The Invisible Man By: H.G. Wells published in 1992

1. The Invisible ManBy: H.G. Wellspublished in 1992 Ashley Loudon Kaitlyn Artale Jessica Quinn Christine Murphy

2. Author Biography • H. G. Wells (1866-1946), English author, futurist, essayist, historian, socialist, and teacher. • Herbert George Wells was born on 21 September 1866 in Bromley, Kent County, England, son of Sarah Neal, maid to the upper classes, and Joseph Wells, shopkeeper and professional cricket player. • He was a very avid reader at an early age. He attended Thomas Morley’s Academy for a few years before financial hardship forced him to leave and seek practical employment. His father had broken his leg and not being able to play cricket anymore or pay for Herbert’s school, Herbert became an apprentice to a draper at the age of fourteen.

3. H.G. Well’s other works • Ann Veronica • In the Days of the Comet • Love and Mr. Lewisham • Mr. Britling Sees It Through • The First Men in the Moon • The Food of the Gods • The History of Mr. Polly • The Invisible Man • The Island of Doctor Moreau • The New Machiavelli • The Research Magnificent • The Secret Places of the Heart • The Soul of a Bishop • The Time Machine • The War in the Air • The War of the Worlds • The Wheels of Chance • The World Set Free • TonoBungay • When the Sleeper Wakes

4. Setting of Story • The Invisible Man, the main character, makes the decision of taking a stop in a town called Iping, where he lives in the Coach and Horses inn. He lives here in order to research. The Halls are the owners of the inn. Mrs. Hall is a very curious lady and the reason why Griffin shows his invisibility. Things develop and all inhabitants of the town get to know that Griffin is invisible. • The story takes place in the late Nineteenth Century.

5. Character Descriptions • Griffin – Is the invisible man. He is a well educated chemist and researcher. • Kemp - He is an old fellow student of the invisible man. He is also a man of science. • Mrs. Hall: She is the owner of the inn in Iping Village. She feels sorrow for the invisible man and wants to help him, but he refuses. After a time she can't stand the mystery anymore. • Mr. Marvel – Griffin meets this man and wants him to be his servant.

6. Plot Summary • This story is about a scientist called Griffin who made a brilliant invention. But not thinking of the result of this he is killed by people who where scared of him. At first he comes to Iping a little town in England where he wants to stay in order to do research. Griffin found out how human beings could become invisible and that was one reason why he left home. He is not able to get visible again which will become a major problem of this man. When things develop the people of the town find out that Griffin is invisible and immediately he is a hunted creature. The invisible man meets Dr. Kemp whom he knows very well because they went to the same university. But Kemp wants him, like everybody, to be caught. At last the invisible man is killed in a struggle.

7. Plot Summary cont. • Dr. Kemp is the opposite of Griffin. He doesn't invent things himself. Griffin would never adopt an invention of somebody else. Mrs. Hall is a very curious person and she is the reason why he showed his invisibility. This dramatic ending would not have to be happened if society had accepted the invisible man. He just was a strange, not understood outcast. He was different. There are some other problems that make Griffin's situation bad. He didn't realize what it meant to be invisible. He was not aware of the consequence of his invention. This leads me to the conclusion that scientists are men who can be very dangerous. Society plays an important part in the life of such a person who is regarded as an outcast by other people - very often or almost every time society is the reason for odd reactions of human beings.

8. Literary Elements • Theme: The most important theme is societies' ignorance. Society is always afraid of things that they do not understand. 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. There was skepticism even after the man vanished and there were witnesses to it.      The ignorance of the society also played an important role in assisting the invisible to become mad. Since the invisible man was somewhat of a freak of nature or science the people just wanted him to be gone. 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.

9. Quotes from text • The stranger came early in February one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking as it seemed from Bramblehurst railway station and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand.      - The Invisible Man [Books (First Lines)]

10. Critical Analysis Of The Book • We as a group didn’t like the book. It was boring. All we liked about it was that the man had a hardship about being invisible.

11. References • http://www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/h_g_wells_a001.htm

12. Job Division • Kaitlyn: Typing and Setting • Ashley: Characters and plot • Christine: author bio and literary analysis • Jessica: quotes and literary analysis