Secrecy and Deception Flashcards
First mystery - S&D
Initial description of H. Despite his face being so horrific it “brought out the sweat” on E, he produces an “only genuine” cheque that was in the name of someone who “is the very pink of proprietries”.
This establishes the tone of the novella as a mystery, as this seemingly remorseless man who trampled a young girl is associated with an unnamed gentleman, which is unexpected. The identity of the name of the man who wrote the cheque is withheld from the readers, kept a secret, setting up the first plot point centred around a secret the audience wants to uncover.
Gaps in the narrative - S&D
Gaps in the narrative where the information is left unsaid. U, an otherwise acceptable gentleman with a “fairly harmless” past, is said to have done “many ill things”. This makes the reader wonder as to what exactly a “good influence” like U could have done in his past.
Similarly, when recounting how the girl was trampled by H, E says that he was “coming home from some place at the end of the world”, being deliberately vague so that he doesn’t have to explain where he was to U. This is a way of deceiving U to protect his own reputation.
Moreover, when U brought up the topic of H to J, J responded by changing the subject and, when U persisted, talking “a trifle sharply”. This demonstrates the methods in which gentlemen would conceal their secrets in order to decieve others about the true nature of themselves.
E & H “walked on once more in silence”
Missing information keeps secrets from the readers to make them believe one thing but then later reveal that the truth is another.
Letters - S&D
L’s narrative details the horros that he saw but believes he must keep silent purely out of shock and that he cannot “even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror”. Crucial revelations are discovered in letters after people’s deaths, demonstrating that secrets that are kept must always come to light.
Also happens when J commits suicide and leaves a letter to U, filling in gaps in the narrative. “The packet slept in the inmost corner of his private safe”
Another way - carew murder case where a “fog rolled over the city” - associated with concealing secrets and deception - ie H as he is J’s repressed secret. H is shameful.
However, when he was revealing his true nature, “the night was cloudlesss”, letting everyone see the truth about H even though the full truth is yet it be revealed - his revelation to J
Final secret - S&D
H was in clothes that “were enormously too large for him in every measurement”, showing he is attempting to conceal his true identity and be someone he is not. The true horror of H is being hidden by dressing in a gentleman’s clothes, an act of deception out of selfishness. Stevenson uses a recurring motif of a door to conceal secrets. The door at the back of J’s house has “neither bell nor knocker”, meaning that he is attempting to keep people out from discovering his experiements.
In U’s final appearance, he discovers one last secret. He believes it is his duty to “make certain” that J is not the man hidden in the operating theater. He insists upon Poole breaking down the door, which is symbolic of destroying the last barrier between him U and the full and final truth. This is a conclusion to all deception in the novella, further secrets being revealed in letters that could only be opened upon the death of J.
