#kemp

It´s that time of the year again! Original:

They stood on the landing, Kemp speaking swiftly, the grotesque swathings of Griffin still on his arm.

But the reminder isn't so much that he's a person, naked and scared as much as he is angry. The mention of his bandages here isn't focused on him being injured, and now no longer receiving any treatment. Instead, they're called 'grotesque', the focus is on them being disgusting. The fact that Kemp has them means that the Invisible Man can no longer be seen, that is all. And while the narration doesn't mention Kemp casting off these wrappings from his own arm, I certainly get the impression that he does. Certainly he metaphorically does, when he immediately begins to assert:

“He is mad,” said Kemp; “inhuman. He is pure selfishness. He thinks of nothing but his own advantage, his own safety. I have listened to such a story this morning of brutal self-seeking…. He has wounded men. He will kill them unless we can prevent him. He will create a panic. Nothing can stop him. He is going out now—furious!”

Mad. Selfish. Furious. Will kill, will cause panic. Inhuman.

All those descriptors could be used for a person, except the last. Still a dangerous person of course, but a fellow human being. But Kemp denies Griffin that. As he continues to talk with the police, it becomes clear that in all his listening to Griffin's tale, the only things that have stuck are the bad parts. We knew that often when Griffin was at his most open/vulnerable, Kemp was distracted. The narration outright told us so. But he demonstrates that he was alert to all the things that confirmed his own fears... and even when he did hear the other stuff, it wasn't pity or understanding that he took from it.

He knows that Griffin wanted to get away. He knows Griffin wants his books back. He doesn't think about how that was originally in a desire to become visible again.

He knows Griffin has hurt people before. He knows Griffin said he wants to kill, to start a Reign of Terror. He doesn't consider how Griffin said it was a necessity rather than a desire, doesn't consider the many times he tried to avoid harming others until forced into a confrontation or overcome by anger.

He knows all of Griffin's weaknesses. He knows that in the past Griffin has been exhausted, starving, cold, sick, unsheltered, hunted by dogs. He tries to recreate all these worst moments.

He knows Griffin is more visible in certain situations. Rather than suggesting people start carrying mud or paint around to try and mark him, or that they use smoke or colored powder in the air, he goes straight to the most vicious option: powdered glass. The one that Griffin himself mentioned.

In every way, he is turning all that Griffin told him into a weapon he can wield against him. And to a certain extent, it could simply be precaution. It is hard to fight against an invisible foe - more specifically to find one or to defend against one that you don't know is there. That does indeed require strategic thinking if you want to ensure success.

But Kemp dives right past strategy into cruelty. He goes to the greatest extremes immediately, proposes ideas that would never be put into use against another person. The powdered glass is case in point. Not only could other less violent options come to mind if he'd spent some time thinking about it, but there's a reason he hesitates before suggesting it.

“It’s cruel, I know. But think of what he may do!”

That sums it up, doesn't it? Yes, the method is cruel. But the ends are worth the means, because the consequences would be... Well, the idea of the consequences is too frightening. There's nothing he'll put past Griffin now. Because, as he says next:

“The man’s become inhuman, I tell you,” said Kemp. “I am as sure he will establish a reign of terror—so soon as he has got over the emotions of this escape—as I am sure I am talking to you. Our only chance is to be ahead. He has cut himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his own head.”

Kemp is utterly convinced that Griffin is a monster now. What's more, he considers it something that Griffin has done to himself. And while in many ways, both literal and symbolically, there is some truth to that... it doesn't have to be so final. Even if he has cut himself off from his own kind, that doesn't have to be a permanent state of being. He is still a man, he's never stopped being human this whole time.

But Kemp doesn't think that's true. And so in the end of the chapter he blames Griffin. For all that has happened: what he's done and what others have done to him in result. For all that will happen: for what he might do and what others will do to him first to try and stop that. It's Griffin's fault, all of it, and because Griffin did something inhuman first, that justifies all lack of humanity in hunting him down.