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[[File: Jekyll and Hyde 1.png|200px250px|thumbthumbnail|left|Jekyll and Hyde book cover]]__NOTOC__
There are a select number of literary works whose characters have entered the public imagination. One of these is the ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’ This work on the nature of good and evil in human nature has spawned countless movies, plays, television shows, comics, and movies. The two main characters have come to represent the duality of human nature and split personalities. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, although written in the 19th century, is still as relevant today as over a century ago. What are the possible historical figures and literary sources that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write one of the greatest horror stories?
====The story behind the novel====
[[File: Jekyll and Hyde 2.jpg |200px250px|thumbthumbnail|left|a 19TH Century poster for a drama based on Jekyll and Hyde]]
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) is one of the greatest of all Scottish writers and the author of many memorable works such as ‘Treasure Island.’ Stevenson was born and educated in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. He came from a family of prominent engineers and suffered from ill-health all of his life. Despite suffering from bronchial problems all his life, he was a great traveler and wrote a great many works in a short span of years. While still a young man he began to write novels and short stories most of whom were well-received.<ref>Balfour, Graham, The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson (London, Signet, 1983), pp 17-18</ref>
====The plot of the novel====
[[File: Jekyll and Hyde 4.jpg |200px250px|thumbthumbnail|left|Robert Louis Stevenson c 1885]]
The novel opens with John Utterson, telling an acquittance of his, the strange story of Dr. Jekyll. A man, Edward Hyde, has run over a child, and for some reason, the injured girl’s family were compensated by Dr. Jekyll, a very respected medic. Utterson states that he believes that Hyde is blackmailing the doctor. The following year, Hyde attacks one of Edinburgh’s leading citizens and murders him in the street. Utterson becomes involved in the case because he is Jekyll’s lawyer and not just his friend.
====Louis Vivet: Multiple Personality====
[[File: Jekyll and Hyde 3.jpg |200px250px|thumb|left|A modern figure of Deacon Brodie]]
In the mid-to-late 19th century, doctors were beginning to understand the mental processes of the human mind and began to treat mental health as an illness and not as some character flaw or punishment from god. In the 1860s and 1870s, doctors were beginning to develop modern psychiatry, especially in France. There was a great deal of public interest in this new science, and it was widely reported in British newspapers. One case of mental illness that caused a sensation at the time was that of Louis Vivet.
