ALL CHARACTERS OF THE NOVEL-THE INVISIBLE MAN

By | October 9, 2021

1.Character Sketch of Griffin

The Invisible Man has been given many names in the novel. At first, he was the stranger who arrived at Iping. Then, he was the Voice that startled everybody. However, his real name was Griffin.

Though he is the protagonist of the story, all his deeds were more like that of an antagonist. He was an eccentric scientist. Though he was a gifted scientist, he used his mind in a sinister way. He devised an experiment to become invisible and then started looting and murdering whoever came in his way.

He was very irritable and impatient. He lost his temper over petty things and started hurting others. He had lost all sense of conscience and didn’t feel sorry even after his burglary led to his father’s death. Although he was lonely and seemed to have been misunderstood from time to time, he failed to gain sympathy due to his murderous rage and selfish, evil ways.

2.Character Sketch of Mrs Hall

Janny Hall, or better known as Mrs Hall, was the owner of the ‘Coach and Horses’ inn in Iping. In the beginning, she appeared to be an opportunist and money minded. She gave the stranger a room in her inn without showing much concern about confirming his identity because of the gold sovereigns that he paid in return for the room. She accommodated with Griffin’s rudeness and awkward behaviour only because she was being paid.

However, she had a courteous side also which we see when she tried to know about Griffin’s physical impairment and showed sympathy towards his state. She was superstitious also as she believed that .her furniture was haunted when she was pushed out of the room by the Invisible Man with the help of a chair. She was a dominating wife and more capable than her husband who she dominated and refused to listen to.

However, she was courageous and refused to accept the stranger’s rudeness. She decided to set him straight and stopped serving him. She replied in such an angry tone that Griffin had to back away.

3.Character Sketch of Mr Hall

 George Hall or Mr Hall was the husband of Mrs Hall and drove the Iping conveyance. He was a drunkard, laid back and easy going. His wife managed the inn on her own. He believed in others quite easily and when Mr Teddy Henfrey told him about Griffin, he at once formed the perception that there was something unusual with the guest who his wife had accommodated in the inn.

 He was inquisitive like all the other villagers of Iping. He wanted to know the details about his guest and grabbed the opportunity to inspect his room when he found it empty. However, he was only secondary to his wife and was very meek in front of her. He was taken to task by her many times. George was also kind by nature when the dog attacked Griffin, he rushed to his room to see if he needed any kind of help even though he was rudely pushed aside by the stranger.

4.Character Sketch of Mr Teddy Henfrey

Teddy Henfrey was a clock repairman who Mrs Hall had called to repair the clock in the parlour which the Invisible Man had occupied. When he arrived, he was taken to Griffin’s room and he was at once startled by his appearance.

 He was quite inquisitive by nature and tried to find more about the stranger. He purposely tried to work slowly. But the silence in the room made him nervous. He tried to talk but was rudely snubbed by Griffin. This irritated him a lot.

He was also a gossipmonger. When he couldn’t find anything more about the stranger, he started spreading rumours about him. He had a suspicious nature. He was the one who said that the stranger was perhaps wanted by the police and that he was a criminal on the run and that is why he kept himself covered.

5.Character Sketch of Mr Cuss

Mr Cuss, the general practitioner of the village of Iping, was a curious man. The story of the bottles and chemicals in the luggage of the stranger excited his professional interest. He was envious on learning that he possessed many bottles of different shapes and sizes filled with chemicals.

 He devised a meeting with the stranger on the pretext of collecting donations for the Nurse’s Fund. His main intention was to gain more information about the Invisible Man. However, he was scared out of his wits when he saw Griffin’s empty sleeve. At first, he behaved boldly, when Griffin tweaked his nose with his invisible hand, he ran away. Though scared, he reacted rationally after coming to his senses. He thought he had probably gone mad or insane. Once again, we see his inquisitive nature when he tried to decipher Griffin’s book along with Mr Bunting.

6.Character Sketch of Mr Bunting

Mr Bunting was the vicar of the Iping village and, thus, was held in very high esteem by the villagers. He was a rational being. When Mr Cuss narrated the story of his interview with the Invisible Man, he tried to calm him down and get his facts right. He grew suspicious about the things that Mr Cuss narrated and considered it to be a “most remarkable story”.

 We see that he was also very bold and brave. He went down to investigate the source of the sounds coming from his study when the Invisible Man was in his house robbing him. He also did not hesitate from helping his friend Dr Cuss in helping him to decipher Griffin’s book though he tried hard to hide the fact that he had forgotten all his Greek.

