The main character of the story is an invisible man. "The Invisible Man" brief description
The Invisible Man from the novel of the same name by H.G. Wells can rightfully claim the title of one of the first supervillains of modern media culture - he has unique abilities, is cruel and dreams of taking over the world. Only sometimes did screenwriters and writers view the Invisible Man in a different light...
The Invisible Man is one of the classic “Universal monsters”, a popular character who was actively used both as a villain in various horror films and as a positive character.
Invisible characters were often present in various myths and tales, but the image of the Invisible Man was brought to real popularity by the novel by Herbert George Wells. Wells's Invisible Man is a talented scientist named Griffin, who, after a series of optical and biological experiments, managed to find a way to change the human body, making it completely invisible. Fearing competition from his supervisor, Griffin continues his experiments on his own; He pays for the experiments with money stolen from his own father (shortly after the theft, he committed suicide). Ultimately, Griffin manages to get the coveted equipment; The homeowner's intrusion almost ruins the experiment, but Griffin manages to complete the experiment - and cover his tracks by starting a fire in the house.
It takes some time to get used to the intricacies of existing in an invisible body, but eventually Griffin comes to terms with his situation. Covered clothing helps him pretend to be an ordinary person; alas, this does not solve the problems as a whole - so, Griffin needs a place for experiments and funds, which ultimately pushes him to a new robbery. Attempts to regain appearances also lead to nothing; Griffin's assistant, the tramp Thomas Marvel, steals his money and laboratory notes. The last chance for the Invisible Man is his old acquaintance, Dr. Kemp. Griffin's crazy plans - seriously considering becoming the ruler of the world - force Kemp to turn to the police for help; Ultimately, the Invisible Man manages to be mortally wounded. After Griffin's death, the chemical processes that made him invisible stop, and his body regains visibility.
Wells's novel belongs to the classics of the science fiction genre, although the scientific component itself was criticized quite actively. The most popular argument against the Invisible Man story was that vision works through the refraction of light in the eyes; the invisible eye would not be able to refract light and, as a result, would be blind.
Of the many film adaptations of the story of the Invisible Man, the most famous is the 1933 film; In it, the Invisible Man was played by Claude Rains. For the script, the plot of the novel was slightly revised - so, if in the book Griffin shows himself from the very beginning as a classic psychopath, the character in the film is initially an ordinary scientist. During his experiments, Griffin finds a formula for invisibility and tries it on himself, without bothering to think through the reverse transformation. Realizing his mistake, Griffin escapes from the laboratory. Alas, one of the elements of the composition used by the scientist is a powerful drug; coupled with constant stress, it drives Griffin crazy, bringing him closer to the book prototype. The subsequent plot unfolds almost in full accordance with the novel - Griffin dies from a policeman’s bullet and regains his lost visibility.
Filmmakers continued to experiment with the image of the invisible man; Russian viewers remember the 1992 film “Confession of an Invisible Man” and the 2000 thriller “Hollow Man”. If the second is close in spirit to the original work, then in the first, invisibility overtakes the hero by chance and does not evoke any thoughts of world domination in him. The film by Alexander Zakharov, shot in 1984, also examines the story of the Invisible Man from a somewhat unusual angle - here it is not Griffin himself who plans to use the secret of invisibility for personal gain, but his friend Kemp.
Many foreign readers are familiar with the Invisible Man not so much from Wells’ novel as from the comic book series “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” - known in Russia only for its rather mediocre film adaptation. The comic's plot brings together a number of characters from classic adventure novels, such as Allan Quatermain, Tom Sawyer, Mina Harker, Dorian Gray and Mister Hyde. The Invisible Man in the comics calls himself Hawley Griffin; According to him, the invisible man killed in the course of Wells's novel was only his experimental subject. The comic book character is in no way inferior to Wells' Griffin in either cruelty or deceit; Ultimately, the heroes expose him as an accomplice of aliens from Mars (a reference to another legendary Wells creation). It is interesting that in the film adaptation the image of the Invisible Man was seriously changed - in the script, instead of Griffin, a certain Rodney Skinner appeared, a thief who managed to steal his formula from the scientist. Unlike his comic book character, Skinner is not a villain and is not seen in anything more than various kinds of minor dirty tricks.
