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Study Guide for H. G. Wells: The War of the Worlds
though the word was only invented in 1921 by Karel Capek and not applied to machine/human creations until later.
Chapter 3: The Days of Imprisonment
In the 1953 film of War of the Worlds, the narrator was made a single man and the curate replaced with an attractive young woman.
Chapter 4: The Death of the Curate
Note how "the death of the curate" is referred to frequently in the narrative in indirect or passive ways. Why do you think Wells does this? In Isaiah 63 there is developed an image of God's wrathful vengeance as the operation of a wine press: the wine is blood. In Greek mythology Briareus was a many-headed, many-handed giant.
Chapter 5: The Stillness
In a contemporary action novel, this chapter would probably be reduced to a line or two. What effect does it have? How is "the death of the curate" referred to? What other invader does the narrator discover has accompanied the Martians?
Chapter 6: The Work of Fifteen Days
Navvies are manual laborers. Why is it a hopeful sign that the Red Weed dies so quickly and thoroughly?
Chapter 7: The Man on Putney Hill
"Biscuits" is the British word for cookies. Note how "the killing of the curate" is referred to impersonally again here, as "the former." Does the killing haunt the narrator? Explain. What effect does the narrator says the war with the Martians has had on human attitudes toward animals? How does this passage fit in with his comments about animals at the beginning of the novel? The artilleryman is the opposite number of the cowardly curate. Why does he say "This isn't a war?" Why does the artilleryman welcome the collapse of civilization? Can you compare him with any group in our contemporary culture? What is his attitude toward human beings? He is the ancestor of many figures in contemporary post-disaster novels. What convinces the narrator that the artilleryman is crazy? How does his behavior contradict his words? Playing "for parish points" means that they are pretending that they will inherit all of London and are gambling for its districts, or parishes. What is the function of the artilleryman in the novel?
Chapter 8: Dead London
A "chemist's shop" is a drugstore. Why is the title of this chapter somewhat ambiguous? Samson was the amazingly strong hero of a number of stories in Judges 13:1-16:31. What stops the narrator from committing suicide? Can you compare the death of the Martians to any other similar lethal encounter in world history? "The destruction of Sennacherib" is a reference to the poem by that title by Lord Byron. A sudden miracle killed his whole army overnight. The phrase "that would fight no more for ever" is a reference to the often-quoted 1877 speech of the Nez Perce Chief Joseph upon his surrender to the U.S. Army: "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. . . . Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever." What [next page]