TJNOTES
Jekyll and Hyde essay on Mr Hyde as a frightening outsider
Stevenson shows how Hyde’s immoral behaviour leads those he
encounters to reject him as a frightening outsider. Utterson, in particular, is
repulsed by Hyde but struggles to understand exactly why. His choice of
language betrays his disgust and shows that he feels Hyde is an outsider,
taking advantage, he believes, of that pillar of the establishment, Dr Jekyll.
Ultimately, we learn that Hyde is in fact Dr Jekyll and is, therefore, an
‘insider’, leaving us with the troubling sense that even ostensibly
respectable people may hide shocking secrets.
In the extract, Stevenson presents Utterson reacting with fright and disgust
at his first meeting with Hyde. Their meeting ends with Hyde “snarl[ing]…a
savage laugh,” a sneering response to Utterson’s condemnation of Hyde’s
‘ungentlemanly’ attitude. The metaphor suggests that Hyde is a wild animal
and also echoes Victorian prejudices about Indigenous peoples, who were
dismissed as ‘uncivilised’ ‘savages’. After the encounter, Utterson strives to
understand his viscerally negative reaction to Hyde, who he feels is
“deform[ed].” Utterson’s use of pseudo-scientific terminology shows that he
believes Hyde must be disabled somehow, again betraying his prejudices,
leading him to use a tricolon to emphasise his “disgust, loathing and fear.”
Stevenson then shows Utterson’s ruminations continuing as he bombards
himself with questions, wondering if Hyde is variously “hardly human,”
“troglodytic,” or a “foul soul” marked by “Satan.” Utterson is grasping
desperately for an explanation, wondering if Hyde is inhuman, or an
‘unevolved’ cave-dweller, or a servant of the devil. All show that Utterson
comprehensively rejects Hyde, believing him to be a sinful outsider who
cannot be tolerated in ‘civilised’ society
Earlier in the novel, Stevenson presents Enfield’s shocked testimony which
immediately positions Hyde as an outsider figure. Enfield narrates Hyde,
“like some damned Juggernaut,” trampling over a young girl. The simile
others Hyde, associating him with a Hindu festival and suggesting that he is
somehow exotic and dangerous, a non-Christian outsider in a generally
Christian society. As with Utterson, Enfield’s Euro-centric prejudices,
widespread in the Victorian era at the height of European imperialism, are
clear, and he continues to display them when he describes Hyde’s “black
sneering coolness” and contrasts him with Dr Jekyll who is “the very pink of
the proprieties.” The colour imagery sets up a pattern of dark and light
contrasts in the novel and also suggests that Enfield reacts to Hyde as a
Jekyll and Hyde essay on Mr Hyde as a frightening outsider
Stevenson shows how Hyde’s immoral behaviour leads those he
encounters to reject him as a frightening outsider. Utterson, in particular, is
repulsed by Hyde but struggles to understand exactly why. His choice of
language betrays his disgust and shows that he feels Hyde is an outsider,
taking advantage, he believes, of that pillar of the establishment, Dr Jekyll.
Ultimately, we learn that Hyde is in fact Dr Jekyll and is, therefore, an
‘insider’, leaving us with the troubling sense that even ostensibly
respectable people may hide shocking secrets.
In the extract, Stevenson presents Utterson reacting with fright and disgust
at his first meeting with Hyde. Their meeting ends with Hyde “snarl[ing]…a
savage laugh,” a sneering response to Utterson’s condemnation of Hyde’s
‘ungentlemanly’ attitude. The metaphor suggests that Hyde is a wild animal
and also echoes Victorian prejudices about Indigenous peoples, who were
dismissed as ‘uncivilised’ ‘savages’. After the encounter, Utterson strives to
understand his viscerally negative reaction to Hyde, who he feels is
“deform[ed].” Utterson’s use of pseudo-scientific terminology shows that he
believes Hyde must be disabled somehow, again betraying his prejudices,
leading him to use a tricolon to emphasise his “disgust, loathing and fear.”
Stevenson then shows Utterson’s ruminations continuing as he bombards
himself with questions, wondering if Hyde is variously “hardly human,”
“troglodytic,” or a “foul soul” marked by “Satan.” Utterson is grasping
desperately for an explanation, wondering if Hyde is inhuman, or an
‘unevolved’ cave-dweller, or a servant of the devil. All show that Utterson
comprehensively rejects Hyde, believing him to be a sinful outsider who
cannot be tolerated in ‘civilised’ society
Earlier in the novel, Stevenson presents Enfield’s shocked testimony which
immediately positions Hyde as an outsider figure. Enfield narrates Hyde,
“like some damned Juggernaut,” trampling over a young girl. The simile
others Hyde, associating him with a Hindu festival and suggesting that he is
somehow exotic and dangerous, a non-Christian outsider in a generally
Christian society. As with Utterson, Enfield’s Euro-centric prejudices,
widespread in the Victorian era at the height of European imperialism, are
clear, and he continues to display them when he describes Hyde’s “black
sneering coolness” and contrasts him with Dr Jekyll who is “the very pink of
the proprieties.” The colour imagery sets up a pattern of dark and light
contrasts in the novel and also suggests that Enfield reacts to Hyde as a
