“The stranger came early in February…”
Originally serialized in Pearson’s Weekly in 1897 (a British periodical that ran from 1890-1939), H.G. Wells’s The Invisible Man was collected and published as a novel that same year. Apparently, Wells drew his inspiration for The Invisible Man partly from “The Perils of Invisibility,” a Babs Ballad written by W. S. Gilbert (the Babs Ballads were a series of light poems published together with amusing illustrations primarily in the late 19th century). Although with the premise of the novel being about a scientist who discovers the secret to invisibility, one cannot escape the influence of Plato, in particular the story of the “Ring of Gyges” as told by Glaucon in Book II of Plato’s Republic during the discussion of the just man. What is the relationship between injustice and invisibility? Is every person deep down a secret tyrant? To what extent will people choose injustice if they know there are no consequences? These and other questions are explored in H.G. Wells’s 1897 science fiction-horror classic The Invisible Man.
Unlike in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein –a similar tale about a mad scientist– The Invisible Man is told from a third-person perspective. In many ways, it might well be interpreted as a cynical satire of Wells’s neighbors, the ignorant yokels and bumpkins who lived in Woking, Surrey (where Wells wrote the novel). At any rate, in the novel a heavily bandaged man wearing big blue spectacles with sidelights and carrying a portmanteau arrives on a freezing winter day at an inn called the “Coach and Horses” in Iping (a village in West Sussex). He is rude, irascible, and imposing toward the innkeeper, Mrs. Hall, and the clock-jobber Teddy Henfrey (among other townsfolk), but he rents a room in order to seek complete solitude, he describes himself as an “experimental investigator.” Notably, dogs bark and bite at him, though no one can see him.
Very quickly, superstitions and rumors arise about this mysterious traveler as Wells offers a survey of the various accents and stultified commentary of the uneducated Sussex townsfolk. Then strange things start to happen, like a robbery in the vicarage and people’s furniture being haphazardly tossed about. People begin to fear that an Invisible Man is somehow in their midst –and they are soon proven correct. The police try to capture this strange being, the innkeeper kicks him out, and the townfolk rise up in anger against this lawless invisible man. But absent his critical scientific writings (which have been left inside in the inn), The Invisible Man has no possible way to return himself to normal. Thus, he manages to enlist a vagrant named Thomas Marvel to assist him in retrieving his papers, but just as he was planning to flee to mainland Europe, Marvel betrays The Invisible Man and steals his papers.
“’You don’t understand,’ he said, ‘who I am or what I am I’ll show you. By heaven! I’ll show you’” (124).
The Invisible Man is then beset upon by a mob and shot (the bullet grazes him) until he happens to escape to Port Burdock into the home of a former acquaintance, a doctor named Kemp. In shock, Kemp learns The Invisible Man is named Griffin, a fellow medical student who studied with him at University College 9though Griffin is younger than Kemp). Griffin is almost an albino, six feet high and broad, with a pink and white face, and red eyes (he also shares that he won the medal for chemistry back in his college days). He Initially studied medicine but then pursued physics at Chesilstowe College where he was teaching and researching, specifically in the field of optical density, pigmentation, and the effects of light on visible bodies of light, when he made a startling discovery that he documented in his notebooks –the key to invisibility by bleaching the blood and turning it the color while changing the body’s refractive index so that it appears like air or glass, neither absorbing or reflecting light. However, Griffin’s cruelty begins to come out as he confesses that he first tested the theory on a cat and then robbed his own father in order to complete the experiments (his father later shot himself). Below is his haunting Frankenstein-esque confession to Kemp of the night he discovered how to become invisible:
“I remember that night. It was late at night, –in the daytime one was bothered with the gaping, silly students,– and I worked then sometimes till dawn. It came suddenly, splendid and complete into my mind. I was alone; the laboratory was still, with the tall lights burning brightly and silently. In all my great moments I have been alone. ‘One could make animal –a tissue—transparent! One could make it invisible! All except the pigments. I could be invisible!’ I said, suddenly realizing what it meant to be an albino with such knowledge. It was overwhelming. I left the filtering I was doing, and went and stared out of the great window at the stars. ‘I could be invisible!’ I repeated… To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man, –the mystery, the power, the freedom. Drawbacks I saw none” (180).
