Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

This chapter is Jekyll’s "confession." He starts by writing that he had a good start in life, and had all the promise of an honorable future. But he describes one fault of his: a pleasure for darker things which doesn’t fit with his outward honorable reputation, and which he therefore concealed. When Jekyll became older and could reflect on his life, it astonished him how split his personality had become and he continued with shame to disguise his darker self.

As a scientist, Jekyll began to theorize that all men have an inherent dual nature. He starts to study mysticism, and feels that he is drawing nearer to the truth of the matter. As he becomes more sure of these identities, they seem to be both equally real aspects of him, and he dreams of separating them, each twin being able to reign independently in their opposite moods.

Jekyll writes that he does not wish to go into the scientific details, but he eventually discovered a chemical concoction that will cause him to feel and to see a separation of his two fundamental elements. He is scared to try the potion out once it is finished, because he knew he risked overdosing or destroying one of his two halves. Even so, one night he mixes up the medicine and drinks it. He is immediately struck by painful sensations, both physical and spiritual. But amid these horrible pains, comes something pleasurable—he turns into Mr. Hyde and feels a kind of reckless joy.

Jekyll is determined, even though he has obviously changed shape (he is now much smaller, though he has no mirror to observe it), to go out of the lab and to his bedroom. He marvels at the feeling of being a stranger in his own house. Then, he describes seeing his new form for the first time. He notices that his evil self is less healthy looking, as if he has been worn out and deformed by his evil spirit. But he is not repulsed. He feels as much identity with this image as he does with his more robust original one. He decides that the reason people looked on Hyde with such horror was because everyone is made of good and evil parts and so are unused to seeing such a purely evil being.

But he needs to perform a second experiment to make sure he can turn back to Dr. Jekyll. He rushes back to his cabinet and prepares another potion, drinks it, and becomes his former self. But though he sees himself as the virtuous side again, it is the desire for evil that now reigns over both beings. He becomes more and more obsessed with becoming Hyde, because every evil thought can be swiftly satisfied by drinking the potion. Jekyll prepares a new life around his new identity, buys a house for Hyde in Soho, and begins to profit from having two faces.

He describes himself as the first man who could shed the conscience of evil deeds and enjoy them, maintaining the respectability of Dr. Jekyll whenever he wanted. But these deeds were becoming more monstrous and Dr. Jekyll at times cannot believe what Hyde has done, sometimes even trying to make amends for his evil twin.

But the next year, two months before the murder of Danvers Carew, things began to go wrong. One night he woke up in bed to discover that he has woken up as Mr. Hyde. He is astonished, having gone to bed as Dr. Jekyll. He panics, but realizes that his servants already are used to seeing Hyde around so he won’t cause too much alarm by going through the house, turning back into Dr. Jekyll and going to breakfast.

But though he escapes detection, this event threatens Dr. Jekyll. He believes it is a sign of a coming judgment. He starts to feel that the balance between his two selves is shifting toward Hyde, and feels he has to choose between them. He considers the advantages of each and hates to imagine living without Hyde’s pleasures or Jekyll’s aspirations. But in the end he chooses the better part of himself.

The trouble was how to maintain it. For two months, he enjoyed the life of Dr. Jekyll again, being sociable and leaving Hyde’s Soho house empty. But one night, he feels the evil desires of Hyde bubbling up within him and he gives in. This is the night of Danvers Carew’s murder. After such a long period of dormancy, Hyde was more furious and violent than ever. In an ecstasy of rage, he describes mauling the body and then going back to Hyde’s house and feeling Jekyll, like a pursuing authority, find him again. His life flashes before his eyes and he feels an outpouring of remorse at how Hyde’s deeds taint the other memories. He knew then that it was impossible for him to keep becoming Hyde.

The next day, the public anger at the murder of Carew becomes clear and Jekyll resolves himself to make amends by doing as much good as he can. He succeeds for a while, but again Hyde’s desires begin to trouble him. This time the balance, he says, is finally overthrown. He cannot resist Hyde anymore. He is sitting in a park, surrounded by sweetness, and considering his sympathy with his fellow man. But just as this thought occurs to him, he feels a shudder, feels suddenly bold. He looks down and sees the hand of Edward Hyde on his knee. He has transformed into Hyde.

Hyde is quick-thinking, and, given that he is wanted for Danvers Carew's murder, he quickly decides to drive to an inn and, keeping as much undercover as possible, write to Dr. Lanyon (the letter from Jekyll that is mentioned in Lanyon's letter of Chapter 9). After the letter has been sent, Hyde sits nervously, holding in his rage, until midnight, when he travels to Lanyon’s.

Lanyon’s fear and condemnation affects Jekyll (who has transformed back from Hyde into Jekyll before Lanyon’s eyes, just as described in Lanyon's letter in Chapter 9), and Jekyll now starts to fear Hyde. He goes home and sleeps a deep sleep. When he awakens in his familiar territory, he feels in control and hopeful again.

But again, as he is walking to breakfast, Jekyll is taken over by Hyde. He rushes to the upper room of his laboratory and makes the potion but the transformation into Jekyll is once again only temporary, as is every subsequent dose. This is how he comes to be a prisoner in this room and is writing the letter in this state, between images of awful deeds as Hyde and remorse as Jekyll. Now Jekyll's hatred for Hyde matches Hyde's hatred for everything. Jekyll has come to view his evil twin as something unnatural. He marvels at how Hyde has taken over his life.

Jekyll and Hyde’s relationship becomes more complicated. Hyde’s “terror of the gallows” drives him to seek refuge in his dual identity with Jekyll, but Hyde also resents Jekyll and plays tricks on him, using his own handwriting to graffiti his books for example. Jekyll too is full of hatred yet can’t help but pity his other half.

Jekyll writes that this awful, but now familiar pattern, could have gone on for years but he found himself running out of necessary chemicals. He sent Poole out for more but nothing worked. Now, he is using up the last of the powders as he writes and reflects that this will be the last time he will know himself as Henry Jekyll. He must stop writing before the inevitable change occurs. He doesn’t know what Hyde will do, kill himself or continue to pace about the room, but he sees this moment as his own death; he is now a separate being. On this note, he signs off and ends the record of his life.