The Invisible Man: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

At 4 pm, just as Mrs. Hall is getting ready to ask Griffin if he’d like some tea, Teddy Henfrey, the clock fixer, arrives. Mrs. Hall takes him to the parlor room, where the clock is broken, and enters. It is dark, and Griffin is lying asleep in front of the fire. For a second, Mrs. Hall thinks she can see a huge mouth gaping open in Griffin’s face, but concludes that “the shadows… had tricked her.” Griffin wakes and agrees to have the clock fixed, but adds that in general he wants to be left in privacy, and assumes that the parlor room will be for his own personal use. He then tells her he would like to have some tea, but “not until the clock-mending is over.”

Griffin inquires again about his boxes, and Mrs. Hall assures him they will come the next day. Griffin explains that he is an “experimental investigator” and that his equipment is inside his luggage. He says he came to Iping for solitude, and hopes that he will be able to carry out his work in peace. He adds that his eyes are “weak and painful” and that sometimes he needs to be locked in the dark for hours at a time.

Mrs. Hall begins to ask Griffin a question, but he dismisses her. Mrs. Hall leaves, but Henfrey remains, trying to fix the clock as quietly as possible. Griffin asks him to hurry up, and once Henfrey leaves he grumbles to himself about Griffin’s rudeness. While walking through the village Henfrey runs into Mr. Hall, and tells him about the strange guest at the Coach and Horses. Henfrey suggests that Mrs. Hall has been “too trustful” of Griffin.

When Mr. Hall returns to the inn, Mrs. Hall berates him for spending too long in Sidderbridge. Mr. Hall is suspicious of Griffin and tells his wife to inspect his luggage closely, but Mrs. Hall tells him to mind his business. That night, she has a frightening dream, but “subdue[s]” her terrors and goes back to sleep.