Textual Hyde and Seek: "Gentility," Narrative Play and Proscription in Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll
and Mr Hyde"
Author(s): Robbie B. H. Goh
Source: Journal of Narrative Theory, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Spring, 1999), pp. 158-183
Published by: Journal of Narrative Theory
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TextualHyde and Seek: "Gentility,"
NarrativePlay and Proscriptionin
Stevenson's DrJekyllandMrHyde
B. H. Goh
Robbie
In discussingwhatis perhapsthe nineteenthcentury'smost famousand
enduringstory of split identities,RobertLouis Stevenson's1886 short
novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, critics have quite pre-
dictablyusedDr.Jekyll'sscientificprojectas ananalogueforthenarrative
itself. Stevenson'stale,it is argued,offersa plethoraof signssplitoff from
their signifieds, voices disembodiedand dislocated,and distinctions
elided.1This in turnis seen as partof Stevenson'sattemptto undermine
patriarchy,which-variously, accordingto differentscholarlyviews-is
malebourgeoisidentity"out of
partof a projectto createa "reimagined
the ashesof the flawedonethetextdismantles,or anOedipalconflictwith
ThomasStevensoncenteringaroundthe pleasureprincipleandthe figure
of the mother,or a gestureof deviance(suchas the sexualcode of homoVictoriansociety.2
eroticism)withinthe constraintsof hypocritical
An extensionto this overtlypoliticalrole ascribedto the text is the
view of it as engagingin narrativeplay intendedto frustratethe linear
codes of "readerly,"
"realist"expectations.ThusAlan Sandisonspeaksof
Stevenson'spervasive"metafictional
his "subversive,deconstructures,"
structiveundertow"which is partof modernism's"antagonism
towards
the literarytradition"of nineteenth-century
realism(4-5, 15). Scholars
JNT. Journal of Narrative Theory 29.2 (Spring 1999): 158-183. Copyright c 1999 by
JNT. Journal of Narrative Theory.
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Textual
HydeandSeek
159
like Williams and Arata invoke Stevenson's essays "A Chapteron
Dreams,"andespecially"ANote on Realism,"as evidenceof the author's
anddivergencefrom"traditional
predilectionfor literaryexperimentation
humanistnotionsof bothrealismandidentity."3
Thenotionof divergence-literary,sexualor political-does not,however, offer a completelysatisfyingaccountof Stevenson'snarrativeproit offersno satisfactoryaccountof instancesof the narject. In particular,
rative'sapparentcomplicityin moralcodesorjudgements,of conservative
or authoritarian
strandsin the text-not merelythe ironicallysmugpatriarchalvoice of characterslikeUttersonandLanyon,butalso the corrobonarrator.
ratingvoice of the quasi-omniscient
Scholarshipon Stevenson
has oftenbeentroubledby the presencein thisnovelof whatGarrettcalls
the "strongconservativestrain"(60), andThomasa "plotof exclusion"
(73), whichin factcontradictthe "savagepleasure"of its iconoclasticimpulses.The inabilityto accountfor this contradictory
impulseleadsGarrettto concludethatthe novellais guiltyof "fictionalirresponsibility,"
a
"refusalor failureto offerany securepositionforits readeror to establish
any fixedrelationbetweenits voices"(70), andThomassimilarlycalls the
thenotionof a textual"deviance"
novel a "schizo-text"
(83). Furthermore,
that
a
socio-sexual
devianceimputestoo
realist
echoes
conventions)
(from
much teleologicalpurposeand coherenceto a narrativewhich is complexlypre-moral,"plaisir"ratherthanlogicalintention;it is to foreground
the thematicsof the Hydeantransgression,
while neglectingthe narrative
whichcontainsthattransgression
at the sametimethatit reperformance
it.
pudiates
In this novel,narrativeitselfis the siteof meaning,of textualprocesses
thatoperatepriorto narrowerthematicconcernsandto simplifyingsocial
oppositions.This reinforceswhatmightbe termedthe intentionalnature
of values andjudgements,whichdo not standoutsideof the text (in the
butinsociety"or"history"),
seeminglypre-textualreferentsof "Victorian
steadfindmeaningpreciselyin the actsof interpretative
judgementstructuredand sustainedby the narrative.Social criticismis very much seckey,to this formof modernist
ondary,andcannotformthe interpretative
of a semioticexercisein
whose
concern
is
the
creation
narrative,
primary
the act of reading,althoughof coursethis exerciseis also a social, systemic function.
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160
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The centralsignifyingcodes,in thisas well as otherStevensonian
narratives,arethoseof shameandguilt,kinshipandproscriptive
banishment,
This
is most
which are playedout in an unmistakeably
Oedipalpattern.
apparentin the Scottish (pseudo)romances,Weirof Hermiston,Kidnapped,andDavidBalfour(or Catriona,as the latterwas knownin England and Scotland).4Characters
in these novels struggleliterallyagainst
the name of the father,eitheras a repudiationof the biologicalfather's
"coarseandcruel"nature(as is the case withArchieWeirin Weirof Hermiston,who effectivelyrenounceshis kinshipwith his fatherthe "hanging"judge);5or else as a conflictof emotionalandpoliticalaffiliationsin
thetroubledJacobitestruggleswhichis the settingof thelattertwo novels.
Namingthe protagonistof Kidnappedandits sequelDavidBalfour(this
being the familynameof Stevenson'smother)also allows Stevensonto
write elementsof his own troubledrelationshipwith his fatherinto this
politicaldrama.
The problematicsof namingin thesenovels suggeststhe fundamental
crisisin identitythatStevensonis verymuchconcernedwith,not the less
becauseof his fascinatidnwiththenameandlegendof RobRoyMacGregor:
... Stevensonhopedhe mightbe descendedfromRob
or at anyratefromtheclan.Obviously,he
Roy MacGregor
was neverable to proveit, and the "perfectevidence"he
in a letter. .. amounts
mentions
onlyto thefact--ifit is a
fact-that whenthe nameof MacGregor
was proscribed
someof theclancalledthemselves
"Stevenson."
(Aldington 10)
David's quest might be seen as that of gaininghis rightfulappellation
("DavidBalfourof Shaws")afterthe deceitfuldisinheritance
performed
his
uncle
but
this
can
never
be
made
at
Ebeneezer,
by
public:6 the end of
the first novel, he comes to a compromising agreement in which the
shameduncle is financiallypenalised,butremainsinstalledat Shaws,to
all appearancesthe Lairdstill. David, in fact the rightfulLaird,spends
most of the two novels sans identityandroots,tossedto andfrobetween
different clan affiliations and power factions. David's outlawed Jacobite
friend,Alan Breck Stewart,faces a similarplight throughoutthese novels,
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HydeandSeek
161
caughtbetweenthe prideof bearing"aking'sname,"andthe shameand
guilt of havingpublicallyto hide that name in HanoverEngland(Kidnapped60, 219-220). The eponymousheroineof Catriona,too, endures
hardshipand disgraceundera varietyof names-as "the daughterof
JamesMore,"the wardof "Mrs.Ogilvy/LadyAllardyce,"and finallyas
the wife of "DavidBalfour"(Catriona9, 57).
