Book Critique

The book The Invisible Man is a wonderful book with many insights on what it would really be like to be invisible. The ethical issues addressed in it are amazingly presented. My view on ethics has been affected through the wonderful ideas in this book. God has not let humans do certain things, so we should not use perusing knowledge just for the sake of knowledge or selfish gain to become our aim in life.
H. G. Wells wrote this book to prove a point. His point, I think, was that we put ourselves in difficult situations sometimes to exalt ourselves. If we do become in a bind like that we should stop trying to be at the top. But we should not get in a situation like that anyway. If we examine our motives in the first place our lives would be a lot more useful and less desperate.
For example, in the book the invisible man said, "I robbed the old man—robbed my father. The money was not his, and he shot himself." Griffin was so into the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and selfish gain that it took the place of innocent life. If he had not been so intent on getting the knowledge then everything would have been fine.
This can be applied to our lives in many ways. One thing that involves ethical issues like this is abortion. Should man be allowed to kill babies that have not been born yet? According to H. G. Wells, most likely not. If a person makes almost any decision based on their own personal gain, they are not right in doing so. This H. G. Wells book did not really involve any religious issues.
The style of this book is one that makes you think. There is a little humour, but it is minimal at best. If I could describe this book in one word, that word would be serious. People were killed, ethical issues were addressed, and people were called insane. That is not supposed to be funny. If this book were written in a different style, the message would not have been communicated well. I think that H. G. Wells is one of the best authors of all time.

Chapter Twenty-Eight- The Hunter Hunted

Kemp is not dead, however. He has escaped! He runs down into the city and calls out for help. In this way, the invisible man is caught. Unfortunately for him, he is fatally wounded in the process. The life of the invisible man is over. He becomes visible as he dies.

Chapter Twenty-Seven- The Seige of Kemp's House

"Port Burdock is no longer under the Queen, tell your Colonel of Police, and the rest of them; it is under me—the Terror! This is day one of year one of the new epoch—the Epoch of the Invisible Man." So are the words of the invisible man to Dr. Kemp in a leter. He threatens his life in the note also. The invisible man starts his seige by first smashing all of the windows in the house. Colonial Adaye is also with Dr. Kemp, but he diecides to go get help. The invisible man stops him and kills him with a revolver. Dr. Kemp is nowhere to be found after Adaye is dead.

Chapter Twenty-Six- The Wickseteed Murder

The invisible man is furious. He goes out in a rage and throws a playing child and breaks their ankle. However, he gets his wits around him and goes off to a nearby estate. A man near that estate was found dead later, hit by an iron pole. Dr. Kemp speculates that the murder was not out of spite, however. The man simply was waling along and he saw an iron pole floating in the air. Out of curiosity he followed it. Griffin then killed him.

Chapter Twenty- Five- The Hunting of the Invisible Man

As the title says, Dr. Kemp and the person trying to capture the invisible man, called simply Adaye, make plans to catch the the fugitive. They tell everyone to shut their windows and doors and not to leave any way for him to get food. For as Dr. Kemp says, "inhuman. He is pure selfishness. He thinks of nothing but his own advantage, his own safety. I have listened to such a story this morning of brutal self-seeking.... He has wounded men. He will kill them unless we can prevent him. He will create a panic. Nothing can stop him. He is going out now—furious." The once sane person that has lost his visibility seems to have also lost with it his sanity.

Chapter Twenty-Four- The Plan That Failed

Chapter Twenty Four consists of a ploy to capture the invisible man. However, he escapes. Doctor Kemp suspects the invisible man is completely evil and insane.

Chapter Twenty-Three- In Drury Lane

The invisible man again tries to find refuge, but this time in a house. The house he does choose, however, has a resident with exceptionaly good hearing. He is forced in the end to tie up the man in a sheet and steal the money. He is really starting to doubt how good his invisibility really is.

Chapter Twenty-Two- In the Emporium

The invisible man is very cold an lonely in the first winter of his invisibility, and if the snow settlese on him he will be betrayed. However, he finds refuge in a store. There he began scheming again to take over the city.

Chapter Twenty-One- In Oxford Street

The experiences of Griffin right after he becomes invisible are related in this chapter. He finds it is very hard because he cannot see his feet. Some people just see his footprints appearing from nowhere, so they decide to chase them. He is almost run over by a carriage also. The new invisibility is not working out as he had hoped.

Chapter Nineteen through Chapter Twenty

In chapter nineteen through chapter twenty, Griffin describes what has happened to him since the last time the two met. Griffin got a fancy for light and physics, so he decided to study it in earnest. He made several huge discoveries, but he never published them because he wanted to keep them a secret. He thought that the only thing that managed to make people visible was the amount of surfaces to reflect the night. For example, glass is transparent because there are not many surfaces to reflect light. However, if you powder it and make more surfaces to reflect light, it will become invisible. But if you put it in water, it will again become invisible because the water has the same type of reflection as powdered glass does. He put this theory to work and soon made an invisible cat. He decided also to make himself invisible because he thouhgt it would benefit him in life.

Chapter Seventeen- Dr. Kemp's Visitor

Dr. Kemp's Visitor is one of the longest chapters in the book. Dr. Kemp arrives at his home, and is suprised by blood on the doorhandle. He passes it off, thinking it may have been his own. But he gets more and more sceptical as more and more blood appears around the house. Suddenly a voice appears from thin air. It explains to him that the speaker is an invisible man named Griffin. The two fellows had a friendship a long time ago at a university they studied at. But they lost contact. Griffin begs for sleep and makes Dr. Kemp promise not to sell him out while he is sleeping.

