Since a year has elapsed since the last Chapter, we can never know what Hyde has been doing, what atrocities he has committed and what degradations he has stooped to. Apparently, they have been many and numerous because he has moved from being a creature who tramples on a child in the first Chapter to this Chapter, where he commits an unprovoked murder. In other words, Hyde's capacity for evil is increasing.
The crime, a murder of a distinguished, well-known social and political figure, is committed by the light of the full moon. Here, Stevenson is using the full moon so that from a practical point-of-view, the upstairs maid can clearly see and describe the encounter between Hyde and Sir Danvers, but also, the full moon, in terms of superstition, is the time when evil beings, often in the shape of deformed men or werewolves, commit their most heinous acts.
The crime seems to be without motivation. Yet Stevenson is careful to describe Hyde's reaction to Sir Danvers. Sir Danvers is described as "an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair." He also seemed to "breathe . . . an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition"; in addition, he was also noble and high-minded. If, therefore, Hyde represents pure evil, he would naturally detest meeting such a "good" gentleman, one who is the direct opposite of Hyde's loathsome self. And in murdering the innocent and noble Sir Danvers, Hyde is described as having an "ape-like fury," one who is maddened with rage to the point of committing the most unspeakable horror against innocence. It is as though Hyde was not content to simply murder the distinguished man — he had to completely destroy him; he even mangled the dead body so that the bones were audibly shattered and even then, he was not yet content — he had to trample upon his victim. It is as though the goodness of Sir Danvers brings out the most intense evil in Hyde.