In the troubledclimateof the Scottishromances,identityis notmerely
oppositional,but is constantlyambivalentandshifting.Individualsdo not
merely struggle to choose between two affiliations-the legal and
Hanoverian,or the oppositional,outlawedJacobinical-butcontinually
re-negotiatetheirpluralidentitiesin eachdifferentspeech-act.David,for
himselfto a seriesof fatherexample,does not "regress"by "submitting
his
as
Sandison
(190) suggests;rather, career(if it hasanysigniffigures,"
icanceat all) is thatof a continualprocessof acceptanceandrepudiation
of differentfather-figures.
Thushe moves fromthe authorityof his Whig
mentor
the
to
Jacobiteintriquesof AlanBreckandJamesStewCampbell
art, fromthe Stewartsto theirenemiesthe MacGregors,fromthe petty
outlawescapadesto the higher(butalso contradictory)
realpoliksymbolised by SimonFraserandPrestongrange.
In the end,he andCatrionahavenot so muchresolvedthesequestions
of identityand forgedtheir own place, as they have stumblednolens
volens throughdifferent,contradictory
positions.The romancedevice of
the endingmarriagecannotconcealthe factthattheirunionstandsin the
face of competingclaimsto theirindividualloyalties,a pointwhichthe
readeris remindedof evenattheveryend,as theirtwo childrenarenamed
for Alan and for Prestongrange's
(the LordAdvocatewho persecutesthe
David
well
Stewarts)daughter.
may
say that he marriesCatriona"as
thoughtherehad been no suchpersonas JamesMore"(290), but Catriona's own renunciationof her fatheris muddledand irresolute:"I am a
daughterof Alpin! Shameof the sons of Alpin,begone!"(286), she proclaims, proscribinghis name by resortingto the legendaryclan of the
herkinshipto himunderanAlpins,althoughin so doingshe perpetuates
otherclansignifier.Yetagain,she andDavidalso re-affirmtheirties to the
MacGregorsby seekingthe blessingof the exiled chieftainof the clan,
who implicitlyassociatesthemwith JamesMoreonce again,by refusing
(andforbiddingthem)publiclyto repudiatehim (muchas Ebeneezercannot be publiclydenounced):"weareall Scotsfolk andall Hieland"(290).
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These narrativesthus accentuatethe romancepleasure (the plot structure
of growth, marriageand hope) by a perverse,sado-masochisticinvocation
of the cruelty, shame, and pain of the betrayals(including self-betrayals)
upon which the romanceending must be founded.
Oedipal relations are marked by surface affections and (ultimately)
deeper betrayalsand proscriptions,this narrativeschadenfreudereplacing
the promised but undelivered plot structuresof the bildungsroman.In
readingDavid's relationshipwith James Stewart,for example, one is compelled to work througha perversely sado-masochisticprogression:James
is the symbolic father, himself proscribedand persecutedby the Campbells, who provides temporaryshelter to David and Alan: "Jamescarried
me accordingly into the kitchen, and sat down with me at table, smiling
and talking at first in a very hospitablemanner"(Catriona, 186, emphasis
added). The peculiarityof this novel is that David moves from a plethora
of motives ("justice,""vanity,"gentlemanly"essence")urging him to risk
his life in James's defence, to a gradualabsorptioninto the affairsand concerns of James's Whig enemies. Yet this betrayalis repeatedlymarkedby
David's own sympathetic sentiments on precisely this betrayal: in his
comment on the political machinationswhich sacrifice James,he observes
that "therewas only one person that seemed to be forgotten,and that was
James of the Glens" (150). Yet David is himself complicit (by his silence)
in James's fate:
Therewas neverthe leastwordheardof the memorial,
or noneby me. Prestongrange
andhis GracetheLordPresidentmayhaveheardof it (forwhatI know)on thedeafest
sides of theirheads;they keptit to themselves,at leastthepublicwas nonethewiser;andin thecourseof time,on
November8th, and in the midstof a prodigiousstormof
windandrain,poorJamesof the Glenswas dulyhangedat
Lettermore
by Ballachulish.(187)
David, too, has kept his testimony "on the deafest side," as he puts it. He
attemptsto dilute this act with the complacentrationalizationthat "innocent men have perishedbefore James, and are like to keep on perishing(in
spite of all our wisdom) till the end of time" (187), and to naturalizehis
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HydeandSeek
163
actions as a young man's spiritedrejectionof an unfairemotionalburden,
a lost cause.
Proscription(etymologically "proscribere")-writing as elision, rejection or banishment-is an inherentlyparadoxicalact, not only in its play
of presence/absence(as a declarationwhich names he who henceforth,by
the authorityof that declaration,is not to be named), but also in the admixture of pity and cruelty,pain and pleasure, as David shows. Thus the
foregroundingof David's feelings of guilt and anxiety are partof the very
pleasure of their catharsis,and the reader(whose investmentin the titular
hero and heroine of these novels finds pleasure in the unfolding of their
destinies, even if this denouementnecessarily glosses over ethical and affective complexities) is no less complicit in this textual process.
Following Julia Kristeva, we might describe Stevenson's textual pleasure as an instance of "jouissance,"which is only in partthat covert pleasure which phallocentricnarrativesseek to suppress,and which may manifest itself in a delight in deviance or alterity:in primalterms the mother,
that "other [who] has no penis, but experiencesjouissance and bears children"(About26). Beyond this, Kristeva(in her analysis of that most patriarchal of symbolic systems, Christianity)also speaks of "ecstatic"and
"melancholic"jouissance, which are "two ways in which a woman may
participatein this symbolic Christianorder"(27, 28). In such attemptsby
the other "to gain access to the social order,"jouissance comes to assume
ambivalent nuances: as the "reward"that the subject acquires from the
symbolic order,the "triumph"of "sublimatedsadisticattacks"on the other
whom the subject now disavows or proscribes,but also as the "tearful"
submission which brings the acceptance of self-recrimination(30). Thus
the subject on the one hand assumes the position of the undifferentiated
entity who is pleasurably accommodated by the patriarchalorder (although only at the cost of losing distinctness);and on the other hand, relates to that order as a difference which must submit to punishment(but
which punishmentalso brings the pleasure of acceptance).This complex
duality incorporatesboth the proscriptionof the self (in the hysteric's "unutterablejouissance") as well as the proscriptionpractisedby the self on
an other, in the name of the father-law("True-Real"230).
