Invisible Man Character Analysis
Character Analysis of Griffin H. G. Wells character Griffin in The Invisible man is a private person who displays his arrogance and selfishness throughout his speech, actions, and interaction with others. Griffin is a character of few words although still conveying a bold personality throughout his actions we learn about his selfish, arrogant mentality. As the quote goes “actions speak louder than words”. The persona of Griffin proves this right. Through his actions The Invisible Man’s being is revealed and ripped apart to show his selfish, arrogant personality.
The very first action that sets the entire tone for this novel is the act of Griffin turning himself invisible. Griffin’s studies in this field were not very advanced up to this point. He had done some experiments on inanimate objects and even animals but never to a human. At first Griffin thinks of being invisible as being super human which he states “To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man, -the mystery, the power, the freedom.
Drawbacks I saw none. You have only to think! And I, a shabby, poverty-struck, hemmed-in demonstrator, teaching fools in a provincial college, might suddenly become-this. ” Griffin, the Invisible Man never thought of the downfall that comes with the glory of experimenting on himself. Throughout the entire story Griffin is living with his mistake becoming a superficial human and doing whatever gets his personal gain. Experimenting without further studies shows Griffin’s risk taking personality of wanting the reward before the work.
As The Invisible Man enters the story he is settling down in the Inn owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hall after arriving Griffin soon realizes that he left his entire life’s work in the downward part of Iping several hours away. Instead of Griffin doing this on his own he directly reveals himself to Mr. Marvel threatening him to retrieve his work. Griffin having no connection with Mr. Marvel and really no boundary of trust other than his black mail of killing him displays his risky, hungry for power mentality perfectly.
Actions may speak louder than words but dialect will always still display the integrity of a character as done perfectly with short and to the point sentences done by H. G. Wells. Griffin’s dialect is direct and arrogant added with the mastery of subtle speech his character comes to life displaying his selfish, arrogant attitude. Right from the starting chapter you get a taste of Griffins arrogant and selfish attitude. Griffin in need of a room in Mr. and Mrs.
Hall’s inn without prior relations demands a room free of charge, with his attire and attitude Griffin seems dangerous to which the inn keepers agree to his command. The way he is so straight forward in his own ways to provide shelter for himself display his thoughts of others as very cut throat. Throughout this tale Griffin never shows the human emotion of empathy or understanding for anyone but himself. It is apparent that he understands these emotions by artificially displaying them for personal gain.
Kemp, an associate of Griffin during his early years before he turned himself invisible comes in towards the story while Griffin shows he really doesn’t want anything from Kent but help on turning himself back he tells him “Alone, there is so little I can do, but with a confederate, a thousand things are possible. ” This quote displays that Griffin understands how to get to people and use them for the time being to only better his life, showing his selfishness. Griffin’s speech is a display of his personality but his treatment of other characters also displays his arrogance and selfishness.
Griffin’s indirect but private sociable skills with others delve into his character and display just how arrogant and selfish he is. Griffin’s ability to keep his relationship with others is always ruined by him leading to hatred from many people during the story and show casing his selfishness. For example Griffin’s colleague Kemp throughout his college years was his best friend who throughout the years could read Griffin like a book revealing his greediness even before his experiment of turning invisible. Griffin seems to not even acknowledge his own ways in which is common for these two traits.
In the first chapter you can already form an opinion of Griffin as he walks into the Inn demanding a room and throughout his entire stay he is rude, demanding and extremely selfish towards the well beings of others staying up making a ruckus, using vulgar language and being confrontational about his own disturbances give an image of Griffin being arrogant. Griffin treats others as unequal through his extreme selfishness and arrogance his character forms. H. G. Wells character Griffin in The Invisible man is a private person who displays his arrogance and selfishness throughout his speech, actions, and interaction with others
