Griffin is so vastly different from the other figures in the "dark academia" genre of classic fiction: Dorian Gray, Henry Jekyll, Victor Frankenstein and the like. I found it interesting to compare him to these figures in terms of motivation and fatal flaws and it's curious to find that he really doesn't have any drive to create this invisibility serum other than to see if he could. Sure, he states there are positives but there is little to no mention of what the serum would be used for. He doesn't create it to address a fatal flaw in himself, nor does he initially search for power, nor does he stumble upon it accidentally. He just does it because it would be neat to be invisible.

I don't fault the book for this apparent lack of motivation, since it rather fits with Griffin's character. Throughout the book he's seen as rash, impetuous, and short-sighted. He never plans in the long term and lives so in the moment that he doesn't think about the consequences of his actions. He does things to sate an instant need. I swear there's a thesis paper here in comparing this work of science fiction to those in the gothic literature genre, especially when it comes to the mad scientist trope and how it's depicted in each work.