Minor Characters

Poole

Poole is Jekyll's butler, who diligently carries out his duties and his master's increasingly odd requests. He shows that he is an independent thinker when he decides to persuade Utterson to uncover the identity of the person locked away in Jekyll's room, fearing that his master has been murdered. His loyalty and concern for Jekyll is clear and he is prepared to face the dangers that lurk behind the door to see if there has been foul play.

Mr Richard Enfield

Enfield is Utterson's distant relation, a well-known man about town who accompanies him on his weekly walks. In relating the story of Hyde trampling over the young girl, he is the first to mention Jekyll's alter ego. He is, no doubt, a gentleman with a good profession and reputation, although where he was coming from at 'three o'clock of a black winter morning' (Chapter 1) is not revealed.

Bradshaw

Jekyll's footman Bradshaw is called to support utterson and Poole as they break down the door in Chapter 9. He is instructed to wait by the rear entrance of the laboratory in case the unidentified creature tries to escape via this route.

Mr Guest

Utterson's head clerk, Mr Guest, is something of a handwriting expert. Utterson reveals that he frequently confides secrets in Mr Guest and turns to him for advice regarding the letter supposedly sent from Hyde to Jekyll. Guest identifies the similarity in the handwriting of Jekyll and Hyde.

The housekeeper at Hyde's residence

This elderly housekeeper opens the door to Utterson and the police when they visit Hyde's Soho residence after the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. Although she has excellent manners, she 'had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy' (Chapter 4). She is portrayed as mean-spirited ('A flash of odious joy appeared upon the woman's face' (Chapter 4)) and nosey ("he is in trouble! What has he done?" (Chapter 4)).

Police officer

He visits Utterson to inform him of the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. When the victim's identity is confirmed as an MP, 'his eye lighted up with professional ambition' (Chapter 4). in portraying his motivation as personal gain rather than the pursuit of justice, Stevenson criticizes the hypocrisy at the heart of the Victorian establishment.

Writing about character

An understanding of the characters of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is essential. You will need to analyse the characters and what they represent, and carefully select quotations to support your views about the text. For example, you could say that Hyde is a metaphor for the evil that lurked within Victorian society:

Hyde is evil in. pure form. He is not only the evil unleashed from within Jekyll but is best interpreted as a metaphor for the evil that lurked below the surface respectability of Victorian society. This is successfully conveyed when Jekyll says, 'I was the first that could thus plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and. in a moment, like a school boy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the. sea of liberty.'

You will also need to identify and then analyse how the language features used by the writer affect the reader, explaining if you find them successful or not. Using the quotation above, you could do this in the following way:

Jekyll makes clear how he finds his outward respectability, although very important to him, boring. He uses the verb 'plod' to suggest that this side of his Life lacks excitement and the thrilling pace of one immoral activity followed by another. He uses the basic but effective simile 'Like a school boy' to suggest his giddiness at the prospect of being able to satisfy his darker desires. The metaphor, 'spring headlong into the. sea. of liberty' successfully suggests the eagerness and enthusiasm with which he commits himself to this side of his Life. The point is reinforced with alliteration.

Characters - Dr Hastie Lanyon

Lanyon first appears in Chapter 2, when Utterson visits to ask him for information about Hyde. When he appears again in Chapter 6, utterson is shocked at the state he finds him in, which the reader discovers later is the result of having watched Hyde transform back into Jekyll. Lanyon then provides the narration of Chapter 9, although already dead, through his letter to Utterson in which he reveals his attempts to help Jekyll and the reasons for his own sudden decline and resulting death.

Lanyon is a well-respected and successful doctor, chapter 2 reveals a lot about his relationships with Utterson and Jekyll. His friendship with Utterson goes back to when they were both 'old mates both at school and college' (Chapter 2). They are 'thorough respecters of [...] each other' (Chapter 2) who also enjoy each other's company. They share similar interests and values as well as a common friend in Jekyll. However, a tension is established early on when Lanyon confesses that he sees little of Jekyll, despite what Utterson calls, 'a bond of common interest' (their profession) (Chapter 2). it is "more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful" (Chapter 2) for Lanyon, who feels his former close friend went "wrong in mind" (Chapter 2). Lanyon is scathing of Jekyll's "unscientific balderdash" (Chapter 2) and discussion of this difficult topic causes him to become very angry. He is in professional opposition to Jekyll's ideas and methodologies, and is clearly identified as a man of traditional and rational beliefs.