This ambivalentunion of ecstatic sadism and melancholic masochism
is not, of course, confined to the daughterwhose symbolic lack is so evident; Freud describes a similar ambivalencein the process of ego forma-
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tion which he describes in the Oedipalterms of the son-fatherrelationship.
According to Freud,the self ultimately "absorbsinto itself the invulnerable authority"(superego) and consequentlyentersinto the dual role of authority and rebel (Civilization 115). The boy's discourses assume their
own characteristics-recurring in Freud's accounts as tropes of hostility
and symbolic violence towards the father (murder,castration)confirmed
by acts of proscription(guilt feelings, displacement,jokes, the taboo). For
Freud, the locus classicus of these tropes is totemism and taboos among
the "primitive"aboriginal and Polynesian tribes, a primitivist ethnology
reflected in some ways in Stevenson's view of the Pacific Islanders-and
thus, by association, with the Scottish highlandersStevenson frequently
comparedto the Polynesians.7For both Freudand Stevenson, totems and
taboos were only the "ambivalentemotional attitude"of the father-complex in modem society writ in large and savage letters (Totem 141). The
totemic symbols and relateddiscoursesof "avoidance,"taboo laws and religions are thus essentially narrativedevices to negotiatethe self's anxious
and pleasurablerelationshipwith authority.8
Jouissance and proscriptionare even more complexly interwoven in
Jekyll and Hyde, where a numberof complex narrativesigns and (mis)directions take the place of the historical dramaand action of the Scottish
novels. Despite its evasive fragmentation-Sandison says that it is "not
one story but ten enigmatic stories" (219), and Thomas speaks of the
"fragmentingof the self into distinctpieces with distinctvoices" (73)-the
novella neverthelessreads at some levels like a moral, cautionarytale. Andrew Lang calls it "Poe with the additionof a moral sense," and Stevenson
himself insisted quite heatedly on a particularway of readingJekyll, "because he was a hypocrite-not because he was fond of women," and for
his "cruelty and malice, and selfishness and cowardice."9However, this
moral indictment(if it ever appearsclearly in the narrative)is more problematic in respect of Jekyll's peers-Utterson, Lanyon, Enfield, Carewand the whole patriarchalsociety they represent.This is certainly a form
of modernist "janiformity"wherein "organic"and conservative views of
society can be preserved covertly, in the performanceof the narrative,to
create a critical project mounted in some bad faith.l0 However, what distinguishes Stevenson's narrativefrom, say, the hesitant imperialismand
racism of Kipling and Conrad, or the divided Anglo-Irish political consciousness of Yeats-modernism in its mode of melancholic, identifica-
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HydeandSeek
165
exists,not as a statementor
torysocialcriticism-is thatthe contradiction
visionwithin(whatRolandBartheswouldcall)the"culturalcode,"butas
a clash within/between"hermeneutic,"
"semic"and "symbolic"codes
(55-60).11Thereis thusno organic,re-visionedmodelof societyandhistoryto be uncovered(as a set of cluesto the informedreader),butrathera
moralgoal througha textualperformance
into whichthe readeris interthanmodernism's
other
pellated.Thatgoal is no less ideologically-fraught
it
in
in
not
articulation
or
but
rather
visions;however, consists,
statement,
narrativeas a functionof the socialsystem.
Sucha view of JekyllandHydeposes one kindof answerto the many
problemsof thetext,one of themostvexingbeingtheroleof the shadowy,
narrator
forconvenience,calledthe Steven(henceforth,
quasi-omniscient
soniannarrator),
who at timessuggeststhe roleof moralcommentary
performedby the omniscientrealistnarrator
of nineteenth-century
andmodem fiction,and at othertimes moreclosely resemblesthe non- (or pre)
is elumoralroleof thenarrator
in metafiction.ThisStevensonian
narrator
and
then
with
the
sive, variouslypresent authoritative, closelyaligned
perspective of a narratingcharacter,then elsewhereseeminglyabsentand
giving way to disparatevoices. It is thus hardlysurprisingthatthe existence of sucha narrator
is not usuallyrecognisedor conceded.In arguing
his claimforthe"disappearance
of the author,"
RonaldThomasnamesthe
narrators
in
the
who
novella:
major
Jekyll,
possiblyhas the least control
over what is ostensibly his own story, Utterson, and Enfield. We should
add to this list the shadowy narrativevoice whose textual presence is perhaps most clearly seen at the beginning of the novella:
Mr Uttersonthe lawyerwas a man of a ruggedcountenance,thatwas neverlightedby a smile;cold, scantyand
embarrassedin discourse;backwardin sentiment;lean,
long, dusty,drearyandyet somehowlovable.At friendly
meetings,and when the wine was to his taste,something
eminentlyhumanbeaconedfromhis eye;somethingindeed
whichneverfoundits way into his talk,but whichspoke
notonlyin thesesilentsymbolsof theafter-dinner
face,but
moreoftenandloudlyin theactsof his life.He was austere
with himself;drankgin when he was alone,to mortifya
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tasteforvintages;
had
andthoughhe enjoyedthetheatre,
notcrossedthedoorsof onefortwentyyears.(7)
A numberof detailswhichwill proveironicareestablishedin thisopening
passage:Utterson'sself-despised"tastefor vintages"is one of the prominent links betweenhim and Jekyll'ssocial circle, "alljudges of good
wine"(22), buthis gin drinkingidentifieshimselfwiththe socialotherhe
encountersin Hyde'sdomainof Soho,with its "ginpalace"andwomen
addictedto their"morningglass"(27).12The seeminglyirrelevantpoint
abouthis long absencefromthe theatreanticipatesthe significantscene
when Uttersonpassesthroughthe doorsof Jekyll's"surgicaltheatre,"a
liminalspacewhichmarkstheboundarybetweenUtterson'srationalsociety andthe irrationalalterityof Hyde'sworld(43). Perhapssignificantly,
thatlong-disusedtheatreis surreallyclutteredwith"cratesandbottles,"a
hint of the public house and the lower appetitesto which it caters.In
Jekyll'sdefensivestatementat the endof the novel,he compareshis conreasonswithhimselfuponhis vice"(69).
ditionto that"whena drunkard
This suggestionof uncontrollable
appetiteis reinforcedin the samechapter when UttersonreadsJekyll/Hyde'sdesperatelettersto the chemists,
who are called"Messrs.Maw"-once againsuggestingconsumptionand
thatof a "voraciousanimal."l13
Jekyll'saddictionto
appetite,in particular
the drugis of coursehighly suggestiveof anotherVictoriananxiety,the
base appetitefor opium.
