Chapter 7: Incident at the Window

As is Sunday tradition, Utterson and Enfield are on their usual walk when they happen to come across the door to Jekyll’s laboratory. The two remark how glad they are that the ordeal with Hyde is over and that they shall never see him again, creating a sense of irony as we know that Hyde’s story is not yet finished. Utterson asks if he ever told his cousin he shared in the “feeling of repulsion” towards Hyde, to which Enfield replies “it was impossible to do the one without the other.” Stevenson uses hyperbole here to emphasise the inherent feelings of disgust which are evoked by Hyde, demonstrating an almost impulsive and uncontrollable hatred towards the evil he represents. Utterson confides in his cousin his concern for Jekyll and proposes calling for him as, “even outside, I feel as if the presence of a friend might do him good.” This encapsulates the power of friendship and amity that Stevenson explores in the novella, with Utterson refusing entirely to let Jekyll go “his own dark way.” Stevenson alludes to the fate of Henry Jekyll as the characters find a “premature twilight” filling the court, even though the sky was still “bright with sunset,” foreshadowing Jekyll’s premature death.