The main characters of the story the invisible man Wells. "The Invisible Man" short description

The debut works of writers often determine their future career 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 collected capital from sales could provide further creativity with a serene life and lack of need in an urban environment. The Invisible Man was an extremely important work for him and was one of the first in his track record. The success of The Time Machine and The Invisible Man in many ways helped the writer to climb the Olympus of science fiction writers, so that, having settled down there, he could start working on deeper and larger-scale projects, periodically being distracted by social and 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, bringing down all the moral and ethical framework.

History of writing

It was, is and will be in the order of things to trust the choice and evaluation of a literary work to critics. If the ratings are positive, you can turn your eyes and attention to the book, if not, then it's easier to skip the work and not waste time on it. This is often caused by the fair amount of works that are released around the world each year. All books cannot be re-read, but the best of them should definitely be studied. And if the author's creation did not manage to get into the list of the best, then it can sink into oblivion and never be explored by the reader community.

This is a perfectly 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 concomitant factors. "The Invisible Man" went exactly that way. Having received very negative reviews from both literary critics and representatives of the scientific world, the novel still managed to win the hearts of readers. The unusual story of an invisible man captured the minds of the townsfolk, forcing critics to reconsider their assessments, descending 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 the strongest impression on me."

Joseph Conrad

"He (Wells) will attack you from the front and rear until you submit to the end of his magical charms."

Arnold Bennet

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. It's about the work of Fitch-James O'Brien "What was it?". Is the idea of a frightening transformation of the human body borrowed? Maybe. But the end result is different. In O'Brien's story, the terror of the unseen being extends to the inhabitants of one particular house as a protective measure. Wells, on the other hand, terror begins to spread to everyone around, even transforming into the idea of seizing the power of the settlement.

Pearson's Magazine was the first publication to publish chapters of The Invisible Man. In September 1897, thanks to the positive feedback from the readers of the magazine, a separate book was released, which aroused the interest of lovers of fiction literature.

As a scientist and science fiction writer, HG 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 rationale for the invisibility of one's character ends with a meticulous description of the transformation with saving assumptions. It is these assumptions that rescue Wells, but the criticism of his physico-biological assumption still turns out to be devastating. 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 prophesied some of the accusations by giving his character the appearance of an albino lacking 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?

Small in size, Wells' novel fully accommodates serious thoughts that do not tolerate distractions in the plot twists and turns. Given 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:

"Invisible must capture some city, at least this Burdock of yours, terrorize the population and subjugate everyone and 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 patterns could be observed. And if these are not the prophetic words of Wells, then at least they are a reflection of reality, a contemporary 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 Mist” is bewildering. Wells was a socialist and a vehement opponent of various forms of terror, which is why he makes the reader of The Invisible Man stop sympathizing with the main character of the novel at the moment when true despotic intentions appear. And this makes his idea more surprising 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 then allowed to do everything. At least pull the moon to the earth.

Okay, these arguments aside, I don’t want to miss important points when studying the ideological core of The Invisible Man. And the core of this contains several important theses: young talented minds should be supported by more experienced colleagues, so as not to discourage them from communicating with the outside world and not to dig into their self-centered thoughts; The story of The Invisible Man is the story of a choice that is always there. You can be a brilliant scientist, discover something incredible and even supernatural, but you need to decide what all this was done for: to amuse pride, for the sake of philanthropy, or to achieve some mercantile goals.

The arrow of choice will rush about due to the influence of certain life situations, which certainly correct the final decision. Therefore, for the madness of the main character (the language does not dare to call him the main character), all of humanity, including, is responsible, because this or that society determines the behavior of each of its adherents; you can’t turn away from people, otherwise involuntary asceticism may take a not very sensible form. But personal responsibility cannot be removed. At any moment, Griffin (I mention his name in the middle of the article, parodying Wells' handwriting) could stop, not cross the line. And even, damn it, after the murders, he could stop, surrender to the authorities, suffer a well-deserved punishment, no matter how severe it was. But he decided to go to the end, to his own end.

By the way, it is a good example that with all the power of an invisible person, society, no matter how stupid and degenerate it may be presented in the author’s description, will still trample and destroy someone who does not look like him and who declared himself an anti-system element. No matter how powerful and invulnerable Griffin considered himself, with the fading of his breath and the cessation of his heartbeat, his everyday life appeared - a body, a dead body, the same as it would be without unique properties.

The absence of positive characters in the work seems noteworthy. The main character is a maniac, a murderer, a crazy scientific genius. Although it cannot be overlooked that despite his idea of a reign of terror fix, Griffin, having entered the path of revenge, had no desire to harm anyone other than Kemp. The accuser and the actual winner of the “invisibility” Kemp appears only in the middle of the novel, so although he played a key role in catching the criminal, his importance in the whole work should not be exaggerated. Moreover, many of Kemp's mistakes were very expensive - it's 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 rest of the inhabitants of his village. The desire to catch the invisible man took precedence over drawing up a detailed plan.

