utterson

• what does utterson symbolise in j&h?

  - manhood is naturally dual natured

  - hypocrisy and repression

  - irony

  - he is deliberately boring

  - he is attracted to sin and secrecy

  - he is loyal to his friends, despite how sinful they are

  - he represents victorian gentlemen
• manhood is naturally dual natured


  - utterson is presented as manly; "a man of rugged countenance"

  - however, he hides and represses the parts of himself that he enjoys; "though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years"; "drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages"
• "a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile"


  - reserved character; unaffected by emotion which gives his voice authority as it is likely to be unbiased by emotions
• "though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years"


  - utterson is aware of the public expectations of a reputable individual in his society; maintains serious demeanor and self-control

  - "theatre" has reputation for being dramatic and utterson tries to stay away from dramatic situations (and gossip - drama); this is ironic as he is a lawyer and so he deals with people's problems
• "drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages"


  - verb "mortify" indicates he is embarrassed of his desires

  - this may be due to victorian society where it was expected to repress parts of their personality which explains why utterson is "austere" and drinks "alone"

  - stevenson is trying to explain that society's structure is rigid due to the fear of acknowledging the darker nature within you being normalised
• hypocrisy and repression

  - hypocrisy is pretending to be one thing on the outside but being different on the inside

  - he is described as "lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable"; first part of quote juxtaposes second part

  - "he had an approved tolerance for others"

  - "sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds" - "almost" presents sense of uncertainty but shows how he represses his evil side

  - "in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove" - he helps people when they are in trouble rather than criticise their wrongdoings; shows his loyalty and could be why he is "somehow lovable"; a man without real principles
• "lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable"


  - lengthy asyndetic list is difficult to say in one breath which mirrors utterson's "long" and "dreary" personality but could also suggest his character is hard to put into words

  - implies some sort of mystery and perplexity around utterson; there is more to him than it seems
• "he had an approved tolerance for others"


  - utterson is an understanding character who has the willingness to tolerate the existence of opinions or behaviour that one dislikes or disagrees with
• "sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds"


  - he doesn't feel a strong urge to judge people for their actions but rather seeks to help them

  - utterson is seen as kind and considerate and therefore he is likeable to the reader and we are more inclined to trust him
• "the last good influence in the lives of down-going men"

  - utterson is surrounded by negative people and the fact that he still manages to repress his bad side despite being surrounded by bad people, shows that he takes reputations very seriously

  - he stands by his friends even if they are social outcasts or criminals; he is loyal

  - foreshadows how the story will be about "down-going men" and perhaps utterson himself will become one of those "down-going men"
• irony

  - he is a "lawyer" however ironically he is surrounded by "down-going men" which emphasises his loyalty to his acquaintances; stevenson does this to show utterson isn't who he appears to be

  - he is "embarrassed in discourse" yet is also the social pivot of the novella

  - he is "dusty and dreary" yet people are attracted to him; stevenson shows throughout the reasons why he is "lovable"

  - he "drank gin" which contains more alcohol than wine, which could show that he is more likely to take risks and make poor decisions

  - "had not crossed the doors of" a theatre for "twenty years" yet he enjoys finding out about how people perform wit their "pressure of high spirits" after completing their evil acts
• utterson is deliberately boring

  - utterson is the point of view the reader sees because he also has cracks in his rigid, civilised facade as he is "lean, long, dusty and dreary" but he also never stoops to gossip; reflects jekyll and hyde with the only difference being jekyll doesn't repress his desire to be evil suggesting utterson wants to have his own version of hyde
• utterson is loyal to his friends despite their sinfulness

  - utterson's lovability may stem from the only interesting quality stevenson gives him: his loyalty to his friends no matter what they do wrong

  - out of loyalty to jekyll and his desire to care for his clients, he wants to investigate the case with hyde; later we find that he investigates it to find out more about jekyll's evil side - he is presented as nosy

  - he represnts the epitomes of victorian gentleman and consistently seeks to preserve order and decorum, doesn't gossip and guards his friends' reputations as though they were his own

  - even when he suspects jekyll of criminal activities with hyde, he sweeps it under the rug rather than potentially ruining his friend's reputation; when he sees jekyll may have forged the letter from the murderer of danvers carew, utterson should have taken that to police but chooses not to to protect jekyll's reputation

  - utterson does this as he is attracted to hyde's evil just as jekyll is too
• utterson represents all victorian gentlemen

  - he represents the epitome of victorian gentleman

  - victorian society prefers to avoid scandals or chaos that could reveal truth just like utterson does

  - denial of existence of uncivilised or savage element of humanity; what hyde represents
• utterson needs to be an unimaginative witness

  - he is the narrator so if utterson was too unimaginative the eerie mood of the novella would suffer

  - if he had a good imagination though, he would come up with theories as to what was going on; he doesn't because he is rational and only comes up with one theory which the reader is invited to go along with

  - the novel suggests the chilling presence of hyde in ldn is strong enough to get through utterson's rigid shell
• utterson's homoerotic dreaming about jekyll and hyde

  - having fantasies about jekyll being summoned by another man to do unspeakable things

  - living out his own desires through two other people
• significance of his name "gabriel"

  - irony; "gabriel" is associated with angel gabriel - religious - powerful figure of good; ironic as he is only good on outside not inside too

  - stevenson calls him this to question the values of christianity altogether