Griffin (The Invisible Man)

Griffin is a fictional character, the eponym and antagonist of H. G. Wells's science fiction novel The Invisible Man, first published in 1897. Griffin is a young scientist who wants to create the ultimate humanoid by creating a race of invisible people.

Character overview

Griffin is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a formula that makes a human being invisible. The formula entails taking opium and another drug, which make his blood clear, then processing him in a radiator engine. It succeeds, but he finds himself unable to reverse the process. Unlike the character in the 1933 film, the Griffin of the novel is possibly a psychopath, even before he makes himself invisible.

Fictional character biography

Griffin is a gifted young university medical student with albinism, who studies optical density. He believes he is on the verge of a great scientific discovery, but feels uncomfortable working under his professor. To ensure he gets sole credit for the discovery, he leaves university and moves to a dingy apartment to continue his experiments alone.

To finance his experiments, Griffin robs his own father, who commits suicide after being robbed by his son, because the money had not been his own (probably resulting in his not being able to repay a debt or losing a trust). (Little is mentioned of Griffin's family background.) Working reclusively in his flat, he invents a formula to bend light and reduce the refractive index of physical objects, making them invisible. He intends from the start to perform the process on himself, but is forced to rush his experiments due to persistent intrusion from his landlord, who is suspicious of his activities. He processes himself to hide from his landlord, and sets fire to the building to cover his tracks. He winds up alone, invisibly wandering the streets of London, struggling to survive out in the open, unseen by those around him. To make himself visible again, he steals some clothes from a dingy backstreet theatre shop, including a trenchcoat and hat. He wraps his head in bandages to conceal his invisibility, covering his eyes with large dark goggles. He takes up residence in the Coach and Horses Inn in the village of Iping, so he can reverse his experiment in a quiet environment, but complications arise with locals unnerved by his appearance. As a result, his progress slows and he has insufficient money to satisfy the pub owners. To pay the bill, Griffin burgles the home of Reverend Bunting, and the police to come after him, at which point he reveals his invisibility by throwing off his clothes and escaping.

Now driven insane by his inability to reverse the experiment, Griffin seeks assistance from a tramp named Thomas Marvel. He has Marvel carry money for him, but Marvel runs away with the money. Griffin pursues him to the town of Port Burdock, and there runs into his old schoolmate Dr. Arthur Kemp. Griffin attempts to convince Kemp to be his visible partner and help him begin a reign of terror. Kemp, rather than assisting the crazed Invisible Man, alerts Colonel Adye of the Port Burdock police.

Furious, and still planning world domination, Griffin vows to kill Kemp, as the first execution in the reign of terror. He ultimately fails when Kemp rallies the people of Port Burdock, who find and mob the Invisible Man. Griffin is cornered and killed by navvy workers. The invisibility drug wears off in death, and Griffin's body becomes visible again.

1933 Universal Studios version

In the 1933 film The Invisible Man, Griffin's first name is Jack. (The novel never reveals his first name.) He was played by Claude Rains.

Jack Griffin works for Dr. Cranley, assisting him in food preservation experiments alongside his friend Dr. Arthur Kemp. Griffin is deeply in love with Cranley's daughter, Flora, and the two plan to marry. Griffin is afraid he has nothing to offer her, however, and begins experimenting with an obscure and dangerous drug called monocane, hoping his work will make him rich and famous—and a worthwhile husband for Flora.

Griffin discovers a combination of monocane and other chemicals that makes a person invisible. Too excited by his discovery to think clearly, Griffin leaves Kemp and the Cranleys to complete the experiment in solitude. He injects himself with the formula over the course of a month, and became invisible. Only after he is invisible does he realize he doesn't know how to turn himself visible again.

Panicking, Griffin goes to the village of Iping and rents a room in the Lion's Head Inn, where he begins searching for a formula to reverse the invisibility. He makes himself appear visible by wrapping his head in bandages and wearing dark goggles.

