Herbert Wells - The Invisible Man
In the tavern "The coachman and horses", owned by Mrs. Hall and her henpecked husband, in early February appears a mysterious stranger wrapped from head to foot. It is not easy to get a guest on a winter day, but a visitor generously pays. His behavior seems more and more strange, more and more alarming to others. He is very upset, avoids human society. When he eats, he covers his mouth with a napkin. His head was wrapped in bandages. In addition, the Aiping provincials (a place in South England) can not understand,
what does he do. The smells of some chemical preparations, the ringing of broken dishes,
loud curses, which pile up the tenant (obviously, something does not work for him). Griffin, whose name we learn much later, seeks to regain his former state, become visible, but fails and is increasingly irritated. In addition, he got money, he did not reshuffle, and he goes, using his invisibility, to robbery. Of course, suspicion is the first thing to fall on him. The hero is gradually losing his mind. He is by nature an irritable person, and now this is manifested in the most obvious way. Hungry, exhausted by constant failures with experiments, he commits an insane step-gradually, in front of everyone, he disrupts his disguise, appears as a front man without a head, and then dissolves in the air. The first pursuit of Zenvidimka ends for him safely. In addition, escaping from the pursuers, Nevidim khanapativaetsya on the tramp Marvel, called "Mr. Marvel" - perhaps because it is invariably worn shabby cylinder. And he is very picky about shoes. And no wonder - nothing like a vagabond like good shoes, even if donated. That's one fine point,
trying and evaluating new shoes, he hears the Voice, which comes from the emptiness. Among the weaknesses of Marvel is a passion for alcohol, so he does not immediately manage to believe himself,
but it is necessary - an invisible voice explains to him that he saw before him the same rejected person, what he himself, regretted it and at the same time thought that he could help him. After all, he remained naked, driven, Marvel needing his assistant as assistant. First of all you need to get your clothes, then money. Mr. Marvel first complies with all the requirements - especially since the Invisible did not leave his aggressive attacks as a significant danger. In Aiping are preparing for the holiday. And before finally leaving home from Iping, Nevidimka arranges there a rout, cuts the telegraph wires,
steals the clothes of the vicar, takes books with his scientific records, loads all of this poor poor Marvel and leaves the field of view of the local inhabitants. And in the surrounding places people often see flashes of coins in the air, or even whole bundles of banknotes. Marvel all rushes to escape,
but it is always stopped by the invisible Voice. And he perfectly remembers what tenacious Nevidimkiruki has. The last time he was really going to open up to a sailor who had been met by chance, but he did not immediately find out that the Invisible man was near, and was silent. But only for a while. Too much money has accumulated in the karmans of money. And one day, Dr. Kemp, quietly sitting in his rich, servant-filled home and engaged in scientific work, for which he dreamed of being awarded the title of a member of the Royal Society,
i saw a man running impetuously in a shabby silk top hat. In his hands there were books tied with string, pockets, as it later turned out, full of money. The route of this fat boy was laid out extremely accurately. At first he hid in the tavern "Merry Cricketers", aptom asked him to send him to the police as soon as possible. Another minute, and he disappeared in the nearest police station, where he asked to immediately lock him in the most reliable cell. A doorbell rang in Kemp's door. There was no one behind the door. It must have been the boys who indulged in.
