THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS
"Corruption of Morals in the Absence of Social Restriction
The narrator uses the Invisible Man to experiment with the depth to which a person can sink when there are no social restrictions to suppress his behavior. When Griffin first kills his father, he excuses it away by saying that the man was a “sentimental fool.” When he takes the potion himself, he endures such pain that he “understands” why the cat howled so much in the process of becoming invisible. Nevertheless he has no compassion for the cat, for his father or for any of the people he takes advantage of in the course of trying to survive invisibility. On the contrary, he descends from committing atrocities because they are necessary to his survival to committing them simply because he enjoys doing so.
This theme of corruption in the absence of social law has become a motif that is explored in other literary works. H. G. Well created his story with very little psychological elaboration or character development. Other writers, however, have taken the idea much farther; we are thus blessed with novels such as Lord of the Flies, and Heart of Darkness, along with short stories by Poe and Melville.
Science without Humanity
Although Wells does not have his characters elaborate on this idea, the concept is represented in the character of Kemp as well as in Griffin himself. Kemp wants to stop Griffin more out of fear for himself than out of concern for the community, but he is nonetheless fascinated by the accomplishment of this misguided college student. The problem with the entire experiment is that Griffin pursued the idea of invisibility without regard to whether or not there would be any real benefit to society because of it."
-The Best Notes
Websites and Blogs Regarding the Social Issue:
http://www.dariosalas.com/blog_english/?p=36
http://www.albertmohler.com/2007/01/29/a-haunting-specter-modern-science-without-moral-limits/