As with Frankenstein, The Invisible Man shows us the dangers of unfettered scientific exploration. But unlike Dr. Frankenstein, Griffin shows no remorse for his discovery. Instead, he embraces his newfound power and, hoping to rule over the town like a tyrant, he attempts to enlist Kemp as his “confederate” to unleash a “Reign of Terror” but Kemp unsurprisingly betrays Griffin to the police –“’He is mad, said Kemp. ‘inhuman. He is pure selfishness. He thinks of nothing but his own advantage, his own safety. I have listened to such a story this morning of brutal self-seeking! He has wounded men. He will kill them unless we can prevent him. He will create a panic. Nothing can stop him. He is going out now –furious!’” (214).
Griffin escapes from Kemp’s house and murders an old man named Mr. Wicksteed, he then sends a warning letter to Kemp that he will soon be attacked. In a dramatic climax to the novel, Griffin steals Kemp’s revolver and murders a policeman named Colonel Adye, before he attacks Kemp, but a mob of townsfolk invade Kemp’s home, and just as Kemp is nearly strangled to death by Griffin, the mob descends upon The Invisible Man and brutally beat him to death. Griffin’s last words are a cry for help, and even Kemp tries to save his life, but to no avail. As Griffin dies, his invisibility slowly disappears:
“And so, slowly beginning at his hands and feet and creeping along his limbs to the vital centres of his body, that strange change continued. It was like the slow spreading of a poison. First came the little white nerves, a hazy grey sketch of a limb, then the glassy bones and intricate arteries, then the flesh and skin, first a faint fogginess and then growing rapidly dense and opaque. Presently they could see his crushed chest and his shoulders, and the dim outline of his drawn and battered features… When at last the crowd made way for Kemp to stand erect, there lay, naked and pitiful on the ground, the bruised and broken body of a young man about thirty. His hair and beard were white, –not grey with age but white with the whiteness of albinism, and his eyes were like garnets. His hands were clenched, his eyes wide open, and his expression was one of anger and dismay” (234).
In an epilogue to the novel, some time later Thomas Marvel is found running an inn at Port Stowe. He freely tells the story of The Invisible Man to anyone who stops by, but he claims not to possess the lost writings. He says The Invisible Man took them –but in secret every Sunday, Thomas Marvel privately pulls out Griffin’s leatherbound notebooks and gloats over them while drawing the shades and casually smoking his pipe. Marvel has in his possession the secret of invisibility, and “a dozen other strange secrets written therein” but he does not reveal it to a soul. He tries to decipher the notes but some of the pages have been washed away and others contain Greek and Latin symbols. The secret will be safely kept away from an uneducated innkeeper like Thomas Marvel.
Thus concludes The Invisible Man, another wonderfully imaginative H.G. Wells “scientific romance.” Continuing the relatively pessimistic view of modern science that is replete throughout the works of early science fiction, The Invisible Man warns us of the dangers of life-altering research falling into the hands of psychopathic people. For Griffin, rather than using his newfound discoveries for the potential benefit of mankind, he immediately decides to live the life of a tyrant, terrorizing poor townsfolk, stealing from them, and even murdering them. All done without remorse. He is classic example of why modern science cannot be considered a pure morally neutral endeavor. Also, not to be missed is Claude Rains’s wonderful portrayal of the character in James Whale’s classic Universal Monster film The Invisible Man (1933), though it should be noted there are some key distinctions between the book and the film. In the book, for example, Griffin is a maniacal villain from the start, whereas in the film he is a tragic lover of sorts and it is actually his consumption of the chemicals that drives him mad.
Wells, H.G. The Invisible Man. Everyman’s Library, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY (first published in 1897, included in Everyman’s Library in 1935, 2010 hardcover edition).
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Click here to read my review of the film The Invisible Man (1933).
After seeing plenty of cartoons in my early childhood involving invisibility, even one where Charlie Brown literally became an invisible boy, it was quite refreshing to understand how becoming invisible can have a most grave impact on people. Certainly thanks to Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon. There was a British TV series version of Wells’ The Invisible Man that I remember seeing with Pip Donaghy as Griffin which was as enjoyable as most simplistic British sci-fi TV shows at that time. Thanks for your review of another of H. G. Wells’ novels that started it all.