AQA English Literature GCSE Revision

~ Question ~

The question from the 2017 paper was:

'Stevenson allows the reader to feel sympathy for Jekyll'
How far do you agree with the statement.

The extract was from chapter 7 'the incident at the window':

  The court was very cool and a little damp, and full of premature twilight, although the sky, high up overhead, was still bright with sunset. The middle one of the three windows was half-way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with an infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll.
  "What! Jekyll!" he cried. "I trust you are better."
  "I am very low, Utterson," replied the doctor, drearily, "very low. It will not last long, thank God."
  "You stay too much indoors," said the lawyer. "You should be out, whipping up the circulation like Mr. Enfield and me. (This is my cousin—Mr. Enfield—Dr. Jekyll.) Come, now; get your hat and take a quick turn with us."
  "You are very good," sighed the other. "I should like to very much; but no, no, no, it is quite impossible; I dare not. But indeed, Utterson, I am very glad to see you; this is really a great pleasure; I would ask you and Mr. Enfield up, but the place is really not fit."
  "Why then," said the lawyer, good-naturedly, "the best thing we can do is to stay down here and speak with you from where we are."
  "That is just what I was about to venture to propose," returned the doctor with a smite. But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below. They saw it but for a glimpse, for the window was instantly thrust down; but that glimpse had been sufficient, and they turned and left the court without a word.

How would you answer this question?