Katelyn Tijerina
What makes a good horror story? Is it big monsters or jump scares? In the story, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde by Louis Stevenson, Hyde is the alter ego of Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde represent different aspects of the same person. Dr.Jekyell represents the common man, but Hyde is meant to be a mysterious and uncomfortable character. There are certain archetypes in horror stories. A true villain is inescapable and inevitable. No matter what one does one’s fate is decided and effort is futile. The makings of a true villain or monster are unremorseful, unpredictable characters that are hidden among others. Mr.Hyde represents the archetype of a true villain. Mr.Hyde epitomizes an unremorseful and unpredictable character, alongside a facade of normalcy that conceals a monstrous nature within.
Humans sometimes have unrealistic confidence in their survival. This is what helps perpetuate the human race. Additionally, empathy is crucial to human survival as it creates bonds and aids people in working together. These elements drive the horror genre. Individuals read a horror novel, imagine themselves in it, and imagine how they would escape with the utmost confidence that they would survive. When individuals watch a horror movie or read a horror book where the character makes an obviously bad choice, such as looking in the basement or going into a confined space where there’s no escape, causes the audience to lose interest, The audience ‘knows’ that they would make the right decision and survive. This detracts from the experience and the horror of the media. What makes a story truly horrifying is that all decisions are wrong and lead back to the villain.
One cannot predict an unpredictable character therefore one could not survive. An unpredictable character in horror is common because it makes the reader confront the idea that they may not have survived. A driven villain’s actions are predictable. An unpredictable character’s motivations are often unclear and left up to interpretation.
For example, in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, the protagonist has no reason to murder her husband at the end. Through a series of events, she went mad, tearing down the wallpaper and murdering her husband. This creates a creepy story for the reader because if she is crazy then she is unpredictable. If she’s unpredictable there are no steps that one can take to prevent whatever malice she aims to employ.
If a villain has a clear motive like in Lady Audleys Secret by Mary Braddon, the reader can reason that they would survive. In Lady Audley’s Secret, Lady Audley kills her husband, changes her identity, and then attempts to kill her second husband. Any Victorian man reading Lady Audley’s Secret would arrogantly assume that he would be smart enough to know she was lying. He is an excellent judge of character, would never have married her, and therefore survived. However, when the same Victorian man reads The Yellow Wallpaper it is harder for him to reason within himself that he would not only notice that his wife’s mental health is declining but also assume her intentions of killing him. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the protagonist, the wife of John, has regular contact with him, and from the narration, John doesn’t notice the change in her before it’s too late. An unpredictable character is one that the reader cannot imagine themselves surviving, which creates a truly scary villain.
An unpredictable character is scary but, it’s scarier in combination with a character that is not held back by morals. An unremorseful character is disturbing because it also demonstrates that no one is safe. If all decisions are made without emotion and if a person can’t reason with the emotional side of a character, then no character is safe. Since the villain feels no remorse their actions are not constrained. Society often accepts certain boundaries that villains may cross without significant objection. One such boundary that readers typically tolerate is the act of murder. We often expect villains to be harmful to other characters even to the point of murder. In pop culture, this is seen in characters like Moriarty from BBC Sherlock, Lucifer from Supernatural, and Loki from the Marvel movies. While these are all characters that are presented as villains and act unethically through actions like murder and torture, they are still fan favorites. People can still enjoy the character before this line is crossed. They can harbor affection for immoral characters as long as the character does not cross the line. However, this is in contrast to characters that do cross the line in popular media. This includes examples like Charles Agusts Milverton from Sherlock, Metatron from Supernatural, and Mysterio from Spiderman: Far From Home. While generally, these characters commit less harsh atrocities than the main villains, they are far more hated and the difference is the line. The line may fluctuate based on reader response but some of the biggest actions that turn a villain from loveable into hated are rape, killing/torturing innocent animals, and killing/torturing children or simpler things like blatant disrespect. This is because if a villain commits an action over the line then the villain is seen to be completely void of any morals. Furthermore, this illustrates to the reader that no one is safe. If a child is not safe from this character then they wouldn’t be either.