But an invisible visitor appeared in the office. Kemp found a dark spot on the linoleum. This was the source. In the bedroom the sheet was torn, the bed was crumpled. And then he heard a voice: "My God, daeto Kemp!" Griffin turned out to be Kemp's university friend. After the half-frightened Mr. Marvel hid himself in the "Funny Cricket" pub,
possessed by a thirst for revenge The invisible tried to break through there, but it ended in misfortune. About Nevidimkauuzhe trumpeted in all the newspapers, people took security measures, and one of the visitors "Merry Cricketers" - a bearded man in a gray, according to the accent, an American, was a six-shot revolver, and he began fanning out the door. One of the bullets hit Griffin in the arm, although there was no dangerous wound. The search for the body was not given the result, and Griffin appeared at Kemp at the same time. From the story that Griffin told his classmate, we will learn his background. Griffin is a talented scientist on the verge of genius, but his career did not evolve in the best way. He was engaged in medicine, chemistry and physics, but knowing what customs reign in the scientific world,
was afraid that his talents would be misappropriated by less gifted people. In the end, he had to leave the provincial college and settle in some kind of slum London house, where he did not interfere with the first pogonically. There was not only money. Here begins the chain of crimes Griffin. He robbed his father, taking his money from him, and he commits suicide. In Griffin, however, there is no dropping. He is so focused on his business that he does not take any other considerations into account. Finally comes the hour of the long-awaited discovery. But how to live on? Money is running out, neighbor householder in some way suspect it. Too much of him is not like the others. And is engaged in something incomprehensible. We must flee from the uncomfortable house. But for this, first become invisible. A gradual process. The body burns like in a fire, it loses consciousness. It embraces horror at the sight of a seemingly transparent body. When a householder with stepsons breaks into a room, then, to the surprise, no one in it discovers. Agrififfin feels for the first time all the inconveniences of his position. Going out into the street, he notices that an absolute one, who is not lazy, pushes him, the cabmen almost knock him off his feet, the dogs are pursued by a terrible one. We must first get dressed. The first attempt to rob a store ends in failure. But then he saw a poor store in the eye, littered with second-hand make-up accessories. The unfortunate hunchback, whom he binds into a sheet, is disposing of it, thereby depriving himself of the opportunity to be saved and, most likely, condemning him to starvation. But out of the shop the same person comes out,
who will then appear in Aiping. It remains only to cover up the traces of his stay in London.
Griffin sets fire to the house, destroying all its drugs, and hiding in South England, where the desire is easy to move to France. But first you need to learn how to go from an invisible visible state. However, the matter does not go well. The money is over. The robbery is revealed.
Organized chase. Newspapers are full of sensational messages. And in such a state Griffin appears at Dr. Kemp - hungry, hunted, wounded. He used to be a man unbalanced, And now he has a mania of misanthropy. From now on, he is a nefarious person who wants to rule people by setting the kingdom of terror for decades. He persuades Kempastat to be his accomplice. Kemp realizes that before him is a dangerous fanatic. And he decides-he will write a note to Colonel Edlai, the head of the local police. When he appears, Griffin to the beginning is not going to touch him. "I did not quarrel with you," he says. He needs traitor Kemp.
But the colonel borrowed from Kemp gun, and he falls another victim of Griffin. Then the completely senseless murder of the manager Lord Byrdk, armed with only a trifle at the sight of an iron rod hanging in the air, is following. But the Invisible is already being searched - according to the plan drawn up by Kemp. The roads are covered with pounded glass, horsemen gallop around the district, the doors and windows of the houses are locked, trains are impossible to penetrate, dogs are everywhere rummaging. Griffin - like a hunted beast, and a hunted beast is always dangerous. But he still has to take revenge on Kemp, who, after killing Adlai, turns from a hunter into a persecuted one. Behind him chases a terrible invisible enemy. Fortunately, already at the last cruise, Kemp is in a crowd of fellow countrymen, and then Griffin is waiting for an end. Kemp wants to save him, but the people around him are relentless. And gradually, before everyone's eyes, again a beautiful, but all wounded man appears - Griffin is invisible, while he is alive, However, the last character in this novel is not Kemp, not Griffin, but Mr. Marvel. He got used to, bought the grocery "Funny Cricketers" stolen from Griffin and enjoyed great respect in the district. And every night he locks himself away from people and tries to solve the secret of Griffin. Almost his last words: "There was a head!"
Morel, a bearded inventor of Biya's novel, at a level of excellence close to the Huxley alpha, informs his discovery to the rest of the islanders who still do not know their cloning. Until recently, science was limited to counteracting the spatial and temporal absence of ear and vision.
Both the authors, Wells and Biy, orient the rigorous mechanics of the deductive method to hunger for immortality, common to both creators: Moro intends to perpetuate himself in memory of his "achievements", and Morel seeks recognition in his factory of paired; Moreau refers to his desire to be recognized by the scientific community.
See also:
Charles Dickens - Posthumous Memoirs of the Pickwick Club, DG Lawrence - Lover Lady Chatterley, Agatha Christie - Villa "White Horse", Mikhail Bulgakov - Days of the Turbins, Nikolay Leskov - The Enchanted Wanderer, JB Priestley - Inspector
Herbert Wells
Invisible Man
Morel used his own death and the death of his friends to confirm rumors of a disease that would have a damaging nursery on this island; rumors already spread by Morel to protect his car, his immortality. The point of significant discrepancy in the mood, undoubtedly ominous, of these characters outside the law is one that deals with the very implementation of the experiment: Morel, before doing this with the rest of the crew, experimented with himself and, as a result, his true self died in the body and soul , turning into a re-image.
