Female Influence in Jeckyll and Hyde

Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye;…(Stevenson, 29) This is the opening description of Mr. Utterson who is obviously presented to win the reader over. He isn’t exactly what our generation might call a man’s man, but for the Victorian period he will do.

It’s not certain whether Louis Stevenson means to hint to any homoerotic innuendos in his discrption of Utterson or just even in the relationship between the male characters. The book almost takes on the position of presenting females and children as an innocence that should be protected. something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life.

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He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theater, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years.

(Stevenson, 29) There are no main female characters in Louis Stevenson’s, "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," but the female presence is still rampant throughout the novel. After reading the book to its entirety, I found the only real key female characters to be the little girl Hyde tramples in the beginning of the novel and the maid who witnesses him commit the murder.

I cater the lack of female characters in this novel to the sexist ethic of the late 19th century Victorian period, which the novel is set in.

Despite this the novel is still very dark and cynical, as well as crafty at sliding in sexual innuendoes. For this reason, I think if one is liable to look hard enough, they can find the ideal of the female very present in the book. The majority of the book centers itself on the developing relationship between Mr. Utterson and Mr. Effield. This respect filled but still prude relationship of course is set up to contrast the much deeper and darker interpersonal character development ( no pun intended) between Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

None of these men are female, but it is always relevant and hard not to consider that it’s women that they intend to harm or protect. The female is used in this book as a marker for virtue or innocence. It’s proven in the language Stevenson uses. An example of this is while describing the activity on the street Stevenson says, with an air of invitation, like rows of smiling saleswomen (Stevenson, p. 30). Women are personified as being weak victims, when Hyde almost kills the little girl the man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground (Stevenson, p.31).

The entire novel is about the exposition of male wit and power another example of its exploitation is when Hyde says, With a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow; (Stevenson, p. 93) He does this when referring to how he murdered the man in the street. This is just a further example of the Victorian misogyny that comes across when analyzing this novel. The female presence in the book is implied through the novels complete opposition to femininity and its underlying inclination toward homosexuality.