"Story of the Door" Reaction

Think of a memorable moment from the chapter "Story of the Door" in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  What does this moment make you think about?  What connections can you make to some of the information you have read about in the prereading articles?  What themes are potentially implied through this moment in the text?

Sample: 

Throughout the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, several moments catch the reader's attention.  One such moment that stood out to me when reading the chapter, "Story of the Door" was when Enfield is relaying his story about the door to Mr. Utterson.  When he finishes telling the story, Mr. Utterson asks Enfield if he has ever further investigated the building with the door to find out more about its occupant. 

Mr. Enfield's response is quite interesting to me.  He responds with, "No sir:  I had a delicacy/I feel very strongly about putting questions; it partakes too much of the style of the day of judgement.  You start a question, and it's like starting a stone.  You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name."

This moment in the text truly reflects the Victorian society and what it values.  I remember reading that the Vicotorian society valued manners.  Mr. Enfield's reluctance to investigate this house any further is mostly due to not wanting to upset the other members of his class or community "and presently some bland old bird is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name."  This moment also highlights the fact that one person of the upper class has the power, through inquiry and rumors, to entirely ruin another person's reputation and ultimately their whole family's liveliness.  Enfield seems to be apprehensive when it comes to confrontation of the social problem of the building with the door because he is afraid of the societal reprecussions. 
According to the article "The Victorian Age," novelists of this time period, including Robert Louis Stevenson, relished in exposing the cruelty of society "therefore they described the society as it was, in order to make readers realise social injustices".  I believe the "social injustice" that Stevenson was trying to expose in this passage from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was that Victorian society's obsession with reputation and status was very daunting to people who were just trying to do the right thing.  Confrontation is never easy, but in this society is had catastrophic consequences.