Characters / The Future Eve

Characters present in the 1886 novel The Future Eve by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.

Edison

Thomas Edison / Professor X

"I should have been born centuries ago. Alas, I have come into this world very late."

Either the Wizard of Menlo Park himself, or a very transparent Expy of him. Edison is a genius - if somewhat morally ambiguous - scientist with a mind centuries ahead of his time.

• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Apparently, Edison had a secret underground garden where he hid his most secret inventions (a Ridiculously Human Robot, mechanical talking birds and technicolour sound film.). He also dabbled in mysticism and learned the art of hypnosis, though he admits that he isn't nearly as good as Sowana. Notable in that the real Thomas Edison was still alive and working when the book was first released.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Subverted. He doesn't actually mind the nineteenth century that much. He just laments that previous generations didn't have access to his inventions or genius.
• The Gadfly: He does have a rather mischievous side.
• The Matchmaker: He does all he can to get Ewald and Hadaly together, despite Ewald's complaints.
• Mr. Exposition: Spends several chapters explaining scientific concepts to Ewald. Most of them relate to how his android works.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Even in the versions where the name of "Professor X" isn't mentioned, it is blatantly obvious who he is supposed to be.
  • He is said to be "about forty." The real Edison was thirty-nine at the time.
  • He has several children, including a young daughter. The real Edison had three children at the time. His daughter, Marion Estelle Edison, was 13 at the time, which seems about right.
  • He has pioneered film making, invented the phonograph and what sounds suspiciously like a lightbulb.
  • He is the founder and director of a large electric company (actually called the Edison Electric Light Company).
  • He is compared to a wizard and lives in a large house in a park which also functions as a laboratory (Edison was known as "The Wizard of Menlo Park," Menlo Park being the location of his research lab).
  • Some of the illustrations of him look a bit like Edison, though more like an imaginary younger version of his older self than what he actually looked like in his forties.
  • And, last but not least, he even uses "Mr. George Thomas" as a pseudonym.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He has a borderline misogynistic view of women, which Ewald calls him out on.
  "Even though a woman has caused me great sorrow," Lord Ewald demurred gently. "I think that you speak of the sex with much severity."
  • Noble Bigot: He arguably counts as this, since he is clearly means well, at least. Also, to his credit he never insults women to their faces, and he does admit that all women are not as bad as Alicia or Evelyn.
  Edison: "Of course, I don't mean that all women are like that, but most of those who bring men to a desperate end are, more or less."
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Yes, this trope even applies to Thomas Edison, of all people. Ewald actually accuses him of keeping most of his inventions for himself without releasing them to the public. (Considering that the real Edison has the world record for "Most patented inventions", he must have been way more productive than people think.) This is Justified by him being wary of his inventions ending up in the wrong hands, and he still manages to get rich off the inventions he has released (as he did in Real Life.)
• Reluctant Mad Scientist: He's not entirely morally pure himself, but he still doesn't want his inventions to be misused, and is reluctant to hand over Hadaly to Ewald unless he understands that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Is portrayed as this. He is willing to do some rather amoral things - such as committing identity theft and recording people without their knowledge or approval - but his goal is to keep people entertained and save thousands from depression and suicide, and he genuinely believes that technology will lead to world peace.

Ewald

Lord Ewald Celian

"I know I am a dreamer, but I have been well punished for my dreams."

A rich aristocrat who has ended up in a very dysfunctional relationship. He goes to Edison to announce his decision to end his life, but is slowly convinced that there might be a future for hm, after all.

