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Chapter 28
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invisible Man, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom, Anonymity, and Immorality
The Future vs. the Past
Greed and Self-Interest
Skepticism vs. Belief
Humans, Science, and Nature
Summary
Analysis
The narrator repeats that this is the end of the “strange and evil experiment of the Invisible Man.” Marvel, who is now a landlord in Port Stowe, sometimes shares the tale of his involvement with the Invisible Man over drinks. Marvel was able to keep the money he took from Griffin, and earned more by telling his story every night for a while at a music hall. Marvel has earned a “reputation for wisdom” in the local area.
Marvel’s reversed fortunes are a happy (and even comic) ending, showing that there is a possibility for those who are disenfranchised and abused to gain prosperity, happiness, and respect. This is also a sign of a newly modern era in which the class system does not necessarily determine the course of one’s life.
Themes
Sometimes when he is alone, Marvel takes out the notebooks he stole from Griffin, which he keeps locked away. He observes to himself that the notebooks are full of “wonderful secrets,” but adds that he would never do what Griffin did. Both Kemp and Adye have asked him repeatedly if he has the notebooks, but Marvel has kept them a secret. The narrator explains that “none other [than Marvel] will know of them until he dies.”
Although Marvel’s material conditions and social standing have greatly improved, he is still unable to understand the notebooks, a reminder that scientific knowledge is not accessible to everyone. Yet by keeping them secret, he ensures that Griffin’s destruction is never repeated by someone else.
Themes
