Dr Jekyll And Hyde Deformity Essay

Words: 1193
Pages: 5
Open Document
Hyde is often described as an inhuman creature, reflecting society’s view on evil. Though his appearance changes with every transformation, an “unexpressed deformity” is always ingrained in the minds of onlookers (Stevenson 28). This deformity is a physical representation of the pure wickedness contained in Hyde. The feeling of wrongness from Hyde is experienced by all of the characters, even the “unimpressible Enfield” is affected (Stevenson 15). This reveals that society’s overall disdain for malicious thoughts and actions is powerful enough to influence everyone’s views. Hyde’s appearance is used to mirror his personality, making him seem more like an animal or demon rather than an actual person. Comments such as Hyde “‘seems hardly human’” …show more content…
During the murder scene, Hyde tasted “delight from every blow”, but he also felt “a cold thrill of terror” (Stevenson 74). This terror is out of place for the character of Hyde because he is supposed to be unaffected by the social constructs of society. As Ferrer-Medina explains, “Because he represents wilderness, Hyde feels no fear, no commitment to propriety or decorum” (9). Therefore, this terror felt by Hyde is directly from Jekyll when he realizes what has happened. The testimony that Jekyll wrote is also evidence that they are able to influence each other. When writing the note, Jekyll was certain that Hyde would destroy it before Utterson could receive it (Stevenson 81). With their connected memories, this would be an easy feat for Hyde, yet the note was safely delivered to Utterson, showing Jekyll’s success in influencing Hyde to keep the testimony safe. Because of their ability to influence each other, neither Jekyll nor Hyde can be solely placed on one side of spectrum even though they are more inclined to lean one way or the other because neither of them are purely good nor purely evil (Hustis 8). On a broader scale, this essentially means that society can be neither purely good nor purely evil, but somewhere in
Show More

Related Documents: Dr Jekyll And Hyde Deformity Essay

Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde Analysis

English Coursework The Gothic fiction novel “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886, is a novel about a man torn by the desire to separate the good and evil inside people. The plot beholds a scientist who finds a way to literally separate his good from his evil by drinking a potion. The plot picks up on the Victorian hypocrisy that crippled people into being society’s idea of ‘good’ and the shallow nature of the Victorians and how they judged character by appearance…

Words 2577 - Pages 11