Wells's novel The Invisible Man was written in 1897. In the work, the author described the confrontation between the invisible man and the whole world. The desire for superiority over other people made him cruel and endlessly lonely, ultimately destroying him.
Main characters
Griffin (Invisible)- a brilliant physicist who managed to become invisible during experiments.
Other characters
Chapter 1: A Stranger Appears
On a frosty February day, a new guest appeared at the Coachman and Horses tavern. “It was a great success to get a guest in Iping in winter,” and Mrs. Hall joyfully began to serve him. The man surprised her with his taciturnity, harshness, but most of all - with his appearance. His face was hidden by a hat, sideburns, large glasses and a bandage. Mrs. Hall decided that "the stranger's mouth was disfigured or mutilated by accident."
Chapter 2. First impressions of Mr. Teddy Henfrey
Watchmaker Teddy Henfrey came to the tavern and was called by Mrs. Hall to repair the clock. When the woman entered the living room, a “white bandaged head, huge glasses instead of eyes, and under them a wide, gaping, as if yawning mouth” of the guest appeared before her eyes. Teddy Henfrey became interested in the unusual guest and tried to talk to him, but he abruptly cut him off. Upon meeting Mr. Hall, the watchmaker informed him that “some suspicious fellow was staying at their inn.”
Chapter 3. A thousand and one bottles
Soon the guest’s personal belongings were brought to the tavern. When he went down to the street to pick up his luggage, the coachman’s dog suddenly “growled angrily and bristled,” and then grabbed his hand.
Most of the guest's luggage was occupied by various bottles, with which he filled his entire room.
Chapter 4. Mr. Cass interviews a stranger
Mr. Hall did not like the presence of such a strange person in the tavern. The guest's rude behavior, his nightly walks along deserted streets and his reluctance to appear in church began to cause rumors in local society. He was soon nicknamed the ghost man.
Dr. Kass was simply “burning with curiosity.” Under a plausible pretext, he came to the mysterious stranger and noticed with horror that he had emptiness up his sleeve. But the worst thing was that with an invisible hand he grabbed the confused doctor by the nose, who ran out of the room in fear.
Chapter 5. Burglary at the Vicarage
In the dead of night, a burglar broke into Vicar Bunting's house and stole gold. However, the owners never saw the criminal, although the front door opened and closed in front of them by itself.
Chapter 6. Furniture gone wild
That same morning, Mr. and Mrs. Hall looked into their guest's room and were surprised to notice that his clothes were in place, but he was nowhere to be seen. But then even stranger events followed: the furniture began to move around the room by itself, attacking and pushing the couple out the door. They decided that the furniture was possessed by spirits.
Chapter 7. Unmasking the Stranger
An angry Mrs. Hall decided not to cook any more food for the guest until he explained his strange behavior to her. In response, he unbandaged his face, in the place of which “there was an empty hollow.” Everyone present ran out of the tavern in fear. When Mr. Hall, accompanied by Constable Bobby Jeffers, went inside, they saw the headless guest calmly eating dinner. A fight broke out, during which the guest quickly undressed and became completely invisible. He beat up his opponents and disappeared.
Chapter 8. In passing
A local resident was enjoying the peace and solitude of nature when he heard someone’s footsteps and loud swearing nearby. He looked around, but there was no one nearby.
Chapter 9. Mister Thomas Marvel
Thomas Marvel, trying on shabby shoes, began talking with a stranger. Turning around, he saw no one, and decided that he had gone crazy. The Invisible Man managed to prove that he was not a figment of Thomas’s sick imagination. Fat Marvel promised his new acquaintance not to betray him and to provide all possible assistance.
Chapter 10. Mister Marvel in Iping
The residents of Aiping decided that the Invisible Man was just another trick, and soon forgot about it. Not far from the Coachman and Horses tavern, a stranger appeared - Thomas Marvel - who was “talking aloud to himself.” Mr. Huxters noticed how a suspicious man made his way into the inn and soon brought out a “large bundle”. He rushed at the stranger, but immediately received a strong blow and fell to the ground.