There is nothing to say about the rest of the characters in the novel, 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, while still an albino. The inhabitants of Aiping, Burdock and other mentioned settlements are mentally transparent, their personalities are invisible, imperceptible, so Griffin spoke openly 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, locking himself in rented apartments? Get rid of invisibility and become part of society again, or repeat your own experience in order to endow someone with the same physiological feature. In both cases, the theme of loneliness begins to acquire 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 before I read H. G. Wells' novel The Invisible Man, which made it much easier to compare them. Firstly, due to the large time interval, the notorious phrase "the book is better than the movie" in general can by no means be considered at least as appropriate. And secondly, they are too different to draw direct parallels. Although a number of parallels still exist. The most important of them, of course, should be considered the image of a brilliant and crazy scientist, struck not only by megalomania, but also by true obscuration of the mind. The transformation of consciousness occurred to match some kind of virus or disease. Or the inner predisposition was revealed at such a late stage of personality formation.

The result was equally the same - the hunter was in the role of the victim. Hounded and betrayed by people in whom he completely trusted, the invisible man ended his days ingloriously. But this is far from the only adaptation of Wells' work. There were also literal reproductions of the book (1933 picture, directed by James Weil), 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, although used both in folklore and in earlier works compared to Wells' creation, has finally gained unprecedented popularity. And even more attention was paid to the characters of crazy brilliant scientists, which was reflected not only in literary works, but also in cinema. The crown of this image was the character of Hannibal Lecter, 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.

The protagonist of the novel is Griffin, an invisible man, a brilliant scientist who made an amazing discovery, but did not present it at the scientific council, as he was afraid that his invention would be appropriated by a less talented inventor like him. The invisible man commits many crimes, he hates people and wants to control them. In pursuit, he meets the poor fellow Mr. Marvel, whom he forces to help him. As a result, the poor fellow can not stand it and hands him over to the police. Invisible is killed, and he becomes visible.

The novel teaches that one should not interfere with nature, otherwise it can lead to irreversible consequences.

Read the summary of Wells' Invisible Man

The action of the novel takes place in the tavern "Coachman and Horses". In this place, in the bitter cold, out of nowhere, a strange stranger appears. This is a rare occurrence for this time of year. The owners of Mrs. Hall and her husband are happy with the guest, but this happiness does not last long. People around begin to notice the stranger's unusual behavior. He is wrapped from head to toe, covering his mouth when he eats. No one knows what the guest is doing. Cursing words and the noise of breaking dishes are constantly heard from the room, it smells of chemicals. Apparently Griffin, that's how to call a stranger, something does not work out.

The hero wants to return to his former appearance, but it does not work out for him, so he is very angry. Griffin ran out of money and, using his fortune, he decided to rob.

The scientist is gradually losing his mind. By himself, he is an unrestrained, irritable person, which is clearly seen in the last period of his life. Griffin makes a rash act. In front of a large audience, he takes off his disguise and appears before everyone as a headless man, and then completely disappears. For the first time, Invisible managed to elude law enforcement. While chasing, Griffin runs into poor Mr. Marvel, who was wearing a tattered black top hat and admiring his boots.

While the tramp was trying on shoes, he heard a voice from the void. Mr. Marvel liked to drink alcoholic beverages and therefore at first did not even pay attention to it. But an unknown voice explained to him that he saw the same unfortunate person as he himself and decided to ask him for help. First of all, Invisible asked to find clothes and money. At first, Mr. Marvel clearly did everything that the hero instructed him, since Griffin still did not lose his tyrannical behavior and could be very dangerous. In Aiping there is a thorough preparation for the celebration. Invisible arranges a complete rout there, takes his personal belongings. Marver wants to run away from the tyrant, but he fails. He repeatedly tried to tell the police everything, but he was stopped by a voice from the void. Marvel understood perfectly well what this threatened him with. But he wasn't going to remain silent forever.

One day the talented Dr. Kemp was sitting at home doing scientific work. And suddenly he saw a man who was running in a black top hat with a pile of books. The stranger was hiding in the Merry Cricketers tavern. Then he went to the nearest police station.

Kemp heard the doorbell ring, but no one came. The doctor thought that the local boys were frolicking, but he saw blood stains on the carpet, crumpled bed linen. Suddenly, Kemp heard an invisible voice. Griffin recognized his classmate.

Invisible decided to take revenge on Mr. Marvel, but he could not get into the tavern. The city has long been aware of the Invisible, all the newspapers wrote about him. One visitor had a pistol in his hands, with which he wounded Griffin in the arm. He came to Kemp.

