Chapter 2 - page 21
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
"He is a real Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
1
Big Book - There Is A Solution - page 21
In this sentence the phrase Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde functions as a singular noun phrase or idiomatic noun. Although it contains multiple names and words, it functions as a single noun entity. 2
"Jekyll and Hyde" refers to people with an outwardly good but sometimes shockingly evil nature. This phrase refers to the novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this horror story, first published in 1886. The story explores the duality of human nature and the struggle between good and evil within. It is the fictional story of Dr Henry Jekyll, who creates a secret mixture, which transforms him into the evil Edward Hyde when consumed. The evil Edward Hyde murders a young girl. A witness blackmails Hyde into paying the girl's family money. Dr Jekyll signs the check which is given to the family. Later, Hyde beats a man to death with a cane. This murder is also witnessed. Police find half a cane at the murder site and the other half when they search Hyde's apartment. The cane is determined to be Dr. Jekyll's property, but Hyde has disappeared. Months later, Dr Jekyll is found dead in his laboratory, wearing the clothes of Edward Hyde. A letter from Jekyll explaining the situation is in the lab next to the body. Jekyll confesses that although he appeared to be an upstanding moral citizen, his shame and his evil nature constantly plagued him. His potion allowed him to express his dark side in the form of Edward Hyde. But after some time, he found he could no longer control the transformation into Hyde. Eventually, transformations would occur without the consumption of the concoction. It refers to a person who has a split personality, alternating between good/pleasant and evil/rude behavior.
Definitions from Webster's 1930 edition. 3
from Theatrical Poster Collection at the Library of Congress
under Creative Commons CC0 License
The play opened in New York in 1887 and London in 1888.
Double-exposure photo attributed to Henry Van der Weyde (1838-1924; London, England)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Footnotes for page 21;
1Quotes from the Big Book on listed on this page are from the public domain version, in the United States, of the 2nd edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. Accessible at 12step.org
2Sentence diagramming, to determine the word usage within the sentence, was performed by CoreNLP at corenlp.run.
3Definitions used are from the Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language 1930 Edition. Access to this dictionary online is at Hathitrust.org