The sedulous ape: atavism, professionalism, and Stevenson's 'Jekyll and Hyde.' - Robert Louis Stevenson

Criticism, Spring, 1995 by Stephen D. Arata

If Hyde is to assume his mentor-father's position, he must be indoctrinated in the codes of his class. As Jekyll repeatedly insists, Hyde indulges no vices that Jekyll himself did not enjoy. What differs is the manner in which they enjoy them: Hyde openly and vulgarly, Jekyll discretely and with an eye to maintaining his good name. Gentlemen may sin so long as appearances are preserved. This is the lesson Hyde learns from his encounter with Enfield. Having collared Hyde after his trampling of the little girl, Enfield and the doctor are "sick . . . with the desire to kill him" (thus replicating Hyde's own homicidal rage), but "killing being out of the question" they do "the next best": they threaten to "make such a scandal . . . as should make his name stink" (31-32). They extort money as the price of their silence, in the process teaching Hyde the value of a good reputation. "No gentleman but wishes to avoid a scene," Hyde acknowledges. "Name your figure" (32). When Enfield winds up his narration of this incident by telling Utterson that "my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with" (33) he seems to be describing not a violent criminal but a man who cannot be trusted to respect club rules. Enfield underscores this point when he says that, in contrast to Hyde, Jekyll "is the very pink of the proprieties" (33).

A commitment to protecting the good names of oneself and one's colleagues binds professional men together. Utterson, remarkably unconcerned with the fates of Hyde's victims, directs all his energies toward shielding Jekyll from "the cancer of some concealed disgrace" (41). Sir Danvers' death awakens fears that the doctor's "good name . . . [will] be sucked down in the eddy of the scandal" (53). After the murder Jekyll himself admits, "I was thinking of my own character, which this hateful business has rather exposed" (52). As Enfield's actions indicate, blackmail is an acceptable way to prevent such exposure. Utterson mistakenly believes that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll, bur rather than going to the police he hits on the happier and more gentlemanly idea of blackmailing Hyde in turn (42). By far the most potent weapon these men possess, however, is silence. Closing ranks, they protect their own by stifling the spread not of crime or sin but of indecorous talk. "Here is another lesson to say nothing" (34). "Let us make a bargain never to refer to this again" (34). "This is a private matter, and I beg of you to let it sleep" (44). "I wouldn't speak of this" (55). "I cannot tell you" (57). "You can do but one thing . . . and that is to respect my silence" (58). "I daren't say, sir" (63). "I would say nothing of this" (73).(15) In turn, the commitment to silence ultimately extends to self-censorship, a pledge not to know. Respectable men like Utterson and Enfield invert the Biblical injunction to seek a truth that will set them free. For them, a careful ignorance works better. Utterson's motto - "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way" (29) - finds its counterpart in Enfield's unvarying rule of thumb: "The more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask" (33). ("A very good rule, too," Utterson agrees.) Enfield explicitly equates knowledge with scandal when he says that asking a question is like rolling a stone down a hill: "presently some bland old bird . . . is knocked on the head . . . and the family have to change their name" (33). Knowledge's harm is suffered most acutely by Dr. Lanyon, whose Christian name of Hastie nicely indicates his fatal character flaw. Warned by Hyde that it is always wiser not to know, Lanyon nevertheless succumbs to that "greed of curiosity" (79) which leads directly deathward.