Comparing Rago's Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde

In Jane Rago’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: A 'Men's Narrative' of Hysteria and Containment, Rago attempts to show that the guiding meaning behind Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is to demonstrate the reality of male deviance despite the Victorian Era’s attempt to suppress such a reality. Jane Rago starts off by stating that Hyde is much more similar to the average male than Utterson or an upper class male would like to admit. Rago attempts to prove this by critiquing the way in which upper class characters, characterize Hyde. This is demonstrated when Enfield encounters Hyde for the first time, stating that he immediately, “had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight”. Rago believes that this way in which Enfield attempts to characterize Hype as evil is similar to how Victorian society ostracized any ill-mannered behavior or belief, attempting to uphold only the most pristine manners and values. Rago thinks that Enfield, someone who represents the ideal Victorian Era values, tries to distance himself from this behavior because if he doesn’t he is allowing the “gentleman” standards to be tainted by Hyde’s deviance, “It is precisely this discursive regime that Hyde threatens, and this results in a panic of representation and self-implication...”(Rago 3). Enfield loathes and is disgusted by Hyde

However at the same time, Rago believes, that the hideous way