We see that Enfield cannot believe that Hyde, or anybody could actually “walk into a cellar door at four in the morning and come out of it with another man’s cheque for close upon a hundred pounds.” His actions are unbelievable. This is not usual for the Victorian society to do so. But Hyde was “quite easy and sneering”. Hyde acted as though he did not care, quite calm, while the people around him were confused and they could not believe what he was doing. Stevenson shows that the event of bringing out the cheque from behind that door was so unbelievable that Enfield concluded that Hyde must have blackmailed the gentleman who signed the cheque. Blackmail, being such an atrocious happening in the Victorian Society, it seems to be incredible that Enfield could think of such thing.
When asked, Enfield is unable to describe Hyde because there are no such words that can describe such a “deformed” human being. There was “something displeasing” with his appearance, “something downright detestable”. Its not that Enfield cannot remember the appearance of Hyde, it is just that there are absolutely no words to describe him. Usually you can describe anyone if they are in your mind but it is quite extraordinary and shocking to find that Enfield is unable to describe someone who must be incredibly ugly and deformed to be absolutely indescribable.
Stevenson very much presents Hyde through the image of darkness and night. Hyde will only be seen at night, perhaps because night is usually associated with evil. In the second chapter, Stevenson presents Hyde through Utterson’s dreams. He appears to be present everywhere in his dreams, once again being described as a “human Juggernaut”, referring to a primitive animal-like term. The fact that Hyde “haunted the lawyer all night”, shows that Utterson is unable to avoid Hyde, even when he tries to sleep peacefully. Because Hyde is only seen at night, if he’s not on the streets then he will be in Utterson’s dreams. In Utterson’s dreams, Stevenson gives Hyde some kind of power, for “at that dead hour he must rise and its bidding”. In this image, the reader can feel power being given to Hyde, we feel power for him, power in an evil way.
Also in Utterson’s dream, Stevenson describes the city of London in a clear and dramatic style. In the dream, Hyde glides through “wider labyrinths of lamp-lighted city, and at every street corner, crush a child and leave her screaming. It seems like Hyde is filling the city of his dark nature and his loathing crimes. I think it is very important that this dream is set at night, because London’s wickedness comes only alive at night, as revealed by the character of Hyde.
Also in chapter nine, Stevenson describes the weather again. “The fog still slept on the wing above the drowned city”, and a strong wind breezed through “the muffle and smother of these fallen clouds”. Although Hyde is not present in this paragraph, this is still a very thorough description of the weather, and as before, the weather can symbolise Hyde. The fog is thickening and smothering, which seems to relate to the character of Hyde. The fog blocks up the sky and leads people to illusion, people cannot really see what is happening around them when fog is surrounding them. Hyde is able to murder. They are both capable of evil.
In chapter three, Stevenson describes Hyde to be a less than fully evolved human being. He leaves Utterson the “picture of disquietude”, which refers to the term of uneasiness, restlessness and anxiety. Hyde leaves Utterson feeling disturbed. He uses detailed imagery to describe Hyde’s movements. For instance, at one point, Hyde shrank back “with a hissing intake of the breath”. Similarly, after Hyde leaves, Utterson is left thinking about the animality of Hyde. Stevenson describes Hyde as “pale and dwarfish”, “hardly human”, apparently giving an “impression of deformity”, speaking “with a husky whispering and somewhat broken voice”. Stevenson also describes the character of Hyde to be “troglodytic”, which refers to a prehistoric manlike creature. Utterson believes that some kind of “foul soul” must have transpired through and transformed this human being into something so “troglodytic”. Stevenson describes him to “mount the street, pausing every step or two, and putting his hand to his brow like a man in mental perplexity”, like a mad confused gentleman. He gave the lawyer a “sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness”. Hyde acts as though he is confused mentally.
When Hyde asks politely for the potion in chapter nine, he behaves quite considerably and mature for an evil side of a person. This may be because Hyde is becoming quite desperate for the potion. In fact it is quite obvious that he is very desperate for the potion. When Hyde puts his hand to his throat, it seems like he is choking, and he is “wrestling against the approaches of hysteria”, he does whatever he can to get the potion an ordinary manner, even speaking very politely to Dr. Lanyon.
Through others’ opinions of Hyde, his own actions and any imagery associated with Hyde, we can conclude what Hyde symbolises or stands for. But because there are different opinions of Hyde, Hyde acting differently from time to time, and the different imagery associated with Hyde, Stevenson means for Hyde to symbolise or stand for more than one feature.
Through Hyde’s actions, mostly from the trampling of the little girl, and the Carew Murder Case, Stevenson is suggesting that Hyde symbolises all the aspects of life that the Victorians wanted to hide. In particular, the Victorians wanted to hide the immoral, wicked and corrupted elements that perhaps would tarnish their reputation. By acting like this, assault and murder, he symbolises all assault and murder in London that Victorians commit, in which other highly respectable Victorians were disgusted and ashamed of.
Many times throughout the novella, Stevenson describes peoples’ opinions of Hyde, especially the description of the animal-like personality from Utterson. Stevenson meant for Hyde to be animal-like because of the unusual reactions of well-respected Victorians whom reacted to Darwin’s theory of humans having ascended from apes. Religious opponents especially thought that the fact that humans evolved from apes denied God’s unique creation of humans. Victorians reacted badly to his theory because they thought it was bizarre and inhumane. Coincidently, this describes Hyde’s character, bizarre and inhumane. I think Stevenson is trying to suggest that Hyde represents the undeveloped, more primitive side to humanity, in which Victorians do not believe in. But as soon as they saw Hyde’s appearance, people feared that Darwin’s theory may have actually been true. Victorians feared Darwin was right.
Right at the beginning of the novella, when Enfield feels that there are no words to describe Hyde, suggests that Hyde again represents the immoral side to the Victorian society, because no Victorian could have an appearance so ugly or “deformed”. Hyde is the opposite of what a rational person could call Victorian in terms of his appearance.
The unusual reactions of the doctor and the watching audience also show what Hyde symbolises. The doctor turned sick and white and the audience watched in disgust. This emphasizes the fact that Hyde throughout his own actions symbolises disgust for the Victorian Society. Hyde, who people look down to in disgust, seems to represent a society of low respect and a low reputation.
In Utterson’s dreams, I think Stevenson is trying to suggest that you cannot avoid the evil side of a person, and in this case Utterson cannot avoid evil Hyde as he is present in his dream, and you cannot control the dreams you have. Stevenson is showing that Hyde symbolises the evil side to any person and that you cannot be free from this evil person that is within everybody. Also because Utterson has the dreams at night, and Hyde’s atrocious actions only happen during the night, I think Stevenson here is trying to emphasize that Hyde represents night and all the elements that you associate night with, for example murder and assault. Hyde symbolises the secret sins and all the wrong lingering beneath respectable London, lingering after dark.
Powerful imagery of the fog is also used to develop what Hyde stands for. For every description of the fog, I think what Stevenson is trying to suggest is that Hyde symbolises murder and evil, because usually fog is associated with something wrong happening, something unsafe or risky, perhaps choking in the fog. This totally describes Hyde’s character.
Overall, Stevenson shows that Hyde symbolises all the unpleasant, immoral, corrupted aspects of life in the Victorian society that they wanted to hide. Hyde symbolises the evil side of a rational person because Stevenson is suggesting that each person has two sides, one good and one evil. Jekyll symbolises the good side and Hyde symbolises the evil side. The evil side is also associated with some irrational ideas within the Victorian society, for instance Darwin’s idea of humans evolving from apes. He is to show the evil side of Victorian society.
