secrecy and reputation in j&h Flashcards
jekylls reputation motif thesis
Throught his novella stevenson creates a tense and mysterious atmosphere through the motif of jekyll struggling to maintain his social status for unbenowst reasons, highlighting the fragile respectability and reprression of men but also keepoing a tense atmosphere as we fret for a then protagonist- heightening the shock of his dual message
jekylls reputation paragraph
- throughout the text we feel a sense of intense suspense for the secret dealings of jekyll and the motivations behind his actions, upon first read deeming him a conformist hero and victim
- enfield worries that if his dealings were made public his name and character would ‘stink from one end of london to the other’ the sensory imagery accentuates how easily ones reputation can be tarnihed and its serverity indeed he likens it to an early death
- this is a typical mystery novel upon first read, and so we worry for hyde who is a ‘well made smooth faced man’- showing how he conforms to a physicogomy centered society. He is completely clean and smooth as if he is untarnished and well made can im[ply he is from a well off background
- like utterson, many readers would have contemparary fearsof blackmail alighted when reading jekylls case- for example oscar wilde at the time had been publicly tarnished and hence died from the blackmail of his sexuality- it wouldnt be a reach for th eaudience to worry that jekyll had engaged in a relationship with hyde hence his secrecy upon the matter
- When confroned by utterson jekylls vague aura continueally builds tension- he claims to want an end to the ‘hateful business’ which both dissociates him from the event and creates tension as he is deeply inspecific into the cause of his worry, as well as this we still grow a like for him as he discusses how he ‘asks for justice when im not here’ here it deems he is being chivarous and caring, but at the same time tense and vague as the when seems very definate
- stevenson uses the narrative voice of utterson to help us view this novella as a mystery novel as was cutum at the time, utterson discovers things at the pace that we do- whilst the ending switch of perspectives create shock and also a sense of fear and distrust.
overall the novella largely conforms to the popular murder/mystery trope of the era whilst also being unique in its subvertion of a gothic villain, showing how scarily evil is from within
importance of socialness as proprtional to ones reputation
Throughout the bachelor relations in his novel stevenson clearly shows how heavily being seen and sociable in a phsygonomy central soceity is directly proportional to having a good reputation, with a recline from this showing the oposite
reputation througgh being social paragraph
as there are no women in the novella it focusses on the importance of bachelor relations and how they can aid a man in victorian contempoaray society if correctly upheld by men
- jekylls conflict with his freudian id is an ongoing theme throughout, however we can see through his relations with others the respectability and morality he has at parts of the novella- in the beginning him and utterson frequently meet and he is a known host of dinner aprties, post murder of carrew he is seen to be ‘renewing relations’ by hosting large events and is ‘no less distinguished to religion’ in contemporary society the idea of being a christian draws connotations to rechiousness and morality, sot he fact that him reintroducing himself socially is proportional to this shows how having friends and loyalties proved you to be moral and trusted, the alliteration of r in renewing realtions highlights the importance of regaining trust
- in contrast to this mr hyde the symbolism for a deeply non conformist evil attitude ‘had few familiars’ similarly the frickative alliteratio of the f i used to highlight just how shockingly lonesome he is, as this could btoh be because his charcater is so vile that he is not pleasent to be around but also shows how his immorality is directly linked to his lack of human rapports
- he also uses jekylls strong relations between humans to highlight the importance of building rapports as it builds genuine caring bonds- both utterson and poole go out of their way to aid him when they sense a shift in his persona, despite poole being lower class which subverts typical ideas of friendship. The novel centers around uttersons moral need to aid his friend- subverting his own ideas as he claims to incline to ‘caines herasey’ and to not be an inquisitive character
- we see through utterson and enfields walks the extent that being seen and popular links to respectability
secrecy w repression of gentlemens true personalities
-Utterson represent a rare reliable gentleman in the novel who serves as a good anchor for the narration as he is not interested in sceince nor overcome by emtoions, however even he has a juxtaposing appearane to his character, indeed uppon introdution hes seen as of ‘rugged countenance that was never lightened by a smile’ he is rather plain looking and inspectacular, normalises him and shows how he represents the average and hence trustworthy gentleman. as he never smiles his mind is not thrown off my weak emotions hes very set on logic- whilst it also seems to claim he has a hard fact driven persona, claiming he ‘inclines to caines herasey’ by not becoming focussed by others actions. However we see that a man so dictated by society that he has no space for joy has a miscondtruding deeper emotion that is deeply loyal and caring, hence why he spends the novel trying to protect those whom have his loyalty, he has repressed his more compassionate side to let his life be dictated by structure, however stevenson uses utterson to emphasie the importance of humanity.
Utterson also is present in the oxymoron of ‘shady lawyers’ showing how despite their job to retain justice and peace there was a sense of corruption in soceity, something he juxtaposes by being the novellas moral
compass- there is a very strong dual aspect to utterson.
- ‘something downright detestable yet i scarce know why’- rage, even kind and moral anchors like utterson posses a kind of undiscovered primal rage triggered by hydes freudian ID
-enfield backs uttersons character and shows how most men have the same victorian values of a need to be seen and respected through their pointless sunday walks
in the way that he represents every conforming man, he also shows how so many victorian men have immoral inner selves; he is prone to heavily gossiping with utterson and runs into hyde on a ‘black winter morning’ at three am- the source of this walk is likely immoral but unclear. Indeed enfield is interesting- he runs into hyde after returning from ‘some place at the end of the world’ sketchy and vague- he proves that even the most conformist and plain of men have a very dual aspect to their personas
