The presentation of Mr Edward Hyde.
Think of a list of words or phrases that evoke the character of Edward Hyde. Remember that ‘Hyde’ is not real. He is a work of fiction. Hyde is a constructed character created through Stevenson’s choice of language. Remember too, that Mr Hyde’s name is a homophone. He represents what society chooses to ‘hide’ away and even deny. Yet the contamination of what Hyde represents cannot be controlled or denied, easily. He is the degraded doppelganger of Victorian propriety. And lastly, remember that Hyde is hiding in Jekyll and vice versa! It’s a slippery masquerade of identity, so these words below reveal much about Jekyll too.
- Inhuman/Alien/Other/Animalistic/Atavistic
- Degraded/Debauched/Despicable
- Monstrous/pernicious/A Creature
- Malign/evil/Contaminating
- Corrupt/destabilising /destructive
- Conniving /Cunning
- Vicious/destructive
- Sadistic/perverse
- Predatory
- Imbalanced
- Reckless
- Unrepentant
- Nightmarish/Morally infectious
- Pitiless
- Self-pitying
- Degenerate
- Criminally intelligent/Fascinating/Curiously Compelling?
- Manipulative
- Disfigured
- Repulsive
- Abject
- Cruel
- Insensitive/Irreverent/Disrespectful
- Voracious/Greedy/Insatiable/Appetites
- Satanic/Demonic
- Devilish
- Primitive/Simian
- Morally deficient or inferior
- ‘Other’ to Victorian respectability
- Arrogant/superior/demanding/ calculating
- Uncontrolled
- Gothic villain/Nemesis/’The Prince of Darkness is a Gentleman’(Shakespeare)
- Terrible underbelly of Victorian respectability
- Think of the corruption of the birth story/Genesis.
- Vicious/depraved masculinity
- Secretive/Furtive/Masked
- Lower Class/Ungentlemanly/Ruffian/Opportunist
