AT first the mood is romantic and peaceful and the setting seems beautiful. This is given to us through phrases like ‘the early part of the night was cloudless’ and that the night was ‘brilliantly lit by the full moon’. However this quickly changes when Mr Hyde meets Carew. An altercation breaks out between the two men and Hyde viciously attacks Carew. We are told that he behaves ‘like a madman’ and we then get the details of his assault on Carew – ‘clubbed him to the earth’. This is a harsh attack. We are then told Hyde ‘with ape-like fury trampled his victim underfoot, hailed down a storm of blows, under which bones audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway’. This is explicit, we can hear the bones cracking in the silence of the night and see clearly Carew as he dies.
Mr U doesn’t tell the police that he recognises the cane that was left at the murder scene as he knows it once belonged to Dr J and he wants to hide the connection between Dr J and MR H to protect Dr J’s reputation.
We get the duality of the street here as the fog on the streets means we see the streets as they truly are but also this other-worldy version. We are told that U ‘beheld a marvellous number of degrees and hues of twilight’. This tells us we are somewhere between daylight and nightlight. We are also told that Mr u feels like he is in some ‘city in a nightmare’. This simile tells us clearly that he does not feel safe here, it is almost dystopian or apocalyptic. There is also a list of all signs of poverty in the Soho district where Hyde lives – the gin house, the greasy spoon, the orphans and the prostitutes.
The theme of ‘correct reputations’ is illustrated in the description of the old woman. We are told she has an ‘evil face’ and a ‘face smoothed by hypocrisy’. Both of these characteristics are hugely negative – she is nasty and has double standards – but then we are told ‘but she had excellent manners’. So now we know that despite the fact she is bad it is forgiven because she can behave correctly which hides her bad faults.
Hyde’s room is surprising as he has expensive and lavish taste. The room is furnished in the same style as Dr j’s house.
All accounts of H agree that he makes a person feel uncomfortable and that something about him seems deformed and not quite right.
