The Invisible Man 3 Essay, Research Paper
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man , by H. G. Wells, is about a mysterious man who is very secretive. This story is one of his better books. The reason I chose to read this book is because I love science fiction and fantasy stories. This one, by a very good writer, proved promising as a book I would like. That concept is growing thin with the classics list.
The story starts out in the winter at a small railroad station. There a stranger departs into town and ends up at the Coach and Horses Inn and gets a room from the hostess, Mrs. Hall. She is infatuated with the fact that she can t see any portion of his skin. Every part of him is covered up including his eyes by some dark-blue glasses. That night he ate dinner in is room and when Mrs. Hall brought up the food to him she realized that his entire head was covered in bandages. The next day his baggage arrived at the Inn. He went down to get it, but a dog attacked him and he ran back to his room. Mr. Hall, the owner of the Inn, went up to see if the man was hurt. He ran into the room without knocking and was then hit in the chest and pushed out of the room. Later Mrs. Hall saw that the man had unpacked his bags and had some strange apparatus put together. The man also had his glasses off and his eyes looked sunken.
During the next couple of weeks, the townspeople were making up stories of the mysterious man. Some thought he had some kind of disease. Other weird things were happening in town as well. One night in one of the houses in town they heard something in their study, but when they went to check to see what it was they only saw a lit candle. They did however hear a sneeze. Meanwhile Mr. Hall was snooping around in the mans room and found bandages all around the room. When he went back down stairs he heard the front door open and close, but they didn t see anyone come inside. A minute or so later the man came down out of his room which baffled Mr. Hall.
Later in the story, the stranger wasn’t paying his bill for his room and Mrs. Hall wouldn’t serve him. Mr. Hall also got a warrant against him when he became abusive. Mr. Hall got a group of people and forced the stranger to unmask himself and they found out that he was invisible. He then ran out of the inn.
The next person to meet the invisible man is named Thomas Marvel. He is a weird guy. When we first meet him he is deciding which pair of boots he should wear. The Invisible Man comes up behind him and oddly enough doesn t scare him at all. After about a chapter of talking he convinces marvel into taking him back to get his stuff.
When he got there he discovered that people named Mr. Cuss, and Mr. Bunting were going through his stuff. The Invisible man slipped into his room and held them captive for a bit. The main reason he was in there I think was for three books more than anything, though I don t know why yet. After a great deal of talking and others pounding on the door the Invisible Man went kind of crazy. An entire chapter about pushing and shoving happened next when he went berserk. He tripped everyone up, stole some clothes from his captives, and broke a lot of windows.
The next thing you know Marvel and the Invisible man are walking out of town. Marvel is whining about how stupid he is and how he is useless to the Invisible Man, probably in an attempt to let him go, but he doesn t.
Soon there are articles all over the place about robberies all around and Marvel always has enough money to go around.
Another man named Doctor Kemp was writing until he heard the shots outside. He opened the window and looked at the crowd at the inn. After a couple of minutes Kemp went back to working on his writing. He finished at about 2:00 a.m. and got ready for bed. Just as he changed he heard someone say his name near the open window. It was the Invisible Man. After a brief struggle between the two, the Invisible Man finally revealed his name. His name was Griffin and he was a University student and he knew Kemp from there. Kemp was acting kind of stupid so Griffin got right to the point. He did get hit with one of the bullets so he needed some help. Kemp helped him and gave him some whiskey, clothes and some food. Griffin rambled on about Marvel and getting sleep till the end of the chapter. During the night Kemp read all of the articles about the Invisible man and Griffin wrote a letter to Colonel Adye from Port Burdock.
In the morning Kemp told Griffin that everyone knew about him. Griffin then told Kemp a little bit about his invisibility thing. Griffin was a physicist and had a fascination with light. Griffin talks a lot summed up by being invisible simply means finding a way to make cells transparent. He put some kind of substance into them to make them transparent. He didn t have enough money to finish it though so he killed his father to get enough money. After that he Terrorized Oxford streets and did some other stuff and then ended up at the Coach and Horses Inn at the start of the book.
Now Griffin wanted to use Kemp s house as a sanctuary while he terrorized the town, but Kemp Thought otherwise. Kemp then tried to keep Griffin there but he got away and a little later Mr. Wicksteed was killed and everyone decided to go on a manhunt for the Invisible Man. The next day Kemp got a note which told him that Griffin planned to kill someone everyday and that he was going to be the first. This obviously scared Kemp a great deal and he ran to Colonel Adye. After a little bit of talking they sent some bloodhounds after Griffin. But Griffin was ready and stole a gun from a police officer and went to Kemp s house. He smashed Kemp s door with an ax but Kemp climbed out the window to the inn and barred up the door. But Griffin got in and struggled with Kemp for a bit and he and another person got a hold of him and another nailed Griffin with a spade. Then they saw Griffins body materialize and he was dead.
I thought that this book was very slow moving at the start but picked up a lot at the end making it a book worth reading. I liked the realistic views of the science parts and the power that was showed by Griffin. All in all it was a pretty good book.