Dr. Jekyll experiments with a drug that splits his personality into good and evil elements; he gradually loses control of the process and finds himself slipping more and more frequently into the guise of the evil and depraved Hyde. When Hyde is sought for murder, Jekyll kills himself. Stevenson`s famous work has prompted various interpretations since its publication in 1886, including the view that it was a precursor of Freud`s work on the ego and the libido.