Griffin (The Invisible Man)
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Griffin is a fictional character, the eponym of H.G. Wells's science fiction novel The Invisible Man, first published in 1897. Griffin (his first name is not given in the novel) is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a formula capable of rendering a human being invisible. He performs the process on himself, but finds himself unable to reverse the formula, which drives him to insanity, crime and murder.
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[edit] Biographical summary
Griffin was a gifted, young, medical student with albinism, who studied optical density while at a university. Griffin believed he was on the verge of a great scientific discovery, but felt uncomfortable working under the eyes of his professor. In order to ensure he would take the credit for himself, he left college and took up residence in a cheap dingy apartment where he could continue his experiments in solitude.
In order to finance his experiments, Griffin robbed his own father- who had apparently stolen the money anyway, and committed suicide after being robbed by his son. (Little was mentioned of Griffin's family background, but it was clearly dysfunctional.) Working reclusively in his flat, he invented a formula to bend light and reduce the refractive index of physical objects, thus making them invisible. He intended from the start to perform the process on himself, but was forced to rush his experiments due to persistent intrusions from his landlord, who was suspicious of his activities. He processed himself in order to hide from his landlord, setting fire to the building to cover his tracks. He wound up alone, invisibly wandering the streets of London, struggling to survive out in the open whilst unseen by those around him. In order to make himself visible again, he stole some clothes from a dingy backstreet theatre shop, including a trenchcoat and hat, wrapping his head in bandages to conceal his invisibility, his eyes covered by large dark goggles. He took up residence in the Coach and Horses Inn in the village of Iping to reverse his experiment in a quiet environment, but complications arose with the locals, who were unnerved by his appearance. As a result, his progress was slowed down and he was left without sufficient money to satisfy the pub's owners. In order to pay his bill, Griffin burgled the home of Reverend Bunting, causing the police to come after him, at which point he revealed his invisibility to all by throwing off his clothes and escaping.
By now driven to insanity by his inability to reverse the experiment, Griffin sought the assistance of a tramp named Thomas Marvel to carry money for him, but Marvel ran away with the money. Griffin pursued him to the town of Port Burdock, and there ran into his old schoolmate Dr. Arthur Kemp. Griffin attempted to convince Kemp to be his visible partner and help him begin a reign of terror. Kemp, rather than assisting the crazed Invisible Man, alerted Colonel Adye of the Port Burdock police.
Furious and still entertaining thoughts of world domination, Griffin vowed to kill Kemp, as the first execution in the reign of terror. He ultimately failed when Kemp rallied the people of Port Burdock, who mobbed the Invisible Man as soon as they had deduced his location, and Griffin was killed when cornered by navvy workers. The effects of the invisibility formula wore off in death, and Griffin's body became visible again.
[edit] 1933 Universal Studios version
In the 1933 film version of The Invisible Man, he was given the first name Jack (his first name was never revealed in the novel). He was played by Claude Rains.
Jack Griffin worked for Dr. Cranley, assisting him in his food preservation experiments alongside his friend Arthur Kemp. Griffin was deeply in love with Cranley's daughter, Flora, and the two planned to marry. Griffin was afraid that he had nothing to offer her, however, and so began experimenting with an obscure and dangerous drug called monocane in hopes that his work would make him rich and famous, and therefore a worthwhile husband for Flora.
Griffin discovered that when combined with other chemicals, monocane made a formula capable of rendering a person invisible. Too excited by his discovery to think clearly, Griffin left Kemp and the Cranleys to complete the experiment in solitude. He injected himself with the formula over the course of a month, and became invisible. It was only after Griffin had attained invisibility that he realized he had not thought of how to turn himself visible again.
Panicking, Griffin went to the small village of Iping and rented a room in the Lion's Head Inn, where he began searching for a formula to reverse the experiment. During this time, he rendered himself visible by wrapping his head in bandages and wearing dark goggles.
The prying eyes of curious locals, combined with the maddening side-effects of monocane and the frustration that came as a result from his repeated failed tests, drove Griffin insane. After assaulting Jenny Hall and severely injuring her husband, Herbert, Griffin shed his clothing, becoming totally invisible, and eluded the police. He sought help from Kemp, but by now the monocane had driven him so insane that he was seriously entertaining thoughts of world domination, and wanted Kemp to be his visible partner and assistant.
Not even a visit from Flora and her father helped ease Griffin's mounting insanity. He vowed to kill Kemp after his old friend had alerted Inspector Lane to his whereabouts, and despite intensive police protection surrounding Kemp, Griffin eventually made good on his threats. After killing Kemp, he sought refuge from the cold in a farmer's barn. The farmer summoned the police, who set fire to the barn. As Griffin fled the burning structure, he was shot by the Chief of Detectives, who could see his footprints in the snow.
Griffin died from the gunshot wounds in the hospital, apologizing for his crimes with the immortal line, "I meddled in things man must leave alone." The effects of the invisibility formula wore off in death, and Griffin's body became visible again.
The film's portrayal of Griffin is somewhat more sympathetic than that of the novel. Whereas the novel's Griffin is callous and cruel from the beginning and only pursues the experiment for the sake of proclaiming his own genius, Griffin of the movie is shown at heart to be an honorable man who has been misguided. His insanity is purely a side-effect of the invisibility drug, and his motivation behind the experiment was a misguided desire to do good for science and mankind, born primarily out of his love for his fiancee.
[edit] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
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 after assaulting Mina Murray and betraying his teammates to the Martians. 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).
Kevin J. Anderson's later book The Martian War reuses the name Hawley Griffin for the Invisible Man.
