Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Lewis Stevenson is an English writer of Scottish descent, a poet, and the creator of adventure novels and stories—one of the leading figures of English neo-romanticism. A central motive in his work is the conflict between light and darkness within the human soul. In “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he reinterprets the theme of the double, familiar to Romanticism and Gothic fiction, bringing it closer to early science fiction: the grim second “self” gains complete freedom through a split in the personality. After drinking a potion he prepared himself, Dr. Jekyll—upright and respected—turns into his sinister double, Mr. Hyde, morally contemptible and physically repulsive. The mystery surrounding Henry Jekyll is frightening precisely because it is inexplicable, leaving the reader with an instinctive sense of terror.