7.Character Sketch of Mr Jaffers

Mr Bobby Jaffers was the constable of the Iping village who came with a warrant to arrest the Invisible Man. He appeared to be a resolute man who took his work rather seriously. He was a very brave man. When the Invisible Man confronted him, without a head, he did not show fear or surprise but stood resolute in his bid to arrest him. He was the only person who held on to the Invisible Man and tried to stop him from escaping. However, he was no match for his invisible enemy and got beaten up in the process.

 In fact, he was left prostrate on the floor after his fight with the Invisible Man while the latter escaped from his grasp and from the village.

8.Character Sketch of Mr Marvel

Mr Thomas Marvel was a homeless tramp. He was short and fat wearing a shabby hat, charity boots and even shabbier clothes. He was a lazy man who did everything in a leisurely manner.

Griffin forced him to assist him even though he did not have a very high opinion of his intelligence. He appeared to be a cowardly little man unable to stand up to Griffin. However, in the end, he turns the tables on the Invisible Man and runs away with the latter’s money and three books proving that he was an opportunist.

His shrewd mind takes him to the police station in Burdock where he gets himself put behind bars to protect himself from the Invisible Man’s anger. Finally, he turns out to be the man who makes the most out of his interaction with the Invisible Man as he opens an inn in Burdock called the Invisible Man and is found regaling his customers with stories of the Invisible Man whenever they paid him for it.

9.Character Sketch of The Hunchback

The hunchback was the shopkeeper of the costume shop which Griffin, the Invisible Man entered in Drury Lane.

 He was a short, slightly hunched, beetle-browed man, with long arms and very short bowed legs. Griffin had sneaked into his shop only to realise that the man had a very sharp sense of hearing and an irritable nature. He nearly caught Griffin moving about in his house by following the sound he was making inside his house. The man even went up the stairs of his house stealthily hoping to catch the intruder unaware.

 He also tried to lock each of his rooms so that the culprit could not leave his house without being caught. He was so alert and cunning that Griffin had to finally knock him down before stealing the items of disguise that he needed from the former’s shop.

 10.Character Sketch of Dr Kemp

Like Griffin, Dr Kemp was also a scientist. He lived in Burdock. Both Griffin and Dr Kemp had been contemporaries at college.

He was a tall and slender young man with flaxen hair and a moustache that was almost white. Kemp is referred to as “the doctor,” but his degree seems to be an academic one rather than a medical one. He continues his own study in the hope of being admitted to “The Royal Fellows”. His own experiments and fascination with science help him to listen sensibly to Griffin. Like Griffin, he too appears to be rather contemptuous of the people at Burdock and their fascination for the Invisible Man but his common sense and decency prevent him from becoming a part of Griffin’s grand plans of ruling the world.

 He keeps his calm and doesn’t let his fear of the Invisible Man overwhelm him. He keeps his cool even when the Invisible Man sends him the murder threat. He willingly acts as a bait to lure the Invisible Man into the open, jeopardising his own life showing courage and selflessness.

11.Character Sketch of Colonel Adys

Colonel Adye was the Chief of Police in Burdock. Our first impression of him is that of a brave man who comes running to arrest the Invisible Man hiding in Dr Kemp’s house.

He was a morally upright and a highly principled man and opposed to the idea of spreading powdered glass on the roads to catch the Invisible Man. He felt it was the most unsportsmanlike of all acts. However, he agreed to go along with the plan only at the insistence of Dr Kemp. The most outstanding quality was, however, his act of bravery and selflessness when he tried to snatch the gun out of the Invisible Man’s hands and was shot in the bargain.

12.Character Sketch of Mr Heelas

Mr Heelas was the next door neighbour of Dr Kemp. He was one of the sturdy minority who refused to believe in the story of the Invisible Man and regarded it as a nonsense even though his wife believed it.

 When it was proclaimed that everyone should be on high alert, he insisted upon walking about his garden as if nothing had happened. This showed his casual attitude towards the rumours and his ‘seeing is believing’ attitude.

 Moreover, he appears to be a coward who does not open his door to help his neighbour in distress. Griffin was after Dr Kemp. When Mr Heelas woke up and saw his neighbour’s house, he at once realised that the Invisible Man was after him. Dr Kemp came running to him, but he denied him entry. Perhaps, he was trying to save his family, but this was not a courageous act and does not endear him to the readers.