"I am the darkness within! I am the caged beast at the heart of humanity! The spirit of-"
"London at night! I know!"
- Hyde and Jekyll (Ch2, p33)
Edward Hyde is the alter-ego to Dr. Henry Jekyll, in many ways the doctor's opposite. However, he is a fragment of Henry's own soul, which the latter separated from himself via the creation and consumption of a formula.
Hyde also appears to be the on-again off-again narrator of the comic itself.
Physical Appearance[]
Edward Hyde has neck-length blonde hair that is in a perpetual state of fluffy disarray. He has bright green eyes, and is incredibly expressive, often openly looking bored, excited, maliciously gleeful, angry, or despairing as he feels it.
He usually wears a green waistcoat, white dress shirt, white cravat, black pants, black shoes, and a black top hat with a green ribbon. His black cloak is torn at the bottom and riddled with holes. He modifies his cape this way himself.
Personality[]
Hyde is a persona manifesting Henry's ideal of 'evil', or rather everything he finds detestably ungentlemanly about and within himself. He wears his heart on his sleeve, is open about his sexuality, and loves to drink, fight, and adventure around London as it suits him. He is loud, selfish, childish, foolhardy, and foul-mouthed. In short, he is the bane and antithesis of Victorian Society's expectations, and thus Jekyll's expectations for himself. He's notably petty and prideful, and takes his given role as Jekyll's 'inner demon' and official tempter and tormentor very seriously.
He's also notably very theatrical and verbose, making a frequent habit of monologuing in a dramatic purple-prose esque manner about both his excursions and Jekyll's day to day life, much to Jekyll's repeated chagrin.
Hyde is one to be consumed entirely by his emotions and let them guide his actions rather than any notion of 'logic' or 'caution'.
He doesn't often make much of an attempt to hide how he's feeling, or perhaps rather, he doesn't very well know how, simply letting himself experience things as he likes. Even so, his stubbornness also pertains to how he feels, and he isn't incredibly introspective. Often, he'll purposefully avoid looking further into his emotional state or habits in favor of deciding the way he wants to feel about something and acting on that.
Trivia[]
- When Jekyll has control of their body, Hyde will often appear in reflective surfaces, most often in mirrors and glass. Alternatively, he may appear as/in Jekyll's shadow. Jekyll may manifest the same way when Hyde has control.
- From the time Hyde was made, he's hated Robert Lanyon, has avoided him vehemently, and has positively refused to introspect upon why.
- Edward is friends with Rachel Pidgley, and the two often bond over shared interests, such as food and a distaste for societal norms. However, Hyde would likely be loathe to call her his friend, as he would much rather her fear and loathe him, as would be the proper response to something truly evil.
- Rachel's insistence for friendship and Hyde's aversion to any form of care becomes a source of conflict and confusion between them.
- He can fake a cockney accent, though 'well' is debatable.
- He is shorter than Henry, though he is stronger and possesses superior agility and nimbleness, as he is able to hop almost effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop.
- He was even able to recreate the same daring escape that Queen Lucy is rumored to have once performed, breaking thick (though rotten) wooden crossbeams with the force of his jump and sending them crashing down upon his opponent, Dr. Moreau.
- The exact capacity of his agility may have been unintentionally exaggerated, however, as his escape from the police at the end of Chapter 4 was noted to have been unintentionally grandiose in its execution, and some more jumps were to be imagined than what was visually implied.
"He probably has some mechanical apparatus on his legs that prevents him from shattering his bones every time he lands from unrealistically great heights."
- Sage Cotugno, author's note beneath Chapter 4, page 34
- Jekyll and Hyde's relationship is rather complex. Before the beginning of the comic, it can be assumed that while neither one made significant moves to truly understand one another, their shared control of the body could be described as a tentative partnership, an agreement based on some mutual respect for each other.
- When that agreement was encroached upon, however, the resentment they both held for each other easily boiled over, and it became a more earnest fight for control, rather than a matter of taking turns with only the occasional disagreement and struggle between them.
Quotes[]
"Rachel: Oh, it's just you, master Hyde! For a moment there, I thought I was in real danger!
"Who says you're not? What could a little maid like you know of the dark ocean of my depravity?"
"Heehee~!"
"There is no giggling in the depravity ocean!"
- Rachel and Hyde (Ch3, p16)
"The man who I was is far away now, buried somewhere deep in the sad little box of his sad little life."
"You do realize I'm hearing all of this, don't you?"
"So? Can you do anything about it?"
"... Fair point. Proceed."
- Hyde and Jekyll (Ch3, p20)
"I felt younger, lighter, happier in body and soul, and I knew that, for the first time in my life... I was truly free." - (Ch6, p2)
Gallery[]
.jpeg "Mr Hyde (Dr Jekyll’s assistant).jpeg (217 KB)")