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Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Hastie Lanyon Quotes

"O God!" I screamed, and "O God!" again and again; for there before my eyes—pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll! (9.32)

For Dr. Lanyon, Mr. Hyde’s transformation into Dr. Jekyll is akin to restoring a man from death.

What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night; and I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall die incredulous. As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I can not, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror. (9.33)

Dr. Lanyon refuses to allow witnessing the transformation to reverse his long-held scientific beliefs; furthermore, Dr. Jekyll’s story was so horrifying one could say that it scared Dr. Lanyon to death.

Upon the reading of this letter, I made sure my colleague was insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt, I felt bound to do as he requested. The less I understood of this farrago, the less I was in a position to judge of its importance; and an appeal so worded could not be set aside without a grave responsibility. (9.10)

Dr. Lanyon cooperated with the letter’s requests more out of curiosity than out of loyalty to his friend.