Jekyll & Hyde Chronological Timeline
I don't know if people even need this, but I needed it and it didn't exist. So here it is. In the book the dates are blanked because that was the convention of the time, but I've heard in earlier drafts Robert Louis Stevenson had set the story 1883-1885, so based on that, here is a rough CHRONOLOGICAL timeline of Jekyll & Hyde (rather than the order we discover things in the book)
1833: Jekyll is born.
1840-55(ish): Jekyll's youth. He becomes friends with Lanyon and Utterson at private school. He is a wild youth with unconventional tastes that he keeps secret.
1865(ish): Poole starts working for Jekyll.
1870s: Jekyll begins studying transcendental medicine. He and Lanyon fall out over this and stop talking to one another.
Sometime early-mid 1883: Jekyll discovers the formula to transform himself into Hyde. Jekyll buys a house in Soho for Hyde and writes him into his will. Hyde begins indulging in forbidden desires.
Sometime mid-late 1883: Hyde tramples a young girl. Enfield is a witness. To avoid being attacked, Hyde goes to the laboratory door and draws a cheque in Jekyll's name. The next day Jekyll sets Hyde up his own bank account.
Sometime late 1883 (A Sunday): Enfield tells Utterson about the trampling of the girl as they pass the laboratory door on their regular walk. That night, Utterson dines with Lanyon and learns he is estranged from Jekyll. Lanyon has never heard of Hyde.
Late 1883: Utterson regularly haunts the laboratory door, and eventually meets with Hyde.
Jan 1884: Utterson dines with Jekyll and talks to him about his will, expressing his concerns. Jekyll stops taking notes in his experiment book around this time.
Aug 1884: After a night of adventures as Hyde, Jekyll awakes having involuntarily transformed into Hyde. He sneaks to the lab and takes a dose to transform back into Jekyll. Frightened, he stops taking the potion.
Oct 1884: Jekyll takes the potion again and transforms into Hyde. Hyde meets and murders Sir Danvers Carew. Hyde clears out his Soho home, destroys his papers and cheque book. Jekyll destroys the lab door key.
Oct 1884 (The Next Day, 9am): Utterson identifies Carew's body and goes to Hyde's address with Scotland Yard.
Oct 1884 (Same day, Evening): Utterson visits Jekyll. Jekyll says Hyde will not be returning and show Utterson a note he claims is from Hyde. Utterson asks Poole about the messenger, but Poole claims no letter was delivered.
Oct 1884 (Same day, Night): Utterson dines with his clerk Guest. He shows Guest the note from Hyde. A dinner invitation arrives from Jekyll and Guest compares the two. He notes the handwriting is the same, but slanted in different directions.
Oct 1884-Jan 1885: Jekyll becomes more religious and conscientious. The police hunt for Hyde and uncover some of his wicked deeds in London, but can't find him.
Jan 8, 1885: Jekyll throws a big dinner party for his friends. Utterson and Lanyon are there. It seems as though Lanyon and Jekyll may be mending their friendship.
Jan 8, 1885 (Night): Jekyll indulges his desires, but as Jekyll this time.
Jan 9, 1885 (Daytime): Jekyll daydreams on a bench in Regent's Park and involuntarily transforms into Hyde. He flees to a hotel in Portland Street and writes a letter to Poole and Lanyon to arrange for his chemicals to be brought to Lanyon's house. Poole and Lanyon break into Jekyll's office and Lanyon brings the chemicals to his house.
Jan 9, 1885 (Evening): Hyde travels around in a cab waiting until midnight until the driver gets suspicious. He walks the streets and punches a woman in the face who offers him to buy some matches.
Jan 10, 1885 (Midnight): Hyde arrives at Lanyon's, drinks the potion and transforms into Jekyll in front of him. Jekyll confesses his crimes to Lanyon. Jekyll returns home and falls into a deep sleep.
Jan 10, 1885 (Daytime): Jekyll transforms spontaneously into Hyde walking to his lab. A double dose restores him to Jekyll, but 6 hours later there is another spontaneous transformation into Hyde. From now on, every time Jekyll sleeps or relaxes too much he transforms into Hyde. He needs the potion constantly to stay as Jekyll.
Jan 12, 1885: Utterson calls on Jekyll. He's told the doctor is sick.
Jan 13, 1885: Lanyon writes his testimony of Jekyll's transformation. He seals it up to be opened by Lanyon when Jekyll has died or disappeared.
Jan 14, 1885: Utterson calls on Jekyll. He is denied entry.
Jan 15, 1885: Utterson calls on Jekyll. He is denied entry.
Jan 16, 1885: Utterson dines with Guest.
Jan 17, 1885: Utterson visits Lanyon, and is shocked by his deterioration. Lanyon says he will soon be dead and can't mend his friendship with Jekyll, but won't say why. Utterson writes to Jekyll demanding an explanation.
Jan 18, 1885: Jekyll writes a cryptic and darkly-worded letter to Utterson that does not explain why he and Lanyon have fallen apart. He says he intends to lead a very secluded life going forwards.
Jan 25, 1885: Lanyon is bedridden.
Feb 8, 1885: By this time, Lanyon is dead. The day after the funeral, his sealed testimony is sent to Utterson. He puts it in his safe.
Feb 1885: Utterson keeps calling on Jekyll, but is not admitted. His visits become fewer and fewer.
Feb/Mar 1885 (A Sunday): Enfield and Utterson walk by the laboratory door again, and walk into the courtyard hoping to see Jekyll. They try to talk to Jekyll at the window, but he is seized with terror and slams the window shut.
Feb/Mar 1885: Jekyll's supply of salts is running low. He sends messages to his servants to get more from chemists across London - none can give him salts that work.
Sometime Mar 1885: Trapped in his cabinet, Hyde burns Jekyll's paintings and letters from his father. He defaces Jekyll's religious books with blasphemies. Jekyll keeps trying to make the potion with the new salts that keep arriving, but concludes his original batch must have been impure, and this unknown impurity was what made the transformation possible. The servants hear Jekyll cry out upon the name of God.
Mar 1885 (1-8 days after the cry): Poole hears Hyde weeping like a lost soul in the laboratory. Poole catches sight of a masked Hyde going through packing boxes in the laboratory.
Mar 1885 (8 days after the cry): Jekyll uses the last of the original salts to write his last will, confession, and a note to Utterson. He puts them aside and becomes Hyde, finally and forever.
Mar 1885 (8 days after the cry, 10pm): Poole visits Utterson and asks him to help, saying he thinks there's been foul play. Utterson comes to the house and hears Hyde's voice behind the cabinet door. He listens to Poole's evidence and agrees he thinks Jekyll has been murdered. Utterson confronts Hyde, and he and Poole break down the cabinet door. Hyde poisons himself with cyanide. Poole and Utterson find Jekyll's will, note and confession. They search for Jekyll's body but can't find him.
Mar 1885 (Same day, 10-11pm): Utterson goes home and reads Lanyon's testimony, followed by Jekyll's confession.
Mar 1885 (Midnight next day): This was when Utterson planned to return to Jekyll's and call the police.
The cyanide question: In the Last Night chapter, when they find Hyde's body, they describe 'the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air' as proof of suicide, and that strong smell of kernels was a shorthand at the time for cyanide. Hope that helps! x