The description of Lanyon in Chapter 6 contrasts greatly with that in Chapter 2. Whereas before he was 'a hearty, healthy, dapper, red-faced gentleman, with a shock of hair' (Chapter2), he is now pale, drawn, visibly balder and older. The difference could not be more striking. Having witnessed Hyde's transformation, the formerly boisterous and theatrical Lanyon is now a nervous and shrunken wreck, gladly awaiting death. Utterson notices a deep-rooted terror in his friend and mistakenly believes Utterson knows he has a terminal illness, ironically stating: "the knowledge is more than he can bear" (Chapter 6).

It is true that Lanyon has learned something that has overpowered and destroyed him. However, it is not related to his own health, but the sight of Hyde as his features 'seemed to melt and alter' (Chapter 9) becoming Jekyll. It is a vision that forces him to react with horror and terror. This phenomena shatters Lanyon's views and understanding of the world. Although he listens to Jekyll for an hour and sees the theory in action, even as a scientist Lanyon is unable to accept or believe what has happened. This could be interpreted as Lanyon failing to accept the darker aspects of his own nature. Knowledge and its pursuit has been his profession and now it is his ruin, as he admits "if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away" (Chapter 6).

It is important to note, however, that Lanyon plays a very significant role in his own downfall. While it is clear that he is deliberately targeted by Hyde's scheme and feels a sense of duty to help a former close friend, it is equally clear that his decision to observe Hyde change back into Jekyll is completely his own. Hyde's offer is an honest one, warning that he will be "blasted by a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan" (Chapter 9) and yet Lanyon chooses to watch, cynically stating that he has gone too far to turn back. Hyde himself identifies "greed of curiosity" (Chapter 9) as Lanyon's motivation. The outcome - Lanyon's ruin - is absolute. As he says, he will never recover and nothing can be done to prevent his death.

1.               Reread the description of the place where Lanyon lives and how Utterson refers to his friend in Chapter 2. How does this create the impression of a knowledgeable and important man?

2.               What does the phrase "wrong in mind" suggest about what Lanyon believes happened to Jekyll?

3.               Do some research into Damon and Pythias, the two characters from Greek mythology referred to by anyone Could this reference suggest anything about his friendship with Jekyll?

4.               Reread the description of Hyde changing back into Jekyll in Chapter 9, starting from 'A cry followed...' to'... my mind submerged in terror'. Why is this written in one long sentence?

5.               Write a paragraph analysing how Stevenson's use of language reinforces the dreadful impact that Lanyon's experience has had on his life. 

6.               Analyse the language used at the end of Chapter 9 to describe the effect of Hyde's transformation on Lanyon's life.

Characters - Mr Edward Hyde

Hyde is Jekyll's alter ego and the result of Jekyll's attempts to separate the good and evil sides of his nature. Hyde is the embodiment of the dark side of the scientist's nature: pure evil in human form. In Chapter 10, the moment of transformation is described as 'a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death'; Jekyll welcomes the change, confessing to a 'heady recklessness' that 'delighted me like wine'.

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.

1. Reread the incident where Hyde tramples over the young girl in Chapter 1. Analyse how Stevenson emphasizes Hyde's evil. Now write a paragraph, using the ideas above, to analyse Stevenson's use of language to emphasize Hyde's evil nature.
2. Reread the episode of Sir Danvers Carew's murder in Chapter 4. How does Stevenson use language here to emphasize Hyde's terrible violence during this episode?
3. Make a note of all references to Hyde as a devil or being from hell throughout the novella.
4. Write a paragraph explaining the significance of the fact that it is Hyde's dead body that Utterson and Poole find, not Jekyll's.