utterson Flashcards
utterson main point
he is the epitome is a respectable victorian gentleman, he is full of logic and respect and never has outbursts of hysteria and emotion. we can trust him as a narrator to provide us with a stable point of narration
utterson in context
victorian gentleman-he is very composed and respectable, living life as society would want him to on a strict schedule with little time for freedom and enjoyment and symbolically dictated by the church bells- showing how chrsitian scoeity dictates peoples autonomy
his imagination… was enslaved
this describes how inquisiitve utterson became utterly overturned with curioristy surrounding hyde, perhaps this is symbolic of the biblical temptation of evil especially to someone so logical and yet very reserved as utterson
enslaved extenuates the extremity of his mind as victim to hyde
rugged countenance, 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
if he shull be mr hyde i shull be mr seek
this is a comedic phrase driving a liking for his character as he is grounded and humerous
he is inqusitive and drives forward the novel, the connotations to hyde and seek draw connotations to the typical who dunnit novels that stevenson drove a lot of inspiration from for the novel
hes a very good lawyer and loyal gentlemna, his intrest is hyde may be a temptation of evil but its also his need to defend jekyll
his affections, like ivy were of the growth of time
this metaphor is cute
he grows fonder of people upon knowing them for longer, shows him as a reliable anchor as his loyalties are not flaky
a man of no scientific passions
he is relateable to the average victorian reader becasue unlike his peers he does not care for science, it was a very small rich minority who were scientists stevsons readers would not have a basic grasp of the matter
it also makes him an ideal anchor for the novel as he is not emotionally phased
i let my brother go to the devil in his own way
biblical allusion where a man is unable to locate his brother to god, it is a hersey as it defies the ideas of agape and communal love taught throughout the bible, on the surface utterson is fairly cold and uncaring
but we learn through the novella that utterson does not truly incline this way as he is deeply loyal and interested in the wellbeing of his peers
something… something troglyditic
something downright detestable
i cant quite trace it
the prescence of evil in hyde is scary to the physionomy victorian world and plays heavily into fin de seicel fears of the unknown as hydes evil is more atmospheric and a feeling- personal to each man likely as it lives inside all of us in the freudian id
utterson as our narrator we know is very inemotive and moral, so for him to feel a sense of rage and a genuine intrest is worryng as it shows that the evil envokes a snese of maybe awakening in all men and also exenutates their goodness simultaneously
anaphoric repetition of something
main utterson points
- very typical gentleman
- very good anchor and reliable narrator
- affected by hyde
utterson anchor point
- very reliable narative anchor with an inately clear sense of morality whom the audience would find deeply trusted
- hes a typical upper class man and alaso a lawyer, which is a clear symbol of morality
- hes of ‘no scientific passion’ which separates him from the scientific fears and war of attitudes commencing in the novella. it also makes him relateable to the average reader as science was reserved for the elite
- he tells the story in a belieable chronological order, there is no jumps. it could also be seen to mimic a court case in the perspective switch towards the end, telling us that utterson plays the role of the reliable recounter of events before the other two- victim and perpertrator- give their statments
- his first name is ‘gabriel’ which is biblical imagery to the head of angels and revelations in the bible- we get the idea that he juxtoposes the frequent connotations to raw evil in the text
- indeed he has a reliably heightened sense of morality- he immediately understands that hyde is a genuine evil and uttersons character is diametrically opposed to that of hyde- utterson frequently calls out his ‘foul soul’ and the prescnce of ‘satans signature’ on hyde- giving us insight in to how morally juxtaposing utterson is
- utterson is a just and fair anchor whom is to be trsuted and liked by the audience as a fair narrator
utterson in society point
-utterson is also deeply trusty through the eyes of a victorian audience he abides wholey to the passive morality of the idilic victorian bachelor and complies wholey with the harsh standards in society
- his appearance is of ‘rugged countenance’ and is ‘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
-he has a taste for vintage alcholol such as wines but is very asture with himself and forces to drink gin as he is frugal
- his day is dictated by the bells of the church
- he goes on weekly walks with enfield despite the lack of substance in their rapport simpky to be seen as socialising is proportional to a good reputation
- however he chooses not to judge when enfield speaks of coming back from the ‘end of the world’ on a ‘black winter morning’- this vauge description is inquisitive but he is solem and non gossiping and soceity wanted people to be
- he states in the openig page of the novella, a manifesto of his most certain ideas, that he ‘inclines to cains herasy’ this tells us he, like in the bible, does not waste personal time trying to save others from apath of immorality but stays proper and focussed upon himself rather than straying to nosiness. the fact that he is able to quote the bible shows him again to be a successfully conformist gentleman
dual aspect/criticism
- stevenson criticises how the passive nature that men have forced upon them in society breeds a dual nature even in the most inately moral of characters such as utterson
- despite the claims through this simile that his affections were ‘like ivy’ long growing and difficult to possess, utterson becomes very much possesed by hopes of aiding his peers against the threat of his realtionship with hyde
- we can see this when he ponders jokingly that ‘if he be mr hyde i shull be mr seek’- this pun plays into the known game of hide and seek where one would seek out the other, utterson is suggesting the illusive nature of hyde will not halt him from uncovering the threat upon his friend- completely contradictig the previous manifesto that he would never look to aid others and risk becominng a non conformist gentleman through nosiness
- utterson is seen by jekyll as ‘the first to come forward in my support, the first to defend me’ the listing here shows the extent of the friendship that utterson provides despite his societally entrenched values not to and also shows the human necessity of aiding ones friends.
- despite jekylls tireless attempts to shut down uttersons curiosity, the ordeal ends with utterson physically breaking down the door of the labatory- symbolic of how utterson is uncovering the truth and had to go to violent means in order to achieve this- very dual from his usual reserved character
- he also befirneds poole here which breaks soceital boundaries
- utterson is also part of the oxymoronic phrase ‘shady lawyers’ depic9tng how many men in society under his position behaved, and again utterson subverts ideas and shows a dual nature to others in his inate morality
- moreover utterson becomes physically enraged in meeting hyde ‘something downright detestible’ hard alliteration of the d shows his horror ‘troglodytic’ ‘i scarce know why’