• Arbitrary Skepticism: Up until the end, he refuses to believe that Hadaly might be possessed by some supernatural spirit, saying instead that she is just a machine acting out a performance. This is after he has had her read his thoughts, calling up visions of his fiancée, and give an accurate description of a dream he hasn't told her about. Though in fairness, Edison doesn't really give him any good explanation for how she could be self-aware until the end. before that, he keeps flip-flopping on whether she is sentient or not, which doesn't help at all.
• Driven to Suicide: When he visits Edison, he is planning to kill both himself and his fiancée later the same evening. Edison manages to talk him out of it, but Ewald is still planning to kill himself in a few months if Edison's experiment doesn't work. It does, and Ewald gets his lust for life back.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Subverted.
• Innocently Insensitive: At one point, he tells "Alicia" how she is much better than Edison's stupid android Doppelgänger. Turns out he has been talking to the android the entire time, and she doesn't take it well. Oops.
  Ewald: "Was I mad? An Andraiad! How could I have dreamed of such a sacrilegious plaything, whose appearance alone would have made me laugh. An absurd, insensible doll. As if any mechanical thing made of hydraulic pressures and cunning cylinders could ever bear the semblance to one so beautiful as you, my Alicia. I will go and thank the professor presently without betraying any inquisitiveness as to his make-believe beauty. Disillusion must, indeed, have cast a shadow over my thoughts for me to have considered such a terrible project."
• Loving a Shadow: He basically only likes Alicia because of her looks and voice, not because of her personality. Edison almost drops the trope by name, nearly seventy years before J. R. R. Tolkien named it.
  Edison: "It is then only a shadow that you are in love with, and it is for this shadow that you would die."
• My God, You Are Serious!: There are times where he thinks that Edison is pulling his leg, which usually leads to some uncharacteristic maniacal laughter coming out of his lips, but Edison is always dead serious about his plans.
• Only Sane Man: Subverted. He is trying to be this, calling out Edison for some of his actions and ensuring him that his plans will never work. Unfortunately, he is a bit Wrong Genre Savvy, believing himself to be in a work of hard science fiction while he's actually in a Science Fantasy story, meaning that he becomes a Know-Nothing Know-It-All half the time.
• Second Love: Hadaly becomes this for him and he is also this for her. However, fate doesn't grant them a Happy Ending.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: He falls in love with Hadaly despite already being engaged to Alicia. This is portrayed as being Justified, as Alicia is making Ewald's life miserable.
• The Watson: Spends most of the story as a proxy for the reader, being amazed at Edison's inventions, listening to his exposition and asking him questions when he doesn't understand something.

Hadaly

Hadaly / Sowana

"My lord, are you sure that I am only playing a part? Are you quite sure that I, myself, am not really here?"

A female robot created by Edison, which he offers to Ewald as a replacement for his own fiancée. She is supposedly only a very advanced automaton, but there are hints that there might be something more to her.

