542
SUSAN SONTAG
by Utterson's allegorical view of their contrasting body-types. For one
thing, he finds it too flattering to himself, too dismissive of Hyde.
Jekyll has not been all that good. And hasn't Hyde been depraved
enough? Jekyll suspects that Hyde's dwarfish stature and feeble
stamina have a more banal, simply physical cause: a bad case of child–
hood rheumatic fever that was misdiagnosed by the school pediatri–
cian and neglected by his ignorant parents. Hyde looks more under–
privileged than monstrous. His fang-like teeth are not so much bestial
as simply bad, despite extensive dental work done in his early twenties
which Jekyll paid for; and he still suffers from bleeding gums. The
quantity and distribution of Hyde's body hair have also been exagger–
ated. It's true that Hyde is hirsute and Jekyll is, for a Caucasian male,
relatively hairless. However, while Jekyll has a well-barbered head of
thick brown hair with no white hairs showing, that hasn't begun to
recede at the forehead and temples, the younger man's greasy black
shoulder-length hair is already starting to fall out. Utterson is bald,
entirely bald . Jekyll is not wearing a hat, for if he were
it would
be
blown away.
Jekyll steadies himself against the unseasonable July wind to keep
from being pushed over to the tower wall. Perhaps a hurricane is
blowing up prematurely from the Carribean. Just as he is about to
give up and go home, he glimpses the puny figure of his old protege,
who still affects the black cape he stole years ago from an East Village
boutique, stumping along at a good walk. Jekyll waves. Hyde hurries
near, then nearer, then speeds right past him-as if he didn't see him
at all. "Wait!" Jekyll shouts, grabbing for the billowing black cape.
Hyde breaks into a lope, but Jekyll catches up with him at the far
corner.
"I'm in ajam," Hyde whines. "I can't stop."
"I must talk to you," says Jekyll.
"Then come on up to my country place," Hyde barks hoarsely.
He seems winded. "This dude is waiting for me now-"
"It's Utterson. Right?"
"Hell, no! Stop hassling me!" Hyde feints, eludes Jekyll's grasp,
and lunges around the corner. Disappointed, Jekyll lets him escape.
He crosses the street thoughtfully, enters a cafeteria, sits at a window
table, and asks for an iced coffee. At the moment the waitress arrives
with his order, he sees the bony figure in the cape veering round the
