The Invisible Man

What It's About

Griffin, a brilliant but secretive scientist, has discovered a method of rendering living tissue invisible and has used it on himself. Arriving in the quiet English village of Iping, he takes lodgings while trying to find a way to reverse the process, concealing himself under bandages, dark glasses and heavy clothing. His volatile temper and erratic behaviour soon draw suspicion, and once his true nature is exposed, Griffin abandons any attempt at secrecy and turns to intimidation and violence, revealing invisibility not as a gift but as a curse that cuts him off from human society and feeds a growing sense of power and delusion.

Key Concepts

The novel explores the dangers of science pursued without moral responsibility or oversight, and how isolation - self-imposed and otherwise - can corrode a person's humanity. Griffin's invisibility grants him power but strips him of connection and accountability, and Wells uses this to examine how easily power without consequence tips into cruelty. The book also plays on Victorian anxieties about the stranger in a small community, and carries strong elements of Gothic horror in its build-up of dread and its eventual violence.

About the Author

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer, journalist and social commentator widely regarded as one of the fathers of modern science fiction. Trained in biology, he brought a scientist's eye for detail and consequence to his early novels, while remaining deeply engaged throughout his career with questions of society, politics and human progress.