Thatprevalentfin de siecle trope-the hypocrisyof the respectable
middleclass-is almostlost in these subtle-one mighteven say oversubtle-hints. Thisplayfulsubtletyseemsto be the point:whatis created
is a sly, teasing,andprovocativelyconfidentialnarrative
voice,whichsuggests its intimateknowledgeof Uttersonandhis world,while suggesting
It
shouldnotbe articulated.
at the sametimethatsomeof thoseparticulars
is a narrativewhich seemsto proscribewhile it describes-Utterson,we
aretold, is not the most emotionallyexpressiveperson,andhas qualities
which"neverfound[their]way into his talk,"so thatit devolvesupona
to revealhis secret,"eminentlyhuman"
close confidantelike the narrator
this
intention
is
not followedthrough,andthe readeris
aspect.However,
insteadreferredenigmaticallyto "thesesilentsymbolsof the after-dinner
face," seeminglyinterpolatedinto a scene of affectionateand intimate
community,butone whichis continuallydeferred.Theclosestone comes
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HydeandSeek
167
to penetrating into such a scene is at the beginning of the chapter "Dr
Jekyll Was Quite at Ease," but once again Utterson's mysterious human
qualities are teasingly elided under phrases like "his unobtrusive company,""practisingfor solitude,""the man's rich silence" (22). At any rate,
his humanity and solicitude, such as it is, can only emerge after the moment of intimate companionship-after the dinner is over and the "old
cronies" have departed.Here, as elsewhere in the depiction of Utterson,
the uncertain tone oscillates between affection and irony, between a
warmth which invites the reader's moral identificationwith the lawyer,
and a contraryinvitation to read more sinister (albeit equally cryptic) aspects into this characterization.
One of the consequences of this narrativepoise is an ontological uncertaintywhere the boundariesof narrativezones (in Bakhtin'ssense) blur
and meld. On the one hand,this narratorat times sharesso much of Utterson's consciousness, point of view, and even more idiosyncraticcharacteristics, that he seems to fade into non-existence, leaving Utterson as the
dominantnarrativepresence. Thus, for example, where Uttersonbegins to
suspect something amiss in Jekyll's affairs:
And the lawyer,scaredby the thought,broodedawhile
on his own past,gropingin all the cornersof memory,lest
of an old iniquityshould
by chancesome Jack-in-the-Box
leapto lightthere.His pastwas fairlyblameless;few men
could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension;yet
he was humbledto the dustby the manyill thingshe had
done,andraisedup againintoa soberandfearfulgratitude
by the many that he had come so near to doing, yet
avoided.(20-21)
This is grammaticallythe same third-personnarrativewhich opens the
novella, and sharestoo the insight into Utterson'sstate of mind, the "sober
and fearful" (self-) scrutiny, and something of the irony (in Utterson's
utter misconception of Hyde's relationshipto Jekyll) of the earlier passage. At the same time, however, the text is at pains to establisha narrative
voice and perspectivethat is characteristicallyUtterson's,distinctfrom the
Stevensonian narratoras such: the self-deprecatingand dry Utterson in
this passage and elsewhere never describeshimself in the affectionateand
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approvingterms("somehowlovable,""anapprovedtolerancefor others,"
"thelastgoodinfluence")thatthevoice attheopeningof thenovellauses.
Moreover,Utterson'sperspectivelacksthe playfulnessof the Stevensonian narrator,and is the "soberand fearful"victim of the text's ironies
his misplacedconcernandsympathy
ratherthantheirmaster;in particular,
for Jekyllcreatea distinctivenote of ironicanxietyin his perspectiveand
voice. In contrast,the Stevensoniannarrator
expresslylacksthis note of
anxiety,andis nevera victimof textualironies;if he doesnot speakto reveal foreknowledge
or insight,neitheris he takenby surpriseas areUtterson andothernarrators.
Whatis createdis a narratorial
equivalentof the ontologicalquestions
the
conundrum-the
confusionof the pronouns
posed by
Jekyll/Hyde
"he/I"in Jekyll'sstatement(73),the"community
of memory"betweenthe
two personalitiesthat FrederickMyersinsistedon (Maixner221). In a
similarway,the ghostlymovementfrompresenceto absence,distinctiveness to similarityon the partof the Stevensonian
narrator
calls into question the very basis of narrativebeing-even thattransient,actantialexistence which enablesthe processof reading.CertainlyUttersonhas no
ontologyor person,no formallinguisticmarkersto designate
grammatical
who is givenneihis separationfromtheunnamed,"omniscient"
narrator,
therthe pronoun"I"nora nameas themarkof his locusor identity.Yetin
whatothersense can it be saidthatUttersonis a narrator
at all, thanthat
is
his
the reader takenso closelyandintimatelyinto perspectiveandstate
of mind,andthathe is given a greatercentralityandpresencethanother
speakers?The finaltwo chaptersin the novellaembodythisparadox:Uttersonhas retiredfromthe physicaldramaby the endof the eighthchapter,andindeeddoes not intrudehis perspective,tone andpersonalityinto
the final two chapters.However,a chronologicalanomalypersistsat the
end, to maintainUtterson'snarrativecentrality:the readerencountersthe
two finalstatementsas it wereon sufferance,onlybecauseUtterson(in his
act of readingthe letters)continuesas a notionalconsciousnessandnarrative devicein the novella.14
The ontologicalpuzzle deepenselsewhere,as narrativevoices quite
distinctand separatefromthat of the Stevensoniannarratorare offered.
Thus,forexample,the beginningof the chapterentitled"TheCarewMurderCase":
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TextualHydeand Seek
169
Nearlya yearlater,in the monthof October18-, London
was startledby a crimeof singularferocityandrenderedall
themorenotableby thehighpositionof thevictim.Thedetailswerefew andstartling.A maidservantlivingalonein
a house not far fromthe river,had gone upstairsto bed
abouteleven .... It seemsshe was romantically
given,for
she satdownuponherbox,whichstoodimmediately
under
the window,and fell into a dreamof musing.Never (she
used to say, with streamingtears,when she narratedthat
experience)neverhadshe felt moreat peacewith all men
or thoughtmorekindlyof theworld.(25)
This passage is distinctive in several ways: its tone is the detached and
sensationalistically irresponsiblevoice of the yellow press, and its perspective is speculative and tentativewhen comparedto the certaintyof the
omniscient narrator.Although the narrativehere has decided opinions,
these are couched frankly as speculations or hearsay: thus the maid's
chancing to witness the murderis embellished with a theory of her being
"romanticallygiven" (which is more suggestive than precise or explanatory), this in turnqualifiedwith "it seems."Her feelings are not intuitedby
the narrator(as Utterson's are), but deliberatelyspecified as her reported
statementin the parenthesis"(she used to say . .. when she narratedthat
experience").Yet this narrativedistance does not stop the reportingvoice
from indulging in a kind of disparagingsexism, which imputesto the maid
all the tropes of a foolish sentimentalism and weakness ("full moon,"
"tears,""prettymanner,""fainted")-an element of sexual attitude(however negative) which has no place in the dry bachelor atmosphere surroundingUtterson and his circle.
