FREE ESSAY ON INVISIBLE MAN

INVISIBLE MAN

The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells, is composed of many small themes that combined to form
two major themes in the novel. Some of the minor themes are acting before thinking and
denial of unexplainable events. It is based on the two major themes of science
experiments gone wrong and the ignorance of society. 
The most important theme in the novel was the experiment that Griffin, the invisible man,
was working and it was not going exactly as planned. The way that the experiment went bad
was not by accident; instead it was Griffin who had made the mistake of turning himself
invisible. The reason that the invisible man had for becoming invisible was that he was
suspected as to be a vivesectionalist and he did not want to be punished for it. 
The reason for the final decision of becoming invisible was that Griffin thought there
were many advantages. He finds out after becoming invisible that the whole thing was not
thought through enough and being invisible had many more disadvantages than what he was
expecting. This was an example of Griffin acting upon something before adding up all of
the consequences of his actions. If he would have thought the process through Griffin
would have, at least, made things invisible so he could use them and still be disguised.
For instance he could have made some clothes invisible and even some common supplies that
could have been handy along his travels. 
Griffin did not realize how many disadvantages his invisibility had until it was too
late. After becoming invisible Griffin realized that he could not sneak around people
very easy and people still knew he was around even though they could not see him. The
people could see his footprints and see him if he became dirty. Another thing that
Griffin did not realize before his experiment back fired was that he could not eat if he
wanted to stay invisible. The people around him could see the food inside his stomach,
until his body absorbed it. 
The experiment that Griffin went through was his own fault and also sealed his own fate.
The major problem with his invisibility was that Griffin was not able to keep or have any
friends. His only contact was after he was all bandaged up and looked as though he had
been in a bad accident. Without any human contact or support Griffin was destined to
become crazy. In the ending chapters of the novel it is obvious that Griffin has lost his
mind and is completely insane. 
"'Not wanton killing, but a judicious slaying. The point is, they know there is an
Invisible Man -- as well as we know there is an Invisible Man. And that Invisible Man,
Kemp, must now establish a Reign of Terror.'" (Pg. 114)
The previous quote was taken as the invisible man was talking to Kemp about his plans of
judicial killing. This proves that Griffin has gone completely insane and it is his way
of getting back at society for excluding him. He does not realize that if he had never
made himself invisible nothing like this would be happening. Everything that has gone
wrong was because of his experimentation with invisibility. 
The second most important theme is societies ignorance, contributed to the invisible
man's fate. Society is always afraid of things that they do not understand or cannot
explain. The reason they were so afraid of the invisible man was the fact that nobody
could explain why he was invisible. The people of the town did not even give the man time
to explain what had happened to him; everyone just started to chase him down. I believe
that if the people would have been more open minded about his invisibility that the man
might not have become crazy and killed in the end. Society cannot deal with things that
cannot be explained as they are used to hearing them. There was skepticism even after the
man vanished and there were witnesses to it.
"Scepticism suddenly reared its head -- rather nervous scepticism, not at all assured of
its back, but scepticism nevertheless. It is so much easier not to believe in an
invisible man; and those who had actually seen him dissolve into air, or felt the
strength of his arm, could be counted on the fingers of two hands."(Pg. 42)
The previous quote shows how much ignorance society had in this little town of Iping. It
proves that people will not even believe certain things if there is an overwhelming proof
of the actual event. 
The ignorance of the society also played an important role of the madness that the
invisible man accentuated at the end of the novel. Since the invisible man was somewhat
of a freak of nature or science the people just wanted it to be gone with. They did not
want an explanation. They wanted the invisible man dead. After the people chased the
invisible man out of the town he snapped and became totally crazy. This is when Griffin
was going to go on his "reign of terror" and start killing judicially. The society could
have prevented the whole disaster if they would have been more open and allowed for an
explanation to be brought to their attention. 
The novel is based upon the two themes of science experiments gone wrong and the
ignorance society has toward unexplainable things. Both of the themes contribute to the
fate of the invisible man and pushed him over the edge. The invisible man was the person
most responsible for his fate because he did not think of the consequences of his actions
before he made himself invisible. Society was just offered a helping hand in the final
outcome of Griffin's invisibility.