• Become a Real Boy: Sowana thinks that when Hadaly is completed, she will literary transform into a real woman. Though Edison doubts this, and there is no indication that it actually happens. In the end, Hadaly seems to be fine with being "merely" a Ridiculously Human Robot as long as she is treated like a real person.
• Benevolent A.I.: A kind, empathetic being who cares a lot about the people closest to her. Though she is technically not a true AI, but a literal human soul in a robotic body.
• Do Andraiads Dream?: A big theme of the book. Lord Ewald insists that she is Just a Machine, and Edison's claim that she has a limited set of pre-programmed actions and responses seems to support this.
  • On the other hand, Edison seems rather indecisive (and uncertain) on whether she is sentient or not. He argues that, even if Hadaly isn't "real," she still comes of as kind and empathetic, and that's better than being an undoubtedly real jerk like Alicia. He also feels that it is hard to call her "fake" when many women are just as guilty of hiding their true faces behind cosmetics, putting on false personas, ending up in relationships that are mere charades, and spending their lives just going through the motions. He makes a point of always treating her like a real person, giving her an aviary full of talking, mechanical birds so that she doesn't get lonely or bored (which he admits is a bit superstitious of him), and telling her to leave the room if he wants to have a private conversation.
  • Hadaly herself argues to Ewald that she might very well be sentient, and does things that should be well beyond her programming, speaking words that hasn't actually been recorded by her phonographs, and having the power of second sight.
  • The truth is rather complicated. Hadaly was originally just a mindless robot, but then Sowana managed to posses her mechanical body, using it as a way to interact with the world while in her astral state. Doing this repeatedly led to a part of Sovana's soul being left in Hadaly, merging with her original programming to create a new person. But it is not clear when exactly this happened, or where to draw the line between her original programming, the influence of Sowana, or the new woman she eventually becomes.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Invoked by Edison, who turned her into a copy of Alicia specifically to make Ewald attracted to her. Note that Ewald was still technically engaged to Alicia at the time, though it was a very unfulfilling relationship.
• Evil Knockoff: Inverted, she is Alicia's good knockoff.
  • Criminal Doppelgänger: Is technically this, but it doesn't have the usual consequences, as her only crime is the identity theft itself, and both Alicia and she die in an accident before it can be discovered.
• Fembot: She is said to have a skin made out of small metal plates before she is turned into a Robot Girl. (Though the illustrator seems to have missed this, instead choosing to depict her as human-looking throughout the novel.)
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Played With. Edison built her specifically as a cure for suicidal depression in men, and she is - by her own admission - an idealized person who is utterly devoted to Ewald, as she thinks that his love can make her real. She also shows Ewald that magic is real, and even describes herself as a literal Living Dream, a spirit from another world. However, she is really not that "manic" at all. She is a calm, intelligent and somewhat philosophical Proper Lady who is perfectly fine with the idea of getting married and settling down. And she ''does'' have a few interests outside of her love for Ewald, such as astronomy.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Ewald asks Edison how she is capable of having a conversation with them if everything she says is a phonograph recording. Edison claims that he has recorded sixty hours of dialogue which can be used in different contexts, but even that is stretching Ewald's suspension of disbelief a bit, and it doesn't explain how Hadaly can read his thoughts or why Edison is surprised by some of her comments. It's implied that Sowana is using her powers to speak through Hadaly, just like she did with Edison's telephone.
• Turing Test: Edison claims that if she would pass such a test completely if she were to take it. He is proven right when she manages to pass off as Alicia Cleary for several minutes. Ewald only notices that "Alicia" is not quite acting like herself, not that she isn't human. He only manages to expose her true identity because he recognises her perfume and her rings, and because Hadaly outright tells him who she is, apparently not expecting him to actually fall for her act.
  • And even when she is a Fembot, Ewald has a hard time looking at her as anything but a woman in a suit of armour. It's only when Edison opens her up and shows her internal mechanisms that he is completely convinced.

Alicia

Alicia Cleary

"It shouldn't be done this way. I don't want the people who live in this house to think that I'm middle class."

Lord Ewald's fiancée. An actress with very high standards when it comes to art. She seems to have a history of getting into relationships with men who have deep pockets.

• Brainless Beauty: Gives off this impression. She apparently has no idea who Thomas Edison is, easily falls for his con, and thinks the lines she had to recite for Hadaly were too hard to remember. Though Ewald claims that she isn't really stupid, just a bit ditzy.
• Doing It for the Art:invoked She claims that this is how she approaches her job. It is hard to take this at face value, given that she shows very little interest in art but quite a bit of interest in money.
• Gold Digger: She admits that she only tried to marry her last lover because of his money. This naturally makes Lord Ewald worried, considering that he is also rich.
• It's All About Me: Doesn't understand why people would care more about some stupid [sculptures statue]] like the Venus de Milo than her. She is much better-looking and she still has her arms.
• Money, Dear Boy: No! She is NOT interested in money AT ALL! She just feels that being rich would be a good way of proving to others that must be talented.
• Moral Guardian: She complains about plays she considers too violent.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: She might have been based on Mina Miller, Edison's second wife, who was about the same age as Alicia and married Edison the same year the story was written. There is not actually anything romantic going on between Alicia and Edison, but several of his neighbours believe them to be a couple.
• Slave to PR: She wants everyone to get the right impression of her, and is willing to get a statue of herself made purely because she thinks it's fashionable.
• Straw Critic: Not a professional critic, but she sure loves complaining. She is treated like a quite unlikable person who is seemingly incapable of finding joy in life and makes others' lives miserable.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Subverted. Ewald thinks that this has happened at one point, but he has actually been talking to her robotic doppelgänger.

