Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: In class on Monday, I suggested that The Invisible Man/Griffin is split between his super ego and his id: the "super ego" is the higher, more rational/ideal self while the "id" is the animalistic self of desires and hungers. As the novel progresses, which one of the two seems more in dominance? Is he evolving or progressing as this new race of being? And is he aware of this transformation himself?
Q2: Earlier in Chapter III, one of the villagers decides that their guest must be a "piebald...Black here and white there--in patches" (61). This betrays the racial fear at the heart of English society at the time, that someone not "pure" could mix in polite society. Where else do we see racist views expressed by the characters of the novel (on both sides)? What might be Wells' point in bringing these topics to light in the 1890s?
Q3: When Marvel is talking to the mariner in Chapter XIV, the latter is remarking about the amazing stories in the newspaper, such as a tale about an Invisible Man. Marvel replies, playing dumb, "What will they be writing next?...Ostria [Austria] or America?" And the mariner, all excitement, replies, "Neither...Here" (99). How might this exchange capture something of the confusion and wonder of the common man at the turn of the last century? And why might it mirror something that might be said, and felt, today?
Q4: Unlike Frankenstein, Griffin tells Kemp something of how the science of invisibility, or at least about the nature of his 'accident.' Why do you think Wells thought it important to include this in the story? How does it change the nature of Griffin's crime and/or character? Does it make him more or less like Victor...or are they very different super villains?
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