Discussion Questions

Seeing Hyde's transformation for himself completely breaks down Lanyon's health. He writes the letters because he knows that he'll soon die from the shock of it. 

Lanyon includes many details in his letter, even noting the colors of the various vial contents in Jekyll's drawer. However, although he is very detailed in what he witnessed that night, Lanyon does not provide an explanation of how such a transformation could occur, or how Jekyll's scientific experiments advanced and progressed to this point. Lanyon purposely does not include this information, as he simply finds it to offensive to write about. Clearly, this is important information, but Lanyon refuses to discuss it, just as he refused to share this information immediately after witnessing it. Instead, Lanyon forced society to wait until Jekyll's death or disappearance and his own death before the truth would be revealed.