. I have to ask you to be alone in your consulting room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man who will present himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of my reason.

–The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
Robert Louis Stevenson

What does the reader learn about Dr. Jekyll from his letter to Dr. Lanyon?



How does Dr. Jekyll’s letter help build suspense?