The change to Utterson's point of view (in the third paragraphof the
chapter) is markedand significant, althoughthere are no explicit chapter
or section breaks. It establishes that Utterson is not privy to the perspective and knowledge containedin the first two paragraphs:indeed, the narrative places him in an altogether separate space, so that the news (together with the envelope bearing Utterson's name) must be physically
conveyed to him at a specific time ("the next morning,before he was out
of bed"). Utterson'smind and feelings, too, are contained:on receiving the
information,he "shot out a solemn lip," carrieshimself with the enigmati-
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cally "same grave countenance,"and insists that he "shall say nothing"
until he has seen the body (26). This may simply be (juris) prudenceon
the part of the lawyer, but it has a distinct narrativeeffect as well: the
readeris suddenly denied access to Utterson'sinner state, an access quite
freely given in much of the novel, through the omniscient narratoror
throughUttersonhimself. This unusualdenial thus serves to segregatetwo
distinct narrativevoices and the social registersthey imply: the readeris
inducted into the sensationalism and commonness of the initial paragraphs,only to encounterthe social and narratorialproscriptionthatUtterson's consciousness brings to the episode.
Veeder (119) argues that a note of dubiousness clings, not only to
Carew's encounterwith Hyde (which suggests the anonymityof a homosexual solicitation), but also to the maid who mysteriouslyhas the means
and necessity to live "alone in a house."More thanthe suggestions of sexual vice, however (which are indeterminate),the note of moral dubiousness is struckby the narrativeliberties and improprietiesin this passage.
The journalisticvoice and its chauvinistictrivializationof the maid's character and perspective, is repeatedby the policeman who reportsthe murder to Utterson: asked by the lawyer (with characteristicunderstatement
and periphrasis)if Hyde is a "person of small stature,"the policeman's
reply is crudely conjectural:"'Particularlysmall and particularlywickedlooking, is what the maid calls him"' (27). The tone of narrativeintrusion
spreadsthroughoutthis chapter,like the fog which unites the environs of
Hyde and the maid, Utterson, and finally Soho, where Hyde's landladyis
described as "an ivory-faced"woman, having "an evil face, smoothed by
hypocrisy"(27). The blanknessof the ivory face is overwrittenby the curious semiotic contradictionwherein the narrativevoice reads "evil" simultaneously with signs of its erasure("smoothedby hypocrisy").Other
crudely intrusive interpretationswhich distinguish the narrativeof this
chapterinclude the descriptionof the "blackguardlysurroundings"of the
neighbourhood,and the crass detail of Jekyll's fortune("a quarterof a million sterling").Narrrativecrueltyhere is less blunt, and even more overdetermined, than in the Scottish romances, but it manifests itself quite
clearly both in these gleeful accusatory voices, as well as the implied
judgement against them.
The ontological uncertaintysurroundingthe Stevensoniannarratorthus
destabilizes expectationsat the level of codes such as the hermeneuticand
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HydeandSeek
171
symbolic: firstly, because the slippage between narratorialperspectives is
also a slippage of moral perspectivesand thus of judgement. The potential
shame and guilt of Utterson's"manyill things he had done" are diluted by
the absence/presenceof the omniscient narrator,who simultaneouslyenforces the external,objective criticism (which is also a quasi-objectiveexoneration-"His past was fairly blameless"),but also offers the possibility
that these are no more than Utterson'sown alarmistand baseless fears, or
hypocritical and baseless self-exoneration. Symbolic clusters-gin and
wine, the front door and the back, professionalismand dilettantism,physical markers such as the tall/fair versus the short/dusky-accordingly
never progress beyond the merely (but also problematically)suggestive,
since it is never clear if they are always containedwithin the same signifying code or perspective. Furthermore,the primary hermeneutic code
concerned with Jekyll's motives and means is likewise also subverted:to
reach the "full statement"at the end of the novel is not to move from fragmented "outside"perspectives to a unified "inside"one, but ratherto encounter the further conumdrum of the Jekyll-Hyde identity conflation
("He, I say-I cannot say, I," 73; and laterwhen even Jekyll is referredto
in the third person, 74), the moral equivocations(the quibble involved in
terms like "double-dealer,""duplicity,"and "hypocrite,"60) and the inexplicable nature and source of Jekyll's motivating "morbid sense of
shame."
Denied the bases of identity and individual characterupon which to
make any moraljudgement,the readerencountersthe hermeneuticcodethe enigma which, in Barthes's view, is teasingly proferred,but deferred
rightto the end of the narrative-not (or not merely) as the expected moral
reversal, the patriarchalfigure broughtlow and conflated with his degenerate self, but elsewhere, in the significance of narrativeacts themselves.
This simultaneously ecstatic and melancholic jouissance-the selective
location of the narrative consciousness, now outside the transgressive
other and delighting in his punishment,and elsewhere within and sharing
in the other's shame and guilt-has as its corollarythe creationof a code
of "gentility" in the narrativeacts of other characters.This functions in
similarways to the romanceelements Stevensonuses elsewhere, as a code
which provides for the readerthe pleasureof identification(in both senses,
of decipheringthe code, as well as of a positive affiliation and investment
of interest), which is nevertheless troubled by the narrativecruelty and
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silencein
proscription
uponwhichit is based.Utterson's(juris)prudential
the case of the Carewmurder,andits glaringcontrastto surrounding
inis
stancesof narrativeandinterpretation
one
coarseness, only
example.A
work
in
the
similarclass distinctionseemsto be at
Utterson/Enfield
relationship,whichis governedby tacitandcomplexcodesof narrativeavoidance,transgression,
guilt,andtolerantinclusion.
Thusin the "Storyof theDoor,"Uttersonlistensto Enfield'sstorywith
a companionable,seeminglycasualsilence,withoutbetrayingwith any
immoderateinterruptions
the factthathe too knowssomethingconnected
withthe door.The only indicationof his privateknowledgeis the Stevensoniannarrator'shint,"witha slightchangeof voice"(9), when Enfield
beginshis story.Enfield's"touchof sullenness"at the end,whenUtterson
revealshis knowledge,wouldseemat firstto be a breakfromthis gentlemanly code of narrativetolerance:Uttersoncomes close to challenging
Enfield'sveracity,andthis hintof impolitenessseemsto soundthe deathknell to theircompanionable
exchange,as they "makea bargainneverto
referto this again"(12).
