Man Is Corrupt by Nature
To get a better idea of the fundamental nature of man vis a vis good versus evil, instead of asking yourself what you would if you had the power of invisibility, ponder the expectations of those you know best. What would you expect your family members, co-workers, and friends would do if possessed of the power of make themselves unseen by all. Chances are that very few people would file an account of this game of what-if that, if conducted honestly and truthfully, would shine a bright light of positivity expectations of their fellow man. Of course, the game also works the other way around: your own expectations of what those you know best might do will likely reveal a fundamental expectation that humans are by nature corrupt. This is the thematic game that Wells plays out in his novel, imagining that even a man devoted to scientific progress would instead use this great power at its lowest common denominator. If you really keep yourself up nights, imagine what the worst person you know might do with such a power.
In Support of Business Regulation
In a way, the novel provides very strong supporting evidence—or liberal propaganda, depending upon your view of the advantages of unfettered capitalism to make the world a better place for everyone—for an absolute requirement that business regulations be as broad-based and strongly enforced as possible. In both this novel and The Island of Dr. Moreau as well as some of his short stories, Wells presents a horrifying but not entirely unrealistic potential for a future where regulatory reform fails on the promise that ethical considerations will be provide all the necessary protection provided by self-regulation. Griffin is not a business man, of course, but a professional science student run amok, but even when the novel was written many scientists were working for or being funded by commercial interests. Griffin is a megalomaniac working outside the general conventions of business regulation, but even that capacity he continues symbolize the necessity for such public interest safeguards to be constructed as toughly as possible to contain the modern-day version of the classic 19th century individual megalomaniac: the global conglomerate which has successful sold itself to politicians as “too big to fail.”
Class Division and Exploitation
The novel is not really that politically direct in its thematic suggestion that scientific progress must be allowed to continue but only under strict social controls in order to maintain its potential power to be exploited for harm. More directly political is the portrait of class division and the exploitation of the underclass by the upper classes. The villagers in Iping are universally presented as not simply less educated but less intellectually evolved than Griffin and, later, Kemp. Despite having superior weaponry and numbers at their disposal, Griffin habitually manages to escape being caught by them, indicative of keener intellect engendered by a better education which is available to him, in turn, because of economic superiority. It is only when the equally education Kemp gets involved that an actual strategy for catching the invisible man succeeds. Even notable from the aspect of class exploitation is Griffin’s easy enlistment of the Thomas Marvel, the tramp who epitomizes the full chasm of class division Griffin and the villagers. It is not by accident that Griffin specifically picks the single most economically vulnerable person in Iping to do the jobs he can’t or won’t do.
