The Invisible Man

Summary of the plot

On a wintry day in February a stranger arrives at the Coach-and-Horses Inn at Iping village and takes a room. When Mrs. Hall, the Innkeeper's wife, goes in to serve lunch he is still wearing his hat and coat. He is also wearing blue spectacles and a big beard. When he takes lunch he removes his hat and Mrs. Hall sees that his head is covered with a white bandage, leaving nothing exposed but his pink pointed nose. Mrs. Hall thinks that the man might have had an accident and tries to involve him into a conversation but he cuts her short. Later, when she comes in again to ask if the clock mender can wind the clock, he tells her that he does not want to be disturbed and that he wants his luggage to be brought from the station as soon as possible.

The next day his luggage arrives. The stranger is bit by the carrier's dog and runs up into his room, followed by Mr. Hall who, trying to push in, is thrown out of the room. He cannot understand it. After the stranger has changed his clothes he appears again and unpacks his boxes which are full of glass bottles of all shapes and sizes. In the bar to the Inn the carrier tells the others that when his dog bit the stranger he could only see blackness in the holes of the trouthers. They think that he is a black and white man.

The stranger goes for lonely walks in the evening, always completely wrapped up. As he is always angry and unfriendly nobody likes him. People have different theories about the stranger. Some think that he has had an accident, some think that he is a criminal hiding from the police by wrapping up himself and others think that he is part white and part black. After three month Dr. Cuss beeing very curious knocks on the stranger's door to talk to him. After ten minutes Cuss dashes out of the stranger's room with a white face and runs away. He goes to Bunting, the vicar, and tells him that he has been touched by the stranger's fingers, which were invisible.

On Whit Monday Mrs. Buntig hears a noise and wakes her husband who arms himself with a poker and goes to the room where the sounds came from. Through the half-open door he sees a burning candle, but no thief. Mr. Bunting rushes into the room but he can see nobody. They can hear sneezing and the kitchen door shut and then they realize that their household money has been stolen.When Hall comes downstairs early in the morning he finds the stranger's door open and the front door unbolted. He calls his wife and in the stranger's room they find his clothes and his bandages lying around. Suddenly the bedclothes begin to move and a chair comes at the Halls and pushes them out of the room. Later, the stranger suddenly appears in front of his room and walks down into the parlour and locks himself up. When Mr. Hall knocks on the door and demands an explanation he is sent away. At midday  he rings his bell several times to get food but as Mrs. Hall doesn't react he has to leave the parlour. Mrs. Hall wants him to pay his bill and when he pays it she wants to know where he got the money from and what all this strange happenings meant. He gets very angry and takes off his nose and hands it to her. It is made of cardboard. Then he removes his glasses, beard, bandages and hat and behind those things there is nothing. Everyone begins to scream and the people rush from the inn. Mr. Hall has called the village policeman who tries to arrest the headless figure. But when he enters the room with some other men the stranger throws off his clothes and so gets invisible. There is a great confusion and the Invisible Man escapes. The village policeman gets killed in the struggle.

Some time later Mr. Marvel, a tramp, sitting by the roadside is adressed by a voice. First Marvel thinks he has gone mad, but when the Invisible Man throws stones at him he believes in his existence. The Invisible Man forces him to get clothes, shelter and other things for him. Marvel goes to the Coach-and-Horses Inn in Iping village where Cuss and Bunting are searching the stranger's room. Marvel opens the door and goes out again so that the Invisible Man can enter the room. He attacks Cuss and Bunting and after some time Cuss rushes out the room and tells the people to hold the Invisible Man, for he has taken some books and also his and Bunting's clothes. But the Invisible Man hands the books and clothes to Marvel to get invisible again and knocks down Cuss and some others. The villagers flee in panic and the Invisible Man is able to escape again. He now forces the frightened Marvel to help him by carrying books and taking the money he has stolen from the bank, shops and inns. Marvel tries to escape from him and flees into an inn. There are a policeman and an American who has a gun. They are waiting at the front door for the Invisible Man but he gets into the house through the back door and drags Marvel into the kitchen. There is a big struggle and shots are fired but the Invisible Man gets away.

After that the story continues in Dr.Kemp's house. He is working in his study when he hears th shots. Then the front door bell rings but there is no one there. When he finishes his work and goes to bed he finds blutstains leading from the frontdoor up to his bedroom. Then Kemp hears the voice of the wounded and starving Invisible Man begging for help. The intruder tells Kemp that he once has been a fellow student of him and that his name is Griffin. Kemp gives him food and drink and then he goes to bed. The next morning Griffin tells his story. As a student he made experiments to make solid objects invisible. He succeeded but now he needed money which he stole from his father who killed himself because it was not his. Griffin installed his apparatus in his room and made his experiments. It was only possible to make things with no color pigments invisible, so he chose white things for his tests; first some white wool and then a white cat. When his landlord came knocking on his door and asking why there was so much noise he pushed him out and decided to make himself invisible. He was an albino so this was possible. Next morning, when the painful procedure of getting invisible was finished, the landlord and his three sons came into the room but they couldn't find Griffin. When they had left, Griffin set the house ablaze to wipe out his tracks. He tells Kemp how he had got some clothes, how he got food and drink, he tells him of the shelter he found and the beds he slept in until he came to Iping.

Now he wants his books back from Marvel, the tramp, who is in jail voluntarily because of his fear of the Invisible Man. So Griffin has to change his plans and he decides to start a reign of terror and kill everybody who disobeys his orders. Kemp hears footsteps outside and opens the door. He tries to shut the door on the Invisible Man and lock him in the room, but the key falls on the floor and after a struggle Griffin escapes.

The police now hunts the Invisible Man with bloodhounds and warns the people to lock themselves in their houses. Somewhere the Invisible Man kills a harmless man with an iron bar and writes a letter to Kemp where he declares that the reign of terror has begun and that it will begin with Kemp's death. Griffin attacks Kemp's house and Kemp's servant Adye is shot dead. Griffin enters the house through the backdoor while two policemen come in through the frontdoor. There is a big struggle and Kemp runs away, chased by his invisible enemy who has been insured. There is a fight and a crowd of people comes to help Kemp by hitting at the Invisible Man. There is a cry and Kemp feels that Griffin has stopped breathing. Slowly the broken body of a young man with white hair becomes visible.