Answer any one of the following questions in 120 – 150 words :

(a) Mrs. Hall is greedy and opportunist. Comment with reference to the novel, ‘The Invisible Man’.

(b) Griffin’s sufferings are his own doing. Attempt a character sketch of Griffin in the light of this remark.

(c) Why do people regard weavers with suspicion in the novel, ‘Silas Marner’ ?

(d) Godfrey Cass is good-natured but weak-willed. Comment with the help of instances from the novel, ‘Silas Marner’.

(a) Mrs Hall is the owner of the inn, Coach and Horses, in the story, ‘The Invisible Ma.’ She is quite an important character, and comes across as greedy and opportunist. She doesn’t mind whatever business Griffin is up to, whereas any other person would have grown suspicious and careful. She doesn’t mid his strange behaviour and outlandish appearance. She ignores all this only for the sake of her business, as Griffin has already paid a good sum in advance for his stay at the inn.

However, when she grows suspicious later of his activities involving burglary, or when she notices how he has been harming her business and her inn, she does become strict with him. She demands all pending payments from him and asks him to leave. This is how we see Mrs Hall as an opportunist and greedy woman.

(b) Griffin is the protagonist of the novel, ‘The Invisible Man’ by H.G. Wells. He is an albino man, and comes across as a meritorious scientist with a horrible temper and evil plans. He is a perfect example of science without humanity, where he proceeds to think about his experiments and their success, without bothering about its implications on other lives.

He creates a lot of havoc wherever he does because of his ill-temper and arrogance. He has a bizarre appearance, and his behaviour makes people steer clear of him. He is no doubt very good at science, but uses it negatively for his own greed and profit. He is a self-centred man with no care of the world or even those who help him.

(c) In the novel, ‘Silas Marner’, it is shown that the people are suspicious of weavers, and look down upon them. This is because the weavers have different world views and usually come from vastly varying social backgrounds.

This is because the residents of the village were of agrarian backgrounds and had lived in the villages all their lives. The weavers had come in to work for merchants from different towns and cities, and certainly did not know a thing about the village they had come to, or the lifestyle or the people. They were outsiders to their culture, their language and their traditions. They were paid better than what these agrarian residents received, which added an air of inequality. This made the people of the village regard them with suspicion.

(d) In the novel, “Silas Marner’, Godfrey Cass comes across as a good-natured young man, however, weak-willed and cowardly. He is the eldest son of Squire Cass and also the heir to the Cass Estate. He is certainly not far-sighted enough to be able to see or judge anything beyond his immediate materialistic demands. He chooses to marry an opium addict, Molly Farren, largely out of guilt, and is scared to let his father know about this, for he has a son with Molly, and he fears his father might disown him if he comes to know.

He is a living example of indecisiveness, which has an effect on his personality despite his physique and looks. He is generally passive because of his weak will and even his confession to Nancy is not genuine but out of fear of being revealed by the discovery of Dunsey’s remains.