However,the bargainitself turnsout to be ironic,andunderstoodas
at theWindow,"
Utterson
suchby bothgentlemen:in the chapter"Incident
and
and Enfieldare once againat theircompanionable
refer
walk,
quite
casuallyandwithoutheatto the taboosubjectof Jekyll'sdoor(39). This
renewalof the ostensiblytaboosubjectthusbecomesan occasionforconand sharedvalues of this communityof
firmingthe tacit understanding
gentlemen:Uttersonis quickto pointout to Enfieldthathe too has seen
Hyde, and"sharedyourfeelingof repulsion"(39); andin the earlierexattitudeto scandal("themoreit lookslike
change,Enfield'sdiscretionary
QueerStreet,the less I ask,"11),is echoedin Utterson'stolerantanddiscrete treatmentof Jekyll'sscandalousaffairs.Both gentlemen-narrators
are also caughtin compromisingmoments,and both share"shame"at
the professionalcode of
being compelledto break(howevertemporarily)
discretion:Enfielddeclareshimself"ashamed
of [his]longtongue,"not (it
would seem) for narratingthe affairof Hyde'sbrutality,but for the fact
that it has unintentionallycompromiseda gentlemanwhom Utterson
knows.Uttersonis placedin a similarsituationafterhis encounterwith
Hyde:while he seemsnot at all ashamed(andeven a littledefiant)about
lying to Hyde that Jekyll had mentionedhim, he is unaccountably
"ashamedof his relief' when Jekyll'sabsencefromhomepostponesthe
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173
lawyer'spainfultask of confrontinghim with the latter'sencounterwith
Hyde(18-20).
Notionsof gentility,professionalism
andpatriarchy
sit uneasilyin this
I
the
of
and
am
aware
that
novel's
ironic
thrustservesto
novel, course,
breakdownmanyof those carefulsocialdistinctionscherishedby Victorianmiddle-classsociety,andthatthe figureof Hyde servesto transgress
boundariesanddistinctions.Thisis whatPeterGarrett(69) describesas a
and Veederas the "dissolutionof distinctions"which
"contamination,"
subvertVictoriansociety's stratifications(121). On a slightly different
tack, Sandison(takingexceptionto Veeder)insiststhatUttersonandEnfieldnot onlydo notbelongto the sameprofessionalmiddleclass,butalso
exist in a relationshipof socialinequalitywith an almostOedipaltension
areoverdetermined
to
(232-236). Aratapointsout thatHyde's"stigmata"
or
the
"bourthe extentthathe could equallybe the "degenerate
prole"
geois male"(236, 238). It is too simple,however,to say (withArata)that
a "homosocialbonding"takesplaceas the middle-classprofessionalmen
"closeranksaroundhim"to "protecthim fromharm"(239).Moralconfusion andthe dissolutionof socialboundariescannothide the obviousrethe novel, andthe moralimperapulsionthatHyde generatesthroughout
tive which condemns both Hyde and his middle-class creator and
alter-ego.
However,if the closing of ranksdoes not obey the expectedclass
the readingof socialmeaningsin the novel,
logic, andthusproblematizes
it does sketcha logic of narrativegentility.Jekyll,withhis immodestdisclosuresand interpretative
excesses,is an obviousexampleof the transgressionof this code,butso is HastieLanyon,whosefirstname,"boisterous anddecidedmanner,"
andsummary
judgementof Jekyllas "wrongin
mind"(15), alreadysuggestsomethingof his indecentinterpretative
haste
andcarelessness.Thisis displayedmostclearlyin his responseto Jekyll's
writtenpleaforhelp:JekyllexpresslyasksthatLanyon"drawout,withall
its contents as they stand," the fourth drawerof his cabinet (53, original
andmakesa detailedexamiemphasis).Lanyonexceedshis instructions,
nationof those contents,speculatingon the natureand purposeof the
powdersand of Jekyll'sexperiments.Jekyll does indeed list in vague
termsthe contentsof the drawer-"somepowders,a phial and a paper
book"--butit is not solicitousconcernanda desireto close rankswhich
promptsLanyon's excessive curiosity.Lanyon makes no attemptat
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Jekyll'sroomsto verify that he has the correctdrawer,stuffingit with
strawandsealingit unseen;it is onlywhenit is too late,afterhe returnsto
theprivacyof his own home,thathe violatesJekyll'sprivacy.Theinvestigationleadsto "littlethatwas definite,"by Lanyon'sown admission,but
this inconclusiveset of signs does not preventhim fromforcinga prejudiced conclusion:the whole affairspeaks,"(liketoo manyof Jekyll'sinvestigations)to no end of practicalusefulness,"andJekyllconsequently
mustbe sufferingfrom"cerebraldisease"(55).
Lanyon'scareerin this novellathus becomesa moraltale cautioning
It is his semioticarroindiscretion
andhastyinterpretation.
againstnarrative
gance,in a sense,thatdoomshim.Havingsatisfiedhis curiosityandconfirmedhis derisoryopinionof Jekyll'saffairs,he declinesthe optionto
allowHydeto takethe potionandleave"withoutfurtherparley"(58). The
he witnesses,accordingly,
is an encounter
withthe ineffable
transformation
signs
(fromLanyon'spointof view), describedin termsof indeterminable
and blurredcategories:"he seemedto swell-his face becamesuddenly
blackandthe featuresseemedto meltandalter"(59).As a properrecompense for his lack of discretion,Lanyonis told andshowneverythingby
assuredness:
Jekyll,whichfinallybringsaboutthecollapseof his narratorial
"Whathe toldme in thenexthour,I cannotbringmy mindto set on paper."
he conveys(belatedly)in his instrucThiscall fora discretionary
narrative,
whichis "forthehandsof J. G. Utterson
tionsforhis posthumous
statement,
ALONEandin caseof his predeceaseto be destroyedunread"(37).
It is a similarlack of narrativegentilitywhich(no less thanhis transformationinto the socialother,Hyde)condemnsJekyll.In his finalstatement, Jekyll begins by declaring himself "endowed .
.
. with excellent
parts,"andindeedhis narrativeis constantlymarkedby excess:he aimsat
beforethe public,"his shame
a "morethancommonlygravecountenance
is "almostmorbid"(unlikethe shamesharedby Uttersonand Enfield,
whichis felt on behalfof otherpeople,andquicklydismissed),he waxes
panygericallyon his own life ("I labouredto relieve suffering";"much
was done for others,"71). It is not only Hyde,Jekyll'sphysical"devil"
within,who lacks restraintfromthe normalmoralchecksandbalances;
Jekyllin his full statementalso revealshimselfto be lackingin narrative
restraint,in the habitsof decorousperceptionandarticulation
uponwhich
socialorderseemsto rest.
