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Study Guide for H. G. Wells: The War of the Worlds
any more passionate than hand-holding and the murmuring of sweet nothings. "Trenching on Smith's monopoly" means that the enterprising newsboy is encroaching on the business of the newsstand officially established at the train station. Maxim guns, invented in the 1880s, were the first truly automatic machine guns.
Chapter 9: The Fighting Begins
Wells jokingly calls the milkman's cart his "chariot," comparing it to Phoebus Apollo's chariot, because both appear at dawn. What is the significance of the pun "fishers of men--fighters of fish"? (Hint: see Matthew 4:19.) What act of realistic cowardice does the narrator commit in the last part of the chapter? What is the eventual fate of the landlord in a later chapter?
Chapter 10: In the Storm
In what way does the shape of the cylinders reflect the form of their creators?
Chapter 11: At the Window
What technique does Wells use to emphasize the thoroughness of the destruction? The phrase "pillars of fire" at the end of the chapter is Biblical, ironically echoing the pillar of fire which led the Hebrews out of Egypt in Exodus 15:21-22.
Chapter 12: What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton
What is unusual about the sound of the attack the narrator is caught in? When Wells calls the beam-weapon a "camera" he is thinking of the large, box-like contraptions common his day, always mounted atop tripods to ensure their stability during the long exposure times they required.
Chapter 13: How I Fell in with the Curate
A curate is a sort of assistant clergyman. Wells had a low opinion of conventional religion. The disastrous Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755 was famous partly because the Catholic church claimed it was caused by the wickedness of the inhabitants. More skeptical minds, like Voltaire, argued that Lisbon was the most orthodoxly pious of cities, and its destruction on a Sunday morning argued rather for a lack of divine justice. Just as had his Enlightenment predecessors, Wells refuses to read religious meaning into a natural disaster. What does the clergyman's reference to Sodom and Gomorrah mean? (Hint: see Genesis 18:20-28.) See Revelation 14:11 for the source of this quotation: "The smoke of her burning goeth up for ever and ever!" How is the clergyman interpreting the attack of the Martians? See also Revelation 6:16-17. Why does he call the Martians "God's ministers?"
Chapter 14: In London
At this point, the narrative switches to events in London, told second-hand through the experiences of the narrator's brother. Can you think of reasons that Wells chose not to continue with the same first-person narrative technique? A "crammer" is a tutor specializing in preparing students for exams. What prevents many Londoners from immediately reacting to the Martian invasion?
Chapter 15: What Had Happened in Surrey
Analyze the paragraph beginning "No doubt the thought that was uppermost." How does it view humanity? What is foreshadowed by the sentence in parentheses? A "kopje" is a small hillock or mound. The gas used by the Martians was seen as more prophetic than the fantastic heat-rays, for poison gas was used widely in [next page]