The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

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Within the 1886 novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, Stevenson presents Hyde as an individual that is forged into the threatening, dangerous, and colloquially ‘malevolent’ character he is consistently scolded for being by those who deem themselves the opposite: reputable and faithful men. Through this, Stevenson simultaneously highlights the idea that Christianity within the contemporary Victorian society was the driving force behind not just Hyde’s evil and subsequent menacing persona, but society’s evil as a whole, making us question if Hyde was ever actually as murderous as he appears to be. Primarily, Stevenson heavily implies that Hyde was not necessarily inherently threatening and dangerous, but rather progressively …show more content…

It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see. It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.’. Within this quotation, we gain our first description of Hyde, in which Enfield states that he resembled a ‘damned juggernaut’. Fundamentally, Enfield is already tying Hyde to the trope of hell and eternal damnation through the adjective ‘damned’, implying that the man in question was devilish. However, it is simultaneously important to note that Enfield is recounting a story, and is quite explicitly seen to be allowing his own personal opinions to seep into it. When the former is detailing facts, such as ‘for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground’, there is no dramatised vocabulary or bias and thus allows us to see exactly what had happened: Hyde walked into a girl - something of which Enfield himself admits occurred ‘naturally enough’ - and continued to walk. Though, then we have Enfield, describing the man as sinful enough to be condemned to Hell. Evidently, the two do not equate each other, and thus presents the idea that there is something else that Enfield does not necessarily bring attention to that causes him to become naturally inclined to oppose Hyde - …show more content…

Stevenson carefully crafted the novella in a manner that would paint Hyde as objectively evil to the Christian reader. For example, following up to and during the murder of Carew, the politician is described as ‘an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair’. Within this quotation, Stevenson specifically chooses to detail the man’s hair colour and specifically chooses to make it white to connote feelings of purity, innocence and sophistication. By having Hyde ‘break out of all bounds and [club] him to the earth’, it is implying that Hyde is the direct antithesis of said purity; he is a dangerous creature that should be restrained, thus painting a picture of there being a solidified good and a solidified wrong. However, when looking deeper at the situation, it becomes progressively more apparent that the murder was written in a way to horrify Christians, helping them to see Hyde in a far more menacing light: Carew is described with extremely angelic imagery, whereas Hyde is consistently described as the opposite; ‘detestable’, ‘displeasing’, et cetera, and therefore it can be argued that Carew represents a God-like being whereas Hyde represents, as referenced many times through the text, the Devil. Of course, this would solidify the fact for the majority Christian audience

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