What Makes Mr. Hyde So Scary?: Disability as a Result of Evil and Cause of Fear

Abstract

This article brings Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde under the lens of disability studies by exploring the role disability plays in the creation of Mr. Hyde as a villain. Utilizing both historical and current understandings of disability, this article discusses how Mr. Hyde's social and cultural disconformities are reliant upon the understanding of Hyde as "deformed." "What Makes Mr. Hyde So Scary" contends that what makes Mr. Hyde so frightening to other characters, and perhaps to readers as well, is not inherent evil, but disability itself.