Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde and the Double Brain

Abstract

This article traces the inspiration for Stevenson's novella back to two famous French case studies of dual personality, Félida X. and Sergeant F., whose "double lives" were widely discussed in French and British periodicals. In the late-nineteenth century, such cases of dual personality were often attributed to bilateral brain hemisphere asymmetry, a condition Stevenson faithfully depicts in his fictional Strange Case. The author's awareness of contemporary neurological theories and his acute satire of the conventions of the case study contribute to his innovative take on the late-Victorian Gothic romance.