In the tavern "The coachman and horses", owned by Mrs. Hall and her henpecked husband, in early February a mysterious stranger wrapped up from head to foot appears. To get a guest on a winter day is not easy, but a visitor generously pays.
His behavior seems more and more strange, more and more alarming others. He is very irritable, avoids human society. When he eats, he covers his mouth with a napkin. His head is all wrapped in bandages. In addition, the Aipings provincials (a place in South England) can not understand what he does. The house smells of some chemical preparations, the sound of broken dishes, loud curses, which the tenant pours out (obviously, something does not work for him).
On the contrary, Darwinist Dr. Moreau, one of the less scrupulous characters who have ever wandered through fiction literature, manipulates the life of innocent animals; torture, kills and goes to the fate of the victims of their experiments when they did not bring good results or become part of their outstanding scientific triumphs.
These useless animals, those possessed by fears and painful mistakes, even without a spark of fighting spirit, to cope with this torture, do not serve to create a human being. With the most radical independence Dr. Moreau is confronted with Western human society through his own special law, a parody reminiscent of Christian commandments. Moreau acts as the god of these unfortunate creatures, corrupting "their little brains, instilling in them some kind of devotion to themselves" through a miserable decalogue.
Griffin, whose name we learn much later, seeks to regain his former state, become visible, but fails and is increasingly irritated. In addition, he got money, he was no longer fed, and he goes, using his invisibility, to robbery. Of course, suspicion first falls on him.
The hero is gradually losing his mind. He is by nature an irritable person, and now this is manifested in the most graphic way. Hungry, tormented by constant failures with experiments, he makes a mad step - gradually in front of everyone breaks his disguise, appears before the observers a man without a head, and then even dissolves in the air. The first pursuit of the Invisible ends for him safely. In addition, escaping from the pursuers, the Invisible man encounters the vagabond Marvel, called "Mr. Marvel" - perhaps because he always wears a shabby cylinder. And he is very picky about shoes. And no wonder - nothing so does not need a tramp like good shoes, even if donated. At one point, trying on and evaluating new shoes, he hears a Voice that comes from the emptiness. Among the weaknesses of Mr. Marvel is the passion for alcohol, so he does not immediately manage to believe himself, but it is necessary - an invisible voice explains to him that he saw in front of himself the same outcast as himself, regretted him and at the same time thought that he could him to help. After all, he remained naked, driven, and Mr. Marvel needed him to help him. First of all you need to get your clothes, then money. Mr. Marvel first meets all the requirements - especially since Nevidimka did not abandon his aggressive attacks and is a considerable danger. In Aiping are preparing for the holiday. And before finally withdrawing from Aiping, Nevidimka arranges there a rout, cuts telegraph wires, steals the clothes of the vicar, takes books with her scientific records, loads all this poor devil Marvel and leaves the field of view of the local inhabitants. And in the surrounding places people often see the flashes of coins floating in the air, or even whole bundles of banknotes. Marvel all rushes to escape, but it is always stopped by the invisible Voice. And he remembers perfectly what Nevidimka's tenacious hands are. The last time he was really going to open up to a sailor who had been accidentally met, but immediately discovered that the Invisible man was nearby, and fell silent. But only for a while. Too much accumulated in the pockets of money.
You will not walk on all fours; this is the law. Are we not men? You will not drink a drink; this is the law. You do not eat meat or fish; this is the law. You do not have to hunt other people; this is the law. His flash of lightning. "These are the stars of heaven." Morel also represents a violation of nature, challenging the physical laws of its copying machine. This sectarian and dogmatic aspect practically does not exist in Morel's invention, in which the creator is at the same level as created, shares feelings with their creations, feelings that are repeated cyclically, as is known, their clonic existence consists of eternal periodic redundancy actions; Morel is even able to connect his fate with the rest of the island's inhabitants.
