...
[Enfield] lifted up his cane and pointed.
"Did you ever remark that door?"
he asked; and when his companion had replied in the affirmative, "It is connected in my
mind," added he, "with a very odd story.""I see you feel as I
do," said Mr. Enfield. "Yes, it's a bad story. For my man was a fellow that nobody could
have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very
pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, ... Black-mail, I suppose; an honest man paying
through the nose for some of the capers of his youth.
..."
There is textual
evidence related to their walk indicating that Enfield and Utterson think Jekyll and
Hyde very strange indeed. I've quoted above two significant pieces of textual evidence.
They relate to (1) how Enfield feels about the evil man and the story and to (2) how
both Enfield and Utterson think about the connection between the "damnable man" and the
"celebrated" man.
(1) Enfield makes it clear that he feels,
and rightly so, that the experience he had was of the most horrific kind of experience
and that the "damnable" man perpetrating the events was the most villainous and inhuman
sort of man possible. Enfield recognizes that Utterson shares the same feelings: "I see
you feel as I do," said Mr. Enfield. "Yes, it's a bad
story."
(2) Enfield and Utterson agree that there is
probable cause to think blackmail is involved in the connection between the evil man and
the celebrated man who owns the door leading into "Black-Mail House," as Enfield calls
it: "Black-mail, I suppose; an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers
of his youth."
When both the feelings and thoughtful
explanations of the connections are added together, clear textual evidence is provided
that both Enfield and Utterson think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde strange, strangely
connected, strangely behaving, strangely mysterious, and--at least for Utterson who is
Jekyll's close friend--strangely troubled.
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