Under Construction Journal Issue 6.1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL 6.1 | Page 35

cast as the monster of the novella from the start and used to suggest that the downfall of society rests on
the shoulders of the lower class, ; the immoral citizens of the city (Byron, 2015, 191). To contrast this, Dr
Jekyll is described by Utterson as a morally upstanding citizen of the bourgeoisie. However, we must
remember that Hyde is Jekyll. The novella in fact sets us up to detest Hyde and his “murderous mixture of
timidity and boldness” (Stevenson, 2015, 43), and to pity “poor old Harry Jekyll” (Stevenson, 2015, 43)
without reminding the reader, mainly due to Utterson’s ignorance, that they are one and the same.
Utterson’s ‘case’ appears to be finding out who Hyde is and his connection to Jekyll but instead I
propose that the novella invites the reader to question where Hyde comes from. The immediate answer
is that Hyde comes from inside an upstanding, moral, higher class citizen; Hyde, simply, could exist inside
anyone. Surely then he is no more of a monster than the rest of us? The Gothic and the Detective genres
work together, therefore, to create a narrative that asks the reader to question the monstrosity of Hyde
and, as a result, undertake an interrogation of the self which results in an interior examination of virtue
through a consideration of the fictional.
Genre Theory
Many critics of genre theory, including Altman (1999), have spoken about the limitations of genre. Genre
in its essence not only categorises texts for the ease of the reader, but also restricts texts. Genre may be
simpler if we only ever discussed genres as acting on texts in a singular manner, but they do not exist in
isolation from other genres. Derrida writes in his seminal essay The Law of Genre that “every text
participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text; there is always a genre and genres, yet
such participation never amounts to belonging” (Derrida, 1980, 65). Derrida reminds us here that there is
always genre at play when literature is discussed, but that genre rarely exists in the singular due to the
evolutionary nature of genre itself. Therefore, texts are able to employ devices of genre without belonging
to the genre itself, allowing texts to utilise genre in a multifaceted manner. When discussing genre, we
must be mindful of the notion that all genres are developed only in conversation with other established
genres, yet some exist on a familial level (Frow, 2006, 54). For example, I have previously argued that the
detective genre is directly evolved from the Gothic genre. Gothic literature has always been formed
around a ‘mystery’ or something we fail to comprehend. The detective genre seeks to rationalise and
realise the horror shown in the Gothic. We must now question what parts of Jekyll and Hyde employ
devices of the Gothic to create the need and space for a literary detective.
26