. So I can show him this letter.

[00:32:41] It’s not like he doesn’t know who the people are that are involved.

[00:32:45] It’s not like I’m showing it to a stranger. I can show him this letter and it’s okay, and he’ll be able to.

[00:32:51] Give me advice on it.

[00:32:53] And he’s a great student and critic of handwriting.

Why does this matter, Right? Why is Utterson thinking to himself, I.

[00:33:05] Should show this to Mr. Guest, my clerk?

[00:33:07] Because he’s very interested in. In handwriting analysis.

So Utterson already has a suspicion about the letter and the letter’s handwriting.

So he doesn’t buy it.

[00:33:28] Even though he sat there and he said, thank you for this letter. I’ll sleep on it and figure out what to do. He doesn’t believe it.

He doesn’t believe it for a second.

[00:33:39] And I love that about him.

[00:33:40] And I love that on the way.

[00:33:41] Home, he’s like, I have a guy I can show this to who is.

[00:33:45] Gonna give me all the information I need about this.

[00:33:48] Someone I trust, someone that I confide.

[00:33:50] In, Someone that knows all the people involved. So it’s not shady that I’m showing.

[00:33:55] This to him who’s gonna give me his honest opinion.

So he prompts him, right? Like he said, I’m gonna fish for it.

[00:34:05] He says, this is a sad business about Mr. Danvers, right?

[00:34:08] And so this gets Guest sort of talking about, you know, what happened to Keru and. And Hyde and everything.

And he’s like, you know, Mr. Guest is like, well, obviously Hyde is crazy.

[00:34:21] He’s obviously mad.

[00:34:23] And Utterson’s like, I would like to.

[00:34:25] Hear your thoughts on this.

I have a document here in his handwriting.

It is between ourselves, for I scarce know what to do about it. It’s an ugly business, but there it is, quite in your way. A murderer’s autograph.

[00:34:42] And so guess. Eyes brightened. And he sat down at once and studied it with passion.

I just love this guy already. Like, I just. I. I can. I can get an image of someone like him in my head. Just a vague image of someone who is so meticulous and is probably a little bit different in the things that he gets excited about.

He’s so excited about handwriting analysis. He’s one of those clerks that you want working for you because they just.

[00:35:15] Have a different way of seeing things.

[00:35:17] And is very fascinated with things that.

[00:35:20] Are outside of the norm, maybe.

[00:35:22] And I just love people like this. So someone like Guest is just so interesting to me, and I love that I can see him grabbing that note.

[00:35:31] And sitting down and.

[00:35:32] And. And being like, oh, right. Like, because I do the same thing. Like, you give me something that I’m interested in, and I.

[00:35:39] Everything goes out the window.

[00:35:40] I’m fascinated. Like, hand it to me.

[00:35:42] Let’s go for it.

[00:35:44] So Guest looks at it and he’s like, this is definitely odd handwriting.

And this is where I’m saying, I.

[00:35:54] Don’T like this chapter.

[00:35:56] A servant comes in and hands Utterson a note.

And Mr.

[00:36:02] Guest is like, oh, is that from Dr. Jekyll?

And Utterson’s like, oh, it’s just an invitation to dinner.

[00:36:10] Why do you want to see it?

[00:36:11] And it’s like, first of all, this.

[00:36:13] Guy works for you. And I get that they’re friends and everything, but why is he like, oh, what’s that? Is that from Dr. Jekyll? Is it. Is it personal?

[00:36:21] Why.

[00:36:21] Why do you want to know? Like, what business is it of yours? It’s really odd. And it, you know.

[00:36:29] Is that from Jekyll? Inquired the clerk. I thought I knew the writing. Anything private, Mr. Utterson?

Only an invitation to dinner. Why do you want to see it?

Just for a moment. Thank you.

[00:36:42] It’s like, is that really something that you would do when someone comes in and hands the person that you’re, you know, having a drink with or whatever, a letter, and you’re like, is that a letter from Dr. Jekyll?

[00:36:56] Is it private? Is it personal?

[00:36:57] Can I see it? Like, it just comes out of nowhere. And again, it’s.

[00:37:03] It’s in line with the fact that he wants to compare the two pieces of writing.

[00:37:07] Right? It just.

Stevenson has worked hard to put this in here. He’s.

[00:37:15] He’s shoved it in with such force.

[00:37:17] That it’s pushed me right out of the book. Like, all of a sudden, I’m like, for the love of God, is this really happening right now? I just don’t see this as happening. I don’t see that as a logical.

[00:37:29] Scenario that would have occurred.

[00:37:32] It is solely for the purpose of this guy doing a handwriting analysis, and.

