NOVEL-The Invisible Man CH4 Mr Cuss Interview The Stranger (Summary)

CH4 MR CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER

SUMMARY

During the next three months, Griffin settles into the inn and spends most of his time working. He has no visitors and rarely leaves the inn, except for at twilight when he goes for walks around the village. He becomes a source of conversation among the villagers. Although Mrs. Hall claims he is an experimental investigator, others speculate he is a criminal in hiding, an explosive-making anarchist, a piebald, or a harmless lunatic. They poke fun at him: "Young humorists" turn up their coat collars and turn down their hat brims, mimicking him. Villagers whistle bars from the popular song "Bogey Man," and children call out "Bogey Man" when Griffin appears.

Cuss, the general practitioner, visits Griffin under the pretense of asking for a donation for the Nurse Fund. The two men meet in the parlor and talk for 10 minutes. Griffin reveals something of personal significance. He explains he had a valuable prescription and lost it. His research is related to this lost prescription and he expresses frustration about it, saying it was "a damnable long research." Although he discloses this information, Griffin is irritated when Cuss pushes for additional disclosure. Cuss then rushes out of the inn, "his face white, his eyes staring over his shoulder." He meets up with the vicar, Mr. Bunting, and relates the events of his visit. Cuss says Griffin had been explaining how he had lost a valuable prescription and, in doing so, animatedly gestured with his arm. Cuss noticed Griffin's sleeve was empty, and he had no hand. Assuming Griffin had a cork arm, Cuss had asked, "How the devil ... can you move an empty sleeve like that?" Griffin replied by taunting Cuss, "It's an empty sleeve, is it?" Then Griffin approached Cuss with his nonexistent hand and pinched Cuss on his nose with what Cuss says felt like fingers and a thumb. For all his attempts to hide his invisibility with a scarf, turned-up collar, and other items, Griffin was so incensed by Cuss's belief he had an empty sleeve that he revealed he did have a hand and arm, even though Cuss could not see them and did not know what to make of the touch. The frightened Cuss hit Griffin's cuff and ran out of the inn.