write a review on The Invisible man
Answers
BOOK REVIEW
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.
PLOT SUMMARY
The story opens in the town of Iping in pre-industrial England. A stranger covered in bandages and wearing blue goggles rents a room at a pub owned by George and Janny Hall. He tells Mrs. Hall that he is an experimental investigator. The stranger has a great deal of luggage, including numerous bottles of potions. He keeps mainly to himself, sometime loudly expressing anger and frustration as he works. Mrs. Hall has witnessed some odd sights, but she says nothing because they need his rent money.
One evening, the town vicar and his wife are robbed. They can’t see anyone, but they hear coughing and see items moving. Suspicions begin to mount against the stranger, and the police arrive at the Halls’ pub. As officers prepare to arrest the stranger on suspicion of burglary, he wiggles out of his clothes and escapes, completely invisible.
As he flees, he sees a man named Marvel on the road. The Invisible Man enlists Marvel to help him get clothing and necessities. His threats keep Marvel at his disposal for a time. He steals money and hands it off to Marvel. He also has Marvel keep several books in which he has recorded his experiments.
When Marvel gets a chance, he breaks away from the Invisible Man. Marvel has the police lock him up so the Invisible Man can’t reach him. The Invisible Man pursues Marvel until he comes upon the house of an old college acquaintance named Kemp.
The Invisible Man, who now reveals his name is Griffin, tells Kemp about his exploits in elaborate detail. He explains his research involving light that led to his discovery of the potential for invisibility. He was too poor to conduct his experiments, so he stole from his father. The money apparently belonged to someone else, so Griffin’s father committed suicide.
After testing his invisibility formula on a cat, Griffin took the potion himself to become invisible. It was a painful but effective process. Griffin was initially elated by the possibilities invisibility held for him. He quickly realized there were many downsides. He was forced from his home and had to wander naked or else be discovered.
Undigested food would show in his invisible stomach, thereby giving away his presence. At times, people saw him making footprints and tried to chase him. If he was carrying anything in his hands or on his body, those items could be seen. Griffin finally snuck into a shop and made himself a crude costume that allowed him to go out in public. After that, he began to rent a room from the Halls.
When the people of Iping discovered his secret, he was on the run once again. As Kemp listens, he is struck by Griffin’s madness and selfishness. The Invisible Man seems thoroughly unconcerned about the people he hurts. Griffin further explains that he plans to frighten and dominate the people of Kemp’s town, Port Burdock. He invites Kemp to join him in his efforts.
Griffin doesn’t know that Kemp has alerted the police. When they arrive, Griffin escapes and begins his reign of terror. He leaves Kemp a note, threatening him and the city. He attacks several, including the police chief, before he comes after Kemp. Kemp and some of the other townspeople catch and kill Griffin. As he dies, Griffin becomes visible once again.
The epilogue reveals that Marvel kept all of Griffin’s stolen money. He owns an inn, where he sometimes tells his stories about Griffin if he’s had enough to drink. He secretly kept Griffin’s journals and sometimes reads through the Invisible Man’s records of his experiments. He vows no one else will ever know about them until he dies.
CHRISTIAN BELIEFS
Mrs. Hall notes that Griffin doesn’t go to church. One townsperson, who fancies himself a theologian, compares Griffin to the biblical one-talent man.
OTHER BELIEF SYSTEMS
None
AUTHORITY ROLES
Police officers try to capture and subdue Griffin on several occasions. He eludes or injures them.
PROFANITY/VIOLENCE
The Lord’s name is used in vain a number of times, as are the words d--n and a--. The n-word also appears once, but a footnote says the term probably refers to an Indian coolie or anyone working under harsh conditions. Griffin brutally injures and kills, and blood is sometimes shed.
KISSING/SEX/HOMOSEXUALITY
None
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS/NOTES
Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book's review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
CREDITS
READABILITY AGE RANGE
18 and up
GENRE
Science Fiction
AUTHOR
H.G. Wells
PUBLISHER
Barnes and Noble Classics, a trademark of Barnes and Nobel Inc.; republished in 2003 in The Time Machine and The Invisible Man
YEAR PUBLISHED
1897
AWARDS
Unknown
Answer:
In the story of The Invisible Man, a mysterious man goes to a village called Iping, which is in the middle of a snowstorm. He then stays in an inn that is owned and run by the husband and wife George and Janny Hall. They ask him to not be worried about the storm, so he goes to his room with his luggage. This man’s name is Griffin, a scientist, who usually spends his time in his room experimenting with different chemicals and formulas.
He is an introverted guy, which becomes a huge problem as he lives in a town where the there is a lot of gossip.
Griffin goes outside at night; however, be keeps himself completely bandaged up and wears a fake nose. The villagers think that he is very peculiar, especially because there are suddenly weird break-ins and a lot of robberies start happening in the village. But things become worse when the owner Janny Hall asks him to pay up his overture rent or leave. So, he gets depressed and frustrated, taking off all his bandages and clothes and manages to disappear into the night with his invisibility tricks.
Griffin then forces Thomas Marvel, a tramp, or migrant worker by profession, to become his assistant. But Marvel betrays him and takes him to the police, so Griffin runs away again. The Invisible Man beats them up and wreaks some major havoc while leaving.
While he is on the run again, Griffin happens to meet Dr Kemp, his old acquaintance from medical school. Griffin then tells his friend Kemp about his experiments with invisibility. He also tells him how he has made plans to terrorize England by using his discovery of invisibility. Here’s the gist of what he tells him: he was poor and was desperate to study invisibility, so he steals money from his father, who later commits suicide (it’s not revealed why he does that). Finally, Griffin gets a grip of the idea of invisibility and proceeds to do these things: (1) set his landlord’s building on fire; (2) wander around London; (3) rob a department store; and (4) wear a ridiculous outfit hired from a theatrical costume shop and go to Iping for work.
But soon Kemp realizes that Griffin has gone berserk, and hands him over to the police.
But Griffin still breaks through the police line and starts chasing Kemp into the town. But unfortunately, the locals get hold of Griffin and kill him. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Marvel has saved all the notes written by Griffin in his room at the inn, but luckily, he can’t make heads or tails out of them.