Hyde is smaller than Jekyll but in this form hi feels younger, lighter and happier. In Chaptei 10, he suggests that the smaller figure is the result of 'nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control' and because Jekyll's unrestrained evil 'had been much less exercised and much less exhausted'. He admits that Hyde's body has an element of deformity and decay but he has no sense of disgust at what he has become and instead welcomes it. Hyde enables Jekyll to satisfy his more sinister self and his undignified urges without any hint of shame or guilt.
These urges, however, soon give way to Hyde's much more monstrous activities and Jekyll describes Hyde as 'inherently malign and villainous' (Chapter 10). He exempts himself from blame, saying that the guilt is all Hyde's, and so his 'conscience slumbered' (Chapter 10). The casual assault of the young child and the murder of Sir Danvers Carew are two examples of Hyde's capacity for depravity and violence.
There are frequent references to Hyde's animalistic nature.
For example, he is described as being ape-like by the maid who witnesses him
kill Sir Danvers Carew; Poole notices that he moves like a monkey; Utterson
detects a 'hissing intake of the breath' (Chapter 2), which implies a snakelike
quality and also identifies his savage laugh; later Poole also recalls a
'dismal screech, as of mere animal terror' (Chapter 8) coming from Hyde (which
might give us a brief moment of sympathy for him). To Utterson, he is hardly
human.
There is universal disgust from those who meet Hyde. Enfield
identifies "something downright detestable" (Chapter 1) in him while
Utterson is also filled with disgust, loathing and fear on meeting him. Jekyll
is aware of this, but is unconcerned. More importantly, characters feel a deep
sense of unease when they meet Hyde, which they are unable to explain. Poole
and Enfield both note this, but Utterson summarizes their views when he says,
'Only on one point, were they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of
unexpected deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders' (Chapter
4). The confusion these characters feel may come from Hyde's contradictory
nature. He possesses 'a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness'
(Chapter 2) and according to Lanyon there is a 'remarkable combination of great
muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution' (Chapter 9). it
is actually Jekyll himself who provides the answer when he explains that 'Hyde,
alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil' (Chapter 10). This is then
reinforced through references to Hyde as a devil. Utterson can read
"Satan's signature" (Chapter 2) in Hyde's face and Enfield describes
him as being really like Satan.Jekyll's master plan - to do as he pleases, free of guilt and shame as well as from the reaches of the law - backfires in spectacular fashion. Hyde grows in power and force. Attempts to resist him prove futile for his force is so strong that on one occasion Jekyll goes to bed as himself but, to his horror, wakes up as Hyde. As Hyde's force grows, so he does physically and, despite Jekyll's best efforts, he cannot easily be suppressed by drugs or potions. The Hyde who so viciously murders Sir Danvers carew is, according to Jekyll, even more evil because Jekyll tried to abandon him for two months.
One day, as Jekyll sits in Regent's Park, he suddenly transforms. Hyde is full of 'inordinate anger, strung to the pitch of murder, lusting to inflict pain' (Chapter 10). Despite this he is also sharp mentally and it is this Hyde who formulates the plan to ruin Lanyon. The involuntary transformation into Hyde happens regularly at all hours and, as Hyde grows in strength, Jekyll weakens. Jekyll's narrative also reveals how the two divided selves grow to hate each other, with Hyde destroying Jekyll's father's letters and portrait to spite him. However, Jekyll still feels pity for the evil being he created because of Hyde's love of life and deep-seated terror at being killed through Jekyll's suicide.
in Hyde, Stevenson creates a metaphor for the less
publically acceptable and sometimes immoral and illegal behaviour in Victorian
society. Hyde represents the evil that lurked beneath the fagade of
respectability and decorum at the time of writing and which, the novella
suggests, lurks in everyone. It is worth noting that Stevenson decides that Jekyll
will transform into Hyde even as he lies dying, so it is this side of his
nature that finally is found by Utterson and Poole, not the respected
scientist.
In your answer, it is
important that you show how Stevenson deliberately uses the characters he creates
to represent or express important ideas. Very often, a character represents a
specific theme or point of view.