Swallowing the Impossible: A Stylistics Approach to H. G. Wells's the Invisible Man
Dr. Abdullatif al-Khaiat

Abstract
This research focuses on H.G. Wells's use of language in his novel The Invisible Man as a means to creating his effect. It is supposed here that Wells is aiming to create the impact that a science romance usually aims to achieve: startling and thrilling the readers; and at the same time convincing them to believe the novel's imaginary events that draw on scientific facts. To achieve these objectives, the author enlists all kinds of grammatical and semantic deviation; and the deviation may be noticed to exist at all levels, from the word level to the level of discourse that encompasses the chapters and the whole novel. Enough examples are drawn from the novel to support these observations. It is noted, however, that it is not in the plenty of deviated elements that the novel strikes the researcher, but in their scarcity. Wells is keen to use concrete, factual language, but the sentences get shorter and more elliptical as the action grows more intense and urgent. It is also noted that the author uses very skilful means to bring the impossible to be accepted by the reader: marshalling more and more evidence, some by learned scientists, who turned from denying the invisibility of Griffin, the protagonist, to believing it. At the same time, through manipulating the language, the novel gets more and more thrilling and captivating until the end.

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