Chapter 11. At the “Coachman and Horses” tavern
As it turned out, Marvel came to the tavern accompanied by the Invisible Man, who wanted to pick up his books. Noticing that the vicar and the doctor were rummaging through his things, he ordered them to undress and took their clothes with him.
Chapter 12
When Huxters chased after Marvel, the Invisible Man had to take decisive action. He handed the bundle of things to his assistant, and then deftly knocked down all his pursuers and started a fight.
Chapter 13. Mr. Marvel requests his resignation
The Invisible Man is unhappy with Marvel, but he has no choice. Marvel asked to leave him alone, but in response he received only a couple of strong blows and advice to obey in everything until the Invisible Man himself let him go.
Chapter 14. In Port Stowe
The next morning, “unshaven, dirty, disheveled,” Marvel sat near a tavern in Port Stowe, while the Invisible Man took money out of passers-by’s pockets and brought it to him.
Chapter 15. Running Man
That evening, Dr. Kemp noticed a man running past his house with a look of horror on his face. “There was a ringing sound coming from him, like a tightly stuffed wallet that is thrown here and there.” It was Marvel who was trying to escape from the Invisible Man along with the money.
Chapter 16
A “crying, disheveled, hatless, with a torn collar” Marvel flew into the tavern and asked to be saved from being pursued by the Invisible Man. The visitors promised protection to the unfortunate man. Soon the Invisible Man appeared and began to strangle Marvel. A fight ensued, during which Marvel managed to escape. The invisible man rushed after him, but one of the visitors to the tavern shot at him.
Chapter 17. Dr. Kemp's Guest
At night, Dr. Kemp discovered a wounded Invisible Man in his house, who was very happy to see him. He admitted that his name was Griffin, and at one time he studied with Kemp.
Chapter 18. The Invisible Man Sleeps
The Invisible Man admitted that he had made an amazing discovery and needed an assistant. He promised to tell everything in the morning. All night Kemp thought about his unusual guest, and decided to let Colonel Adai know about him.
Chapter 19. Some Basic Principles
In the morning, Griffin told a friend that at one time he “gave up medicine and took up physics,” in particular, optical impenetrability. He “set to work and worked like a convict,” and was soon able to enjoy his first successes. To be able to continue his research, Griffin robbed his father, but “the money was someone else’s” and his father shot himself.
Chapter 20. In the house on Great Portland Street
The young scientist rented an apartment on Great Portland Street, where he continued his experiments. At first, Griffin managed to make a piece of “white woolen matter” invisible, then an experiment with a cat followed. After some time, the homeowner contacted Griffin with a request to stop his strange experiments, because of which the reputation of the house was suffering. The young man decided not to waste time and conducted a disappearance experiment on himself. When the homeowner came with the police in the morning, Griffin was already completely invisible.
Chapter 21. On Oxford Street
At first, Griffin enjoyed the "extraordinary advantage of his position." However, he soon realized all his shortcomings - the Invisible Man was constantly touched by passers-by and carriages, and attacked by dogs. But the worst thing was to go naked, and very quickly Griffin caught a cold.
Chapter 22. In the General Store
Griffin, "tired, cold, aching all over, indescribably miserable," found shelter in a general store, where he was able to refresh himself and sleep peacefully. In the morning he had to leave his shelter and go out into the street naked again.
Chapter 23. On Drury Lane
It turned out that snow, rain, mud and even fog gave Griffin away, outlining his silhouette. After wandering the streets, he went into a costume shop, where he stole a suit and money. After some thought, Griffin decided to get to Iping.
Chapter 24. Failed Plan
Griffin offered Kemp cooperation - joint terror over local residents. At that moment Colonel Adai arrived. Having accused Kemp of treason, the Invisible Man fled from his house.
Chapter 25. Hunting the Invisible Man
Kemp briefly told the Colonel the story of the Invisible Man, adding that "he is not a man, but a beast." A most thorough search for Griffin was immediately organized to prevent his escape from Iping.
Chapter 26. Murder of Wicksteed
Meanwhile, the Invisible Man "procured an iron rod somewhere" to try to escape with it. The rod was noticed by Mr. Wicksteed, and this destroyed him - Griffin mercilessly dealt with the man. He prepared for the decisive battle.
