“ you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. ”
Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). copy citation
| Author | Robert Louis Stevenson |
|---|---|
| Source | Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde |
| Topic | darkness secret seclusion |
| Date | 1886 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43/43-h/43-h.htm |
Context
“As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysterious in drift. The quarrel with Lanyon was incurable. «I do not blame our old friend,» Jekyll wrote, «but I share his view that we must never meet. I mean from henceforth to lead a life of extreme seclusion; you must not be surprised, nor must you doubt my friendship, if my door is often shut even to you. You must suffer me to go my own dark way. I have brought on myself a punishment and a danger that I cannot name. If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also. I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence.»”
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Meaning and analysis