In The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, one of the things that makes Dorian a scary figure is not only his murder of Basil but his enjoyment of it. Dorian is completely unremorseful in his homicide. This makes the reader uneasy because a character without conscience is a danger to everybody.
Lastly, a good villain is a character that doesn’t look like a villain. Twist villains cause readers to feel a sense of betrayal. This returns to the idea of survival. How can someone survive a monster if they don’t know the monsters a monster? There’s this idea in the world that a monster or villain will look like a monster and that’s how one would survive. There is a lot of focus on teaching children “stranger danger” when in all reality the individuals that are most likely to hurt a child is a person the child knows. It is comforting to people to believe that an evil person will obviously be evil because it is uncomfortable and scary to think that one’s own intuitions could betray them. This is what makes Hyde’s character so unsettling. Not only is he unpredictable and unremorseful, but he can blend in. There is no way a character could know he was a ‘monster’ just by looking at him.
A good example of this is The Monk by Matthew Lewis. Ambrosio is a monk who goes on to make a deal with the devil, murder a woman, and rape another woman. However, there are two things to note. First, he is a monk so one wouldn’t suspect him of malicious deeds. The characters couldn’t predict his change therefore the reader wouldn’t. Secondly, Ambrosio rapes a girl named Antonia, but in his deal, she won’t know she’s being raped, there is a certain horror in being violated without one’s knowledge of it. Given these two details, Ambrosio is a scary villain archetype.
In Villians, Victims, and Heros in Character Theory and Affect Control Theory by Bergstrand K. and Jasper J. M. they find that people’s worst villains in terms of “badness” is “villains would be: child molester, wife abuser, rapist, murderer, kidnapper, terrorist, backstabber, racist, devil, and mugger.” (11). The question then becomes why these. The answer for a lot of these (child molester, wife abuser, rapist) is the line. Hurting and raping children or women are often across the line of decency or expectancy of a villain. If a villain will hurt anyone, then no one is safe and there is no escape. What makes an unpredictable character unpredictable is their lack of motive o,r alternatively, their motive is extremely convoluted and immune to reason. If one doesn’t know a villain’s motive then they don’t know how to stop them. Bergstrand and Jasper say “normal people cannot quite fathom what motivates evil characters like Iago or Hitler.” (11). The villains that strike the most fear’s motive is either one without a clear motive or a motive that is so convoluted it is inherently unreasonable.
The first unsettling introduction the audience gets to Hyde is at the very beginning of the novel. The story begins with Mr.Utterson taking a stroll with Mr.Enfield. Mr.Utterson is the narrator of the novel, so the reader’s perception is through his narration. During this stroll, Mr.Enfield recounts his only encounter with Mr.Hyde. In this story, he recounts how Mr.Hyde stomped over a child without hesitation. He recounts “All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street. Well, sir, the two ran into one another naturally enough at the corner; and then came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the ground… It wasn’t like a man; it was like some damned Juggernaut.” (pg.768-769). This quote illustrates the unpredictability, unremorsefulness, and the horror blending in.
To begin, trampling over a child is unpredictable. Any spectator watching this scene could reasonably suspect that Hyde’s reaction would be to apologize, move out of the way, and continue on, but that is not what happened. Next, there is no reasonable or expected motive behind Hyde’s action. By hurting this child he gains nothing save possible enjoyment. This was a completely unpredictable series of events to a spectator. Furthermore, the fact that Hyde hurts a child demonstrates the crossing of the line. Readers see that this child has done nothing, within reason, to provoke Hyde at all. Lastly, nobody could have predicted Hyde’s actions because he looked like a man. Hyde didn’t organically look threatening. Mr.Enfield says “he was like the rest of us” (pg.769). This contributes to the idea that this scenario was unpredictable.