Chapter 27. In a besieged house
Griffin wrote a letter to Kemp, in which he announced his intention to plunge Iping into the abyss of death and terror, and the doctor should be his first victim. Kemp turned to the Colonel for help, but Griffin managed to kill him. The maid managed to bring home two policemen, who fought with the Invisible Man, and in the meantime Kemp managed to escape.
Chapter 28
Griffin began to pursue Kemp, but the doctor managed to attract the attention of people. The digger hit the Invisible Man on the head with a shovel as hard as he could, after which all the men began to beat him. They stopped when Griffin was already dead. Gradually, the contours of his body began to appear, and before “the eyes of all those present, the naked, pitiful, beaten and mutilated body of a man of about thirty appeared on the ground.”
Epilogue
After Griffin's death, Dr. Kem tried to find his notes, "in which the secret of invisibility and many other amazing secrets are hidden," but to no avail.
Conclusion
The main idea of Herbert Wales's book is to use your knowledge and abilities for the benefit of people and not forget about your responsibility to them.
A brief retelling of “The Invisible Man” will be useful for the reader’s diary.
Novel test
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Retelling rating
Average rating: 4 . Total ratings received: 154.
Title of the work: Invisible Man
Year of writing: 1897
Genre: fantastic story
Main characters: Griffin- scientist, Camp- his classmate
Plot
A young talented scientist - a physician - made a phenomenal discovery - he learned to make living matter invisible. He conducted experiments on himself, but he was unable to return to his original state. He took refuge in a small provincial hotel and continued his experiments. Soon Griffin ran out of money and decided to commit a crime.
Earlier, he stole his father's money, which led to the latter's death. Then the scientist, in a fit of rage, set fire to the house and destroyed all his research notes.
Having met Camp by chance, he tells him his story and offers to continue the research together, so that later they can share fame and money. But Camp refuses and turns to the police, because he sees that Griffin, already unrestrained and hot-tempered, has become uncontrollable in his rage and hatred of all humanity. As a result of a police operation, the scientist is killed. After death, he became visible again.
Conclusion (my opinion)
Sometimes scientists do science not for the sake of the happiness of all mankind, but only for the sake of money, as was the case in this story. Griffin's goal in life was the thirst for fame, and he was only interested in science as an opportunity to get it.
"The Invisible Man" is one of the most famous works of H.G. Wells. The novel is rightly considered a classic of science fiction literature. It was written more than a hundred years ago (in 1897), but today it has not lost its relevance and is read with great interest. New films and TV series are constantly being made based on “The Invisible Man,” and books are being written. The theme of the novel constantly worries readers; it has become one of the most important in our time. This is the topic of a scientist's responsibility for his inventions. Is a scientist to blame if he creates a terrible weapon or is it not the inventor who is to blame, but the people who use these weapons? The question is complex, one might say eternal. The hero of the ancient Greek myth, Prometheus, brought fire to Earth to warm people, but people quickly learned to burn each other with this fire. The hero of Mary Shelley's novel, Doctor Frankenstein, wanted to defeat death and make man immortal, but he created a monster that brings death and destruction. The problem of scientist's responsibility became especially relevant in the 20th century, after the invention of atomic energy and the atomic bomb. Then humanity was really able to see how, with the help of new scientific inventions and discoveries, it could completely destroy itself. Some scientists are figuring out how to heat houses with gas, while others are coming up with gas chambers in death camps. Where is the line after which a scientific discovery becomes criminal? Why does man’s desire to remake nature, to take on the role of God, always lead to disaster? H.G. Wells tries to answer these questions in his novel The Invisible Man.
