How do the two writers differ in their exploration and presentation of evil?

Both Ben and Mr Hyde were affected by drugs. Mr Hyde was created by a drug that Dr Jekyll made and took. I think that Stevenson was suggesting that there is evil in everybody, the drug just released it. Ben, received drugs before he was born, as Harriet took pain killers when she was carrying him at only three months pregnant, this was because of the pain he caused her with the tremendous strength in his “jolts” and “jabs”, Harriet waited and braced herself for the next one. Ben grew prematurely in Harriet's womb and was constantly restless. Lessing makes this evil a freak as much as an ordinary child. Ben also had drugs in the institute to sedate him; Ben was the worst child in the institute, this shows how awful he really was.

Ben and Mr Hyde both had weaknesses, but Ben’s could be used to tame him. “Harriet realised that without meaning it, she had reinforced her threats: if you behave badly, then ...” Mr Hyde could not be tamed. “Edward Hyde, alone, in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.” Stevenson chose to show Hyde as pure evil that could not be tamed. This is to make him even more like a creature so the reader feels no compassion. This is reinforced as Hyde knows what he is doing is wrong, but just does not care “The man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground.” Lessing chose to show Ben as a victim so that the reader would know he was not pure evil. For this reason, Ben could be perceived as a troglodyte “You think Ben is a throwback?” The fact that he copies others reinforces this idea and shows he did not know what he was doing.

Ben and Mr Hyde are described as dwarves; Mr Hyde “particularly small and particularly wicked looking,” and Ben “He was a squat, burly little figure,” a dwarf, but Ben was a child and Hyde was a young man. Dwarves are thought of as evil and mystical creatures. This choice of language is powerful to the reader, and is original.

Stevenson portrays Mr Hyde’s strength as being an evil quality; this was demonstrated in the Carew murder case where Mr Hyde snaps Jekyll’s hard wooden stick.  “The stick… had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty;” Not only does this show his strength, it also shows his wickedness as he literally beats Carew to the ground and stomps on him “he was trampling his victim under foot, and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered”. Ben is also incredibly strong: “Ben had suddenly gone berserk and attacked a bigger girl in the playground. He had pulled her down, so that she fell heavily on the asphalt, bruising and grazing her legs. Then bitten her, and bent her arm back until it broke.” Ben was in fact so strong that Harriet believed “hooves were cutting her inside flesh, sometimes claws. The writer uses these words to illustrate Ben as an evil animal. When Ben was very young, he displayed great strength when he killed the cat and the dog. This is reminiscent of Lenny in “Of Mice and Men” when he accidentally kills the puppy and the woman by not being able to take control of his strength. Ben’s act of killing the animals was perceived to be evil by his family but I think that to him it was just an accident and the fact that he was so young shows that he did not know what he was doing. We know this because he copies others as well as not thinking about what he is doing “Then Ben copied Paul. But inside a few minutes he had forgotten it.” This does not make Ben’s strength evil although, Lessing has written it so that Harriet would see it as evil.

When Utterson first met Hyde he said that there was an indescribable deformity “he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation,” Ben had an indescribable coldness in his stare that meant “He could silence a room full of people, just by being there,” Lessing used this to create sinisterness. That could link back to the caveman in both cases suggesting they did not belong.  

There are similarities in the presentation of evil in both novels. Ben and Mr Hyde are alike both physically and in their personalities. However, Ben’s evil is almost innocent as it is not deliberate as shown by him copying Paul, which suggests he does not appreciate the consequences of his actions. The evil of Mr Hyde on the other hand was conscious; this is evident when he barged into the girl, as he was quite happy to pay compensation since he knew what he  had done was wrong. Both authors show evil as a destructive force. The story line of Jekyll and Hyde is more about basic evil than anything else; but the storyline of “The Fifth Child” is about social evil as well as fundamental evil. Both novels show how evil can cause relationships to crumble and lives to be ruined; Jekyll lost his life because of the evil of Hyde taking over him, and the Lovatts lives and relationships were ruined by the arrival of Ben.