Returning to the idea that horror is all about the reader’s survival, Hyde’s actions in this scene represent foreshadowing for the rest of the story. This scene sets up an ominous tone. He hurts an innocent child which, not only immediately turns the readers against him, shows to them that they would not be safe in the same situation. If instead of a little girl, a grown person ran into him it is safe to assume that he would have just as violent a reaction as he did with the little girl. This is because if he would hurt a little girl, an individual society as a whole aims to protect, he would hurt anyone. This leaves the reader uneasy about his malicious capabilities. Additionally, this brutality couldn’t be foreseen by the girl. The attack wasn’t her fault so the reader can’t reason that they would have acted differently. They can’t assume that they would be able to supernaturally predict that there is a man around the corner that despite looking like any man is secretly malicious and willing to hurt them. Hyde’s ability to blend in, his unpredictability, and unremorsefulness create a scary and uncomfortable villain. The reason these work so well is because of humans’ natural instinct and desire to survive is threatened.
Another scene that is meant to scare the reader is Hyde’s murder of Carew. Mr.Hyde is a good villain because the reader could not imagine their survival. Hyde is unpredictable, unremorseful, and inescapable due to his ability to blend in.
The text reads “Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she was surprised to recognize in him a certain Mr. Hyde, who had once visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike…And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman…Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim underfoot and hailing down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway.”
Firstly, Hyde is unpredictable and unremorseful. Hyde’s continuing attack on Carew, even after he’s dead, and in such a violent way shows a few things. Hyde’s decision to kill Carew may have been spontaneous. He didn’t bring a gun or a knife, which would have been cleaner and faster. Hyde wasn’t meticulous or planned out about this murder, rather was disorganized. This shows that he is unpredictable, Hyde doesn’t even know his next move. Next, continuing to attack Carew after his death demonstrates that Carew’s death is not all that Hyde is after. This is a murder of passion and this is Hyde’s way of expressing his frustration. Lastly, while the maid was uneasy she did not expect that Hyde would attack Carew. He didn’t look like a monster or a threat. He was just a person.
The maid didn’t recognize Hyde as a threat, neither did Mr.Carew originally, therefore the reader would not have. Hyde’s sloppy and brutal overkill of Mr.Carew also adds to the uneasiness of the scene. The fact that Hyde kills Mr.Carew by beating him to death tells the reader a couple of things. First, that Hyde didn’t prepare for the murder. He didn’t sit down and think about how he would murder him or how he would get away. He just walked up to Carew and started beating him. Hyde’s lack of planning demonstrates that he is acting on impulse and If he is acting on emotion and impulse that means that if he perceives anyone else in the general vicinity as a threat then they are also in danger. Next, Hyde’s overkill of Carew shows not only does he not feel any remorse for murdering Carew undertow but also that he may have enjoyed himself. You can’t stop someone who wants to kill someone just because they want to kill someone. An unreasonable person is scary because the character or reader doesn’t even have the potential to talk the villain out of the evil deed. All of this scene shows to the reader that they would not have survived. All of these things make Hyde a good villain.
Mr. Hyde embodies the quintessential villain archetype. Mr. Hyde is the embodiment of an unpredictable, heartless person with a seemingly regular exterior that belies a horrific interior. When the reader experiences the story of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde they are left with uneasiness. This is due to the fact that their confidence of their survival has been reduced. The story leaves the reader questioning what they would have done in the story and are faced with the fact that they would not have survived. This is what makes a good horror story. Horror for horror’s sake has risen in popularity since the Victorian age, but this was simply the beginning. In today’s world horror is a widely spread and loved genre. The reason why this genre is enjoyed and what makes it scary gives a snapshot into the human psyche. So, as we navigate the relationship between fiction and reality, we discover the true depths of our humanity.
Works Cited
Bergstrand, Kelly, and James M. Jasper. “Villains, Victims, and Heroes in Character Theory and Affect Control Theory.” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 3, Aug. 2018, pp. 228–47, https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272518781050.
Braddon, M. E. Lady Audley’s Secret. Modern Library, 1862.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The New England Magazine, 1892, pp. 647–56.
Lewis, M. G. The Monk . 1796.
Robert Louis Stevenson. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Gildan Media, Llc, 1886.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Grey. 1890. Oxford University Press, 2008.
