Neil Bowen on
Homosexuality, Clubland and Secrecy
In July 1889 a fifteen-year-old boy, Charles Swinscow, was questioned in relation to a robbery at the London Central Telegraph office. Though a lowly telegraph-boy, Swinscow had on his person fifteen shillings, the equivalent of many weeks’ worth of wages. Under pressure, Swinscow admitted to earning the money through working as a prostitute at a male brothel operating at 19 Cleveland Street. Soon allegations had been made that several eminent, aristocratic Victorians, most notably Lord Arthur Somerset, were among the regular clients of the brothel.
During the subsequent investigation it seems the police were, like Utterson, rather slow to pursue certain lines of inquiry. The eventual trial was also limited in scope and controversial, while the coverage of
the scandal in the press was minimal until it featured in an obscure radical weekly, The North London Press. The tensions in Stevenson’s novella between revelation and concealment are clearly reflected in the Cleveland Street Scandal, where, though there was a trial, there also appears to have been something of a cover-up.
According to Michel Foucault, ‘the late nineteenth century saw an explosion of discourses on sex and sexuality’.55 Gothic fiction of the period echoes these emerging discourses. One critic points out that in the fin-de-siècle a form of ‘silenced homosexuality’ was in play, a phenomena increased by the Labouchere Amendment that led to homosexuality being branded as ‘an unhealthy form of malady’.
Indeed, this idea of silencing is evident in many details of the novella. Though homosexuality is never explicitly mentioned, there are clear clues to its coded presence. Ultimately, the way that homosexuality is never openly acknowledged echoes fears of homosexuality in Late Victorian society.
The novella is almost entirely homosocial; it focuses solely on male characters and the way they interact with each other. Whilst on one level, this could reflect a desire to keep to gender norms and emphasise the patriarchal nature of Victorian society, it also establishes the centrality of relationships exclusively between men. The eminent critic, Elaine Showalter suggests that the male characters are part of a social network that she labels the ‘Clubland’. According to Showalter, this functions to provide ‘an exclusively male sphere designed to reinforce the solidity of patriarchal values in an era of gendered uncertainty’.57 She goes on to explain Clubland reveals the ‘forbidden emotions between men [within] the dark side of patriarchy.’58 Jekyll surrounds himself with ‘all intelligent reputable men’. What is more, there are subtle hints that the male characters are negotiating the ‘dark space’ of patriarchy. Enfield reveals to Utterson that he was at ‘some place at the end of the world’ and notes it was at ‘three o’clock’. Meanwhile, Sir Danvers Carew also walked the London streets at night, accosting a young man, Hyde, who beats him to death.