Footprints without feet Chapter 5 along with Summary, mcq and questions and answers. The tale is about Griffin, a scientist. He attempted to find ways to make a man invisible and eventually swallowed some unusual medicines that made him invisible.
Table of Contents
Summary – Footprints without feet
Two boys first noticed him on the stairs of a house where they could just see his footprints and began to follow him. Until the footsteps became faint and could not be heard, they pursued them. First, he visits a mall for some comfort, since he feels cold. He chooses to wear some warm clothing and eat something after the shops close down.
Griffin goes to the mall
He unboxes a pair of clothes first and wears them. He then enjoys some cold meat and some coffee in the kitchen of a diner and goes to the grocery store later and eats candy and drinks wine. On a pile of quilts, he then falls asleep. He woke up in the morning when he was spotted by some of the shop assistants and they begin chasing him. He put all the clothing he was wearing away quickly and became invisible again and then decided to roam about again in the freezing winters of London without any clothing.
Griffin begins to steal
Griffin then tries to rob a theatre company’s clothing since he knew he would also get something to hide his face there. He robs bandages to cover his face, dark shades, a fake nose and a cap to protect himself. He attacks a shopkeeper and takes all the money from him. Once he understands that London is too crowded to be able to survive like this, he decides to go to a small village. He has two rooms reserved at an inn in the village of Iping. He appears there and it is unusual for the residents of Iping that during the winter season a stranger with such a strange look has come to stay at an inn.
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Mr. Jaffers tries to catch Griffin
Once he finished spending all his money, he steals from the guests at the inn and also assaults the landlord and his wife when they try to check his room in his absence. The village constable is then called for help, but before that the landlord’s wife Mrs. Hall, asks him questions about who he is and what he did to her furniture. This really makes him upset and he wants to show her who he really is. The citizens then see a headless man and the constable, Mr. Jaffers, then points out that a man who does not have a head will have to be arrested. When he sheds all his clothing and becomes invisible, they are unable to capture Griffin. When they attempt to catch him, he even kicks Jaffers and knocks him out.
Conclusion – Footprints without feet
Footprints without feet Chapter 5 along with Summary, mcq and questions and answers. This chapter is about a strange scientist who commits crimes and disrupts public peace by becoming invisible. He is not caught at the end but eventually he will become tired of this kind of life.
Questions and answers – Footprints without feet
Q1) How did the invisible man first become visible?
Answer: The invisible man first became visible when he accidentally stepped into some mud and his footprints started becoming visible to two boys who followed him until his footprints fainted and became invisible again. He got rid of them and spent a night at a large London store where he wore some clothes and slept on a pile of quilts. The next morning, when he was still sleeping, the store assistants started coming in and saw him which was actually the first time he was seen.
Q2) Why was he wandering the streets?
Answer: Griffin had burned down the house of his landlord who had tried to throw him out of the house. He was a lawless person and to save himself from being caught he removed all his clothes so that he could not be seen and thus, became a homeless wanderer. He did not have any money or clothing left with him.
Q3) Why does Mrs. Hall find the scientist eccentric?
Answer: Griffin arrived at an inn in Iping village during winter season which itself was an uncommon thing to happen. He also had a weird appearance. Mrs. Hall tried to be friendly with him but he was rude to her and told her that he didn’t want to be disturbed and the reason for his visit to the village of Iping was solitude. These were some of the reasons due to which Mrs.Hall considered him to be an eccentric scientist.
Q4) What curious episode occurs in the study?
Answer: The clergyman and his wife were awakened early one morning by noises in their study room. When the clergyman went to the study with a metal rod and looked around he could not find anyone. He even looked under the desk, behind the curtain and up the chimney but no one was seen. The strangest part was that even though nobody was there the desk was opened and money was missing from the drawer.
Q5) What other extraordinary things happen at the inn?
Answer: The landlord of the inn and his wife were surprised to see the doors of Griffin’s room open. They looked inside and found that nobody was inside the room and decided to investigate. They found it strange that his room’s door was open as he never liked anyone even trying to enter his room. All of a sudden, while investigating, Mrs. Hall heard a sniff next to her ear and was hit by Griffin’s hat on the face. Then the chair in the room charged towards Mrs. Hall and hit her in her legs.
