Book Review: The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells.
Every once in a while, you get to read a book that you are convinced would stay with you forever. The concepts the story covers makes you pay attention, pausing slowly as you near its end, mourning the inevitable parting that would come with the characters you have come to love over a hundred pages or so.
H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man is a book I am adding to that list.
Granted, invisibility is not as much a captivating concept today as it probably was when H. G. Wells published this book, but I still can think back to my rather mild awe at Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak, or Auggie’s answer in Wonder, the movie, to what he would be if he had a superpower – “I’d be invisible”. That answer was quite profound.
H. G. Wells masterfully tells a story of a scientist called Griffin, who is rather obsessed with the science of optics. His biggest goal in life is to bend light around objects, manipulating the phenomena of reflection and refraction of light, along with other optic principles. It is this obsession to control light that got me thinking of a deeper meaning for the story. Light is fundamental to our existence. We are creatures of light, much so that we tend to choose sleep and subdued activity when the sun goes down. But what if “Light” served as philosophical representation in H. G. Wells’ story? What if Light represented objective truth and the moral law, with Griffin the ideal of the man who thinks it would be the height of human liberation to do away with the restriction of morality and live at the zenith of liberty?
Griffin ultimately gets his way, and finds that the most convenient thing to do with his invisibility is to steal from people and get away with it. His stealing leads to the death of his father who he has a rather strained relationship with. But to push the point about light representing objective truth and morality, we find that Griffin is without remorse for his actions.
He finds himself in a town called Iping. Residing in the local inn, we get to see the chaos played out as a man who has found the secret to bending light and reflecting none, interacts with people who reflect all of the light they encounter. When a man with no moral absolutes interacts with people who have a fixed moral code, can that make for peaceful society?
Griffin gets rather pathetic as the story progresses, with the town folk looking to get rid of this stranger who is wreaking havoc on them. Ultimately, as he seeks refuge in an old friend’s house [it is not lost on me, that this man who has long sought to get himself alone by being invisible, ultimately seeks refuge from being killed from a friend, with whom he must bare his secrets.] The town folk catch up with him, with the help of the Police, and as Griffin is beaten to within inches of his life, he calls for mercy. The man who was bent on living his life without moral absolutes gets to call in the intervention of a moral absolute as his life is on the line. It is a rather pointing thought for people who are convinced that mankind’s best days will be when we have successfully done away with the common moral law. It’s only a house of cards — it will come tumbling in no time, unable to sustain itself.
As Griffin dies, H. G. Wells uses one of the three breaks he is entitled to, in the writing of sci-fi; Griffin loses his invisibility as he loses his life. No explanations given. He nears the great mystery of afterlife, and takes back the defined structure of morality. H. G. Wells seems to be saying a lot here; it is impossible to live in a society where everyone gets to define right and wrong on their terms. Before long, you have an implosion of that society.
As Griffin lays dying, amidst laboured breath, he has a rather moving conversation with his friend, Kemp, who was rather crucial to Griffin being caught:
Griffin: “Kemp, why did you let them do this to me?”
Kemp: “I am sorry. They were afraid.”
Griffin: “Afraid? Yes, I understand. I thought the process will take it away, but in truth, it only magnified it thousand fold.”
Such a pointer to Friedrich Nietzche’s “God is Dead” thesis. In upturning the order, we would find that there was so much we didn’t know we were undoing, and only when it is too late do we realize that we had to ask why the fence was at the edge of the cliff before going ahead to remove it.
In the end, the book closes with the Church organizing the burial of Griffin, even after he had stolen from the leaders of the church. I can’t help but think of that as hinting at the burden placed on people of faith to provide some semblance of order in a society, along with the law.
But H G. Wells would not be outdone; he ends this book that explores the mysery of a man who seeks to be alone, with the celebration of the news of two people looking to be joined in the institution of marriage. Human interaction is fundamental to our existence, and no one can live without that essential aspect of intimacy, where we find one person, along with others, who we are willing to get vulnerable in front of, at appropriate levels, as we do life together.
The corruption of man is what H. G. Wells signs off with, though, with Kemp threatening Mr. Marvels for the books Griffin recorded his invisibility process in. Man is not disciplined enough to keep from opening Pandora’s Box. Ultimately, we let ourselves down and go down the paths we know we should not go. Left to ourselves, we can only delay the breakdown of the human fabric.
Generally, I loved the story. I think H. G. Wells was a master storyteller to have written this. I think it could have gone on for at least another hundred pages, and that is the only problem I have with the story. It seemed rather rushed. But I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and I would give it 4 stars. I highly recommend it.