At the beginning of the novel, we meet a strange man in a deserted hotel. This man came from nowhere, he is afraid of the light, hides while eating, he is all wrapped in bandages, only the tip of his nose sticks out from the bandages. Who is this strange man? Why does he behave this way and look so strange? Maybe he was maimed by some terrible disaster, so he hides his face from everyone? The novel begins almost in the tradition of a detective story. However, the intrigue does not last long. It soon becomes clear that the mysterious man is the physicist Griffin, who discovered a process that allows one to make a person invisible. First, Griffin makes a cat invisible, and then conducts an experiment on himself and becomes an invisible man. The scientist cannot yet reverse the process and become visible again. Invisibility brings him problems: to remain invisible, he must walk naked, because his clothes are visible, he needs to hide while eating, because food, while being chewed and digested, is visible through him. But gradually Griffin comes to the idea that, thanks to invisibility, he can acquire absolute power over humanity. True, to implement the seizure of power, he needs a visible assistant and Griffin turns to his friend Dr. Kemp for help. The reader will find out how the scientist’s crazy plans turn out at the end of the novel.
Griffin's character is especially important in The Invisible Man. He is a fanatic, obsessed with science; he has no other interests besides science. But why does he need science? To help humanity? No, Griffin is not naive, he needs power equal to that of God. He feels like God, changing nature at will. What cannot be changed must be destroyed. What is morality for God? He is above all morality; God invents morality for his subjects in order to keep them in obedience. Griffin did not develop a God complex right away. The reader watches how this man gradually changes, how, for the sake of scientific experiments, for which there is always not enough money, he commits his first crime: he steals money from his father, and his father commits suicide. Gradually, theft and murder become commonplace for Griffin, because he is a great scientist, God, Superman, and people for him become just experimental animals.
The novel "The Invisible Man" is written in simple language, and Griffin's adventures are very interesting to follow. The hero's transformation from a brilliant scientist to a ruthless villain is shocking and thought-provoking. Wells's novel is a necessary and useful book for all times. As befits a classic.
The book includes 5 more stories by H.G. Wells: “The Remarkable Incident of Davidson's Eyes,” “The Crystal Egg,” “The Miracle Worker,” “The New Accelerator,” and “The Magic Shop.” The stories are different: there are fairy tale stories (“The Magic Shop”), there are almost mystical stories (“The Remarkable Incident of Davidson’s Eyes”), there is even a kind of prehistory of Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds” (“The Crystal Egg”). The most striking of the stories is “The Miracle Worker,” which repeats the problem of “The Invisible Man,” but from a different angle. In The Miracle Worker, the main character, a simple clerk without any special ambitions, suddenly becomes endowed with the power of God. He can create anything with just the power of his thoughts. At first, harmless experiments, such as creating Burgundy wines from water, turn into a desire to help people (for example, to make all alcoholics feel disgusted with alcohol), and then to insane actions that can destroy all of humanity. As a result, the attempt of the new Wonderworker to stop the rotation of the Earth in order to repeat the feat of the biblical hero who stopped the Sun in the sky leads to disaster and the death of all living things.
H.G. Wells' novel "The Invisible Man" was published by Nigma Publishing House in the "Adventureland" series. Like all the other books in the series, the novel was published with high quality: a beautiful gift book design, hard color cover, white coated paper, offset printing. The Adventureland series is especially careful about illustrations in books, and The Invisible Man is no exception. The publication contains illustrations by the famous artist Anatoly Itkin. Itkin’s drawings have already been repeatedly published in books in the series (“Ivanhoe”, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, “The Mysterious Island”, “The Three Musketeers” and others). Anatoly Itkin remained true to his method: the illustrations are bright, colorful, every detail of the drawing is drawn carefully. You want to look at the drawings for a long time, they please the eye and awaken your imagination. I think that children will be especially happy to look at the illustrations.
Dmitry Matsyuk
Herbert George Wells: The Invisible Man. Artist: Anatoly Itkin. Publisher: Nigma, 2017
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The debut works of writers often determine their future careers and the success of the entire creative “enterprise.” At the end of the 19th century, it was especially important to start successfully, so that the capital collected from sales could provide further creativity with a serene life and the absence of need in an urban environment. “The Invisible Man” was an extremely important work for him and was one of the first in his career. The success of “The Time Machine” and “The Invisible Man” largely helped the writer climb the Olympus of science fiction writers so that, having settled more comfortably there, he could begin work on deeper and larger-scale projects, periodically being distracted by socio-political activities. And it is in “The Invisible Man” that Wells perfectly shows what can become of a creator in the absence of financial stability. How despair can drive you crazy, collapsing all moral and ethical frameworks.
