Jekyll and Hyde: Utterson (better version)

Question 1

gentleman detective

Answer 1

Stevenson employs Utterson a the narrative focaliser; he is the “gentleman detective” through which the reader discovers the mystery associated with jekyll and hyde.
“If he be mr hyde,I shall be mr seek”
door at te start has “neither bell nor knocker” inaccesible
By the end of the novel, utterson gives the order” down with the door” although the “wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent worksmanship”
the “red baize door “ is knocked down symbolically to reveal the truth of the novel
Behind the door is the”cheval glass” into which Utterson looks with “involuntary horror”
“gabriel” utterson- onomastic imagery which presents him as the “angelic figure of truth

In the late 19th century detective novels often had a “gentleman detective” someone of a higher class who would solve the mystery of a text.The most famous example was conan doyles sherlock holmes,This convention allowed writers to explore more sinister themes around vice(and avoiding censorship) as they could frame it as being rectified by a respectable gentleman.Utterson is a defacto “detective” as he “solves” the “case”

Question 2

duality

Answer 2

Through the opening description of Utterson, Stevenson introduces the ideas of repression and duality, and the idea that everyone has a level of a double life: an Interior and an exterior world.
“Mr utterson.. never lighted by a smile
lean long dusty dreary yet somehow lovable
something eminently human beaconed from his eye
he was austere with himself
drank gin when he was alone to mortify a taste for vintages
though he enjoyed the theatre ,had not crossed the doors of
one for 20 years”
Utterson’s iron repression of the joys he takes in life perhaps represent the succesful ideal of the “austere” victorian gentleman; this is an ideal that Jekyll for instance ,cannot replicate as he has a “certain gaity of disposition”

Question 3

Uttersons iron repression (essay)

Answer 3

Utterson’s iron repression of the joys he takes in life perhaps represent the succesful ideal of the “austere” victorian gentleman; this is an ideal that Jekyll for instance ,cannot replicate as he has a “certain gaity of disposition”
JEkyll has an imperious desire to hold (his) head high”and wear a more than “commonly grave countenance” however where utterson acheives this ,Jekyll is not able to as he is “already commited to a profound duplicity of life”,plunges into shame and ultimately creates Hyde.
Arguably stevenson is critiquing the damaging expectations of victorian society,which demanded such repression and inherent duality.Jekyll then can be read as a victim of this oppressive social expectation.

Question 4

Passive morality

Answer 4

despite being a sympathetic charecter ,stevenson explores how Utterson is complicit in the secrecy of both Jekyll and Enfeild as he critiques the passive morality of the Vicorian gentleman.
When Enfield says “the more it looks like queer street the less i ask”
Utterson”tats a good rule”
Queer street is a homophone for Carey street where all the bankcruptcy courts were in london
Enfield says he was coming back from”some place at te end of the world” there is a silent understanding that Utterson does not need to interrogate. The men of the text use the same shared discourse of euphemism and evasion
Utterson “I incline to Cains heresy….. I let my brother go to the devil in his own way”
He suspects “blackmail”- paying for some “capers “of his youth

Question 5

Satirizing duality of society

Answer 5

Through the charecter of Utterson,Stevenson is satirising the dualityof a whole society :on the one hand,Victorian London was a highly moralistic place,based around principals of manners and class.However it was also a city of vice: a”city of nightmares”.Stevenson is exploring how upperclasses are complicit in this vice
motif of “silence”