Hyde trampling the child

Hyde trampling the child is the first violent act in the story, revealing Hyde's inhuman cruelty and establishing the mystery of his connection to Dr. Jekyll.

The Incident

On a black winter morning around three o'clock, Mr. Richard Enfield was walking home through a deserted part of London when he saw two figures collide at a corner: a small man stumping eastward and a girl of perhaps eight or ten running as hard as she could down a cross street. The man trampled calmly over the child's body and left her screaming on the ground. Enfield, who witnessed the scene, described it as hellish to see, comparing the man to a damned Juggernaut. He gave chase, collared the man, and brought him back to where a group had already gathered around the screaming child.

The Aftermath and the Payment

The child's family and a doctor soon arrived. Though the child was more frightened than seriously injured, the doctor—described as a cut-and-dry apothecary with a strong Edinburgh accent and about as emotional as a bagpipe—turned sick and white with desire to kill the man. The group, including Enfield, told the man they would make such a scandal that his name would stink from one end of London to the other, and that he would lose any friends or credit he had. The man, maintaining a black sneering coolness, offered to pay. They screwed him up to a hundred pounds for the child's family. He led them to a sinister door in a by-street, produced a key, went in, and returned with ten pounds in gold and a cheque for the balance drawn on Coutts's, signed with a name Enfield recognized as very well known and often printed. Enfield, suspecting forgery, insisted on staying with the man until the banks opened. The next day, Enfield presented the cheque himself, stating he believed it was a forgery, but the cheque proved genuine.

Significance

This event first introduces the character of Edward Hyde and the door that will become central to the mystery. It also establishes the connection between Hyde and a respectable, celebrated man—the drawer of the cheque—whom Enfield calls "the very pink of the proprieties." The incident creates a lasting impression on Enfield, who later tells the story to Mr. Utterson, sparking Utterson's investigation. The trampling also demonstrates Hyde's complete lack of remorse and his ability to use Jekyll's resources to escape consequences, foreshadowing the greater violence to come.