Griffin (The Invisible Man) Griffin (The Invisible Man) Dr. Griffin is the main protagonist, also known as The Invisible Man, who appears as the title character in H. G. Wells' 1897 science fiction novella "The Invisible Man". In the original novel, Griffin is a scientist whose research in optics and experiments into changing the human body's refractive index to that of air results in his becoming invisible. The character has become iconic, particularly in horror fiction, and versions and variations have appeared throughout various media. Griffin is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a formula for making a human being invisible. The formula entails
The Invisible Man so he extended it. Russian writer Yakov I. Perelman pointed out in "Physics Can Be Fun" (1913) that from a scientific point of view, a man made invisible by Griffin's method should have been blind, since a human eye works by "absorbing" incoming light, not letting it through completely. Wells seems to show some awareness of this problem in Chapter 20, where the eyes of an otherwise invisible cat retain visible retinas. Nonetheless, this would be insufficient, since the retina would be flooded with light (from all directions) that ordinarily is blocked by the opaque sclera of the eyeball. Also,