My Theme Analysis Paper for the Invisible Man

This is my essay for what the main theme of The Invisible Man by HG Wells is. The “grotesque romance” Invisible Man was published 1952 and won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction the next year in 1953.The book is often considered the beginning of science fiction, and it is easy to see when you look at the things that take place within the book. The book was gripping and it was exciting to watch the downfall of Griffin (the main protagonist) as he gained power and lost his humanity.

Due to this Wells tells the main theme throughout the book, science without humanity.

The first instance is soon after he learned of the invisibilty he took money from his father that ended up getting his father killed. We know that the money was not his fathers (there was no explination as to whose money it was or why the father died )so the father ended up dying, but Griffin showed not to care.

When Griffin first describes the incident he does not even call the man his father, further showing disconnection. He turned around abruptly. “I robbed the old man-robbed my father. The money was not his, and he shot himself.” (Page 6,045)

Secondly, once Griffin becomes invisible his treatment of people becomes much worse. He seems to view the visible people as stupid and beneath him. The only person he treats with any dignity is DR. Kemp, because he believes that Kemp will understand him. We only need to look at the way he treats MR.

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Marvel with both words, and actions. Throughout chapter IX griffin is nothing but abusive both physically, and verbally. Whizz came a flint, apparently out of the air, and missed Mr. Marvel’s shoulder by a hair’s-breadth. Mr. Marvel, turning, saw a flint jerk up into the air, trace a complicated path, hang for a moment, and then fling at his feet with almost invisible rapidity. He was too amazed to dodge. Whizz it came, and ricochetted from a bare toe into the ditch. Mr. Thomas Marvel jumped a foot and howled aloud. (5128) ‘Now,’ said the Voice, as a third stone curved upward and hung in the air above the tramp. ‘Am I imagination?’ (5128)

The final thing that Wells shows us is that once Griffin dies he becomes visible again. Showing that once the science was gone he became human, a broken creature, but isn’t that exactly what a human is? This is the Finally of the book where Wells really drives the point home. The setting here is important because it is snowing and bright out, symbolizing a clean soul with imagery that can be recalled from childhood rhymes in Sunday school about blackened hearts becoming white as the driven snow once one has died of their worldly sins. And so, slowly beginning at his hanfd and feet and creeping to the vital centers of his body, that strange change continued. It was like the slow spreading of poison. First came the little white nerves, a hazy grey sketch of a limb, then the glassy bones and intricate arteries, then the flesh and skin, first a faint fogginess, and then growing rapidly dense and opaque. Presently they could see his crushed chest and his shoulders, and the dim outline of his drawn and battered features. When at last the crowd made way for Kemp to stand erect, there lay, naked and pitiful on the ground, the bruised and broken body of a young man about thirty. ( 7014-7015)

After reading the invisible man I hope you gained a better understanding of the message Wells was trying to tell, that we can not loose our humanity in our attempt to better it. Now it is time for you to do your own research. Do you agree with wells? Do you think he was able to tell his point well? Finally did you learn anything from this book? Or did you already agree with him. In this post modern era it is hard to think that discovery has consiquences as we learn more and more, Hopefully tales like this will teach us to learn to look before we leap into the great unknown.