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Get every literary device explanation for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydePlus so much more...
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Personification
Explanation and Analysis—The Deadliest Terror:
In the ninth chapter, Lanyon recalls going into shock after seeing Jekyll transform into Hyde:
My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night [...].
Through the use of personification, Lanyon implies that the shock of seeing this transformation has rendered a permanent change in him. The great agency attributed to these abstract concepts of sleep and terror can be seen as another way of expressing the intractability of this change.
Lanyon says sleep has “left” him against his will. Similarly, terror is given the characteristics of a human companion who “sits” by him at all times. This description not only serves to give readers a taste of Lanyon’s psychic and emotional state after seeing the dark side of his long-time friend, it also feeds into the Gothic tradition of heightened, melodramatic depictions of emotion. It is not enough that the scene affects Lanyon deeply—it also must shake his life “to its roots.”
When Hyde appears throughout the narrative, Stevenson usually doesn’t linger too long on physical descriptions, instead focusing on the impression he makes on those around him. This scene is no exception: as much space is granted to Lanyon’s reaction as to Jekyll's actual transformation. The personification of sleep and terror here serves to deepen readers' sense of Hyde’s spiritual “deformity.” Hyde always inspires fear and hatred; the revelation that such evil could exist in a beloved friend is enough to turn someone's life upside down and cause reasonable men like Lanyon to lose their autonomy over their body and emotions.
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