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 influence on "The Invisible Man" was Plato's "Republic", a book which had a significant effect on Wells when he read it as an adolescent. In the second book of the "Republic", Glaucon recounts the legend of the Ring of Gyges, which posits that, if a man were made invisible and could act with impunity, he would "go about among men with the powers of a god." Wells wrote the original version of the tale between March and June 1896. This version was a 25,000 word short story titled "The Man at the Coach and Horses" which Wells was dissatisfied with,