Without any nameable malformation.’
Utterson suggests that he looks deformed and that he has never seen anything like Mr Hyde before.
Hyde murders an MP called Sir Danvers Carew. Sir Danvers Carew was a well liked and famous man. Stevenson presents Hyde as a madman.
‘And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping
High too, as of a well founded self content.’
This quote suggests that he has got a bad temper which he can not control, like a wild animal.
Stevenson used animalistic imagery to suggest that he is like an animal and to represent the ‘beast in the man.’ By this he meant that Hyde is a beast but in a humans body.
‘Mr Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath.’
This imagery implies that he is like a snake because of the hissing noise he made. He is also compared to an ape, dog/wolf and a rat. All these animals are wild, uncontrollable and unpleasant animals.
The laboratory that Hyde regularly uses is described as neglected and dirty.
‘The door, which was equipped with neither bell nor knocker, was blistered
And distained.’
This is symbolic for Hyde not wanting to see anyone and no one to knock on the door.
In Utterson’s dream, Hyde is presented as a blackmailer because Utterson thinks that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll to leave him all of his money to him if he was to die.
Hyde is presented as a terrifying monster in Utterson’s dream.
‘It had no face’
By this quote Utterson implies that you can’t see what he is really like.
The character of Dr Jekyll is presented as a respectable doctor with a secret, a victim and a hypocrite in the novel. The first description of Dr Jekyll gives us an impression that he is a well known and respected man.
‘By excellent good fortune, the doctor gave one of his pleasant dinners to
Some five or six old cronies, all intelligent, reputable men all judges of good
Wine.’
This shows that Jekyll had a good reputation with others, and if people found out about his private side his reputation would be ruined.
Stevenson hints that there may be more to Jekyll’s character when he says:
‘smooth faced man of fifty, with something of a stylish cast perhaps’
This shows that although he is a well respected man he has a sly look about him.
Jekyll’s social status and role in society is being a doctor. He is highly respected by everyone and had a very good and clean reputation. It was not acceptable for him to drink alcohol and be disrespectful towards others so to hide this side of him he made a potion to separate the two sides of his personality. We see Jekyll through the perspective of Utterson, this is important because we see what his close friend thinks about what is happening to him, as Utterson values him as a friend.
Jekyll’s street is described as:
‘the street stone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a
Forest; and with its freshly painted shutters, well polished brasses, and
General cleanliness and gaiety of note, instantly caught and pleased the eye
of the passenger.’
This description of Jekyll’s street shows that he lives in a posh area and the people living there have got good jobs like him.
Jekyll is presented as a victim by Hyde in the novel in Utterson’s dream because it seems as if Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll to leave all his money to him if he was to die and that he has his own set of keys to his house to let himself in when ever he pleases. In Utterson’s dream he is presented as a small and very plainly dressed man. When Jekyll turns into Hyde his appearance is not easy to describe’ and his voice his husky. His speech is short and snappy when he talks, which is not very often. Jekyll has double standards because he made the potion to separate his two different personality and ‘pleasures’ as he calls them. He wanted to separate these two sides because the bad side was not acceptable in this time and he wanted to separate them so people don’t know it’s him.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are presented as two sides of the same character where Dr Jekyll is the good side (which was acceptable in Victorian time - public side), and Mr Hyde is the bad side (which was not acceptable in the Victorian times - private side) a Victorian reader may react to the twist in the novel as surprised because Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are two sides of one person and not two completely different people. The novel has a moral to it which is, he accepts who he really is instead of being something he’s not, and you must not cross the line and not do things that you would be ashamed of.