Griffin told a classmate how he got to this point.

Griffin is an outstanding scientist, but he failed to realize himself in scientific activity. He was a specialist in medicine and the exact sciences. The hero knew perfectly well what was going on in the scientific department and therefore was afraid that his brilliant discoveries would be appropriated by another not as talented scientist as he was. He began to live in a small London house and engage in science. Everything was fine until he ran out of money. Griffin steals his father's savings. The latter commits suicide. The hero does not regret anything, he is completely immersed in his discovery. The day Griffin has been waiting for is coming. He feels that his body is on fire, he becomes ill.

When the owners enter the house, they do not find the guest. Griffin sets fire to the house, completely destroying the records of his discovery.

The hero hates all people. Invisible wants to subjugate all of humanity and invites Kemp to cooperate with him. The latter realizes that he is talking to an abnormal fanatic. He turns to the police to Colonel Adlai. At first, Mistyfoot does not want to deal with the colonel, but in the end, he kills him.

The Invisible is being chased. He was caught. Now a handsome, wounded man appeared before the people. Griffin was invisible alive, and dead - became visible.

Mister Marvel used the money he took from the Invisible Man to buy clothes, a tavern, and began to live happily ever after.

A picture or drawing of The Invisible Man

Main characters

Griffin (Invisible)- a brilliant physicist who, during the experiments, managed to become invisible.

Other characters

Chapter 1

On a frosty February day, a new guest appeared in the coachman and horses tavern. "Getting a guest in Iping in the winter" was a great stroke of luck, and Mrs. Hall cheerfully 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 is mutilated or mutilated by an accident".

Chapter 2 Mr. Teddy Henfrey's First Impressions

Watchmaker Teddy Henfrey came to the tavern, whom Mrs. Hall called to repair the clock. When the woman entered the living room, before her eyes appeared "a white bandaged head, huge glasses instead of eyes and under them a wide, gaping, as if yawning mouth" of the guest. Teddy Henfrey became interested in an unusual guest, and tried to talk to him, but he abruptly cut him off. Upon meeting Mr. Hall, the watchmaker informed him that "a suspicious fellow" was stopping in their inn.

Chapter 3

Soon the personal belongings of the guest were brought to the tavern. When he went down to the street to pick up the luggage, the coachman's dog suddenly "growled angrily and bristled", and then grabbed his arm.

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 man in the tavern. The rude behavior of the guest, his nightly walks through the deserted streets and his unwillingness to appear in the church began to cause rumors in the local society. Soon he was nicknamed the ghost man.

Dr. Kass just "burned with curiosity." Under a plausible pretext, he went to the mysterious stranger and noticed with horror that he had a hole in his sleeve. But worst of all, he grabbed the bewildered doctor by the nose with an invisible hand, who ran out of the room in fear.

Chapter 5

In the middle of the night, a burglar broke into Vicar Banting's house and stole the gold. However, the owners did not see the criminal, although the front door opened and closed in front of them by itself.

Chapter 6

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 himself was nowhere to be seen. But then even more strange events followed: the furniture began to move around the room by itself, attacking and pushing the spouses out the door. They decided that spirits had moved into the furniture.

Chapter 7

An angry Mrs. Hall decided not to cook any more meals for the guest until he explained his strange behavior to her. In response, he unbandaged his face, in the place of which "an empty cavity gaped." Everyone present ran out of the tavern in fear. When Mr. Hall, accompanied by PC Bobby Jeffers, went inside, they saw how the headless guest was having dinner quietly. A fight broke out, during which the guest quickly undressed and became completely invisible. He beat his opponents and went into hiding.

Chapter 8

A local resident was enjoying peace and solitude in nature when he heard someone's footsteps and loud abuse nearby. He looked around, but there was no one around.

Chapter 9 Mr. Thomas Marvel

Thomas Marvel, trying on shabby shoes, got into a conversation with a stranger. Turning around, he saw no one, and decided that he had lost his mind. Invisible managed to prove that he is not a figment of Thomas' sick imagination. Fat Marvel promised his new friend not to betray him and to provide all possible assistance.

Chapter 10

The inhabitants of Aiping decided that the Invisible Man was some kind of another trick, and soon forgot about it. Not far from the coachman and horses tavern, a stranger appeared - Thomas Marvel - who "talked aloud to himself." Mr. Huxters noticed how a suspicious man made his way into the inn and soon brought out a "large bundle" from there. He rushed at the stranger, but immediately received a strong blow and fell to the ground.

Chapter 11

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, Mistyfoot had to act decisively. He handed over the bundle with things to his assistant, and then deftly knocked down all his pursuers and started a fight.

