the very pink of the proprieties

In Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the phrase "the very pink of the proprieties" is uttered by Mr. Richard Enfield during his account of the child trampling incident, and it functions as a crucial linguistic marker of the novel's central tension between public reputation and private depravity. The expression, which denotes the epitome of social correctness and moral uprightness, is applied by Enfield to the man who signed the cheque that compensated the family of the child Hyde had injured. This man, Enfield reveals, is "celebrated too" and one of those who "do what they call good," a description that, in the context of the story, points unmistakably to Dr. Henry Jekyll. The phrase thus becomes a verbal emblem of the very propriety that Jekyll's double life will ultimately shatter.

Context and Utterance

The phrase appears in the opening chapter, "Story of the Door," during a Sunday walk shared by Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield. Enfield narrates his encounter with a man who trampled a young girl in the street and then, to avoid a scandal, agreed to pay the family one hundred pounds. The man produced a cheque signed with a name Enfield cannot bring himself to utter aloud, but which he describes as "a name at least very well known and often printed." Reflecting on the disparity between the cheque's signatory and the vile creature who had committed the assault, Enfield declares: "the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties, celebrated too, and (what makes it worse) one of your fellows who do what they call good." The phrase is delivered with a tone of moral indignation, as Enfield immediately suspects blackmail—"an honest man paying through the nose for some of the capers of his youth."

Thematic Significance

The expression "the very pink of the proprieties" crystallizes the novel's preoccupation with the duality of human nature and the gulf between outward respectability and inner corruption. Jekyll, a wealthy, charitable, and scientifically distinguished physician, is the embodiment of Victorian propriety; yet his signature is used to buy silence for a crime committed by his alter ego, Edward Hyde. The phrase thus becomes a verbal counterpart to the physical door that connects Jekyll's respectable home to the sordid by-street where Hyde operates. It underscores the hypocrisy that Jekyll himself later confesses: that he concealed his pleasures and maintained a "profound duplicity of me" in order to preserve his public standing. Enfield's choice of words—"the very pink of the proprieties"—is therefore not merely a colloquialism but a pointed indictment of a society that values appearances over truth.

Narrative Function

Within the novel's detective structure, the phrase serves as a clue that links Utterson's growing suspicions to the identity of the cheque's signatory. Utterson, who already knows the contents of Jekyll's will, immediately recognizes the implication: "the fact is, if I do not ask you the name of the other party, it is because I know it already." The phrase thus accelerates the plot by confirming Utterson's fears and deepening the mystery of Jekyll's connection to Hyde. Moreover, Enfield's reluctance to name the signatory—"a name that I can't mention, though it's one of the points of my story"—creates a narrative gap that sustains suspense, while the phrase itself becomes a shorthand for the respectable facade that Jekyll maintains until the final revelation of his confession.