Sowana

Sowana / Annie Anderson / Hadaly

"I am another being now, not myself. Here I forget my sorrows, and I do not suffer."

Edison's female assistant. She is a talented sculptress helping Edison to construct Hadaly, a project she shows a lot of interest in. She also has various nifty Psychic Powers.

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: While in her astral form, she becomes endowed with various Psychic Powers, as well as more intelligent and knowledgeable about the Universe, but she also becomes a spirit which can barely interact with the physical world. She gets around this by possessing Hadaly, giving her a body that lets her use her powers to her full potential.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She appears and is mentioned several times throughout the novel, but it's not made clear why she is so important until the end where it is revealed that Hadaly is her Soul Jar.
• Happy Place: She uses her astral state as this, though it's implied that it's only half-successful, as she still seems rather depressed.
• I Just Want to Be You: Seems to have a bit of this towards Alicia, given that she puts her spirit in a robotic body that looks just like her, while also trying to woo her fiancé.
• Jumped at the Call: She was very excited to start working on Hadaly, as she wanted to use the robot as a vessel for her spirit.
• Killed Off for Real: Both of her bodies die only a week apart, likely forcing her to move on to the afterlife.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: She may have gotten powers and knowledge most people could - literary - only dream of, but this has just made her more willing to help others and educate them about her new discoveries. Her Andraiad self also has no problem with the idea of marrying a human.
• Technopath: Sowana can communicate with Edison telepathically by using his telephone. As it turns out, she has also been possesing Hadaly for much of the story.
• That Woman Is Dead: To an certain extent. While she is in her astral state she puts on a different persona and tells people to only refer to her by her dream name, Sowana.
• Walking Spoiler: Let's just say that there is a reason why there are so many spoiler tags in this section.

Evelyn

Evelyn Habal

A dancer at the Music Hall. She seduced Edward - who was already married - and had an affair with him, only to leave him once his money ran out. By the time the story starts she has been dead for several years.

• Betty and Veronica: She was the Veronica to Annie's Betty, with Edward as their Archie. It didn't end well for any of them.
• Evil Counterpart: To Hadaly. They are both trying to become the ideal-woman by making themselves look more beautiful, and both of them have an affair with a man who is already in a relationship with another woman. The difference between them is that while Hadaly was a genuinely Nice Girl who actually cared about her lover, Evelyn... wasn't.
• Evil Redhead: Subverted. Her red hair was just a wig.
• Gold Digger: Possibly, given that she left Edward as soon as she had spent all his money.
• Posthumous Character: As mentioned in her description. She only appears as a piece of footage recorded by Edison.
• Predecessor Villain: "Villain" might be a bit of a stretch, but she was responsible for ruining Edward's life in much the same way as Alicia is ruining Lord Ewald's now.
• Makeup Is Evil: She relied heavily on make-up and other cosmetics to make herself more attractive, to the point of looking like an entirely different person. Edison considers this to be an evil act, as she was basically hiding her true self from Edward.
• Noodle Incident: We know that she is dead, but Edison never explains how it happened, or how he got his hands on her stuff, for that matter.
• Tragic Keepsake: Edison is storing a piece of footage of her - as well as her wig and some of her other cosmetics - in his secret underground chamber, to remember the woman who ruined Edward's life.
• The Vamp: She saw no problems with the idea of seducing a married man and having an affair with him.

