Secrecy & Reputation

• Secrecy & Reputation


  • Stevenson creates a suspicious atmosphere where characters are forced to keep secrets out of fear of their reputation being ruined
  • Heightens tension as experiments are more dangerous with more at stake if they go wrong
• Secrets


  In Victorian society, a man's secrets could be used to ruin him
• Enfield recalls threatening to expose Hyde

  • Make his name stink from one end of London to the other
• Asking untoward questions


  Leads to a cascading effect throughout society which causes all reputation to be destroyed
• Dr. Jekyll grew pale


  Blackness about his eyes
• Blackmail


  Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll with his secrets to ruin his reputation
• Utterson: 'It turns me cold to think of this creature stealing like a thief to Harry's bedside'
• Jekyll's attempt to dissociate himself from Hyde


  Shows he no longer cares about retaining his reputation, uncharacteristic of a Victorian gentleman
• Lanyon discovering the truth


  Led him to be at the point of death
• Secrets can be used to manipulate the reader's perspective on the narrative plot
• The realisation that Hyde is an extension of Jekyll shocks the reader at the same time as Mr Utterson