silence

• What do characters in the novel often fail to do?

  Articulate themselves
• What is one reason characters avoid certain conversations?

  Distaste for gossip
• How do Enfield and Utterson respond to their discussion of Hyde?

  They cut off the discussion
• What does Utterson refuse to share during his investigation?

  His suspicions about Jekyll
• Who does not provide details of Hyde's behavior in the novel?

  Jekyll and the third-person narrator
• What do the narrative silences in the novel suggest?

  Failure of language or refusal to use it
• What do the two kinds of silence indicate about rational and irrational interaction?

  They represent different notions of interaction
• What does Victorian society prize above all?

  Decorum and reputation
• How does Victorian society respond to the irrational?

  They prefer to deny its presence
• What does involuntary silence imply about language?

  Language is rational and logical
• What might happen to language when confronted with the irrational?

  Language itself may break down
• What does Stevenson’s reticence on Jekyll’s and Hyde’s crimes suggest?

  It is a choice to maintain their aura
• How can one interpret the clash between language and the uncanny?

  The uncanny need not always win