Answer any one of the following questions in 120 – 150 words :
(a) Mrs. Hall is greedy and opportunist. Comment with reference to the novel, ‘The Invisible Man’.
(b) Griffin’s sufferings are his own doing. Attempt a character sketch of Griffin in the light of this remark.
(c) Why do people regard weavers with suspicion in the novel, ‘Silas Marner’ ?
(d) Godfrey Cass is good-natured but weak-willed. Comment with the help of instances from the novel, ‘Silas Marner’.
Answers
It is true Griffin's sufferings were his own doing. He was the lead character in the novel. He was an albino. Though he had many great qualities, yet he had many flaws in his character. Griffin was a man who had no conscience, was callous towards other people and simply self-centered. He appeared to be at war with the entire mankind. All his actions stemmed from his desire to save himself, with not a thought of care and sympathy for others. He did many mean acts in the novel. When he was short of money he continued his experiments, without any thoughts of the consequences, he robed his own father, who committed suicide because the money was not his. He attended his father’s funeral without feeling sorry for his own act; instead he blamed his father for being a sentimental fool. He experimented on a cat, with no concern for the poor creature’s cries of pain. He threw it out and never tried to find whether it was alive or dead. He burnt down the house at Great Portland Street when the landlord and his sons found about his experiments and were horrified. He was only worried about covering his trail.
Even after becoming invisible he committed one brutal act after another, not because they were necessary for his survival, but simply because he enjoyed doing them. The way he looted his owner of a small costume shop, and left after striking the old man on his head, spoke volumes about his inhumanity. He terrorized Marvel when he was on the run, fought with the policemen. His plan to spread reign of terror among people using his powers of invisibility really shocked Dr. Kemp. He even tried to kill him for betraying him. In his final run from the people hunting him, he killed an old man with a rod because he bumped into him.