As they both turned in terror, the chair pushed both of them out of the room and the door was slammed and suddenly a locking sound was heard. Mrs. Hall was scared and felt that the furniture was haunted by spirits and it was the stranger’s work. People started saying that the work was that of a witch.
Read and Find Out
(Page 26) – Footprints without feet
Q2) How did the invisible man first become visible?
Answer: The invisible man (Griffin) first became visible after he slipped into a big London store for keeping warm and overslept there while wearing some clothes taken from the store. The clothes made him visible to the shop assistants when the shop opened in the morning. To escape from them, he had to shed all his clothes to become invisible again.
Q2) Why was he wandering the streets?
Answer: Though he was a brilliant scientist, he was a lawless person. His landlord disliked him and wanted to evict Griffin. In revenge, he set fire to the house. To escape, he removed his clothes, becoming invisible. Thus he became homeless and was wandering the streets of London.
Page 28
Q1) Why does Mrs Hall find the scientist eccentric?
Answer:
Mrs Hall found the scientist eccentric
because of his strange appearance and also, when she tried to be friendly with him, he rebuffed her by saying that he had come there for solitude and did not wish to be disturbed in his work.
Q2) What curious episode occurs in the study?
Answer:
Very early one morning, a clergyman and his wife were awakened by noises coming from their study. Then they heard the sound of coins being taken from the desk there. However, when they entered the study, they did not find anybody there, which was curious.
Q3) What other extraordinary things happen at the inn?
Answer:
At the inn, Mrs Hall and her husband went into the scientist’s room on finding its door open. However, he was not seen in the room, but Mrs Hall heard a sniff and the hat on the bedpost leapt up and dashed into her face. Then the bedroom chair sprang into the air and pushed them both out of the room. This made Mrs Hall think that her furniture was haunted.
Think About It
(Page 31) – Footprints without feet
Q1) “Griffin was rather a lawless person.” Comment.
Answer:
Griffin was not bothered if he had harmed anybody in the fulfilment of what he wanted. He set his landlord’s house on fire because the landlord tried to make him leave. Then his robberies at shops and later in the village indicate that he was a lawless person. When he encountered the landlady of the inn, he threw a chair at her and her husband. Lawless persons like Griffin never think about the safety and well-being of others. They are only concerned about themselves.
Q2) How would you assess Griffin as a scientist?
Answer:
Griffin is a brilliant scientist, as he discovers how to make himself invisible. But he seems to enjoy the feeling of power which he gets out of his invisibility. The power to hurt anybody without getting noticed can give sadistic pleasure to some people. A true scientist should make discoveries for the larger benefit of society, not just for his own benefit.
Talk About It
(Page 31) – Footprints without feet
Q1) Would you like to become invisible? What advantages and disadvantages do you foresee, if you did?
Answer:
It can be an exciting idea for most people. Like two facets of a coin, invisibility can have many advantages and disadvantages. For a child, invisibility may mean a licence for all kinds of pranks without getting caught. Like a Hindi movie, invisibility can help you beat all the villains black and blue and get rid of them. Once you become invisible, nobody would notice you. Within no time, the sadness of isolation will take over the excitement of being invisible. You will have no friend. You will tend to behave like the eccentric scientist in this story.
Q2) Are there forces around us that are invisible, for example, magnetism? Are there aspects of matter that are ‘invisible1 or not visible to the naked eye? What would the world be like if you could see such forces or such aspects of matter? ‘
Answer:
Magnetic forces and electrostatic forces are examples of invisible forces. The atoms and molecules in a matter are so small that they are not visible to the naked eye. Similarly, heat energy is invisible. Similarly, sound is invisible to us. While the idea of seeing invisible things can be very exciting, their visibility would create too many problems. For example, if we are able to see all the sound around us, that would be too irritating for us.
Q3) What makes glass or water transparent (what is the scientific explanation for this)? Do you think it would be scientifically possible for a man to become invisible, or transparent? (Keep in mind that writers of science fiction have often turned out to be prophetic in their imagination)
Answer:
The fact that light can pass through glass or water makes them transparent. When light falls on an object, the reflected light from that object makes it visible to us. If some device can be made which can prevent reflection of light from the human body then the human body can be made invisible.
