Edward Hyde

"I feel I'll live on forever, And I'll show the world that tonight and forever, the name to remember's the name EDWARD HYDE!!!"

- Edward Hyde

Edward Hyde, or better known as Mr. Hyde, is the eponymous main antagonist of the 1886 gothic novella Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by the late. He is the vile, malicious, violent and dark side of Henry Jekyll, unleashed by use of a potion. Over the course of the novel, Jekyll transforms into Hyde in order to keep his good and evil personalities separate, only to find himself addicted to the potion as Hyde slowly overtakes him. He has been the subject of many films, and was prominently featured in the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.

Stevenson's Hyde
In the original novella, Hyde is described as "pale and dwarfish", and has rough, corded hands. Everyone who sees him describes him as giving an impression of ugliness, although he is not physically deformed. Essentially, he exudes pure evil. Hyde was created out of an experiment by Dr. Henry Jekyll, who wanted to live a wild, carefree existence without losing his respectability. So he decided to unleash his darker side. He created a potion, which allowed this to happen, and he transformed into Edward Hyde, the embodiment of his inner evil. Hyde was shorter than Jekyll because the evil in man is lesser than the good.

For a time after this, Jekyll is the respectable doctor by day, then uses the potion to become Hyde and live a life of debauchery and excess by night. Hyde's truly evil nature first made itself apparent when he trampled a small child who had bumped into him in the street. About a year after that, something worse occurred: Hyde, without provocation, savagely beat an old Member of Parliament named Sir Danvers Carew to death with his cane and feet. After this incident, Jekyll determined never to use the potion again. However, Hyde asserted himself and Jekyll began to transform without taking the potion, and he had to brew more to change back into himself.

When Jekyll ran out of his materials, he tried procured more to brew the potion again, but he couldn't reproduce it exactly. Unable to go on, Jekyll brewed a lethal poison and swallowed it, but changed back into Hyde before he died.

Film Adaptations
The first film adaptation was a silent film released in 1920. Jekyll and Hyde were both played by John Barrymore. His Hyde had a pointed head, a hunched over stance, and long fingernails. In this version, Jekyll creates Hyde after facing pressure from Carew, his future father-in-law, to live a wild life before his marriage. Hyde's murder of Carew is done out of anger at this behavior.

The next adaptation was released in 1931. It starred Fredric March as Jekyll and Hyde. This Hyde was clearly more bestial in appearance than its predecessors. Its creators designed him to look like current reconstructions of the Neanderthal man. They gave Hyde flared nostrils, a heavy brow ridge, and fangs. As the film progresses, Hyde grows more apelike. In the film, Jekyll transforms himself after Carew insists he wait to marry his daughter for eight months. Hyde obsesses over Ivy Pierson, a prostitute whom Jekyll had previously encountered. He murders her after she goes to Jekyll for help.

The last major film version was released in 1941 and starred Spencer Tracy as the doctor and his alter ego. The film followed the same basic screenplay as the 1932 version, but its Hyde had a different design, looking more human than March did. However, Hyde's appearance still deteriorated throughout the film.

Alan Moore's Portrayal
In their graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill picked up Hyde's story after his alleged death in the original story. In this version, Jekyll faked his suicide and relocated to Paris, where Hyde began murdering the prostitutes he brought back to their apartment. He was found and captured by Alan Quatermain and Mina Murray, sent to Paris by the British Secret Service to recruit him for a special team. This version of Hyde is far taller than Jekyll, who plays a far smaller part in this story. Hyde explains this in the second volume, stating that as Jekyll lost any assertiveness, Hyde lost all restraints.

In the second volume of the story, Hyde even exhibits certain noble characteristics. He forms a bond with Mina, and when Hawley Griffin, better known as the Invisible Man, betrayed the team and humanity itself to the Martians and assaulted and nearly killed her, Hyde sought violent revenge. Hyde could actually see Griffin through the use of infrared vision (which he cleverly kept a secret), and he beat, raped, and murdered him (ironic, as Hawley had used his powers to rape numerous people before). When the Martian tripods where about to enter London, Hyde distracted them just long enough in order for the secret germ weapon to arrive. The Martians incinerated Hyde, but he kept them distracted just long enough to save London.

The Pagemaster

 * See Mr. Hyde (The Pagemaster).

Van Helsing and The London Assignment
Mr. Hyde makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the film Van Helsing, where he fights the monster hunter Van Helsing atop the cathedral of Notre Dame. Hyde is thrown off the building, but he transforms back into Jekyll before he hits the ground.

The origins of this version of Hyde are revealed in the animated prequel called The London Assignment. Many years before, the young Jekyll had fallen in love with the new queen, Victoria, from afar. In order to be with her, he studied the occult for many years. But by that time, Victoria had grown old and bore several children. Seeking a way to make her young again, Jekyll used his magic to change himself into Hyde and used an occult process in order to steal the youth and beauty from young women, which resulted in their deaths. His string of killings attracted the attention of Van Helsing. When he had defeated Jekyll's plans, Jekyll fled to France, setting the stage for the final confrontation.

Angry Video Game Nerd
When the web series the Angry Video Game Nerd got its own game, Hyde was rewarded the first boss of the first level of the Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, Assholevania. This is because the Toho-produced NES gaming title Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been stamped one of the worst if not the worst piece of gaming of all time by the Nerd and has gained an infamous reputation. Hyde serves as an extremely huge yellow jacket wearing boss that the player must fight and kill when he has to turn back into a harmless Jekyll.

The Nerd also, when revisiting Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, parodied the iconic monster when he reached his breaking point.

James Rolfe's company, Cinemassacre produced a parody trailer of a fictional live adaptation of the game, mocking the videogame conventions and flaws, as well as its flimsy plot.

Trivia

 * Along with the Professor Moriarty and Dorian Gray, Mr. Hyde had a large role in the creation of the concept of supervillains.
 * He had also influence the importance of Dissociative Identity Disorder in fiction (though the story has also aided in the controversy of the condition, the striking thing is the book was written long before the disorder was even formally considered, let alone studied)
 * The Batman creator Bob Kane used the story of Jekyll and Hyde as a basis for the villain Two-Face.