Under Construction Journal Issue 6.1 UNDER CONSTRUCTION JOURNAL 6.1 | Page 37

comprehend the setting, making it an example of the obscure in which we find fear because we cannot
rely on our preconceived notions of how society works, or how certain members of society (i.e doctors)
are supposed to act in situations that test their morality.
This can be seen with specific clarity in a later passage of the novel when Enfield tells the story of
the child in the streets at three o’clock in the morning:
“All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastwards at a good walk,
and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross
street. Well, sir, the two ran straight into each other naturally enough at the corner; and then
came the horrible part of the thing; for the man trampled calmly over the child’s body and left
her screaming on the ground. It sounds nothing to hear, but it was hellish to see.” (Stevenson
2015, 35)
We can see from this passage that Enfield and Utterson consider the girls’ behaviour to be normal. No
pressing questions are asked as to why there is a girl running on the streets at three in the morning, or to
what Enfield is doing there either. Additionally, the phrasing of ‘well, sir’ suggests that Enfield is titillated
to be able to tell this story, not horrified. Finally, Enfield suggests that ‘it sounds nothing to hear’ yet I
would argue that it sounds extremely horrific. All of this suggests that Stevenson is presenting us with a
fictional society that morally, despite being set in London, does not mirror our own. To this effect, the
reader cannot determine what to make of the actions carried out by the characters that reside in this
fictional society, and a mediator is necessary. Utterson is therefore necessary to try and provide some
guidance on how to judge the actions of these fictional characters. In other words, obscurity generally
creates the literary space and need for a detective who takes on the task of trying to shed some light on
what is initially obscure. Having now established that the fictional social setting is obscure to us, in the
case of Jekyll and Hyde, determining what the detective is aiming to uncover may not be as
straightforward as one would assume.
Self-Detection
Having established that a detective is necessary to comprehend this fictional society, we must now turn
to the types of detective present in the novel. Utterson’s goal throughout the novel is to unmask Hyde.
Upon his first meeting with Hyde, he is struck with the feeling of not being able to pinpoint his disgust;
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