How does Stevenson present Mr Hyde as a frightening outsider?
In this extract from Chapter 2, ‘Search for Mr Hyde’, Utterson meets Hyde for the first time.
“We have common friends,” said Mr. Utterson.
“Common friends?” echoed Mr. Hyde, a little hoarsely. “Who are they?”
“Jekyll, for instance,” said the lawyer.
“He never told you,” cried Mr. Hyde, with a flush of anger. “I did not think you would have lied.”
“Come,” said Mr. Utterson, “that is not fitting language.”
The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.
The lawyer stood awhile when Mr. Hyde had left him, the picture of disquietude. Then he began slowly to mount the street, pausing every step or two and putting his hand to his brow like a man in mental perplexity. The problem he was thus debating as he walked, was one of a class that is rarely solved. Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any namable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering, and somewhat broken voice: all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing, and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him. “There must be something else,” said the perplexed gentleman. “There is something more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell? or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? The last, I think; for oh, my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature on a face, it is on that of your new friend.”
Starting with this extract, how does Stevenson present Mr Hyde as a frightening outsider? Write about:
How Stevenson presents Mr Hyde in this extract
How Stevenson presents Mr Hyde as a frightening outsider in the novel as a whole.
[30 marks]
PARAGRAPH 1:
Stevenson uses biblical imagery in the extract and throughout the novella to present Mr Hyde as having been corrupted by the devil and therefore purely evil.
‘God bless me, the man seems hardly human!’
‘Satan’s signature upon a face’
‘that child of hell had nothing human’
‘my devil had been long caged, he came out roaring’
PARAGRAPH 2:
Stevenson uses the theme of duality to show how everyone is made of both good and evil. This makes Hyde out to be a frightening outsider as he stands alone in the ranks of mankind by being purely evil, and having no good whatsoever within him.
‘disgust, loathing and fear’
‘foul soul that thus transpires through’
‘commingled out of good and evil’
‘man is not truly one, but truly two’
‘Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil’
PARAGRAPH 3:
Stevenson repeatedly uses zoomorphism and makes links to evolution is order to display how Hyde is more like an animal than a human, therefore displaying him as a frightening outsider.
‘snarled aloud into a savage laugh’
‘he spoke with a husky, whispering, somewhat broken voice’
‘ape-like fury’
‘cry out like a rat’
‘hissing intake of breath’