Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde The Importance Of Reputation

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Dengrove, Ariel November 7, 2015 British Literary Traditions Sec 031 FA 15 The Importance of Reputation The Victorian era is known for its high standards and morals. It is usually seen as being a period of peace and perfection for England. Unfortunately, this perfection was a facade and actually hid the reality of life in Victorian England. The social code ignored and even shunned natural and essential parts of people’s personalities, even if they weren’t harmful or violent. Do to this happening the most undesirable aspects of people’s personalities became suppressed and the worst parts of the society they lived in were hidden. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Mr. Hyde to show that the Victorian…show more content…
This is evident in the way that Utterson and Enfield avoid gossip. They think of gossip as a great destroyer of reputation. For example when Utterson suspects Jekyll first of being blackmailed and then of sheltering Hyde from the police, he does not make his suspicions known. Being Jekyll’s good friend means he has to keep Jekyll's secrets and not ruin his reputation. This sort of importance on reputation reflects the importance of appearances, facades, and surfaces, which are often hiding a dark side. Utterson is character that was considered very strange. He chooses to continue associating himself with people who have fallen from their respectability and is considered "the last reputable acquaintance" and the "last good influence" for these people. It shows how people in Victorian England were so concerned with respectability and that the most important thing for them was to be an upstanding citizen in their society. Because Utterson was a respectable person he was not looked down on for associating with "fallen" people but rather seen as kind. Had he not had such an upstanding reputation he would have easily been considered less then and basically shunned. Reputation was everything and once yours went bad it was next to impossible to rebuild…show more content…
However he also created the character of Utterson, who seeks out this information, in order to contrast these other characters. Mr. Enfield, “the well-known man about town” has a very extreme view on questioning strange events, stating “the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask”. Enfield prefers to stay as far away from controversy as possible in order to avoid association with it. His good reputation is something he prides himself on and he will not do anything that could possibly damage it. Unlike Utterson, Enfield prefers to not even know of the circumstances surrounding Jekyll. This contrast between Utterson and Enfield is there to challenge the idea that it is better to ignore unpleasant
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