Chapter Sixteen- In the "Jolly Cricketers"

The "Jolly Cricketers" is an inn at the bottom of a hill that Mr. Marvel rushed into in his state of frenzy. He demanded that all the doors be shut. His explanation was that the invisible man was after him. The inhabitants did so immediately. However, they forgot one door. There is a scuffle and the invisible man is forced to flee, but not before someone shoots him.

Chapter Fifteen- The Man Who Was Running

Chapter fifteen is a very short chapter also. It only describes a man running as fast as he can screaming, "The invisible man is coming!" One person thinks he is crazy, but the people up close to him that see the abject terror on his face are more convinced of the validity of his ravings.

Chapter Fourteen- At Port Stowe

Mr. Marvel is sitting on a bench nervously at the beginning of this chapter. An old seaman comes up and strikes up a conversation with him about the rumors of an invisible man. In a crucial moment of decision, Mr. Marvel starts telling the seaman what he know about the invisible man. However, he is suddenly jerked up, as if without his will. It is actally the invisible man who has just returned from stealing money around the town. However, he needs a visible counterpart not to attract attention when people see money floating around in midair- a pitiful and terrified Mr Marvel.

Chapter 13- Mr. Marvel Discusses His Resignation

The unlikely couple arrive in a city and the invivisible man threatens Mr. Marvel. Evidently, Mr. Marvel had attempted to escape but had been intecepted and beaten by the invisible man. The old pudgy man is deathly afraid of the invisible man, but the fear that holds him to servanthood may eventually drive him away.

Chapter Twelve- The Invisible Man Loses His Temper

The gist of chapter twelve is almost the same as the last two, however from the perspective of different people. It also goes further on to say that the invisible man broke most of the windows in Iping.

Chapter Eleven- In the "Coach and Horses"

We go back in time to the time when the man first saw Mr. Marvel. Two men were in the invisible man's room. They found his diary and opened it with the intention of reading it, however it is cyphered. Just when they begin to think all is well the invisible man shows up and takes the books. He makes a violent escape and gets the books with all his information back. But he is not finished with the small town of Iping.

Chapter Ten- Mr. Marvel's Visit to Iping

The tenth chapter of this book is also very short and is further explained in the next chapter. Mr. Marvel arrives in Iping and paces around and acts nervously. One bystander sees his strange behavior and resolves to watch in case of theft. Mr. Marvel dissapears around a corner and comes out again running with three books. The man observing this yells for people to stop the "theif." But just as he starts running, he is tripped by an invisible force.

Chapter Nine- Mr. Thomas Marvel

In the ninth chapter of this book a man named Mr. Thomas Marvel is nonchalontly minding his own business when, suddenly, a voice starts talking to him out of nowhere. Mr. Marvel does not want to believe that something that strange is happening to him, but he has to because all the evidence points toward there really being an invisible man. The invisible man needs a visible helper, so he asks Mr. Marvel. He cannot decline, so the invisible man gains himself a helper.

Chapter Eight- In Transit

Chapter Eight, as the book says, "Is exceedingly brief". It says that one person was just in the middle of the countryside with no one around for miles and he heard cursing and sneezing. He is quite confused by this strange occurrence.

Chapter Seven- The Unveiling of the Stranger

In the seventh chapter, as the title suggests, the strange man is revealed. The constable and more people try to get him. The landlady and landlord also try to capture the fugitive, but he slips away by taking off his clothes. He the invisible man left one of the people stunned and seriously injured.

Chapter Six- The Furniture That Went Mad

In chapter six, the landlady and her husband go up to the man's room and find, to their suprise, that the man's clothes are neatly layed out on the bed. They have never seen the man with any other clothes, so this puzzles them. Suddenly, however, the clothes gather themselves up and fly across the room! Mr. and Mrs. Hall are driven out of the room by a flying chair!

Chapter Five-The Burglary at the Vicarage- Dedicated to John

In chapter five there is a most unusual burglary. A couple wakes up to find a theif in their house. They can hear the theif going about, so they corner him in a room. However, when they open the door of the room, noone is there and the money is gone. They do not find the theif.

Chapter Four- Mr. Cuss Interviews the Stranger

In chapter four, the unusual looking man is visited and interviewed by Mr. Cuss, the general practicioner. At the end of the interview, Mr. Cuss comes out running and terrified. He later explains to his servant that the man touched his face- with an invisible arm!

Chapter Three- The Thousand and One Bottles

The strange man receives his luggage in chapter three. It is filled with a multitude of bottles and chemistry equipment. However, the dog that accompanies the luggage does not like the man, and the canine bites him. This causes some speculations on the predicament of the man, because when his was opened up by the dog's bite, all someone saw was blackness. However, the man's nose sticking out of his bandage was white! This is how the piebald theory came to be.

Chapter Two- Mr. Teddy Henfry's First Impressions- Dedicated to Sydney

In chapter two, people make speculations on the origin of the strange man. Some people believe he is the victim of some freak accident. Others say he is a piebald man, ashamed of his features. He is very irritable and has odd requests of never having anyone come into his room without his permission.

Chapter One-The Strange Man's Arrival- Dedicated to Jenae

In chapter one, a rather irritable and strange man arrives at an in. He is wrapped in bandages from his head down to his toes. The landlady offeres to take his clothes, but he declines.

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