How is horror created through violence in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

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How is horror created through violence in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Violence is ‘Physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing’. In Story of the Door Hyde tramples over the girl ‘calmly’. This adverb is used to show that Hyde has no mercy whatsoever. The girl is described as being of the age of ‘maybe eight or ten’ which makes her seem more vulnerable. The use of the word ‘trample’ is reinforced by deploying the lexical choice ‘juggernaut’. A juggernaut is a force that crushes anything in its way, so this suggests that Hyde will crush the girl and it is also a similie. This is applied to show how atrocious the actions of Hyde are. In Carew Murder Case the victim is attacked in a similar way. It seemed an old man by the name of Sir Danvers Carew was asking Hyde for directions when he lost his patience. Carew is described as being ‘an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair’ and ‘the older man bowed and accosted the other with a very pretty manner of politeness.’ After stamping his foot, Hyde brandishes a cane like a madman. Hyde broke out of all bounds and ‘clubbed him to the earth’. The old man is described as being ‘clubbed ‘which is a very primitive weapon. The simile ‘ape-like fury’ is deployed. This imagery is later extended on. Again he tramples on his victim. This forms a connection to Story of the Door. Hyde starts ‘hailing down a storm of blows’. This is a metaphor and weather imagery. It suggests that Hyde is repeatedly hitting Carew with a lot of force. The victim’s bones are ‘audibly shattered’. This appeals to the reader’s sense of hearing and makes the scene seem more real to the reader. It is a very explicit example of violence. Also onomatopoeia is applied with the use of ‘shattered’. Later on in the paragraph the writer uses the intensifier ‘incredibly’ to reinforce the metaphorical use of the word ‘mangled’.

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Mr Hyde description is vague and ambiguous. He is described as being ‘pale and dwarfish’. To everyone that looked at him, he seemed to be very ugly and said that ‘he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation’. This engages the reader because the writer leaves their imagination to create a picture of what Hyde looks like. Utterson gives a very harsh description of Hyde. ‘unknown disgust, loathing and fear’ are some of the words he uses to describe him. In the oxford dictionary ‘horror’ is defined as ‘an intense feeling of loathing and fear’. The term ‘troglodytic’ ...

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