Mr. Gabriel John Utterson Character Analysis Mr. Gabriel John Utterson Mr. Utterson is a notary, whose stern face is never covered with a smile. He was a self-contained man, taciturn and awkward in society, lean, dusty, boring, and very likable as well.
Mr. Utterson is a notary, whose stern face is never covered with a smile. He was a self-contained man, taciturn and awkward in society, lean, dusty, boring, and very likable as well. In the circle of friends, and especially when he liked the wine, a spark of soft humanity began to glow in his eyes, which didn’t find access to his speech.
Therefore, if Utterson is deceived in his opinion of some event, then the reader is likewise deceived.
Except for the last two Chapters, most of the rest of the novel is seen through the eyes of Mr. Utterson, who functions as the "eyes" of "conscience" through which we, the readers, evaluate most of the novel. Therefore, if Utterson is deceived in his opinion of some event, then the reader is likewise deceived.
Mr Gabriel UttersonMost of the novel is seen from Mr Utterson's perspective. Utterson is a lawyer and therefore a respectable, wealthy man in Victorian London. Stevenson shows Utterson's personality to be rational, calm and curious.
Hyde, we are treated to the narrative point of view of Mr. Gabriel Utterson. He is the lawyer of the eponymous Dr. Jekyll, and is the central protagonist of this novella.
Summary — Chapter 3: “Dr. Utterson mentions the will, and Jekyll begins to make a joke about it, but he turns pale when Utterson tells him that he has been “learning something of young Hyde.” Jekyll explains that the situation with Hyde is exceptional and cannot be solved by talking.
Utterson's clerk and confidant. Guest is also an expert in handwriting. His skill proves particularly useful when Utterson wants him to examine a bit of Hyde's handwriting.
Mr Richard Enfield is a friend and distant cousin of Utterson's. He appears only twice in the novella , when he: tells Utterson about Hyde, arousing his curiosity and suspicions. suggests that Hyde might be blackmailing Jekyll, an idea Utterson accepts and acts on.
Sir Danvers Carew is an MP, described as “an aged and beautiful gentleman with white hair”. He is used to display the incredible acts of violence that Hyde is capable of committing. His murder in chapter four solidifies the reader's opinion of Hyde as a formidable and destructive character.
What is Utterson's plan to stop Hyde? He thinks Dr. Jekyll is being blackmailed because he was wild when he was young. He will research Hyde's past and find dirt on him to blackmail him and get him to stop blackmailing Dr.
Dr Lanyon is a genial man and was once a great friend to Dr Jekyll. Lanyon is passionately attached to his scientific certainties and disagrees with Jekyll's theories which Lanyon describes as "scientific balderdash".
Now, in Chapter 2, we are given Utterson's own private narration, in which we discover that he is not only a close friend to Dr. Henry Jekyll, but he is also the executor of Jekyll's will.
Mr. Gabriel John Utterson: The central character of the novel, who narrates most of the story, either directly or through documents which come into his possession.
Utterson's head clerk is Mr. Guest. Presently after, he sat on one side of his own hearth, with Mr. Guest, his head clerk, upon the other, and midway between, at a nicely calculated distance from the fire, a bottle of a particular old wine that had long dwelt unsunned in the foundations of his house.
He has committed suicide. Mr. Utterson finds several documents: a will naming him as the heir to Dr. Jekyll's estate, a note telling him to read Dr.
This, at first, sounds weird for a moral narrator, but then we are told that he is not censorious — that is, he is not anxious to judge and condemn his fellow man.
This attribute allows him to be deeply distressed over Dr. Jekyll's relationship with Mr. Edward Hyde. That is, Utterson is a shrewd judge of character, and he sees in Edward Hyde an immoral and evil person, and he is deeply concerned for his friend's (Dr. Jekyll's) well-being.
Stevenson had trained as a lawyer himself, though he did not go on to practise law. This gave him a good insight into the profession, making him well placed to develop Utterson as a character. The first description of Utterson might indicate why Stevenson thought himself not suited to law – perhaps he did not want to be like this himself.
Stevenson had trained as a lawyer himself, though he did not go on to practise law. This gave him a good insight into the profession, making him well placed to develop Utterson as a character. The first description of Utterson might indicate why Stevenson thought himself not suited to law – perhaps he did not want to be like this himself.
Utterson is also used to demonstrate the effects of the horrific story on ordinary people. Utterson is haunted by Hyde and even dreams of him, reinforcing to the reader the image of Hyde as a repulsive and truly frightening character. Utterson is described as having ‘tossed to and fro’ as he dreamt, showing the lawyer’s fear of Hyde.
Moreover, Stevenson hinting at Utterson’s dubious side is also a comment on society as a whole. Stevenson is remarking that the whole of society has a corrupt and evil nature within it, but everyone is hiding from it.
Utterson ’s contradiction between the passive character he chooses to present and the obsessive, investigative character he really possesses is an example of the hypocritical nature of victorian society, and also links to the idea that everyone is dual in nature.
Utterson is also used as a narrator so that the reader discovers the plot in a dramatic and mysterious way, as we discover the truth through Utterson’s research and discoveries. Utterson is used to collect the information told through various mediums and characters, and thus compacts the story and makes him Stevenson’s envoy to the reader.
At the beginning of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson uses Utterson to demonstrate a logical response to the horrific story of a man trampling a young girl, as recollected by Enfield, Utterson’s companion. Upon hearing the story, Utterson remarks simply ‘tut tut’, demonstrating his disapproval of Hyde’s behaviour, but with very little emotion.
Indeed, it is interesting that his name is possibly a pun for ‘Utters-none’, reinforcing the idea that he will not share what he discovers of Jekyll to the police or anyone else.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson employs Utterson as the narrator and voice of the novella, as well as the investigator or detective figure that allows the story to be ‘discovered’ dramatically by the reader. Utterson also provides a contrast as a the voice of reason compared to the supernatural and fantastical elements provided by Jekyll ...