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HydeandSeek
175
The novel's dominantsymbolic code is thus not the "contamination"of
the middle-class, althoughthis is figured in the architecturaldegentrification and the urban sprawl which links respectable neighbourhoodswith
the slums of Soho; beyond this predictablesemic level, the reader'sattention is directed to symbols of a threateningconflagration,which must be
containedby avoidance and discretion.This often takes place on the verge
of a revelation, as when the streeton which Enfield and Uttersonrambleis
described as being "like a fire in a forest,"just priorto Enfield's scandaltinged story (8), or the atmospherein Soho "like the light of some strange
conflagration"(27) when Utterson struggles to keep his own counsel in
the Carew Murdercase. Utterson's well-intentionedbut inquisitive interrogation of Jekyll takes place with the two men on opposite sides of the
fire, and is punctuatedby a pause in which Jekyll urges a discretionarysilence ("I beg of you to let it sleep") and Utterson"reflecteda little looking
in the fire" (22, 23). The fire is also, of course, an image of primitive, libidinal energy, as when Hyde kills Carewin a "greatflame of anger"(25),
and runningthroughoutJekyll's final self-justification,with its mention of
the two "incongruousfaggots" of human nature, the "hellish" energies,
and the image of Jekyll as "a creatureeaten up and emptied by fever" (69,
74), to name just a few instances. The fire interactswith the image of the
fog, a conjunctionwhich Conradputs to very differenteffect in Heart of
Darkness, where meaning in Marlow's tales is as ephemeralas the way in
which "a glow brings out a haze" (30). In Jekyll and Hyde, the two symbols interactto suggest opposing forces: where the fog is associated with
the spillage which seeps across ostensible class dividers, and with the obfuscating lack of self-knowledge which results in error and excess, the
flame is defined in opposition to these qualities:
... andtherewouldbe a glow of a rich,luridbrown,like
the lightof somestrangeconflagration;
andhere,fora mothe
would
be
ment,
fog
quitebrokenup, and a haggard
shaft of daylightwould glance in betweenthe swirling
wreaths.(27)
The fireburnedin the grate;a lampwas set lightedon
the chimneyshelf, for even in the housesthe fog beganto
lie thickly;.... (30)
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Between a revelation which consumes narrativeproprieties,and this obfuscation which denies enlightening (self) knowledge altogether, the
reader is directed to find the significance of right social conduct at the
symbolic level.
This is a deliberate"poetics of misdirection,"in which the reader'sinterpretativeenergies are turned away from the hermeneutic,semic and
symbolic patterns which would be expected to sustain a "cultural"code
(in Barthes's sense of a social referentor message) of fin de siecle social
decay and hypocrisy.Instead,the play of narrativeidentitiesand code manipulation compel the reader's interpretativeenergies and attentionelsewhere, in a continual seeking of the moral flaw proscribedby the narrative's over-subtle but persistently suggestive signs, and of an "abstract"
gentility whose basis is no known or recognizeablesocial groupingor category, but ratheris sustainedby a shadowy procedureof "right"interpretative behaviour. The autotelic moral-the coincidence of the moral
hermeneutic (narrativediscretion and epistemological humility) with the
reading process (which structuresfor the reader a position of continual
wariness and the need to make precise distinctions)-is reinforcedby the
plaisir involved in the proscriptionof an imprecise dread.The closer the
call, the nearerthe reader'sown resemblanceto and avoidance of this intepretativearrogance,the greateris the imperativein the readingprocess
to proscribe the near-sin of the nameless narrator,and the more obvious
sins of Jekyll and Lanyon.
The narratorialgentility suggested in Jekyll and Hyde might in some
ways be comparedto Stevenson's articulationof an aesthetic gentility in
his critical essays. When he cautions, in his essay "A Note on Realism,"
that the good writer "must ... suppressmuch and omit more,"he adumbrates the good taste which characterisesthe narrativesof decent professional men like Utterson,Enfield and the omniscientnarrator(72). Stevenson's essay advocates in writing a certain degree of "abstraction"or
"idealism" against the tyranny of contemporary"realism,"by which he
means the "merelytechnical and decorative"reliance on external"detail"
which has risen in late nineteenth-centuryletters (69). His fragmentary
essay, "A Chapteron Dreams," similarly suggests that the unconscious,
condensed and enigmatic narrativestructureof the dream-workis aesthetically superiorto the moral elaborationsand embellishmentsof the "conscious ego" ("Chapter"202, 206-208).
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HydeandSeek
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This aesthetic anxiety is not confined to Stevenson, and is also expressed in the essays of his friend and fellow novelist Henry James.
James's 1884 essay "TheArt of Fiction"was, like Stevenson's "A Note on
Realism,"a reactionto WalterBesant's lectureon fiction; like Stevenson's
essay, it was an act of repudiation,enteringinto the "New Grub Street"15
wars by delineating an aesthetic class position. James describes Besant's
form of literary professionalism as a type of snobbery and hypocrisy,
clothing Besant in Jekyll-like clothes. Among Besant's stricturesare that
"a writerwhose friends and personalexperiencesbelong to the lower middle-class should carefully avoid introducinghis charactersinto society."
James finds this both "chilling," as an act of social superiorityand prescription, as well as ironic: Besant's sweeping remarksare "not exact,"
"so beautiful and so vague," and thus lack the "precisionand exactness"
which Besant himself holds to be a key quality of the novelist ("Art"55).
Beneath Besant's vision of a properliteraryprofessionalism,accordingto
James, lies a journeymanstyle which resemblesthe plebeianmodels it disparages-an imputed social transgression,Jekyll-like, which on James's
partmarksthe close relationshipbetween the aestheticwill and social anxiety.
