Stevenson first presents
the character of Mr. Hyde through the conversation between Mr. Enfield, a man who has actually
seen Hyde, and his relative, Mr. Utterson. Enfield describes a scene he once saw where this man,
Hyde, came out of a door that Enfield and Utterson happen to be passing on their walk. Hyde
"stumped along" the street, trampling over a little girl with whom he crossed paths,
and he kept going as though nothing had happened. Enfield says that he had "taken a
loathing to [the] gentleman at first sight" and that every time the doctor who cared for
the little girl looked at Hyde, the doctor "turn[ed] sick and white with desire to kill
him." Hyde's mere appearance apparently inspires such revulsion and hostility in others
that even a stranger to him would feel this way.
Further, Enfield says that
Hyde had a "kind of black, sneering coolness," and his manner provoked everyone around
him to look with "hateful faces" at him. He seemed to be such a "really damnable
man" that "nobody could have to do with" because people just seemed to hate him
immediately upon looking at him. Enfield describes Hyde's appearance as "displeasing, [...]
downright detestable" and says that he'd never met anyone he "so disliked" even
though he cannot figure out why. Perhaps it was because Hyde seemed to be somehow "deformed
somewhere," but Enfield cannot be specific about in what way. Hyde is somehow, in some way,
indescribable, except that he impresses others with his evilness without having to speak a
word.
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