And one day, Dr. Kemp, sitting quietly in his rich, servant-filled home and busy with scientific work, for which he dreamed of being awarded the title of a member of the Royal Society, saw a rapidly running man in a shabby silk top hat. In his hands there were books tied with string, pockets, as it later turned out, full of money. The route of this fat man was paved extremely accurately. At first he hid in the tavern "Merry Cricketers", and then asked him to send him to the police as soon as possible. Another minute, and he disappeared in the nearest police station, where he asked to immediately lock him in the most reliable cell. And there was a ring at Dr. Kemp's door. There was no one behind the door. It must have been the boys who indulged in. But an invisible visitor appeared in the office. Kemp found a dark spot on the linoleum. It was blood. In the bedroom the sheet was torn, the bed was crumpled. And then he heard a voice: "My God, this is Kemp!" Griffin was Kemp's university friend.
When the protagonist discovers Morel, he talks to Faustina, an attractive clone who falls in love with a runaway shipwrecked man, who finds him attractive to Morel and to whom the protagonist accuses the practice of an "intolerable, almost grotesque" game. More painful than the devastating clone machine, it seems to the protagonist of Morel's relationship with Faustina and with the anxiety that gives him his vision, to forget the horror of cloning.
The question of style: belonging to the difference. Both Wells' book and Bioy are, besides a remarkable example of fantastic literature, the basis of a strict moral reflection on the state of a person. The authors advocate a veiled criticism of social organization, and the correspondence between the two reflections is based not only on the description of thematic analogues or inspirations, but on the tone relating to the dystopic background underlying the invention and narrative, into a poetic project that memory discovers as a characteristic feature characteristic of of these works.
After being frightened to death, Mr. Marvel hid himself in a tavern "Merry Cricketers", obsessed with revenge, Nevidimka tried to break through there, but it ended in misfortune. The Nevidimk already blew in all the newspapers, the people took security measures, and one of the visitors of the "Merry Cricket" - a bearded man in a gray, according to the accent, an American, was a six-shot revolver, and he began fanning out the door. One of the bullets hit Griffin in the arm, although there was no dangerous wound. The search for the body was not given a result, and Griffin then appeared at Kemp.
The first thing that stands out is that Wells's literary technique allows us to remove a random abstraction based on the contrast between the inner world and what the feelings offer, between consciousness and chimeras outside it. This circular feeling is most evident in the Morel Invention, in which, as protagonists of recurring clones, they again and again represent the same movements and radiate the same messages. To do this, Wells uses the show method: the protagonist coincides with the narrator-homodietic voice, some facts are presented to the reader's attention, the reader follows the author's directions, other possible alternatives are shown to a person who never dared to explore, the protagonist is content with self-deception, his conscience interferes with circumstances and so on.
From the story that Griffin told his classmate, we will learn his background.
Griffin is a talented scientist on the verge of genius, but his career was not the best way. He was engaged in medicine, chemistry and physics, but knowing what customs reign in the scientific world, he feared that his discoveries would be appropriated by less gifted people. In the end, he had to leave the provincial college and settle in some kind of slum London home, where at first no one interfered with him. There was not only money. Here begins the chain of crimes Griffin. He loots his father, taking his money from him, and he commits suicide. Griffin does not have a single remorse. He is so focused on his business that he does not take into account any other considerations. Finally comes the hour of the long-awaited discovery. But how to live on? The money is running out, the neighbors and the householder are suspecting him of something. Too much of him is not like the others. And he is engaged in something incomprehensible. We must flee from the uncomfortable house. But for this, first become invisible. And this is a painful process. The body burns like in a fire, it loses consciousness. He is horrified at the sight of his own, seemingly transparent body.
The significance in both novels is circular: his narrative discourse begins and ends with the pernicious atmosphere of the island. The consciousness of the protagonists, the narrators, Prendrick and the fugitive, is transformed from his arrival to the island in accordance with the parameters of the environment that govern it. They are captives of the living present, foggy and embarrassing, engaged in a convulsive social plot, with a world that contradicts their desires, but which will eventually seduce one of them - the main hero of Morel's invention - with a proposal to leave for a time that does not make him go back or forward: an advanced "spiral" to eternity, provided by the Morel machine.