It is also quite clear that beneathJames's own thinly-veiled courtesies
to Besant lies his own act of proscription,subtly defining James's code of
aesthetic gentility by contrastingitself to the heavy-handedcrudeness of
Besant's strictures.In place of the "vagueness"and "unguarded"aims of
lower orders of writing, James advocates "precision,"which consists of
being the most true to "experience."Here his departurefrom Stevenson
becomes clear: where Stevenson fears the dominance of realism's "local
dexterity," "facts," the artist "with scientific thoroughness, steadily to
communicatematterwhich is not worth learning"(74), James stronglyapproves of "exactness"and "truthof detail," even agreeing with Besant's
suggestion that the author's novel should be stocked with facts from his
notebook (55). For James, the "freedom"of the novel did not mean a retreat into ellipsis and unconscious signification, but was equivalent with
"history"and life itself. Whatever his reservationsabout the "vulgarity,
the crudity,the stupidity"("Criticism"134) of base reviewersand readers,
James'smoral goals, like his aestheticgentility,ultimatelytake the form of
a broad humanismwhich attemptedto presentthe "real"aspect of human
experience to modem society. This aesthetic of human "experience"and
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the "real,"despite its stylistic quarrelwith the nineteenthcentury,retained
its preoccupation with the social and political, and thus constituted (as
Fredric Jameson and others have pointed out) a utopian and idealist vision.16 In this respect the modernism of the Conradianartist's "descent
into himself' to reveal human experience, aligns itself with James's aesthetic: in particular,Conrad'sincessant concern with the ethics of European racism,17as well as with the materialbases of social decay (ivory in
Heart of Darkness, silver in Nostromo,the largereconomy of imperialist
capitalism in which these signs function),and his quest for an implicit social and moral orderthat will offer an alternativeto this, characterizesthe
romantic organicism of his modernism no less than that of James and
Yeats.18
This impulse of veracity-a conviction of the largerworld or reality
which it is literature'sduty to accuratelycopy-is conspicuously absent
from Stevenson's poetic model. Stevenson's novel is sometimes reluctantly called into being by "financial fluctuations,"and it will often have
a dose of "morality"superadded("Dreams"208); but the "real"figures
only as the hovering "evil angel" fighting for the soul of the text ("Realism" 72). This was also an alternativetheory of narrative'spossible negotiation of power: romantic modernism's response was to meet it with
the opposed power of the impressionistic statement(epitomised by Lily
Briscoe's momentary, intense "vision," Marlow's "Buddha"-likestory).
Stevenson's narrative, in contrast, responds to modernism's anxiety
about social power by a continual exercising (and exorcising) of the
shame and guilty pleasure involved in the textual process. The reader's
engagement with narrativeelements, as a form of language-power,becomes a ritual performance which displaces and defers the force of
the actual, social and historical. In repudiating the realist and social
utopian codes of romantic modernist narrative,Stevenson resorted to a
narrativemodel which (in its anti-romanticconception of the "sublime"
as a constant deferral, and in its reliance on profoundly self-conscious
"language games")19more closely resembles and anticipatespostmodernity.
National Universityof Singapore
Singapore
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Notes
1. More recent examples of such readings include essays by Peter K. Garrett,Ronald R.
Thomas, and M. Kellen Williams.
2.
The phrase is Stephen D. Arata's(248). One of the mot persuasiveand comprehensive
accounts of the role of patriarchyin this novella is William Veeder's essay "Children
of the Night."
3.
The phrase is Arata's (253), althoughhe does usefully problematizeStevenson's antirealist poetics.
4.
It was Cassell, the English publisher,which coined the alternativetitle, fearing that
Stevenson's original title (the one by which it was known in America), would be confused with Kidnapped.For a detailed account of the publishing history of these romances, see BarryMenikoff.
5. The unfinishedromance WeirofHermiston is includedin the World'sClassic's edition
of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (115).
6.
Ebeneezer is himself ironically named, a shameful betrayalof the Biblical memorial
stones and their function of public testimony and declaration;see, e.g., 1 Samuel 7:12,
King James Version.
7. Thus Stevenson in In The South Seas claims understandingof MarquesaIslandersbecause of his "knowledge of our Scots folk of the Highlandsand the Islands."Stevenson felt the similarityespecially in terms of the structuresof power governing the two
societies: "an alien authorityenforced, the clans disarmed, the chiefs deposed, new
customs introduced"(Island 34).
8. TerryEagleton (262) remindsus that for Freud,libidinalprocesses are essentially aesthetic devices, the unconscious working "by a kind of 'aesthetic' logic."
9.
Andrew Lang wrote a review of Jekyll and Hyde in the SaturdayReview of 9 January
1886, reprinted in Critical Heritage (199). This view of the "moral sense" of the
novella was echoed by JamesAshcroftNoble, the anonymousreviewer in the Rock of
2 April 1886, and others (203-205, 224-227). Stevenson's insistence is found in his
letter to John Paul Bocock in November 1887, reactingangrilyto an unnamedcritic's
account of RichardMansfield'sproductionof Jekyll and Hyde (231).
10. The term "janiformnity"
is taken from Watts(Deceptive). "Organic"modernistprojects
have their origins in romanticism's championing of an underlying, "living" social
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value against the degradingaspects of industrialand commercialforms-thus, for example, John Storey's characterisationof MatthewArnold's "organic"intellectualconservatism.
I1. Barthes'fifth code, the "proiaretic"-associated with plot patterns,"action,"and consumeristreading, is of less direct relevance to Jekyll and Hyde.
12. This ostensible social distinction based on choice of drink seems to be part of what
RobertMighall identifies as an "urbananthropology,"associatedwith Victoriansocial
commentatorssuch as Henry Mayhew. The irony of Utterson'smixed tastes depends
upon the knowledge of such an anthropology,even as it ultimately confuses its distinctions.
13. "Voracity"is not a usual partof the definitionof "maw,"but it is insisted on by the Oxford StudyDictionary; most definitions do, however, suggest the feral, with its connotations of savagery and base appetites.
14. A similarly abruptnarrativelegerdemainoccurs at the end of Catriona, where in the
final two paragraphs,David for the first time addresseshis two children,who are suddenly revealed as the auditors of his extended, two-novel story, although they are
never even hinted at, at any earlier point. This creates a retroactivenarrativeinstability, where the reader is urged to re-readthe entire preceding narrativein light of the
differentintent, consciousness and functionthis change in the audiencesuggests, while
at the same time the belatednessof this revelationalso suggests thatthis revision is impracticaland unnecessary.
15. George Gissing's phrase is slightly anachronistic,of course (since his novel of that
title is published in 1891), but eloquently relevant
16. FredricJameson, following modernistslike Habermnas,
characterizesmodernismas an
in
to
"about
the
think
attempt
thing itself, substantively, Utopian or essential fashion"
(ix). Even Habennas's disputant,Jean-FrancoisLyotard,defines modernismas a "nostalgia" or "solace," a refusal to embrace the lack that constitutes the true sublime
("Answering the Question" 149). This is true of modernism'simperialistproject as
well: Benita Parry (10) points out that the ambivalenttextual processes in Conrad's
Heart of Darkness serve a political goal, that of reinvigoratinga "latent idealism"
within the Britishcolonial project.
17. This is no less a cultural referent for its being deeply controversial: see Chinua
Achebe's "An Image of Africa,"and opposing views offeredby CedricWattsand Hunt
Hawkins.
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18. Yeats saw himself as one of the "last romantics"(his phrase in "Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931"), of course, and his attemptto envision an enspirited,aristocraticIreland
(in opposition to the materialistic coarseness of "Paudeen'spence") stands in clear
contrast to Stevenson's profoundunease with the modernistsocial vision. See Denis
Donoghue's "RomanticIreland,"and Allen Tate's"Yeats'sRomanticism."
19. These, once again, are Lyotard'sterms and characteristics,raised in "Answeringthe
Question"(146-149) and "Discussions"(366-369).
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