He was both emotionally and physically abusive in his attempt to control every aspect of her life – and as the movie’s story illustrates, her actually leaving his control winds up pushing him over the edge and leads him to use his most incredible invention for sinister purposes.
In The Invisible Man, we primarily get to know Adrian Griffin from the perspective of Elisabeth Moss’ Cecilia, and the image that she paints of him following her escape from his clutches and after his subsequent “death” isn’t exactly a positive one.