Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a famous short novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The inspiration for the story came from a nightmare Stevenson had about a man transforming into his evil self. Stevenson wrote the nightmare as a story and finished it in three days. It was published in 1886. The novel is a psychological examination into the nature of good and evil. It is also a brilliant portrait of a split personality.
The full title of the novel is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The novel’s central character is Henry Jekyll, a respected and generous London physician. Jekyll is fascinated by the question of good and evil. As a scientific experiment, he privately creates a potion that separates the good and evil in his nature. His evil side takes the form of the brutal, repulsive Mr. Hyde. Gradually Hyde comes to dominate Jekyll and eventually commits a murder. Fearful that he is losing his ability to control his transformation into Hyde, Jekyll makes what for him is an ethical choice and takes his own life.
Literary scholars have praised the novel as a brilliant inquiry into the nature of the evil that may exist in all people. The work anticipates much modern psychological fiction and remains one of the most fascinating horror stories ever written. The term Jekyll and Hyde has come to mean someone embodying both good and evil or displaying deeply contradictory behavior. Stevenson’s novel has been filmed many times, most notably with John Barrymore (1920), Fredric March (1931), and Spencer Tracy (1941) in the title roles.