History of writing
It was, is and will be the order of things to trust the selection and evaluation of a literary work to critics. If the ratings are positive, you can turn your attention and attention to the book, but if not, then it’s easier to skip the work and not waste time on it. This is often caused by the sheer volume of works that are published around the world each year. You can't re-read all the books, but you should definitely study the best ones. And if the author’s creation does not manage to get onto the list of the best, then it may sink into oblivion and never be explored by the reading community.
This is a completely sound rule, but there are certainly exceptions to every rule. When a book makes its way through the jungle of critical reviews and floats to the surface of public attention due to accompanying factors. “The Invisible Man” went exactly this way. Having received very negative reviews from both literary critics and representatives of the scientific world, the novel was still able to win the hearts of readers. The unusual story of an invisible man captured the consciousness of ordinary people, forcing critics to reconsider their assessments, condescending to a neutral position. But the most convincing factor was the positive assessment of the work by fellow writers.
“Believe me, your things always make a strong impression on me.”
Joseph Conrad
“He (Wells) will attack you from front and rear until you completely submit to his magical spell.”
Arnold Bennett
True, we should not forget that Wells had not only a folklore harbinger of the appearance of an invisible man, but also a completely self-sufficient literary source. We are talking about Fitch-James O’Brien’s “What Was That?” Is the idea of the frightening transformation of the human body borrowed? Maybe. But the final essence of the work is different. In O'Brien's story, the terror of an invisible creature extends to the inhabitants of one particular house, presented as a protective measure. In Wells, terror begins to spread to everyone around, even transforming into the idea of seizing power in a populated area.
Pearson's Magazine was the first publication to publish chapters of The Invisible Man. In September 1897, thanks to positive feedback from the magazine's readers, a separate book was published, which aroused interest among fans of science fiction literature.
As a scientist and science fiction writer, H.G. Wells is forced to substantiate the amazing phenomena he describes in the book. The author cannot afford to unreasonably fantasize and broadcast a fairy tale. Therefore, the desire to delay the justification for the invisibility of your character ends in a meticulous description of the transformation with saving assumptions. It is these assumptions that help Wells out, but criticism of his physical-biological assumption still turns out to be destructive. From the point of view of science, a body with a refractive index equal to air would give a person not only invisibility, but also blindness. Plus the pigmentation factor. Wells predicted some of the accusations by giving his character the appearance of an albino, who lacks hair pigment. But what to do with the eyes, the pupils of which still have pigment. The mentioned lack of complete disappearance of eye pigment does not explain anything, because the low refractive index will still give its lucky owner poor vision.
H.G. Wells
What can the Invisible Man tell us?
Wells's small novel fully accommodates serious thoughts that do not tolerate distractions by the twists and turns of the plot. Considering that the book was written on the eve of the most severe upheavals in Europe, one can imagine how prophetic the words of the main character of the work were:
“The Invisible Man must capture some city, at least this Burdock of yours, terrorize the population and subjugate everyone to his will.”
“And whoever dares to disobey will be killed, just like his intercessors.”
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, similar scenes could be observed. And if these are not the prophetic words of Wells, then at least a reflection of reality, a contemporary’s view of the electrified situation in the world. But if the writer foresaw all this and experienced it internally, then his book “Russia in the Dark” is puzzling. Wells was a socialist and a fierce opponent of various forms of terror, and therefore makes the reader of The Invisible Man stop sympathizing with the main character of the novel at the moment of the appearance of true despotic intentions. And this makes his idea that the “Red Terror” of the Bolsheviks can be justified, because this is only the encroachment of the ideological and honest proletarian masses, who apparently were allowed everything back then, seems more surprising. At least pull the Moon towards the Earth.
Okay, these considerations aside, I don’t want to miss important points when studying the ideological core of “The Invisible Man.” And this core contains several important theses: young talented minds must be supported by more experienced colleagues, so as not to discourage them from communicating with the outside world and not to bury themselves in their self-centered thoughts; The story of “The Invisible Woman” is a story of a choice that always exists. You can be a brilliant scientist, discover something incredible and even supernatural, but you need to decide why all this was done: to stroke your pride, for the sake of philanthropy, or to achieve certain mercantile goals.
