The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

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Robert Louis Stevenson

Literature

Aug 25, 2018

Rare is the modern literary work that speaks with the uncanny authority of folklore. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, published in 1886 to a popular acclaim that has not diminished since, is just such a creation, a tale of tantalizing suspense that echoes with disturbing and mysterious psychological resonance. The figure at its core has become an emblem of the duplicity of human nature: intellect and appetite, restraint and transgression, civility and brutality—Jekyll and Hyde. We cannot help but recognize that Jekyll is at every stage protective of his twin, and thus complicit in Hyde’s vice and savage violence: Good cleaves to evil with appalling instinct. Stevenson’s story tells us the world’s horrors are human, and our own. That it remains compelling suggests the mysteries stories can summon and science cannot.

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