- Why does Jekyll’s will contain separate clauses for his death and his disappearance, if Hyde is his beneficiary either way? If Jekyll were unequivocally proven to be dead, that would mean Hyde is dead, too. Even if it was done so Jekyll could fake his death and continue living under the guise of Hyde, wouldn’t that be covered under the “disappearance” part of the will?
- Jekyll might just be covering his bases. Given that literally everything about this situation is unprecedented, he doesn't actually know with 100% certainty that Hyde will die when Jekyll dies. The only way for him to know for sure that Hyde will die if Jekyll dies is for Jekyll to, well, die. Since Jekyll's not in any great hurry for that to happen, he's probably just making sure that if it should happen that way, that he'll be able to draw upon his fortune as Hyde rather than it going intestate and Hyde being left with nothing. And if Hyde dies when Jekyll dies, well, neither of them will be in a position to worry about it anyway, so no harm, no foul. Better safe than sorry.
- It’s also possible Hyde did it just to spite any other beneficiary if it came about that he couldn’t inherit. In his written confession, Jekyll notes that Hyde would’ve destroyed his final will if it hadn’t been hidden away before the next transformation, even though he had no hope of getting anything as a wanted criminal at that point.
- Was Jekyll planning on not sleeping at all? He says in his final confession that the transformations got so out of control that he could only wear his own face for a short time after being dosed up on the drug and that if he slept or dozed off at all, he would turn into Hyde, hence why he secludes himself from the world and “condemns himself to sleeplessness”. Yet he also says that “my punishment might have gone on for years” if it weren’t for the issue of the impure salt making recreation of the serum impossible. Does that mean Jekyll was planning on getting by on little to no sleep for YEARS?! The longest a person has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, and that record was set decades after Jekyll’s time. Did he really think he could go without sleep for years?
- Jekyll's likely just using hyperbole to make a point. He presumably doesn't think that an existence without sleep for years is any sort of a practical life-plan, he's just saying that the lifestyle of locking himself away in his laboratory and doping himself up could have continued indefinitely had he been able to source another batch of the impure salt.
- When Mr. Utterson starts investigating Mr. Hyde and his relation to Dr. Jekyll (not knowing the two are the same person), why doesn't Mr. Hyde (or Dr. Jekyll) do anything to discourage his investigation? Mr. Hyde just basically avoids him in their only meeting while Dr. Jekyll keeps covering for, then completely distancing himself from, Mr. Hyde. You think Dr. Jekyll would tell Mr. Utterson to stop snooping, or Mr. Hyde would outright assault or even kill him, but instead they both just let him investigate what he can, potentially ruining everything for Jekyll.
- Jekyll does try to stop Utterson from investigating Hyde - as soon as Utterson brings up Hyde in the first conversation he has with Jekyll, he immediately says that he doesn't want to hear any more and that he thought they'd agreed to drop the matter. Later on in the same conversation, he says his relation to Hyde "is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep." Clearly, Jekyll is trying to shut down Utterson's investigation as early on as possible, yet he knows that if he were to try to more overtly stop Utterson from snooping, it would likely arouse even more suspicion on his end. Hence, after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew, he forges the letter from Hyde and tells Utterson he's washed his hands of him, after which things return to normal and Utterson seemingly loses interest in Hyde. It likely would've all worked out perfectly for Jekyll ... had an ill-timed moment of pride in his good deeds not caused Jekyll to suddenly become Hyde and lead to his revealing the truth to Dr. Lanyon while getting the potion to transform back into Jekyll, which led to Utterson renewing his investigation after Jekyll became a hermit.
- As for why Hyde doesn't try to kill Utterson to stop him finding out, the most practical reason is that Utterson is handling the legal legwork around his will and Jekyll was already wary of turning into Hyde involuntarily and possibly being stuck that way. The same conversation where Jekyll tries to shut down Utterson's questions includes Jekyll getting a promise from Utterson that he will look after Hyde legally should Jekyll die or disappear. Remember that Utterson is described in the opening paragraph of the book as being the last respectable contact of people who have gone down the wrong path, so given that everyone abhors Hyde as soon as they lay eyes on him, Jekyll knows that having someone like Utterson on his side would be critically essential should he become stuck as Hyde.
- Gabriel Utterson is a respected man of law. Hyde threatening Utterson, or Jekyll even hinting that Hyde is willing to threaten or murder him, would almost certainly not only increase Utterson's desire to rescue his friend from being at the mercy of such a man, but would also ensure that Utterson contacts the police — not exactly ideal considering that the whole point of Hyde is to do whatever Jekyll wants without consequence. And if Hyde did murder him... well, we see how well murdering someone goes for Edward Hyde when he meets Danvers Carew.
- Also worth remembering that Hyde — while evil and impulsive — is not stupid. He's guilty of many things, but doesn't actually resort to murder until the lengthy period that Jekyll first tries going cold turkey from the potion, at which point he's enraged and wants to lash out. He knows that murder is a serious crime and that murdering Utterson is going to risk backfiring on them both.
- Also, Utterson never had a lasting inclination to investigate Hyde. He became concerned after the trampling incident, but Jekyll asked that he leave it alone, which Utterson did. Then the story jumps ahead to the Carew murder, at which point Hyde was identified by someone else and Utterson only got involved because the victim was his client. After that was the lengthy period where Jekyll swore off taking the draught again, which mollified Utterson’s concerns since he assumed Hyde was gone for good. Hyde doesn’t get brought up again until Utterson hears from Poole that Jekyll has shut himself up in his study; and Hyde couldn’t have killed Utterson at that point because he couldn’t go out without being recognized and arrested for the Carew murder.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde
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