Edward

Edward Anderson

Sowana/Annie's ex-husband and a friend of Edison. His marriage was ruined by his affair with Evelyn, and he ended up taking his life when his money ran out and Evelyn left him. Edison was deeply moved by his suicide, and has done all he can to prevent others from following in Edward's footsteps.

• Betty and Veronica: His relationship with Annie (Betty) and Evelyn (Veronica) can basically be summed up like this. It's an unusually dark example of this trope with a real Downer Ending.
• Driven to Suicide: Killed himself after his life went down the drain.
• Happily Married: To Annie, though their marriage went sour after he met Evelyn.
• History Repeats: His story is very similar to Lord Ewald's. Even their first names sounds alike.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It / Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Might be why Edison only blames Evelyn for their affair.
• The Lost Lenore: A gender inverted example for Annie, and a platonic one for Edison.
• My Greatest Failure: Edison seems to consider his death to be this, and has set out to help people in similar situations.
• Posthumous Character: Obviously.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: The story doesn't attempt to justify the affair itself, but Edward is still treated like an innocent victim.

Edison's Children

Edison's Children

The children of Professor Edison. They play a rather small role in the story, and eventually disappear from it altogether.

• The Cameo: Their appearances are essentially this.
• Cheerful Child: Edison's daughter is characterized like this. (Though she was technically a young teenager at the time.)
• The Dividual: They are not really given much individual characterization.
• Free-Range Children: Edison doesn't really seem to care about what they get up to.
• Missing Mom: Their mother never appears, and there is no indication of what happened to her. This might be a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, as Thomas Edison's first wife, Mary Stilwell, had died two years earlier in Real Life.
• Mouth of Sauron: He may not be the Big Bad, but Edison does tell his daughter to pass on some pieces of information to his servants.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Presumably based on Edison's (first three) real children, Marion "Dot" Estelle Edison, Thomas Alva "Dash" Edison, Jr and William Leslie Edison.
• The Voice: They never appear in person. Edison only talks to them over the telephone.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: They just kind of... leave the story and never come back. You almost start to wonder if the author forgot that they existed.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: They can be interpreted as looking at their father this way, given that they spend one of their appearances trying to catch his attention, and he spends nearly all of his page time at work.

The Press

The Press

Edison's recent reclusiveness has caught the interest of several reporters, who formulate all kinds of theories about him. Eventually, they get bored of waiting for something to happen at Menlo Park and move on to the latest scandal instead.

• Amateur Sleuth: While they do try to be this, they are not very successful, and they never even get close to figuring out what Edison is up to.
• Entertainingly Wrong: They notice that Edison never goes outside anymore and is constantly visited by doctors, so they come to the conclusion that he is terminally ill. Actually, he is perfectly healthy. He is simply really devoted to his work, and has hired the doctors to assist him with it.
• Going for the Big Scoop: This is basically their goal.
• Intrepid Reporter: They want a good story, and have nothing against uncovering one by themselves.
• Irony: The reporters are convinced that Alicia Cleary cant possibly have anything to do with whatever is going on at Menlo Park, and that Thomas Edison has just brought her there as a Red Herring to fool them. In reality, she is quite important, given that Edison is building an Andraiad in her likeness.
• Mistaken for Romance: Averted. While some of Edison's neighbors wonder if Edison and Alicia are in a relationship, the reporters think that she is completely insignificant.
• Noodle Incident: We never find out what the new "high-life scandal which had begun to agitate the country" was.
• Paparazzi: They seem more concerned about the private lives of local celebrities than actual news. The more reclusive Edison becomes, the more obsessed they are with finding out as much about him as possible, going as far as trying to trace the packages delivered to his house. Then, once an actual scandal pops up somewhere else, they start chasing after that and stop caring about Edison.
• Take That!: Needless to say, they are not the most flattering portrayal of news media in fiction.
• Unreliable Expositor: They are this In-Universe, mostly because they don't know much about the subjects of their writings and make a lot of assumptions.

---