Utterson, Lanyon and others

Utterson is a lawyer, introduced as ‘lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable’ (Chapter 1). He is reserved: he rarely smiles, speaks little and enjoys his own company.

He is loyal and tolerant. He says, ‘I incline to Cain's heresy’ (Chapter 1): he lets his friends go their own way rather than judge them, and he is often the last good influence in a falling man's life.

His loyalty is also his weakness. To protect Jekyll's name, he keeps quiet instead of going to the police.

Most of the story follows Utterson's point of view, so we only know what he knows.

He is determined. Waiting by the door, he thinks, ‘If he be Mr. Hyde,’ then ‘I shall be Mr. Seek’ (Chapter 2), a pun that shows he is playing hide-and-seek with a mystery.

But as a rational lawyer, he looks for rational answers: blackmail, then forgery. He never imagines the supernatural truth. Through him, Stevenson shows how a respectable, logical Victorian gentleman cannot see what is really happening.

Lanyon is a doctor and an old friend of Jekyll's. He stands for traditional, rational science. He fell out with Jekyll over his strange experiments, which he dismisses as ‘unscientific balderdash’ (Chapter 2).

After seeing the transformation, he is broken. He tells Utterson, ‘I have had a shock’ (Chapter 6), and soon dies. In his narrative he writes that his ‘life is shaken to its roots’ (Chapter 9).

Lanyon shows that the truth about Jekyll is too terrible for a rational mind to survive.

Enfield is a distant relative of Utterson's, and a well-known man about town. His story about the trampled girl starts the novel. He has a rule: the more something looks strange, the fewer questions he asks.

The story is linked to a door in ‘a certain sinister block of building’ (Chapter 1). The door is ‘blistered and distained’ (Chapter 1), neglected and dirty. It is the back entrance to Jekyll's laboratory, while the front of his house is handsome and respectable. The door is a symbol of the hidden side of Jekyll.

Enfield and Utterson agree never to speak of the story again.

• Poole, Jekyll's butler, is loyal and frightened. He brings Utterson to break down the door in Chapter 8.
• Mr Guest, Utterson's clerk, notices that Hyde's handwriting matches Jekyll's.
• Sir Danvers Carew, the murdered MP, is described by the maid as an aged, beautiful gentleman: Hyde destroys the very model of respectability.

Why Stevenson uses them: almost every character is a respectable gentleman who keeps quiet to avoid scandal. Together they show a society that values reputation above truth.