Edward Hyde (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Edward Hyde
Edward Hyde is Jekyll's dark alter ego, created through a scientific experiment that separates the good and evil sides of Jekyll's nature. Hyde represents pure evil and embodies all the immoral desires that Victorian society expected people to repress. His character forces readers to confront uncomfortable questions about human nature and the capacity for wickedness within supposedly civilised people.
Understanding Hyde's character requires recognizing the Victorian context in which Stevenson wrote. Victorian society emphasized respectability, moral restraint, and the suppression of desires considered improper or animalistic. Hyde represents everything that Victorian gentlemen were expected to control and conceal.
Hyde embodies wickedness
Hyde is fundamentally different from Jekyll because he represents absolute evil rather than a mixture of good and bad. The narrator describes him as being "pure evil", which sets him apart from every other character in the novel. This complete absence of morality makes him a disturbing figure who acts without conscience or remorse.
His violence appears motiveless and uncontrollable. The murder of Sir Danvers Carew demonstrates this disturbing quality. Hyde attacks Carew without provocation, and the narrator reveals that Hyde takes "delight" in the violence. The word "delight" shows that Hyde does not simply commit violence out of anger or necessity—he actively enjoys causing suffering. This pleasure in cruelty marks him as genuinely wicked rather than simply flawed. The description of the attack as an "uncontrollable act" suggests that Hyde cannot or will not restrain his violent impulses, unlike civilised people who suppress such urges.
Worked Example: Analysing Hyde's Violence
When examining the Carew murder, consider how Stevenson presents Hyde's motivation:
Step 1: Identify the act Hyde attacks Sir Danvers Carew, a respected MP, without any provocation.
Step 2: Examine Hyde's emotional state The text describes Hyde taking "delight" in the violence—this shows active enjoyment, not mere anger.
Step 3: Analyse the significance This pleasure in causing suffering reveals Hyde's fundamentally evil nature. Unlike crimes of passion or necessity, Hyde's violence is recreational—he does it because he enjoys it.
Conclusion: The Carew murder demonstrates that Hyde represents wickedness in its purest form, acting on impulses that civilised people would never allow themselves to express.
Hyde's evil nature manifests in his physical appearance. Characters repeatedly notice "an imprint of deformity and decay" when they look at him. The word "deformity" suggests something twisted and unnatural, while "decay" implies moral corruption that can be seen externally. This visible evil is reinforced when characters observe that there is "something wrong with his appearance". Stevenson uses Hyde's appearance to suggest that extreme wickedness cannot be hidden—it marks the person visibly, making their corruption obvious to others.
The Visibility of Evil
A key theme in the novel is that extreme wickedness cannot be concealed—it manifests physically. This contradicts Jekyll's belief that he could separate and hide his evil side. Hyde's "deformity and decay" serve as external signs of internal corruption, suggesting that moral choices have physical consequences.
Hyde's character traits consistently emphasise his wickedness:
- Merciless: He is described as "a man who was without bowels of mercy", meaning he has no capacity for compassion or forgiveness.
- Strange: He produces "a strong feeling of deformity" in observers, creating an immediate sense that something is fundamentally wrong with him.
- Self-centred: The text states that "his every act and thought centred on self", showing his complete lack of concern for others.
Hyde is presented as animalistic and primitive
Stevenson uses animal imagery throughout the novel to describe Hyde, particularly comparing him to apes. These comparisons serve multiple purposes and reflect Victorian anxieties about civilisation and human nature.
Darwin's Influence on Victorian Literature
The animal imagery connects to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which was widely discussed when Stevenson wrote the novel. Darwin argued that humans evolved from apes, a theory that disturbed many Victorians who wanted to believe that humans were fundamentally different from animals. By presenting Hyde as Jekyll's "less evolved side" and frequently comparing him to an ape, Stevenson suggests that the primitive, animalistic part of human nature has not been eliminated by civilisation—it has merely been hidden.
Hyde is described as physically smaller and less respectable than Jekyll. This detail reinforces Victorian class assumptions that upper-class people like Jekyll were more evolved and civilised than lower-class individuals. Hyde represents what the upper classes feared they might become if they abandoned social conventions and self-control.
Victorian society prided itself on being civilised, which meant valuing:
- Propriety and respectability
- Order and self-control
- Rational behaviour over instinctive urges
The Victorians believed they had overcome their animalistic nature through civilisation. They tried to hide what they considered animalistic desires beneath a respectable exterior, maintaining appearances to fit into civilised society.
Hyde's Challenge to Victorian Values
Hyde challenges this comfortable view of society. His existence within the respectable Dr Jekyll forces readers to consider that every civilised person might harbour a "dark, immoral side". The novel suggests that repressing these desires does not eliminate them—it simply creates a hidden self that can emerge when given the opportunity. This idea would have been deeply troubling to Victorian readers who wanted to believe in clear boundaries between civilised and primitive behaviour.
Hyde provokes intense hatred and unease in others
Every character who encounters Hyde experiences a powerful negative reaction that they struggle to explain or understand.
When Enfield witnesses Hyde trampling a child, he notices something remarkable. The doctor attending the scene is described as unemotional and professional, yet even this calm man looked as though he had a "desire to kill" Hyde. The phrase "desire to kill" is extreme—it suggests a murderous impulse in someone who should be rational and controlled. This reaction demonstrates that civilised people do experience violent, immoral thoughts when confronted with Hyde. However, unlike Hyde, they do not act on these impulses. This restraint is what separates civilised individuals from Hyde, even though the thoughts themselves reveal a shared capacity for darkness.
Multiple characters mention that they cannot explain their dislike of Hyde. This inability to articulate their feelings is meaningful. The characters cannot (or will not) rationalise their response to Hyde, which may reflect their own repression. Hyde makes people uncomfortable because he represents the hidden desires and impulses they have worked to suppress. Confronting Hyde means confronting aspects of themselves they do not want to acknowledge.
Hyde's appearance consistently disturbs people:
- Enfield calls him "extraordinary-looking", suggesting he does not look quite human.
- Utterson claims he can "read Satan's signature" on Hyde's face. This biblical reference to Satan positions Hyde as fundamentally evil and marks him as recognisably wicked.
The description of "Satan's signature" is particularly powerful. A signature is a personal mark of identity, suggesting that evil is an intrinsic part of Hyde's identity, not just his behaviour. The religious language emphasises the moral dimension of Hyde's character and presents him as something beyond ordinary human wickedness—he is aligned with absolute evil.
Hyde's "frightening appearance" emphasises his difference from other people. The repeated observation that he is "not quite human" suggests that his evil has transformed him into something other than a normal person. This dehumanisation makes Hyde even more disturbing because it implies that giving in completely to one's dark side means losing one's humanity.
Key Points to Remember:
- Hyde represents "pure evil" in contrast to Jekyll's mixture of good and evil, making him unique among the novel's characters.
- Hyde's violence is unprovoked and pleasurable to him, demonstrated when he takes "delight" in murdering Carew.
- Stevenson uses animal imagery, particularly ape comparisons, to present Hyde as primitive and less evolved, challenging Victorian beliefs about civilisation.
- Hyde's evil is visible in his physical appearance, described as showing "an imprint of deformity and decay" that others immediately recognise as wrong.
- Characters experience intense hatred toward Hyde but cannot explain why, suggesting they are confronting repressed aspects of their own nature.