The Invisible Man

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1897

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapter 21-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Griffin/The Invisible Man

Griffin is a college-educated scientist. He has a condition called albinism, resulting from an absence of pigment in the skin and hair. Distress over his uncommonly pale skin prompts him to research a serum that can turn something from white to translucent—and then invisible. He is brilliant, but his scientific success awakens his darkest qualities. He is arrogant and antisocial, maligning England as “a beast of a country [...] and pigs for people” (41). His newfound powers of invisibility are intoxicating, and almost immediately he begins devising ways to abuse his power for personal gain at others’ expense.

Life as an invisible man proves more inconvenient than expected, so he attempts to reverse the invisibility, but the reversal fails. Enraged, and driven by an insatiable lust for power, he turns to violence and murder. Eventually, he is consumed by the idea of total, despotic control. His character arc is defined by the transformation from an ordinary man to an extraordinary monster, and his moral decay illustrates the perils of the individual dissociated from all social ethic.

Dr. Kemp

A foil to Griffin, Dr. Kemp has a strong ethic which he maintains even in the face of threat and temptation. He and Griffin share a privileged education as well as their haughty sentiments about the country people. The fundamental difference between Kemp and Griffin, however, is that Kemp believes in the sanctity of human life and adheres to the “common conventions of humanity” (106). Kemp’s character is the antidote to evil; He ultimately defeats Griffin, proving that good will prevail and that science can afford power without corruption.

Though he is not without his defects, Kemp is a reigning figure of metaphysical order, embodying the Victorian imagination. His exhortation of the “common conventions of humanity” (106) blazons the definitive moral voice of the era: His elevation of “common conventions” affirms that societal moral structures are the highest authority to which he can appeal. Kemp's words thus crucially and prescriptively situate the human condition within society—in contrast to more modern literary emphases on individualism or existential agency.

Mr. Thomas Marvel

Marvel is a homeless man living in the English countryside. The text consistently refers to him as a “tramp”—derogatory diction which, while commonplace at the time of the novel’s publication, underscores Marvel’s stigmatized position in Victorian society.

As an outsider, Griffin can relate to Marvel but can also exploit his vulnerability. While Marvel is awed by Griffin’s intellect and the powers bestowed by invisibility, he quickly rejects partnership with Griffin’s degenerate quest for absolute power. He escapes, hiding both himself and the coveted books of scientific knowledge. The Epilogue shows Marvel perusing the books, wishing to turn himself invisible—and, while he believes himself to be of higher moral integrity than Griffin, immune to the temptation of power, it seems just as likely that Marvel’s self-confidence is in fact hubris.

He outsmarts both Griffin and Kemp in an ironic twist: The lowliest outwits the proudest, loftiest minds. This twist paints Marvel as an archetypal trickster figure who uses cunning and thievery to disrupt principles of the social order.

Mrs. Hall

The innkeeper, Mrs. Hall, is an uneducated and deeply religious woman who speaks in a strong Cockney accent and often references old-world beliefs. She is offended by Griffin’s rudeness and profane lifestyle, but she is nevertheless allured by the cosmopolitan glamour of hosting an “experimental investigator” (23) and tries to socially elevate herself by feigning an understanding of Griffin’s work. The contrast between her character and Griffin’s typifies the difference between two social strata of 19th century England: the educated aristocracy and the working-class pastoral communities on the outskirts of London.