Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Grades 9–1) York Notes

This passage comes from Lanyon’s account of his meeting with Hyde, when Hyde comes to pick up the chemicals to make his potion. Lanyon has not seen or met Hyde before, so he doesn’t know who he is. This is their only meeting.

Lanyon finds Hyde horrifying when he meets him, like everyone else. Lanyon is a medical doctor and a gentleman, so he keeps this feeling to himself, except that he is rather abrupt with Hyde when he grabs at him. He does, though, give an account of his own physical response to Hyde’s ugliness, which shows him being interested in a scientific way.

Lanyon is scared throughout this meeting. He has already prepared his gun and keeps it by him when he lets Hyde in. He says he is worried about Hyde when he grates his teeth and his face looks ‘ghastly’. He is ‘petrified’ when Hyde sobs on seeing the chemicals he needs. Lanyon doesn’t dwell on his own feelings, though. He goes on to describe the fizzing potion and then reports Hyde’s speech and his own. He doesn’t give much commentary on what happens so it’s hard to know what he is thinking. Lanyon spends some time describing what happened to the potion. He also goes on to describe what happens to Hyde as he changes. Because Lanyon is a doctor and a scientist, he is interested in these scientific processes. He focuses on the parts he can understand in what he is seeing, the parts that look scientific. Victorian readers would have been interested in the science as there was great public concern about the many scientific advances going on at the time. Science is a significant context in Jekyll and Hyde, and this is the only part when we really see some science going on, so it’s an important passage.

Hyde is immediately quite aggressive to Lanyon. He taunts him by saying he would be wise not to watch, but suggesting he will be richer and wiser if he does watch. He is trying to make Lanyon watch the transformation, and he knows it will horrify him. This is mean, and it’s probably not something that Jekyll would do himself because he has said that Lanyon is one of his ‘oldest friends’. But Hyde is the evil alter ego of Jekyll and will enjoy Lanyon being distressed.

Lanyon responds by not rising to the bait. He says he doesn’t really believe Hyde, so he will stay and watch. This is what Hyde wants, and he then gloats over Lanyon, saying he has ‘derided your superiors’ - meaning Jekyll is superior to him. This This refers to the argument between Lanyon and Jekyll in the rest of the novella. Lanyon is a normal type of doctor, who takes a very scientific view of things. Jekyll is interested in a different type of science, which he calls ‘transcendental’. This is something Lanyon considers ‘utter balderdash’, and he even says that Jekyll is ‘wrong in mind’ for experimenting with it. The disagreement between them has led them to stop talking to each other, but in his note to Lanyon asking for his help with getting the potion he says they ‘may have differed at times on scientific questions’. This makes it sound much less important, but Jekyll is trying to get Lanyon’s help at this point. Even so, Lanyon does decide to help Jekyll and goes to get the drawer of chemicals, which suggests there is some bit of friendship left.

At the end of this passage, Lanyon is being defiant and saying he doesn’t believe Hyde, but actually we’ve seen that he is scared throughout the meeting. And Hyde is being arrogant and saying that Lanyon will see something astonishing and will have to admit he was wrong. It looks like a continuation of the argument between Jekyll and Lanyon, but it will be more than that, as Lanyon is destroyed by what he sees. It’s not even clear whether Jekyll knows or cares how much harm this does Lanyon, as later he says Lanyon’s state ‘perhaps affected me somewhat’ but it was ‘a drop in the sea to the abhorrence’ with which he viewed the evening. But Lanyon says afterwards that his life was ‘shaken to its roots’ and he never recovered. So in this chapter, Lanyon is being good to Jekyll and doing what he asks, even though they are not friends any more, but Hyde is only being vengeful and mean once he has got what he wants.