Jekyll and Hyde

J

Jekyll and Hyde (idiom)
/ˌdʒɛk.əl ənd ˈhaɪd/

Meaning

• A person with two very different sides to their personality, one good and pleasant and the other bad or evil.
• Someone who switches between kind and rude or dangerous behavior without warning.
• A person who leads two separate lives, such as a respectable public life and a secret private one.
• Referring to the dual character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Synonyms: split personality, dual personality, two-faced person, double life, Janus.

Example Sentences

1. Mike is a real Jekyll and Hyde who chats warmly with the neighbors on the street but turns cold and short-tempered the moment he steps inside his own house.
2. You never know which version of Sarah will walk into the office because she is a Jekyll and Hyde who praises the whole team one morning and then picks apart every small mistake the next.
3. He lives a Jekyll and Hyde existence, working as a quiet accountant all day and then heading out at night to sing in a loud rock band.

Etymology and Origin

Literary Origin

The phrase “Jekyll and Hyde” comes straight from the two sides of the main character in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the tale, the respectable London doctor Henry Jekyll creates a potion that lets him turn into the violent and lawless Edward Hyde. Once the book became popular, people began using the two names together to describe anyone who seems to carry both a better and a worse nature inside them.

Country of Origin

The expression first took shape in Britain. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh and wrote the book while living in Bournemouth. The first English edition was published in London by Longmans, Green & Co. in January 1886, so both the story and the phrase that grew out of it belong to the United Kingdom.

Earliest Printed Record

The paired names first appeared in print in Stevenson’s own book, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which came out on or about 5 January 1886. Inside the story the contrast between the two characters is clear, and Jekyll himself puts the idea into words when he writes that “man is not truly one, but truly two.” After the novella spread widely, the names slipped into everyday speech as a simple way to talk about a divided personality.

Composition and Sources

Stevenson later said the core of the story came to him in a nightmare while he was recovering from illness. He woke determined to get the scenes down on paper and finished a first draft in just a few days. His wife is said to have felt the early version read too much like a plain horror tale rather than a moral allegory, after which the manuscript was reportedly burned and rewritten. He had also drawn on the real story of Deacon William Brodie, an eighteenth-century Edinburgh craftsman and city official who lived a secret life as a burglar—Stevenson had already written a play about him.

Cultural Spread and Reception

The book sold tens of thousands of copies within months and was quickly adapted for the stage. Because it touched on the gap between public respectability and private desire, the names of its two characters moved easily into ordinary conversation. By the early twentieth century, calling someone a “Jekyll and Hyde” had become a familiar way to describe a person whose behaviour swings sharply between opposite extremes.

Variants

• Jekyll-and-Hyde
• a Jekyll and Hyde
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• a Jekyll or a Hyde

Life