1. Inspiration and writing

Legacy and adaptations
The notion of the “double” was widely popular in the 19th century, especially in German literary discussions of the doppelgänger. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Double (1846) dealt with this very subject, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s classic Frankenstein tale (1818) can be read in this light. The theme was explored explicitly by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and by H.G. Wells in both The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and The Invisible Man (1897). In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson suggested that the human propensities for good and evil are not necessarily present in equal measure. Hyde is quite a bit smaller than Jekyll, perhaps indicating that evil is only a small portion of Jekyll’s total personality but one that may express itself in forceful, violent ways. The story has long been interpreted as a representation of the Victorians’ bifurcated self. Jekyll is in every way a gentleman, but just beneath the surface lie baser desires that remain unspoken; he is the very personification of the dichotomy between outward gentility and inward lust. Stevenson’s tale took on new resonance two years after publication with the grisly murders perpetrated by Jack the Ripper in 1888, when the psychological phenomenon that Stevenson explored was invoked to explain a new and specifically urban form of sexual savagery.
An adaptation of the tale for the stage was first performed in 1887, with Richard Mansfield as Jekyll and Hyde, and several popular films highlighted the novella’s horrific aspects, from a 1920 version starring John Barrymore to a 1971 B-movie, Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde, featuring a female alter ego. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), starring Fredric March, and a later adaptation starring Spencer Tracy (1941) were also notable. Stevenson’s story continued to inspire adaptations into the 21st century. It also spurred debate over whether its main character exhibits dissociative identity disorder, a form of psychosis, or some other psychopathology.