‘The Beast Within’: Degeneration in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Three Australian Short Stories

Abstract

Both Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Clarke's 'The Mystery of Major Molineux' (1881) appear to have influenced a small group of Australian short story writers who were working in the decade immediately preceding Federation. Their work appeared in The Bulletin, The Boomerang and the Australian Journal, as well as in privately edited collections of short fiction. This essay examines Campbell McKellar's 'The Premier's Secret' (1887) and Ernst Favenc's 'My Only Murder' (1893), in addition to Clarke's 'The Mystery of Major Molineux', to determine how these three writers used the concepts of degeneration, the double brain and multiple personality, and to what ends...