Tuesday, May 10, 2011

What are some feminine descriptions of Mr Hyde in Jekyll and Hyde?

Perhaps the most striking description of Hyde, besides his indescribably ugly face, is that he's considerably smaller than Jekyll.  While Stevenson describes Jekyll as "a large, well-made, smooth-faced man," and just a bit later emphasizes Jekyll's "large handsome face," Hyde, in contrast, is "small and very plainly dressed," even "dwarfish."  Jekyll himself explains that away by claiming that since he suppressed his evil nature for so long, its personification is by necessity smaller, but it could also be seen as yet another manifestation of the dichotomy of humankind.  Good versus evil manifests itself in large versus small, and many other binaries can be incorporated into this--light versus dark, open versus hidden, and indeed male versus female.  (I'm verging a bit into Derridean philosophy here, but it's a subject worth looking into in this context, particularly with regard to binary oppositions.)


Additionally, the first time Utterson meets Hyde, he notes that Hyde's footstep is "light," and he reiterates much later that Hyde's steps differ from Jekyll's "heavy creaking tread."  Hyde speaks, as well, with "a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice"--a voice well paired with such an unimpressive figure as Hyde's, and not one you'd expect from such a large man as Jekyll.  Jekyll's butler Poole is the only character to go so far as to explicitly describe Hyde in feminine terms, though; he tells Utterson that he hears the person in Jekyll's study "weeping like a woman or a lost soul."


I hope this helps!

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