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(from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1888)

Read the passage and write a one-paragraph response of at least three to five sentences.


Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable. At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste, something eminently human beaconed from his eye; something indeed which never found its way into his talk, but which spoke not only in these silent symbols of the after-dinner face, but more often and loudly in the acts of his life. He was austere with himself; drank gin when he was alone, to mortify a taste for vintages; and though he enjoyed the theater, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years. But he had an approved tolerance for others; sometimes wondering, almost with envy, at the high pressure of spirits involved in their misdeeds; and in any extremity inclined to help rather than to reprove. "I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way." In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of downgoing men. And to such as these, so long as they came about his chambers, he never marked a shade of change in his demeanour.

No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature. It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer's way. His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object. Hence, no doubt the bond that united him to Mr. Richard Enfield, his distant kinsman, the well-known man about town. It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common. It was reported by those who encountered them in their Sunday walks, that they said nothing, looked singularly dull and would hail with obvious relief the appearance of a friend. For all that, the two men put the greatest store by these excursions, counted them the chief jewel of each week, and not only set aside occasions of pleasure, but even resisted the calls of business, that they might enjoy them uninterrupted.

What do you believe the allusion to Cain means in this passage?


Sagot :

Answer:

By "Cain's heresay" he was referring to the famous phrase "I am not my brother's keeper." Cain used it meaning that he was not responsible for what his brother did, and if his brother made bad decisions the consequences should fall on him, and not Cain, that t wasn't his job to babysit his brother. By alluding to this quote in the passage Mr. Utterson was saying that it is not his job to monitor or judge anyone, that he is not anyone's keeper or babysitter. it is not his job to judge the actions of others as right or wrong, and he "let's his brother go to the devil in his own way." Meaning if you want to make bad choices he is not responsible for what you do, and will not judge you for doing it. he's basically saying we're all grown ups here, do what you want to do, and I'll be your friend either way....we are all responsible for our own choices good or bad.

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