In the novella, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson utilises Mr Hyde to connote the idea of duality that is inherent in the atavistic nature that we all possess and the problems with conforming to a Victorian society who were hypocritical themselves.
We are introduced to the character Hyde through Enfield's recollection of him being ‘like some damned Juggernaut’. This simile links to the idea of the Hindu tradition where worshippers laid on the floor to let their ‘juggernaut’ roll over them. The idea is especially apparent as Hyde did not stop to check if the girl was fine but instead trampled over, neglecting her presence - a true sign of evil. The girl after being trampled upon was less disturbed about the pain she has been subjected to but ‘more frightened’ due to Hyde’s distinct appearance. We are informed of Hyde especially through the adjective ‘damned’ which shows that he is essentially against all Christian teachings and would have been strictly opposed by all of Stevenson's readership. This is because they were very concerned on the pseudoscience of physiognomy which refers to you being able to judge a person's role based on their physical appearance. This helps us as a modern audience understand why Stevenson uses such language as he does so to critique the Victorian society he was apart of. This was one of the reasons why Stevenson left the UK and settled a new life in Samoa to escape the judgemental nature of the Victorian society and move somewhere that required his more atavistic values about man and how we should not be frightened by those whom Victorian society has told us to fear.
Hyde's inherent evil was later presented during the confrontation of Hyde’s actions of ‘trampling the little girl’. Enfield’s account states that ‘the sawbones turned sick and white with the desire to kill him’. This quote utilises colour semiotics to highlight the hypocrisy of the Victorian society. Sawbones were traditionally meant to be doctors who were interested in the loving and healing of their patients, however now (alongside Enfield) they have now been filled with murderous desires. This is very hypocritical because these people were Christians who did not, by virtue of their faith, share such intentions for their brothers because we were all created in the image and likeness of God. Especially, with the sawbones’ fear being described with the adjective ‘white’ which is meant to represent purity and is a colour used when depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. Unfortunately, this once beautiful colour is now being used to display fear towards Hyde due to his atypical appearance, deeply rooted in their societal norms to treat those, who did not resemble them, with fear and that they were dangerous.
Later in the book, Utterson recalls all of the events that have been bestowed to him. During this, he has a nightmare about his friend Jekyll where he worries that he is being blackmailed by Hyde to ‘rise and do its biddings’. Utterson worries for his friend because of how he perceives Hyde as a degenerate, so therefore he assumes the only way that his well-respected friend would hang around with someone like that is if he was being controlled. This links to the idea of Hyde having supernatural powers to do evil just because of his physical appearance. Stevenson therefore highlights to his modern readership how irrational their fears were because they were deeply rooted in physiognomy and their distaste for science. Victorians hated science as it was believed to go against their Christian values so if they read a story of someone who was a product of it, they would feel threatened by them as it would upset their whole morality.
Fear is presented when the maid describes how Hyde had an altercation with Carew. He was said to have ‘with ape-like fury’ and ‘hailing a storm of blows’ onto Carew which lead to his bones being audibly shattered. The whole murder of Carew is hyperbolic as Stevenson understands that in order to create a book that will interest an audience he will need to put fear into their minds. This is why penny-dreadfuls, stories of death and mystery, were so popular because it was what Victorians secretly enjoyed. They however would present themselves as being fearful of this which highlights the hypocrisy within Victorian society as people had to hide how they felt about certain things in order to maintain their social status. Hyde's ‘ape-like fury’ portrays the idea of Hyde's primitive nature as he was described to be subhuman. This would encourage the readership to perceive him as some sort of animal that they need to be fearful of especially considering he is made by science whom they deeply disliked.
Fear is also presented during Lanyon's account of Jekyll's transformation into Hyde. He recalled being tempted to ‘a new province of knowledge’ … ‘fame and power’ … ‘having Satan’s unbelief’. This was too much for Lanyon which led to his death as he feared for his own life. This is as science was believed to have been disliked by God so Christians would have thought if they allowed science to consume them, they would have been led away from God and subjected to peril in Hell. Stevenson overall thinks that this is ludicrous, as he perceives Lanyon's death as hypocritical because his very own suicide would have contradicted his own beliefs he had rendering his fear useless.
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