Mr Edward Hyde
English Lit: AQA GCSE Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, topic 2.1.3
Hyde - Evil and Inhumane
Hyde embodies pure evil, and is portrayed as being inhumane and animalistic.
"Pure evil"
- Hyde is “pure evil”. Jekyll seems to be a mixture of good and evil.
- Hyde is Jekyll’s dark side, released from the bonds of conscience and loosed into the world by a mysterious potion.
- Hyde seems to be violent for the sake of it, and he enjoys violence. The murder of Carew in Chapter 4 is a senseless attack which he takes “delight” in as he attacks the poor man with a cane.
- Hyde's enjoyment and psychopathic tendencies are what shock the reader most.
Inhumane
- Hyde's appearance leaves “an imprint of deformity and decay”.
- Hyde is clearly not the average human, and he creates a menacing and threatening atmosphere.
Animalistic
- Hyde is a strange, repugnant man who looks faintly pre-human, and everyone who sees him describes him as ugly and deformed. No one can say exactly why though.
- Hyde moves like an animal rather than a human, and his laugh and mannerisms are evil: “The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.”
- Hyde is more savage than he is civilised.
Context - Darwinism
- Utterson and Jekyll want to maintain a civilised exterior and to maintain a respectable reputation.
- Darwin’s theory - that men evolved from apes - was famous during the time the novel was written, so readers would have been shocked at the idea that we could all have a primitive, dark and immoral side.
Reactions to Hyde
Other characters are disgusted and anxious about Hyde's appearance:
Failing language
- Language itself seems to fail around Hyde: he is not a being who belongs to the rational world.
- He is often described as a creature: “There was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature”.
Creature of reversed evolution
- Utterson, Enfield and Poole are all horrified by his physical features, although Stevenson does not explicitly describe his exterior in detail.
- The context of Darwinism allows the reader to infer that he is a creature of reversed evolution: "He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance”.
Quick Quotes - Hyde
Here are three short quotes highlighting key aspects of Hyde's character:
Merciless
- “A man who was without bowels of mercy” (2).
Strange and uneven
- “He gives a strong feeling of deformity” (1).
Selfish
- “His every act and thought centered on self” (10).
Test yourself on Mr Edward Hyde
Who theorised that men evolved from apes?
What is Hyde often described as?