Incident of the letter

The Incident of the Letter occurs in the immediate aftermath of the Carew murder case, when Mr. Utterson, deeply troubled by the possibility that his friend and client Dr. Henry Jekyll may have harbored the murderer, visits Jekyll's laboratory cabinet late in the afternoon. There he finds Jekyll looking deathly sick, seated close to the fire, and speaking in a changed voice. Jekyll, having heard the news cried in the square, swears to Utterson that he will never set eyes on Hyde again, binding his honour that he is done with him in this world, and insists that Hyde is safe and will never more be heard of. Yet Utterson, gloomy and suspicious, presses for more information, and Jekyll, in a feverish manner, produces a letter he has received, asking Utterson to judge whether it should be shown to the police, since he is thinking of his own character, which the hateful business has rather exposed.

The Letter and Its Contents

The letter is written in an odd, upright hand and signed "Edward Hyde." It briefly signifies that the writer's benefactor, Dr. Jekyll, whom he has long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety, as he has means of escape on which he places a sure dependence. Utterson, reading it, finds the letter puts a better colour on the intimacy than he had looked for, and he blames himself for some of his past suspicions. When he asks for the envelope, Jekyll says he burned it before thinking, but notes that it bore no postmark and that the note was handed in. Utterson agrees to keep the letter and sleep upon it, and Jekyll, having lost confidence in himself, asks Utterson to judge for him entirely. Utterson then asks whether it was Hyde who dictated the terms in Jekyll's will about that disappearance; Jekyll, seized with a qualm of faintness, shuts his mouth tight and nods. Utterson concludes that Hyde meant to murder Jekyll, and that Jekyll had a fine escape, to which Jekyll responds solemnly that he has had a lesson—"O God, Utterson, what a lesson I have had!"—and covers his face with his hands.

The Suspicious Delivery and Utterson's Renewed Fears

On his way out, Utterson stops to speak with Poole, the butler, and asks about the messenger who handed in the letter that day. Poole is positive that nothing has come except by post, and only circulars by that. This news sends off the visitor with his fears renewed. Plainly the letter has come by the laboratory door; possibly, indeed, it has been written in the cabinet; and if that is so, it must be differently judged and handled with more caution. As Utterson walks home, the newsboys are crying themselves hoarse along the footways: "Special edition. Shocking murder of an M.P." That is the funeral oration of one friend and client, and he cannot help a certain apprehension lest the good name of another should be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal. It is a ticklish decision he has to make, and self-reliant as he is by habit, he begins to cherish a longing for advice.

The Handwriting Comparison

Later that evening, Utterson sits on one side of his own hearth with Mr. Guest, his head clerk, on the other, and between them a bottle of a particular old wine. Guest, a great student and critic of handwriting, is shown the letter from Hyde. Guest studies it with passion and declares that the writer is not mad, but that it is an odd hand. Just then a servant enters with a note from Dr. Jekyll—an invitation to dinner. Guest asks to see it, and when he lays the two sheets of paper alongside and compares their contents, he returns both, remarking that there is a rather singular resemblance: the two hands are in many points identical, only differently sloped. Utterson, struggling with himself, asks why Guest compared them, and Guest repeats the observation. Utterson, with a forced casualness, calls it "rather quaint" and warns Guest not to speak of this note. But no sooner is Utterson alone that night than he locks the note into his safe, where it reposes from that time forward. "What!" he thinks. "Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer!" And his blood runs cold in his veins.

Consequences and Significance

The Incident of the Letter marks a crucial turning point in Utterson's understanding of the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde. The letter, which initially seems to offer reassurance that Hyde is acting independently and that Jekyll is merely a victim of his own misplaced trust, instead becomes the instrument through which Utterson discovers the handwriting similarity that points to a far more sinister connection. The fact that the letter was delivered by hand, not by post, and that Poole confirms no such messenger came through the front door, suggests that it was written and delivered from within Jekyll's own house—possibly even in the cabinet itself. This revelation, combined with the handwriting analysis, forces Utterson to confront the horrifying possibility that Jekyll himself may have forged the letter to protect Hyde, or worse, that Jekyll and Hyde are somehow the same person. The event thus deepens the mystery and accelerates Utterson's descent into suspicion and dread, setting the stage for the later revelations of Lanyon's narrative and Jekyll's full confession.