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Enfield and Poole in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — character analysis

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde · Robert Louis Stevenson · Set text on AQA GCSE English Literature (8702) — not on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE (4ET1) · Grade 9 Notes

In one sentence. The man about town and the servant: the witnesses who see most

Richard Enfield, Utterson's kinsman, tells the story of the door in Chapter 1 and is with him at the window in Chapter 7. Poole, Jekyll's butler, brings Utterson to the cabinet in Chapter 8. One is a gentleman, the other a servant, and between them they frame the mystery: Enfield opens it with an anecdote he would rather not finish, and Poole forces its end because he cannot bear the household's fear any longer. Stevenson uses them to show how differently class shapes what a witness is willing to say.

This study ends with Robert Louis Stevenson. Build your reading of Enfield and Poole in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, teach it, then defend it against Robert Louis Stevenson.

How Enfield and Poole develops

Enfield — the story he will not pursue

“the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.” — Enfield, Chapter 1, Story of the Door

'Queer Street' was slang for financial or moral trouble. Enfield's rule is the gentleman's code in one sentence: the more suspicious a thing looks, the less you inquire. He has seen a respectable name on Hyde's cheque and concludes it must be blackmail, then stops thinking about it.

Methods: slang · aphorism · comparative structure

Enfield also says that asking a question is like starting a stone rolling from a hilltop: you cannot know whose head it will land on. The image explains the whole gentlemanly world of the book. At the end of the chapter he and Utterson promise never to refer to the matter again, and their walk ends in agreed silence.

Poole — the servant who acts

“weeping like a woman or a lost soul.” — Poole, Chapter 8, The Last Night

Poole reports the sound from the cabinet. The simile links helplessness and damnation, and it comes from the person who knows the house best. The servants are huddled in the hall in fear; Poole has kept watch for a week before he comes to Utterson.

Methods: simile · religious imagery

Poole knows his master's voice and step, and he is certain the voice in the cabinet is not Jekyll's. Unlike Enfield, he insists. He brings the axe, he describes the masked figure, and he helps break the door. Stevenson gives the servant the clearer sight and the greater courage.

How Stevenson builds Enfield and Poole in language and structure

Enfield is a storyteller: his Chapter 1 anecdote has a setting (three in the morning, empty lamplit streets), a shock and a punchline, and he tells it lightly. The lightness is the problem — a child trampled becomes a story for a Sunday walk.

Poole's speech is plain and emotional: he is afraid, he says so, and he insists. His similes ('like a monkey', 'weeping like a woman or a lost soul') are simple and vivid.

Structurally they bracket the mystery: Enfield opens it in Chapter 1, Poole forces its end in Chapter 8. Enfield returns at the window in Chapter 7.

Grade 9 insight. Compare their willingness to speak: the gentleman will not ask questions; the servant cannot stop asking them.

Enfield and Poole in context

Enfield, 'the well-known man about town', represents the leisured gentleman whose code is not to inquire into other gentlemen's affairs.

Poole represents the Victorian household servant, who knew the household intimately but had little power to act without a gentleman's authority.

Their difference lets the novella show how class shapes who may speak and who is believed.

Relationships

  • Gabriel John Utterson — Enfield is his kinsman and walking companion; Poole turns to him for help. Both bring him the evidence he would rather not have.
  • Dr Henry Jekyll — Poole has served him for many years; Enfield sees him at the window in Chapter 7.
  • Edward Hyde — Enfield catches Hyde after the trampling and extracts the cheque; Poole sees the masked figure among the chemicals.

What Enfield and Poole stands for

  • Enfield: gentlemanly reticence — seeing, then choosing not to know.
  • Poole: the household's knowledge from below stairs, which sees more and is believed less.

Why Stevenson made Enfield and Poole

  • To open and close the mystery with witnesses of different classes, so the reader notices who speaks and who stays silent.
  • To make the gentlemen's code explicit through Enfield, and to break it through Poole.

Enfield and Poole — the strongest quotations, analysed

“I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgment.” — Enfield, Chapter 1, Story of the Door

Questioning is likened to the Last Judgement: to ask is to judge, and a gentleman does not judge other gentlemen. The religious register shows how deeply the code is rooted.

Methods: religious allusion · formal register

Enfield and Poole: all 6 quotations in the The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde quote bank, analysed →

Readings you could defend

More than one reading of Enfield and Poole can win the debate. These are the credible alternatives — argue one, and know the others.

  • Enfield as a man of the town with secrets of his own: he is walking home at three in the morning, and does not say from where.
  • Poole as the novella's quiet hero, the one character who acts on what he knows.
  • Both as narrative devices: Enfield to begin the story, Poole to force it to its crisis.

Essay arguments

  • Stevenson uses Enfield to state the code of silence and Poole to break it, linking courage to class.
  • The witnesses' failure to describe Hyde is shared across classes, so the horror is not a matter of education.

Enfield and Poole in theme essays

  • Reputation: Enfield's rule against questions.
  • Setting: Enfield's three-in-the-morning streets and Poole's frightened household.

Questions that get asked

  • Read the extract from Chapter 1 in which Enfield tells the story of the door. How does Stevenson present Enfield's attitude to secrets, here and across the novella?
  • Read the extract from Chapter 8 in which Poole fetches Utterson. How does Stevenson create fear in this passage and elsewhere?

Think you understand it?

Reading is the start. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it — the two things a revision guide cannot ask of you.

Incandio this topic → Prove it. Teach it. Defend it. What does “Incandio it” mean?

  1. Teach it — Explain your reading of Enfield and Poole in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to Ember, an AI pupil who has not made one, and answer the awkward question. Understanding is credited; wording is not required.
  2. Defend it — Hold your reading of Enfield and Poole in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde against Robert Louis Stevenson in a short, structured debate marked against descriptors you can read first.
  3. Then the exam — exam-style practice, marked on Incandio.

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