The Invisible Man Power Quotes

Our first example of power in this book is a boss exercising power over an employee. Here, Mrs. Hall wants Millie to speed up her work. How does she do this?: "by a few deftly chosen expressions of contempt." Whew, we all know the expressions she's talking about – bosses have those looks nailed. Power can be expressed in so many different ways.

Who has the power here, Mrs. Hall or the Invisible Man? The owner or the customer?

The narrator really wants us to get the idea that the Invisible Man may not be as powerful as he says he is. Cutting the moment with an ill-timed sneeze makes the point beautifully. Hey, everyone gets allergies.

Here's a traditional symbol of power: the gun. (Actually you could probably write an interesting paper on all the times guns come up in this book, what with this gun, the costume-shop owner's gun, and Kemp's gun that the Invisible Man takes.) But notice that as soon as the man with the black beard claims some power, the policeman shoots him down with yet another form of power: the law (which would declare shooting a man as an act of murder). He (almost) fought the law and the law won.

Sometimes power is blinding. Period. Well, period plus one other thing. Notice the three benefits he mentions: "the mystery, the power, the freedom." Is he saying that power and freedom go together? What do you think?

Here, the Invisible Man tells Kemp about his experience in London with his landlord. In this part of the never-ending story, the Invisible Man is worried that the landlord might have some power over him. But the (legal) power that the landlord has is very different from the (illegal) power that the IM has (post-invisibility).

Here's another way that visible people have power: they can organize against the single Invisible Man who threatens them. We like that this quote combines the power of science and knowledge (Kemp) with the power of the police (Adye). Kemp knows what to do and tells people, but the proclamation only has power because the police back it. Way to go, po-po.

We often think of the Invisible Man's power as being almost supernatural, but we're often reminded that his power requires some very natural things (like, say, science equipment). In this case, it doesn't matter if he's invisible; what matters is that he slept and ate. Simple as that.

One of the reasons why we're interested in power in this book is because it seems to shift so easily. The Invisible Man is a powerless oppressed student-teacher. Then he's a powerful arsonist. Then he's powerless in the London crowds. Then…well, you get the point. Here, the Invisible Man goes from hunting Kemp (powerful) to being hunted by the people (powerless). Power isn't very stable, it seems.

The last paragraph of the book shows Marvel thinking over what he would do if he were invisible. It raises the question: what would you do if you had the power of invisibility?