Stevenson provides several other symbols that lend a homoerotic interpretation to the novel. The discussion of the blackmail house between Mr. Utterson and his kinsman Richard Enfield, the description of the door leading into the blackmail house, and the depiction of Utterson and Poole, Dr. Jekyll's butler, breaking into the lab. Blackmail in the Victorian period was commonly associated with homosexuality, and in fact, instituted to deal with homosexual liaisons. Enfield's nickname for Dr. Jekyll's laboratory, "blackmail house," supports the underlyin

Hyde's most significant interaction with a stranger, Sir Danvers Carew, lends itself to a homosexual interpretation as well. Sir Danvers Carew, an "aged and beautiful gentleman" of "high position" is walking in a part of town one would not expect to find someone of such importance, suggesting his activities are illicit and he is trying to keep them secret from the public, upper class society in which he lives (Stevenson 25). Carew points to something "as if he were only inquiring his way" and Hyde "broke out in a great flame of anger" and "trampled his victim under foot" (Stevenson 25-26). Hyde's anger at Carew might stem from his anger towards Jekyll. Carew, a well-respected citizen, is quite possibly propositioning Hyde, a young man, for sexual favors, but he is doing it late at night, in a seedy part of town. This behavior is not wholly uncommon to upper-class gay men during this time, as a way of keeping their homosexual acts hidden from public scrutiny. Hyde's anger towards Carew is the same anger he feels towards Jekyll for keeping his homosexuality a secret. It is an anger latently directed at the hypocrisy involved in having homoerotic tendencies, but having to hide those tendencies in order to remain socially respectable. Stevenson's critique of this hypocrisy is shown through Hyde's fatal beating of Sir Danvers Carew.

It is this shame and his conflicting desire to live out his homosexual desires without threat of ruining his reputation that leads to the creation of Hyde. Dr. Jekyll feels he is torn in two, the homoerotic man crying for freedom, and the moral man, who must keep the homosexual man under control in order to maintain his reputation within society. But Dr. Jekyll is not as strong a man as Utterson and is unable to completely repress his homosexual tendencies. His irresolute nature leads to his desire to separate the two facets of himself, claiming that "if each could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable" (Stevenson 61). His dark side could be free to act as it wishes without the nagging consciousness, and Jekyll's upstanding, respectable side would not be bothered by detestable desires. "The unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations...of his more upright twin; and the just could walk securely on his upward path...no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil" (Stevenson 61).

Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges. A dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet. Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and the frame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was tough and the fittings of excellent workmanship; and it was not until the fifth, that the lock burst in sunder and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet. The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. (Stevenson 48)

Utterson's propensity for homosexu

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Approximate Word count = 2059
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)