35 pages 1 hour read

H. G. Wells

The Invisible Man

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1897

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Chapters 7-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary: “The Unveiling of the Stranger”

The villagers are celebrating Whit Monday, a Christian holiday, while the stranger stays in his room. Around noon, he calls for Mrs. Hall to serve him lunch, but she demands that he settle his bill (which has so far gone unpaid) before she will do anything more for him. He angrily explains that he is awaiting a remittance and will pay soon enough. She does not waiver, so he offers to pay with money he recently “found” (33). Mrs. Hall is openly suspicious of how the stranger truly acquired these funds, and they begin a heated argument which culminates in the stranger unwrapping his bandages and revealing his invisible head. The villagers don’t understand that he is invisible; Approaching hysteria, they believe him to be a headless, supernatural being.

Mr. Hall brings the constable to arrest the stranger for burglary. They find him serving himself bread and cheese and try to pin him down for handcuffing. In the scuffle, he makes known that he is fully invisible. He undresses to make it more difficult for the men to see and grab him. A wild failure to seize the “Invisible Man” (38) results in many injured men, and the Invisible Man escapes.