Hydes menacing personality evokes a feeling of horror by leaving the reader questioning a character, in this case, Hyde, reliability in the human world
As a man of pure evilness, Hyde creates disruption through his actions. His first appearance in the novella associates him with a crime of abuse. During Utterson’s and Enfield’s daily walks, Enfield speaks
Hyde is described with these terms because Enfield has no true answer to describe his appearance. He says Hyde is displeasing to look at and must have some sort of deformity, almost as if Hyde is not a normal human being. Hyde turned angry at carew's “trampling” him with his cane until “bones were shattered” (Stevenson 48). Instead of Hyde stopping his devilish actions of bashing poor Carew, he continued to keep going with no remorse. It was almost like he had no heart feeling or emotion of sympathy, this is something the devil would do.
If Poole would have attempted to talk to Hyde, after Jekyll’s orders to obey Hyde as his own master, then he could have sensed something did not seem right about Hyde. Even if it was impossible to find a time to talk to Hyde, Poole could have even used his context clues, and figured out something was wrong about Hyde before things got out of hand. For example, never seeing Hyde and Jekyll in the same place, all of the crimes committed, or Hyde’s name could have been an indicator that something was wrong with Hyde. Again, if Poole would have talked to Hyde or Jekyll, this would have not resulted in the deaths of Jekyll and
Hyde’s physical appearance alongside his violent actions contribute to his notorious reputation. Described as “pale and dwarfish”, he gives the “impression of deformity without any nameable malformation” with his “displeasing smile”, home to a “sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness”, speaking with a “husky” and “somewhat broken voice” (B1). Saposnik explains the reason behind Hyde’s metaphorical descriptions: “essentially that is what he is: a metaphor of uncontrolled appetites, an amoral abstraction driven by a compelling will unrestrained by any moral halter. Such a creature is, of necessity, only figuratively describable, for his deformity is moral rather than physical.” (Saposnik)
There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point (Stevenson, 1886, p. 5) The quotation above is important to the book because the initial description of Hyde given by Enfield is consistently given by others as well. As Hyde is a being of pure evil, he sets others on edge yet his creation is entirely scientific.
Hyde the embodiment of Jekyll’s repressed homosexuality, he also represents all of the negative aspects of being a homosexual in the 19th century. The most visible homosexual men in the 1800’s were middle to low class men and outsiders (Evans and Onorato). Hyde lives in the “dismal quarter of Soho” (Stevenson 22) which is described as a “dingy street [with] many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women […] passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass” (Stevenson 23). This shows the reader that Hyde is indeed a man of low standings, which fits the stereotype of the 19th century gay man. Another key point is that Hyde is accused of blackmailing Jekyll by Enfield as he calls Hyde’s house the “Black Mail House”
And hitherto it was his ignorance of Mr. Hyde that had swelled his indignation; now, by a sudden turn, it was his knowledge. It was already bad enough when the name was but a name of which he could learn no more. It was worse when it began to be clothed upon with detestable attributes; and out of the shifting, insubstantial mists that had so long baffled his eye, there leaped up the sudden, definite presentment of a
At first he becomes scared of Mr. Hyde and vows to never become evil
But stepping on a child, snail paced and sadisticly, is something only a unrepressed human would think of doing. To feel the emotional toul of killing a child slowly, painful, enjoying the moment of it, is what Stevenson really wanted to show us about Hyde. To show us he isn’t just a criminal, he is an the incarnation of the serpent from
This in itself is answered and directly bought up by Jekyll in the book, with the quote: I believe that this quote explains that Dr. Jekyll feels that although Hyde is pure evil, he knows that there is also an evil side to Jekyll – he allowed Hyde to exist, fully well knowing that Hyde would be dangerous. Alongside the titular Hyde and Jekyll is Utterson – Jekyll’s best friend who is only trying to find the truth and bring righteous justice – compared to his colleagues, he is a lot less judgmental of bad actions; and will only choose to judge when he has answers. Throughout the story, Utterson is trying to find out the truth about Hyde – who he is, and where he came from, et cetera – as well as Jekyll, wanting to know information like why he entrusted his fortune to such an unknown and shady person such as Hyde – as shown in the
When the story opens, a story is being told about how Hyde trampled a young girl. Rather than stay on the scene, he retreats. It is Jekyll who provides the family with a check in order to keep them silent about the tragedy. Mutual friends of Jekyll’s, Mr. Utterson and Dr. Lanyon, are suspicious of the possible individual who could be terrorizing London, and they begin to investigate on their own. Jekyll wanted to separate his good side from his evil impulses creating a potion that would allow him to do that physically.
The good in Dr. Jekyll, and evil in Mr. Hyde are both trying to overpower each other. Mr. Enfield describes to Mr. Utterson as to what he saw: "Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner;
Enfield, Utterson, Lanyon and Jekyll are all aware of the social expectations and the importance of appearance, Jekyll and Hyde shows a contrast of public vs private. Even in the first chapter, Enfield is wary of sharing his story
When Utterson finally manages to break into the laboratory where Jekyll had shut himself in, he finds a disastrous scene, in the middle of which lies the body of Hyde. Although Utterson was not aware, Hyde’s body lying there instead of Jekyll’s shows Hyde was so strong that he surfaced once again in Jekyll’s last moment. After Dorian pays a visit to the country, he thinks that he is making changes for the better. Telling Lord Henry blatantly tells him that he is “still the same” (Wilde 203). Dorian is offended at this notion and attempts to defend his ‘reformation’ but Lord Henry is adamant in Dorian’s lack of personal