[00:37:36] He needs Jekyll’s handwriting in order to do it.

[00:37:40] And it just so happens a letter has arrived from Dr. Jekyll just now inviting me to dinner. Do you want to look at it?

This kind of writing to me is.

I just think it’s kind of lazy. I think it’s. You’re trying to get some information across, and you don’t know how to do it. So you just create manufacturer scenario where the thing you want to happen happens. And it just seems really weird and out of place.

[00:38:09] So of course, he looks at it.

[00:38:10] And he’s like, it’s.

[00:38:11] It’s weird.

[00:38:12] You know, it’s.

[00:38:15] There’s a singular resemblance.

The two hands are, in many points identical, only differently sloped, rather quaint, said Utterson.

It is, as you say, rather quaint.

Returned guest.

I wouldn’t speak of this note, you know, said the master.

No, sir, said the clerk.

I understand that exchange, as much as.

[00:38:48] I love it, is again, it’s just forcing you to.

[00:38:58] To sort of question, oh, the handwriting.

[00:39:00] Is written by Jekyll, right? It’s just written with his left hand or whatever.

And you don’t need to know that information.

[00:39:08] These are the breadcrumbs, but the breadcrumbs.

[00:39:10] Are now becoming like, not crumbs, but entire loaves of bread that he’s now throwing at us. Like loaves of bread are coming out of the book and hitting us in the face because he wants us to know more about this relationship.

And of course, Utterson is like, oh, my God, Henry Jekyll has forged this.

[00:39:31] Note for a murderer.

[00:39:32] So he.

[00:39:33] It’s like he’s still under this murderer’s control.

[00:39:35] He’s forging notes for him.

[00:39:38] Okay?

[00:39:39] It just doesn’t work for me.

[00:39:41] This entire chapter is trash.

[00:39:44] But I like Guest and I like Utterson’s behavior in this chapter. It reveals so much about Utterson’s character and what I like about him and what I like about this book. As I said, he’s not a pushover.

[00:40:01] He is questioning this the whole time.

[00:40:03] And the fact that he wants someone to analyze the handwriting means he doesn’t trust it.

[00:40:08] As soon as he probably read it, he was like, oh, I feel better.

[00:40:12] No, I don’t feel entirely better. I love that.

So it’s not my favorite chapter.

I think the book actually could have done without it. You don’t need to know that the handwriting is similar. I think it’s just a huge loaf of pumpernickel.

[00:40:35] Why are you laughing?

[00:40:39] I said it’s not a bread crumb anymore. He’s now throwing whole loaves of bread. He’s just like here. Here’s some evidence for you to think about, you know, pumpernickel, I think, because I don’t like it.

I think I chose pumpernickel because I don’t like pumpernickel.

So I.

[00:40:58] It’s just.

[00:40:59] It’s so contrived. I just hate it. I really wish that it didn’t exist at all. But I love that it gives us.

[00:41:08] More insight into Utterson.

[00:41:10] So in that regard, it’s useful.

These next two chapter.

[00:41:17] Well, these three chapters that follow each other. Incident of the letter, Incident of Dr.

[00:41:22] Lanyon and Incident at the Window.

[00:41:24] Of these three chapters, the Incident of.

[00:41:28] The Letter is the one I wish Stevenson’s wife had burned, I guess, because it’s bad.

But The Incident of Dr. Lanyon and the Incident at the Window are my two favorite chapters, I think. My two favorite chapters in the whole book, I would say.

[00:41:52] I think that.

[00:41:56] They.

[00:41:58] Give me the.

[00:42:00] Most, like, the most feelings of intrigue. Like they make me want to read the story. Those two chapters alone are the chapters that sell me on the story.

[00:42:18] If I wasn’t interested in the story.

[00:42:20] Before those two chapters, I would be. Then I think they’re the most memorable for me. They’re the ones that literally, like, I listened to audiobooks at night and, you know, literally made me just stay awake. Like, I just was so interested in those two chapters.

I think that if someone was going to make this straight two movie.

These chapters absolutely would be ones that.

[00:42:58] You couldn’t leave out.

[00:43:00] They are.

[00:43:01] They give so much creep factor.

They give so much of the.

The horror of it.

[00:43:12] I don’t get horror from this book.

[00:43:16] Until you put the book together and.

[00:43:19] You sort of read it as an overarching thing.

And I guess the last chapter, you know, when you find out. Actually you don’t.

[00:43:29] The true horror happens in the chapter before the end. In Dr. Lanyon’s narrative, when Dr. Lanyon.