Chapter 13

Invisible Man is unhappy with Marvel, but he has no choice. Marvel was about to ask to be left alone, but in response he received only a couple of strong cuffs and advice to obey in everything until Invisible himself would let him go.

Chapter 14

The next morning, "unshaven, dirty, disheveled," Marvel sat outside an inn in Port Stowe, while Misty Man took money out of passers-by's pockets and brought it to him.

Chapter 15

That evening, Dr. Kemp noticed a man running past his house with a look of horror on his face. From him "a ringing sound came from, like from a tightly stuffed purse, which is thrown here and there." It was Marvel who was trying to escape the Invisible Man with the money.

Chapter 16

"Crying, disheveled, without a hat, with a torn collar" Marvel flew into the tavern, who asked to be rescued from the pursuit of Invisible Man. The visitors promised the unfortunate protection. Soon, the Invisible One appeared, who began to choke 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

During the night, Dr. Kemp found the wounded Invisible Man in his house, who was very happy to meet him. He admitted that his name is Griffin, and at one time he studied with Kemp.

Chapter 18

Invisible admitted that he made an amazing discovery and he needed an assistant. He promised to tell everything in the morning. All night Kemp thought about his unusual visitor, and decided to let Colonel Adai know about him.

Chapter 19

In the morning, Griffin told a friend that at one time he "quit medicine and took up physics", in particular, optical impenetrability. He "set to work and worked like a convict", and was soon able to enjoy the first successes. To be able to continue his research, Griffin robbed his father, however, "the money was someone else's" and his father shot himself.

Chapter 20

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. Some time later, the landlord complained to Griffin with a request to stop his strange experiments, because of which the reputation of the house suffers. The young man decided not to waste time, and conducted an experiment on himself to disappear. When the landlord arrived with the police that morning, Griffin was completely invisible.

Chapter 21. In Oxford Street

At first, Griffin enjoyed the "extraordinary advantage of his position". However, he soon realized all his shortcomings - the Invisible was constantly touched by passers-by and carriages, dogs attacked. But the worst thing was walking around naked, and very quickly Griffin caught a cold.

Chapter 22

Griffin, "tired, with a cold, aching all over, unspeakably miserable", took refuge in a general store, where he was able to eat and sleep peacefully. In the morning he had to leave his shelter, and again go out into the street naked.

Chapter 23

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 Aiping.

Chapter 24

Griffin offered Kemp cooperation - a joint terror against the locals. At that moment Colonel Eday came. Accusing Kemp of betrayal, Mistyfoot fled Kemp's house.

Chapter 25

Kemp briefly told the Colonel the story of the Invisible Man, adding that "it's not a man, it's a beast." The most thorough search for Griffin was immediately organized to prevent his escape from Aiping.

Chapter 26

Meanwhile, Mistyfoot has "obtained an iron rod somewhere" to try to escape with it. The rod was seen by Mr. Wiksteed, and this ruined him - Griffin mercilessly dealt with the man. He prepared for the decisive battle.

Chapter 27

Griffin wrote a letter to Kemp, in which he announced his intention to plunge Aiping into an 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 entered into a fight with Invisible Man, while Kemp managed to escape.

Chapter 28

Griffin started chasing Kemp, but the doctor managed to get people's attention. The digger, with all his strength, hit the Invisible Man on the head with a shovel, 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 appeared the naked, miserable, beaten and mutilated body of a man of about thirty, stretched out on the ground."

Epilogue

After Griffin's death, Dr. Kem tried to find his notes, "which contain the secret of invisibility and many other amazing secrets", but to no avail.

Conclusion

The main idea of the book by Herbert Wales is to use your knowledge and abilities for the benefit of people and not forget about responsibility to them.

A brief retelling of The Invisible Man will be useful for a reader's diary.

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Retelling rating

Average rating: 4 . Total ratings received: 154.

Title of the work: Invisible Man

Year of writing: 1897

Genre: fantasy 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 failed to return to his original state. He took refuge in a small provincial hotel and continued his experiments. Griffin soon ran out of money and decided to commit crime.

Earlier, he stole his father's money, which led to the death of the latter. Then the scientist, in a fit of rage, set fire to the house and destroyed all his research records.

Having met Camp by chance, he tells him his story and offers to continue research together, in order to later share fame and money. But Camp refuses and goes to the police, because he sees that Griffin, and before that unrestrained and quick-tempered, has become unstoppable in his rage and hatred of all mankind. As a result of a police operation, a scientist is killed. After death, he became visible again.

Conclusion (my opinion)

Sometimes scientists do science not for the happiness of all mankind, but only for the sake of money, as was the case in this story. For Griffin, the goal of life was the thirst for fame, and he was only interested in science as an opportunity to get it.