When the householder with his stepchildren bursts into the room, then, to the surprise, no one in it discovers. And Griffin feels for the first time all the inconveniences of his position. Going out into the street, he notices that anyone who is not lazy pushes him, cabs almost knock him off his feet, dogs pursue a terrible barking. We must first get dressed. The first attempt to rob a store ends in failure. But then he comes across a poor shop, littered with second-hand make-up accessories. It is controlled by some unfortunate hunchback, whom he ties into a sheet, thus depriving him of the opportunity to escape and, most likely, condemning him to starvation. But the same person comes out of the shop, who will then appear in Aiping. It remains only to cover up the traces of his stay in London. Griffin sets fire to the house, destroying all its drugs, and hiding in South England, where from the desire to easily move to France. But first you need to learn how to go from the invisible to the visible state. However, the matter does not go well. The money is over. The robbery is revealed. Organized chase. Newspapers are full of sensational messages. And in this condition Griffin appears at Dr. Kemp - hungry, hunted, wounded. He used to be a man unbalanced, And now he has a mania of misanthropy. Henceforth, he - the Invisible Man - wants to rule people by setting the kingdom of terror for decades. He persuades Kemp to become his accomplice. Kemp realizes that before him is a dangerous fanatic. And he decides - he writes a note to Colonel Edlai, the head of the local police. When he appears, Griffin does not intend to touch him at first. "I did not quarrel with you," he says. He needs traitor Kemp. But the colonel borrowed from Kemp gun, and he falls another victim of Griffin. Then follows the utterly senseless killing of Lord Byrdk, who armed himself with a cane at the sight of an iron rod hanging in the air.
The prospect seems like a tempting overcoming of the state of tension and the emotional imbalance in which he lives on the island, which is now hidden in the muddy waters of the marshes, now dodges between the columns to the periodical inhabitants of the museum. Todorov, in his Introduction to Fantastic Literature, characterizes a fantastic narrative with the help of the following parameters: the degree of bewilderment in the face of the incredible fact and the reader's indecision between the choice of a rational, realistic explanation of things and the facts of the world or the adoption of the supernatural.
But the Invisible are already looking for - according to the plan drawn up by Kemp. The roads are covered with pounded glass, horse policemen gallop across the district, the doors and windows of the houses are locked, it's impossible to penetrate the passing trains, dogs all over the place. Griffin is like a hunted beast, and a hunted beast is always dangerous. But he still has to take revenge on Kemp, who, after killing Adlai, turns from a hunter into a persecutor. Behind him chases a terrible invisible enemy. Fortunately, at the last gasp Kemp is in a crowd of fellow countrymen, and then Griffin is waiting for an end. Kemp wants to save him, but the surrounding are inexorable. And gradually, before everyone's eyes, a beautiful, but all-scarred man again appears - Griffin is invisible, as long as he is alive,
Consequently, you doubt the reader who goes beyond the literary fact; is a simple pretext, in the background, on which the reader looks at delirium, a fable that has much in common with life. The sabotage of reality and its habits is a pure imaginary game and hesitant, behind which lies a conspiracy of misunderstandings. Returning to the characteristics with which Todorov defines science fiction, it can be seen that both the island of Dr. Moreau and Morel's invention fulfill the first feature of the fantastic, the perplexity of the incredible, and also converge in the second, difficult decision of rationalism or the supernatural.
However, the last actor in this novel is not Kemp, not Griffin, but Mr. Marvel. He dressed up, bought the grocery "Funny Cricketers" stolen from Griffin and enjoyed great respect in the district. And every night he locks himself away from people and tries to solve the mystery of Griffin. Almost his last words: "There was a head!"
Wells describes the process of insertion and extirpation of tissues and organs in animals in a realistic, scientific way, we would say that they are even too raw, since Moro considers the pain superficial and auxiliary. Moro's experiment consists, as we know, in a brutal surgical transformation without animal anesthesia in humans. Fugitive Biya also describes with extreme realism the effects that the machine causes in the body of others and in its own.
The nails are falling, the hair is dying, the skin and cornea of the eyes are dying, and the body lives eight, fifteen days. The crew of the ship, which was anchored on the island, was fired, bald, without nails - all dead - when the Japanese cruiser Namur found them. The steam was sunk by guns. Bellemin-Noel, considered in the decade of the twenties as a fundamental feature of the fantastic "destruction of the unacceptable, irrational" 11 and Ana Maria Barreshehi, includes in literature fantastic works that "center the interest in violating the earthly, natural or logical order" and, thus, to confront him with the supernatural and unreal.
