Both Uses of
heresy
in
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- "I incline to Cain's heresy," he used to say quaintly: "I let my brother go to the devil in his own way."
p. 2.0 *heresy = opinions or actions most people consider immoraleditor's notes: Cain's heresy is a Biblical reference indicating that Utterson does not take responsibility for the well-being of his friends.
In the Bible, a man named Cain kills his brother Abel and tries to hide it from God. When God asks Cain, where his brother is. Cain responds, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Utterson is not referencing the murder. He is referencing the denial of responsibility for what happens to others. In context, we might wonder if he could have acted more forcibly to save Dr. Jekyll.
- I never saw a man so distressed as you were by my will; unless it were that hide-bound pedant, Lanyon, at what he called my scientific heresies.†
p. 25.3heresies = opinions or actions most people consider immoral