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Chapter 22 In the Emporium



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Chapter 22

In the Emporium


  • Griffin continues his story. This is one invisible man who needs to get some stuff off his chest, apparently.

  • With a January snowstorm blowing in to London, Griffin needed to find a place to stay. He couldn't get into a house, so he decided to do the next best thing: go shopping.

  • Seriously, he went to a giant department store named Omniums. (Omniums isn't a real place, but there were department stores in England in the 1890s, though they were pretty new.)

  • Griffin waited until the place closed, then he started searching around for things he could use. He stole some food and clothes. Over by toys, he saw some fake noses, which started him thinking about wigs and other costume stuff that could help him pretend to be normal. Like Halloween all year.

  • He slept in the department store, living out every child's dream. Unfortunately, it wasn't as fun as you'd think: he had nightmares about being forced into his father's grave and buried because no one could see him.

  • Griffin woke up when the workers came back the next morning, and he almost got caught. The workers chased him around the store (they could see him because he was wearing clothes); but once again, Griffin took off his clothes to become invisible.

  • Since he couldn't steal clothes, Griffin had to leave the store with nothing – the sort of sad experience we all can empathize with.

Chapter 23

In Drury Lane


  • Griffin continues his story. Oh, when will it end?

  • Griffin was getting more and more upset about the whole invisible situation.

  • He made his way to a costume shop to find wigs, noses, and other stuff, so that he might appear "a grotesque but still a credible figure" .

  • When Griffin found his way to a store, the very alert shop owner almost caught him. The shop owner had a revolver, and he kept locking doors behind him.

  • This made Griffin angry, which seems to be his only emotion. So he knocked out the shop owner and tied him up. (And that's the last we hear of that guy. Kind of sad for him.)

  • Kemp interrupts Griffin's story to tell him that he isn't following "[t]he common conventions of humanity" when he knocks people out in their own homes . Griffin points out, though, that he's not a common person.

  • Back to the story: Griffin went ahead and stole money and clothes. At least now people will be able to see him.

  • Griffin stops his story for a minute in order to give Kemp a long speech about how being invisible isn't so great. For one thing, he can't eat in public because he can't reveal his mouth. (This explains why he never ate in front of people at the Coach and Horses in the earlier chapters.)

  • Kemp wants to keep him talking, so he asks what happened after he got all dressed up.

  • Griffin continues his story:

  • He got his books and ordered the equipment he would need. All he wanted was to figure out how to reverse the invisibility treatment. Unfortunately, those gossipy people of Iping interfered with this plan. He asks, "Why couldn't they leave me alone?"

  • Now that everyone has gotten in his way – especially Marvel – Griffin is even angrier than before and plans on killing people. We would be worried about that, but when was the last time one of Griffin's plans went well?

Chapter 24

The Plan that Failed


  • Kemp sees some people coming up the hill to his house, so he tries to keep Griffin talking.

  • Griffin says he had planned to go someplace warm, like South America, where he wouldn't have to wear clothes (at least not during spring break).

  • But since he met Kemp, he's changed his plans. Griffin now realizes how little one person can do on his own.

  • Invisibility is especially useful for killing people, so Griffin plans to establish a new Reign of Terror – with Kemp's help, of course.

  • First, though, he needs to get his books back from Marvel, who is locked up at the jail for his own safety.

  • Suddenly, Griffin hears some people sneaking up in the house, and he realizes that Kemp has betrayed him.

  • Sad and angry, Griffin takes off his clothes. (What? Is that not what you do when you're sad and angry?)

  • Kemp tries to capture Griffin with the help of the three men, including Colonel Adye, the police captain who got Kemp's letter in Chapter 18. (So it wasn't a love letter after all.)

  • Griffin pushes past them (with as much violence as he can) and escapes.

Chapter 25

The Hunting of the Invisible Man


  • Kemp explains to Adye that they have to take measures against Griffin because he's insane, a person of "pure selfishness" .

  • They have some advantages, though. For one thing, they know that Griffin wants to get to Marvel and his stolen books.

  • Also, Griffin basically told Kemp his life story, so they have all that information. Kemp knows that they can keep him unstable by making sure he doesn't get a moment to eat or sleep. And of course, he knows that they can use dogs against Griffin.

  • Kemp even suggests that they put powdered glass on the roads, but Adye objects that "[i]t's unsportsmanlike". At least someone's worried about that.

  • Kemp counters that Griffin is inhuman, that "[h]e has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head" ). Man, we wish we could think of a joke to put here, but this is dark.

Chapter 26

The Wicksteed Murder


  • After Griffin runs out of Kemp's house, the narrator (and everyone else) loses track of him for a day: "No one knows where he went nor what he did" (26.1). So a lot of this chapter is speculation (meaning guess-work).

  • The narrator also has a brief moment of sympathy for Griffin. After all, Griffin was betrayed by a friend.

  • But no one else is going to be nice to Griffin: everyone else seems to be out hunting him with guns and dogs. To make things worse, Kemp spreads the news that people need to keep the Invisible Man from eating or sleeping.

  • Unfortunately, that doesn't keep Griffin from killing an old man named Wicksteed. Since no one was there but Griffin (and Wicksteed, we guess), we'll never know what happened, only that Wicksteed was beaten to death with an iron rod. This is getting intense.

  • Although there were no witnesses, some men around there heard a voice "wailing and laughing, sobbing and groaning" (26.11). The narrator thinks that maybe Griffin was upset after killing Wicksteed (of course, not as upset as Wicksteed probably was about being killed).

  • Griffin has trouble finding shelter. All the houses are locked and everyone is on guard against him. What's worse is that everyone seems to know the secrets he told to Kemp. Some friend he was.

  • Sometime in that day, Griffin found the time to rest and eat, since the next day he was "himself again, active, powerful, angry, and malignant, prepared for his last great struggle against the world" ). One Invisible Man versus the world – we wonder who will win.


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