Curious locals, maddening side-effects of monocane, and frustration from multiple failed tests drive Griffin insane. After he assaults Jenny Hall and severely injures her husband, Herbert, Griffin sheds his clothing to be invisible, and eludes the police. He seeks help from Kemp, but the monocane has made him so insane that he succumbs to megalomania and plans world domination with 'invisible armies'. He wants and makes Kemp his visible partner and assistant.

Not even a visit from Flora and her father helps ease Griffin's increasing insanity. He vows to kill Kemp after his old friend alerts Inspector Lane to his whereabouts, and despite intensive police protection surrounding Kemp, Griffin eventually makes good on his threats. After killing Kemp, he seeks refuge from the cold in a farmer's barn. The farmer summons police, who set fire to the barn. As Griffin flees the burning barn, the Chief of Detectives, who can see his footprints in the snow, shoots at him, the shot passing through both of his lungs.

Griffin dies from the gunshot wounds in the hospital, apologizing for his crimes, saying, "I meddled in things man must leave alone." The invisibility wears off in death, and Griffin's body becomes visible again.

The film portrays Griffin more sympathetically than does the novel. The novel's Griffin is callous and cruel from the beginning, and only pursues the experiment for wealth and his ego. The movie shows Griffin as an honorable man who is misguided. His insanity is purely a side-effect of the invisibility drug, and his motivation for the experiment was a misguided desire to do good for science and mankind, born primarily out of his love for his fiancée.

Other character appearances

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Main article: Hawley Griffin

Main article: Rodney Skinner

In Alan Moore's comic book series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hawley Griffin is depicted as a member of the Victorian-era team of agents for which the series is named. Griffin is given the first name "Hawley" in the title (as a reference to Hawley Crippen), and it is explained that the Invisible Man killed at the end of the book was actually a half-wit albino that Griffin made invisible as a guinea pig, allowing him to escape to Rosa Coote's boarding school. He is portrayed as a psychopath and a murderer, as in the novel. He is eventually raped and slain by Mister Hyde, who has actually been able to see him all along, after assaulting Mina Murray, breaking her nose and knocking her unconscious, and betraying his teammates to the Martians, stealing military plans for them so he could rule the World with them, and telling them to disable Nemo's submarine by doing something to the water, which is why the Red Weed is used. Moore commented that it seemed fitting for Griffin to join the Martians as both hailed from novels by H. G. Wells.

In the film version, he is called Rodney Skinner due to copyright issues, and is played by Tony Curran. The name change is explained by the fact that Skinner was a thief who stole the invisibility formula from the original Invisible Man (presumably Griffin). The fact that his skin is invisible is also related to his name of "Skinner". Skin samples of him are taken by Dorian Grey for Moriarty, but the plans fall through a hole in the ice when Moriarty is shot and are lost.

The Martian War

Kevin J. Anderson's later book The Martian War reuses the name Hawley Griffin for the Invisible Man.

Anno Dracula

Main article: Anno Dracula

Griffin makes a brief cameo in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula (1992). Present during the basement meeting between Beauregard and Doctor Fu Manchu, he is described as a scientist and as "an albino who seemed to fade into the background."

The Invisible Man (2000 TV series)

On The Invisible Man television series on SCI FI, the character played by Joel Bissonnette was a scientist who worked on the development of the invisibility gland. His character's nom de guerre was Swiss German, Arnaud DeFöhn, although he went by the Swiss French name Arnaud De Thiel as a cover, while working on the gland. In attempting to retrieve the gland, he later uses the pseudonym Hawley Griffin (a reference to the League of Extraordinary Gentleman and the original Invisible Man), pretending to be a CIA agent from the South.

The Nobody

In Jeff Lemire's The Nobody the Invisible Man is named "John Griffen". John Griffen goes through a similar episode as the Invisible Man's "Griffin" does. Both men hide out in an Inn in a small town, only to be driven out because of fear and curiosity.

See also

Novels portal

• Hollow Man
• Universal Monsters