a
character in the
novel The Strange
Case of
Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, written in 1866 by Scottish novelist Robert
Louis Stevenson (1850- 1894) and based on an
actual case history of a businessman who led a burglar gang at night. In this story,
Dr. Jekyll is a philanthropic, well-liked physician who develops an
interest in the dualism of
personality. Experimenting with
drugs, he succeeds in separating the good and
evil sides of his own
nature, the latter being intermittently personified as
Mr. Hyde. He uses the drug a number of
times; however, he eventually cannot
control his transformations, and as the
evil, repulsive
Mr. Hyde he commits a
murder. In
order to eliminate this
evil character Dr. Jekyll commits
suicide. The
phrase Jekyll and Hyde is used figuratively to describe a person who alternates between two extremely
different personalities, usually one that is charming and good and the other
evil and repulsive.