Empathy/Sympathy

[Beth]

Do you feel sorry for The Invisible Man?

How does his isolation and frustration relate to current social issues that individuals often experience.

[Janet]

I think it can relate to many people who are living on the edge in our society, people with mental illness, with any kind of disability, many veterans, former inmates, as well as people who are shy, living with people who don't relate to them well, or are abused and neglected, or highly intelligent but unable to deal with the less intelligent people around him/her. Our society is full of such people today of all ages, who may feel invisible and frustrated. So at times I did feel sorry for this man.

[Beth]

The violence and lack of conscience that the Invisible Man demonstrates made it hard for me to feel bad for him aside from maybe that feeling of panic and desperation.

I enjoyed this story thinking more about what physical invisibility would be like vs, figuratively, however there is that whole other side to consider and yes it does relate to social issues today.

It is my understanding that Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison deals with social invisibility and might be an interesting read.

[Valerie]

Because he was such a supreme egoist (right from the beginning, before invisibility) it is very difficult to feel sorry for him. It is interesting that Wells created him that way.

I agree that if he had shown (even the tiniest) bit of concern for others it would have been possible to be somewhat sympathetic.

[Daniel]

I relate this a bit to Frankenstein's monster.
Whereas Frank was innocent of his own creation, the invisible man was his own creation.
I really felt for ol' Frankie, but this guy was just deplorable.

I think the parallel was really well done--the parallel between taking one's self out of society (visually) and taking one's self out of society by living a set of morals so isolated from human decency and kindness. Kudos to Mr. Wells on that point. I wouldn't have written him like that.

[Beth]

I felt really bad for Frankenstein's monster as well. He was a sad victimized wretch. The Invisible Man brought everything on himself and others without remorse and blamed anyone but himself for his predicament.