[00:43:34] Tells you his perspective, that is the horror. That’s the one bit of horror in this book, is Dr. Lanyon’s narrative, which.

[00:43:43] Is the second to last chapter.

[00:43:45] Dr. Lanyon gives you his perspective of things.

And I think that that is where you really get that oh, my God.

[00:43:58] Fucking hell, what is going on factor.

[00:44:01] But I got that from the two chapters that follow this one. I got that creepy sort of, you know, goosebump feeling from those two chapters. And then Dr. Lanyon’s chapter was, I think, really where I felt the most absolute horror and sort of disgust and shock in this story. So it’s not really throughout.

[00:44:30] It’s just more in these. Punctuated in these very specific areas.

So I’m looking forward to talking about.

[00:44:38] The next two chapters because like I.

[00:44:40] Said, those are my favorites.

[00:44:44] I think. I hope that, you know, throughout this series I’m giving you guys a different way of coming at literature in general.

[00:44:55] Or any kind of media really, just.

[00:44:58] By taking a different viewpoint of maybe.

[00:45:01] Another character and thinking about that character’s perspective.

And most media doesn’t give you alternative character perspectives.

[00:45:10] So sometimes you have to kind of put the effort forth to think about.

[00:45:16] Other characters perspectives and it changes the overall story when you do that. In Jekyll and Hyde, you are given alternate people’s perspectives. It’s just everybody chooses to ignore them. But they’re the most interesting and they give you more of a sense of the kind of real terror and horror and the destructive aspects of what Dr. Jekyll’s existence means in the world.

[00:45:43] And that’s really valuable to really understanding why this book is not just an.

[00:45:51] Allegory about Jekyll and Hyde, but also.

[00:45:55] Just about people that are like that. People that put themselves above others and.

[00:46:02] Those that are pulled in, in that wake. Right?

[00:46:07] The tidal wave that these people leave.

[00:46:09] In the world and all the people that are trapped in the wake of that tidal wave.

It just changes things when you consider other perspectives, when you think about how other people feel. I don’t know why that’s something that’s so difficult for people to do in this day and age, to consider the.

[00:46:29] Feelings of others and that they have.

[00:46:32] Other perspectives and that those perspectives are.

[00:46:34] Valid and, and interesting and could be.

[00:46:40] Integral to your understanding of a situation.

I don’t know why people are so incapable of this.

[00:46:46] I hope that my reading of this.

[00:46:50] And talking about it maybe gives you a thought about how you can incorporate this idea into your own life and.

[00:46:59] Into how you view the world that you live in.

[00:47:02] There’s other people in the world other than you, and they have perspectives and lives and realities that they live.

[00:47:10] And your presence affects them just as.

[00:47:13] Their presence affects you.

But the more you know about all the people that your presence in the world affects, the more you can have.

[00:47:25] A clearer understanding of yourself and your presence in the world. Not as a solitary person, but one of many.

[00:47:36] You get what I’m saying?

It’s not just you.

People love to center themselves, but they’re not the center. No one’s the center.

There’s billions of people in this world. There’s hundreds of people around you that you see work with talk to run into at the store. Whatever your presence, your actions, your speech, the things you say and do online and offline affect other people in good ways and in bad ways.

And you would never know that if you only ever think of yourself, if you only ever believe that your reality is the only reality and that your presence is is the only presence that matters.

[00:48:26] It isn’t.

[00:48:28] Think about that.

[00:48:30] I think that would change a lot of things for a lot of people.

[00:48:34] If they just tweaked their thinking just that little bit.

[00:48:41] So thank you again for tuning in and I’m really excited to share the next two chapters with you because I love them and I hope that you.

[00:48:51] Will be looking forward to that.

[00:48:54] As much as I am, as much.

[00:48:56] As anybody is, as much as Corey is.

[00:49:00] Maybe she’s not. We don’t know.

[00:49:01] She has to sit here and listen to it.

[00:49:03] So thanks again for all of your.

[00:49:05] Encouragement and all of the views and all the likes and everything on the videos I put up.

[00:49:11] I really appreciate it.

[00:49:12] It’s very encouraging and it’s nice to.

[00:49:15] Know that you appreciate what I’m putting.

[00:49:20] Out there and appreciate a new perspective.

[00:49:22] On this classic story.

[00:49:24] See you soon.

[00:49:28] End of part two thanks for listening to my discussion of chapter five of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the next episode, I combine chapters six and seven because they are two of my favorite chapters, and because they are very similar in feeling and foundation, they greatly shift the tone and focus of the story from slightly confusing and creepy to what the fuck. Thanks for your interest in this podcast and I hope you come back for more.