Hyde’s absence makes Jekyll ill and paranoid. When U goes to see him he becomes very agitated. We are told that he has hidden himself away in his lab. However eventually he becomes his old self again and he begins to socialise once more and throws parties.
Utterson is annoyed that Jekyll’s sociability is not maintained. He feels his friend has let him down in some way and he is frustrated that he has still not worked out what the connection between Mr H and Dr J is.
Lanyon has become incredibly ill too. He appears to be on death’s door. Something has given him a terrible fright. He has grown pale and has lost weight. He has aged and lost hair.
the mention of Dr J, Lanyon looks terrified and asks that U doesn’t talk about him. We are told his hand ‘trembled’ and that Dr J was now dead to him.
Lanyon’s reply to Utterson increases the mystery as we wonder what could have happened between Lanyon and Jekyll to cause such a break in the friendship. Utterson is confused as Mr Hyde doesn’t appear to be involved. He can only blame madness.
Our suspicions about Dr J have grown by the end of this chapter as he has locked himself away completely and refuses to see anyone.
The lines ‘the court was very cool and full of premature twilight, although the sky… was still bright’ suggests something bad was going to happen. There is a contrast between the summer sky of happiness and the dourness and secrecy of the street below. Stevenson uses the light here to alert us to the fact that something bad is about to happen.
Stevenson seems to want us to feel anxious for Dr J at this point. He appears at the window and something strange happens to him, causing him to disappear from sight. We know he has been cooped up for weeks. We are wondering what has gone wrong.
The chapter title ‘incident at the window’ implies an end has been reached – it suggests an event has happened. The end of the chapter, in which U and Enfield see something strange happen to Dr J, leaves us feeling uneasy. We are not told what has happened to Dr J and that leaves us with a sense that it is something really bad.