The choice arrow will dart due to the influence of certain life situations, which will certainly correct the final decision. Therefore, all of humanity is responsible for the madness of the main character (the language never dares to call him the main character), because one or another society determines the behavior of each of its adherents; You cannot turn away from people, otherwise involuntary asceticism may not take the most healthy form. But personal responsibility cannot be removed either. At any moment, Griffin (I mention his name in the middle of the article, parodying Wells’s handwriting) could have stopped and not crossed the line. And even, damn it, after the murders he could have stopped, surrendered to the authorities, and suffered a well-deserved punishment, no matter how severe it may have been. But he decided to go to the end, to his own end.
An illustrative example, by the way, is that with all the power of the invisible man, society, no matter how stupid and degenerate it is presented in the author’s description, will still trample and destroy those who are not like him and who have declared themselves to be an anti-system element. No matter how powerful and invulnerable Griffin considered himself, with the fading of his breath and stopping of his heartbeat, his ordinariness manifested itself - a body, a dead body, the same as it would have been without its unique properties.
The absence of positive characters in the work seems noteworthy. The main character is a maniac, a killer, a crazy scientific genius. Although it cannot be ignored that despite his idea fix about the reign of terror, Griffin, having set out on the path of revenge, had no desire to harm anyone other than Kemp. The accuser and actual winner of the “invisibility” Kemp appears only in the middle of the novel, so although he played a key role in the capture of the criminal, his importance in the entire work should not be exaggerated. Moreover, many of Kemp’s mistakes were very costly - not only about the murder of Mr. Wicksteed, but about the danger to which he exposed his maid, who became a victim of Griffin’s attack, as well as all the other residents of his village. The desire to catch the invisible man prevailed over drawing up a detailed plan.
There is nothing to say about the rest of the characters in the novel; they are empty and transparent characters. And if Griffin was physically transparent, then this can hardly be said about his psychotype: a bright, suspicious and irritable man of unprecedented strength, and also an albino. Residents of Iping, Burdock and other mentioned settlements are mentally transparent, their personalities are invisible, imperceptible, so Griffin openly spoke about his dislike for these people, finding an equal only in the intellectually and culturally savvy Kemp. The rest were just small insects on the path of the venerable giant, pursuing his own great goals.
Ultimately, the question hangs - what was Griffin trying to do by locking himself in rented apartments? Get rid of invisibility and become part of society again, or repeat your own experience in order to bestow someone with the same physiological feature. In both cases, the theme of loneliness begins to assume a dominant position. “The Invisible Man” is not only a crazy tyrant and maniac, he is an extremely lonely and unhappy man.
Impact on culture
It so happened that I watched Paul Verhoeven’s film “The Invisible Man” almost a couple of decades earlier than I read H.G. Wells’ novel “The Invisible Man,” which made comparing them much easier. Firstly, due to the large time interval, the notorious phrase “the book is better than the film” cannot in any way be considered at all appropriate. And secondly, they are too different to draw direct parallels. Although there are still a number of parallels. The most important of them, of course, should be considered the image of a brilliant and crazy scientist, struck not only by delusions of grandeur, but also by true darkness of mind. The transformation of consciousness occurred due to some virus or disease. Or the internal predisposition was revealed at such a late stage of personality formation.
The result was equally the same - the hunter found himself in the role of the victim. Hunted down and betrayed by people in whom he completely trusted, the invisible man ended his days ingloriously. But this is far from the only film adaptation of Wells' work. There were also literal reproductions of the book (a 1933 film directed by James Whale), as well as free interpretations of the plot (1984, directed by Alexander Nikolaevich Zakharov, starring Andrei Kharitonov), where Griffin became a positive character. But this is not the main thing.
The image of the invisible man, although used both in folklore and in works earlier than Wells’s creation, has finally gained unprecedented popularity. And even closer attention began to be paid to the characters of crazy brilliant scientists, which was reflected not only in literary works, but also in cinema. The crowning achievement of this image was the character of Hannibal Lector, a brilliant psychiatrist from the novels “Red Dragon”, “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Hannibal” and “Hannibal Rising” by Thomas Harris, whose film adaptation by Jonathan Demme has become truly cult.