Book Review of The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells
About the author
Herbert George Wells was English writer born on 21 September 1866, he write on various novels, short stories on social issues, science fiction, history, satire, and biography. In his science fiction, he took the ideas and fears of fantasy that haunted the mind of his age and gave them symbolic expression as brilliantly conceived made credible by the quiet realism of its setting.
About the novel
This is an early science fiction novel written by hg wells in 1897. This novel is basically about how a scientist which develop a method to become invisible, by his invisibility he can use his power of welfare of society but by the greed of being invisible he started harming people. He instead of developing an idea to become visible again he started behaving rudely with the people due to his ego of being invisible. and at the end, his greed leads him to a tragic end.
Theme and setting of the novel
The main theme of this novel is how greed can cause inadvertent consequences. This is a novel about how a man with his research becomes invisible, he becomes so mad of being indivisible. he become so dangerous that he started hurting people, and not even thinking of becoming visible again. But at the end, he got caught and by the people. If he use his power wisely it can be more beneficial for him and the society also, but he chooses the wrong path. That’s why with great power, there comes the responsibility also.
Summary of the novel
The story starts with a strange man which came to the village name eping and stayed inn named coach and horses. The man was indulged fully of clothes from top to bottom. That inn is run by Mrs. Hall. The name of the man was Griffin, even his was fully covered with the bandages and Google. Griffin behaved very rudely with Mrs. Hall and very impatiently said to Mrs. Hall that informed him whenever his luggage came from the railway station. Mrs. Hall said okay sir there will be no problem. The next day Griffin told Mrs. Hall that he is an experimental investigator and he needs his equipment to perform experiments. The next day a carrier fear inside came with Griffin’s luggage in which scientific equipment is handwritten there and there also some hand written notebooks also and some crates with liquid matter and there was the label of poison was written on it. By seeing he was looking like a scientist but the next Mrs. Hall heard some crashing sounds of the bottle. Then he asked Griffin that what is happening. Then Griffin told Mrs. Hall please don’t disturb me right now and if you want to you can add charges of it to the bill. Griffin stayed for months in the inn. He never goes to church, nor even talks to anyone in the village and he only came out of the inn in the night only. All villagers were started talking about the Griffin. He never showed his face to anyone and the bandages were always there on his face. Then one day a local doctor William cuss came to Griffin in that inn and then doctor saw that the hand of Griffin was missing from his sleeve but the doctor feel that hand on his nose. By seeing all these things the doctor ran away from there. Many days passed away Griffin was not paying his bills to Mrs. Hall. Then Mrs. Hall warns Griffin that pay the bills by Tomorrow or leave the room. But Griffin has no money then he is left with only one way and that is theft. So at that night, Griffin tried to do a robbery in Mr. And Mrs. Bunting's house. After hearing some sound both came down and saw that no one was there. Then the next the dag owner of the inn Mrs. Hall asked Griffin that he has not paid the bill till now then Griffin gave the money to Mrs. Hall. Mrs. Hall has doubts on Griffin that he has no money till yesterday then from he got the money. Now all the villagers came and stand in front of Griffin and asked him what was the matter then Griffin started removing the bandages and Google and his face becomes invisible. After seeing this some villagers ran away from there.
Then the local police officer Boby Jaffers tried to arrest him but Griffin ran away from there. Now after running outside of the village he seeks help from a man named Thomas Marvel. The first marvel thought that it was his hallucination that someone was talking to him but is not visible to him, then Griffin through the stone at him and convinced him that in reality, he was a man which is invisible. Marvel gets shocked by seeing and then became ready to help Griffin. Marvel helped Griffin to bring back his equipment from the inn. In the inn, Bunting and Dr. Cuss were investigating the books of Griffin they are trying to read but they cannot understand anything as the book was written in geek style. Marvel and Griffin successfully took off the luggage of Griffin from the inn. The whole village is now very much scared of the terror of Griffin that no one came outside of their house for 2 hours. As Marvel helped Griffin to bring back his luggage but now he thought that further he will not help Griffin anymore but Griffin threatened him that you should help me otherwise I will kill you. Then the next the Marvel stealthily from Griffin came to the town port stove and there in a pub he started eating the food then there he meets the sailor and starts talking to him. Sailor asked Marvel that did you hear about that rumor of an invisible man, there is an article in the newspaper about the terror of an invisible man. As the Marvel ran away from the Griffin came inside the but Griffin also came behind running him and there was a fight inside the pub in that fight gets hurt by the bullet and Griffin ran away from there. Now the next scene is in the house of Dr. Kemp. The doorbell of Dr. Kemp rangs but the servant of Dr. Kemp told him that no one was there.
Then suddenly Dr . Kemp saw the blood drops inside his bedroom and also at the handle of the door. Then Griffin started talking with Dr. Kemp but Dr. Kemp is not ready to believe that there is a man inside in his room. Griffin introduced himself to Dr. Kemp and reminded him that we both studied together in a college in London. Now Kemp believed him and served him food and whiskey and also Dr. Kemp told him that sleep in my room tonight. The next day Griffin told Kemp that years ago when he was researching on light and optics he got the idea to invisible the alive tissue and he kept his research confidential because he has a fear that nobody steals his research. After researching on it for 3 years Griffin thought that to continue on his research he need some money but nobody is ready to give money to him. Griffin told kemp that he stole the money from his father and he was not ashamed of what he has done because he was a foolish man who is not understanding my efforts. In starting Griffin did his experiments on the piece of fabric and then on the cat of the neighbor’s both became invisible. When Griffin doing his experiments a lot of noise comes from the machines due to which his neighbors and his landlord become anxious of Griffin and his landlord also had some doubts on him. Griffin thought that by this experiment fabric and cat both became invisible and he thought that why not let it apply on his own body. And Griffin did his experiment on himself and became invisible and as he knew that landlord has some doubt on him he destroyed all the machines. But after becoming invisible Griffin realized how hard this life has become. Now after becoming invisible, he can’t eat anything neither wore anything as if he eats something the food is visible till it is digested the Griffin did some robbery and cover himself with some clothes and went to the village to continue his experiment and now he was sitting in front of Dr. Kemp and saying that how it will be if you and me both become invisible and terrorized. Griffin was thinking that kemp will support him but Kemp warned him that you are going on the wrong way. Only then did Kernel Adie come there and then kemp and kernel ran away from there and told everyone about the plan of Griffin in the local area. Then Griffin started killing everyone. Local area people found the dead body of two people and the villagers thought that it must have been done by the Griffin. Then Griffin attacked on kemp, kemp asked for the help from his neighbors but the neighbor’s denied to help him, Kemp escaped from Griffin and was running here and there but Griffin caught kemp and suddenly also the local people break upon the Griffin and the people beaten the Griffin till he did not die. After Griffin's death, his body reappears and everyone was now able to see him.
Recommendation :
Wells writes a novel in a very nice manner and in an interesting way. The story itself is also quite funny, I thought and many of the scenes played in my mind as slapstick. The Invisible Man is the ultimate story of an insane anti-hero before insane anti-heroes became popular. Griffin himself becomes more and more pathetic as the story progresses and from the comical start Wells moves away to a darker, subtle satire of small minds in small towns that can be just as dangerous as any psychopath.
Sources
- Novel (“the invisible man”) by HG Wells
- Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
