Top 30 Quotes

Question 1

“Such an extraordinary effect in unmanning me it had that I ran weeping silently as a child might do” - Narrator while running from martians after the initial attack

Answer 1

“silently as a child might do” - belittling him to a child, powerless
“unmanning me” - ideas of weakness and fragility
CONT - feminism, Wells was a feminist unlike his peers

Question 2

“sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this flaming death, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat” - Narrator describing the martians heat ray

Answer 2

“sword of heat” - biblical links? emphasizes the power difference - the narrator cannot describe it fully
“swiftly and steadily…inevitable” - martians are fully in control, humans cannot do anything

Question 3

“the man with the gold twisted his head round and bit the wrist” - Man bites narrator’s brother’s wrist while fleeing london

Answer 3

“bit” - savage, reduced to acting like an animal
“gold” - capitalism/greed emphasizes how greedy society is
CONT - Wells was a socialist, he is criticising capitalism

Question 4

“I was explainin’ these is vallyble” - Old man after refusing to leave his home in Weybridge

Answer 4

“vallyble” - direct spelling of his pronunciation emphasising how uneducated he is and how inferior he is to the narrator. Demonstrates the lowliness of man inferior to Martian intellect.
Ideas of greed and capitalism being placed above survival. Criticism from Wells who was a socialist.

Question 5

“It’s bows and arrows against the lightning”

Answer 5

“bows and lightning” - primitive, linking to the British empire and colonialism/ power difference against the martians
“lightning” - quick, powerful and unstoppable like the martians

Question 6

“Just like parade it had been a minute before—then stumble, bang, swish!” - Artilleryman talking about the martians when they first fight them

Answer 6

“stumble, bang, swish!” - listing to emphasises how quickly it happened, making the martians seem quick and efficient
“parade” - naivety of humans to get into a formation and look aesthetic???

Question 7

“slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria… slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth” - Narrator talking about the dead martians in London

Answer 7

“putrefactive and disease bacteria” - modern discovery as microscopes were invented recently
“all man’s devices had failed” - pure luck that they were able to survive, they were completely helpless against the martians

Question 8

“It never was a war, any more than there’s war between man and ants” - Artilleryman while talking to narrator

Answer 8

“man and ants” - emphasising the sheer power scale between martians and humans
“never was a war” - absolutist language to emphaise how fervently the narrator feels about the strength of them

Question 9

“We can’t have any weak or silly. Life is real again, and the useless and cumbersome and mischievous have to die. … It’s a sort of disloyalty, after all, to live and taint the race.” - Narrator after reuniting with the narrator

Answer 9

“weak or silly” - social darwinism/ eugenics, criticising the artilleryman’s behaviour
“useless and cumbersome and mischievous” - list to emphasise the weakness of humans he views as “lesser”

Question 10

“even the railway organisations, were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body” - Narrator’s brother’s description of the flight from London

Answer 10

“guttering, softening, running” - list of verbs to emphasize how quickly society collapses in terms of emergency
“swift liquefaction” - emphasises how easily it all falls apart

Question 11

“a mounted policeman came galloping through the confusion with his hands clasped over his head, screaming” - Narrator’s brother describing the police during the fleeing of London

Answer 11

“policeman” - even the well-trained and disciplined members of society are panicking and losing order.
“screaming” - a verb that has strong connotations of extreme panic. Associated with vulnerable members of society- no salvation is coming

Question 12

“London about me gazed at me spectrally. The windows in the white houses were like the eye sockets of skulls” - The narrator describing London when he arrives after being trapped with the curate

Answer 12

“gazed at me spectrally” - very gothic and eerie description of London to emphasises how lonely and desolate London is.
“eye sockets of skulls” - gothic description to emphasise how creepy London is, subversion of reality playing on reader’s fears. Simile of how London is soulless and a Skelton.

CONT: Dracula released same year as WOTW so this style of writing would be very familiar with reader. Important to note that this was NOT during peak gothic fiction but rather the tail end

Question 13

“a mere selfish intelligence, without any of the emotional substratum of the human being” - Narrator describing the Martians while being trapped in the cellar of the ruined house with the curate

Answer 13

“without any of the emotional substratum” - very methodical and logical creatures, emphasizing the intellectual difference between men and martians
“mere selfish intelligence” - mere indicates that they are nothing more than that making them seem more evolved as if they have cut off the unnecessary parts of survival

Question 14

“through scarlet and crimson trees towards Kew—it was like walking through an avenue of gigantic blood drops” - narrator describing the scenery around him in the areas surrounding London

Answer 14

“gigantic blood drops” - very gothic description to play off conventions Wells’ readers would be familiar with.
Simile of “avenue” perverts familiarity - “scarlet and crimson trees” - subversion of nature to add to the very creepy and eerie description. Emphasis that invasion has even overcome nature.

Question 15

“the strangeness of its coiling flow… the houses of the village rising like ghosts out of its inky nothingness” -

The narrator hiding with the curate in Surrey

Answer 15

“rising like ghosts out of its inky nothingness” - eerie simile to describe the houses, making the atmosphere very unpleasant and frightening. Ghosts associated with death, demonstrates death of old Victorian society.

“strangeness of it coiling flow” - unlike anything humans have seen, superior martian technology that not even the highly educated narrator can identify.

Subversion of standard particle theory of gases to make the readers who would also be fairly educated to understand the strangeness of the situation.

Question 16

“this was the little world in which I had been living securely for years, this fiery chaos!” - Narrator looking out of his window shortly before meeting the artilleryman for the first time

Answer 16

“living securely” - irony used to deliver a message to Wells’ reader about human complacency.

“this fiery chaos” - juxtaposition with the phrase before, emphasising the speed at which the martians are able to wreak havoc on the countryside.

Question 17

“things that people had dropped—a clock, a slipper, a silver spoon” - Narrator describing the scenes in the area he lives on the way to help the artilleryman rejoin his battery at Weybridge.

Answer 17

“a silver spoon” - capitalism, people are still trying to take valuables even though it is a matter of life and death just because they are valuable.
“a clock” - a rather cumbersome item to take when fleeing emphasising people’s lack of rational in times of panic

Question 18

“glistened like wet leather… had, one might say, a face… lank tentacular appendage… something fungoid in the oily brown skin” - Narrator describing the martians for the first time

Answer 18

“glistened like wet leather” - unpleasant simile that emphasises the hideous nature of the martians
“lank tentacular appendage” - evolution of the martians, they no longer need humanoid feature, thus they are much more advanced

Man’s ignorance as expectations subverted - though would be humanoid, creating even more shock for the contemporary read as reality opposes man’s misconceptions.

Question 19

“With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter” - Narrator in the opening chapter

Answer 19

“little affairs” - belittling language designed to emphasises how weak they are compared to martians.

“serene in their assurance” - human complacency, links to colonialism. Arrogance of his contemporary society.
CONT: Wells’ was against the empire, here he critiques it

Question 20

“infusoria under the microscope do the same” - Narrator in the opening chapter

Answer 20

“do the same” - comparing humans to bacteria, emphasising how insignificant they are to the martians.
“microscope” - a modern invention in victorian England.
CONT: microscope is a modern invention, as well as the discovery of bacteria

Question 21

“we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought … Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?” - Narrator talking about humans and martians

Answer 21

“ruthless and utter destruction” - human brutality on animals, now they are the animals being hunted
“apostles of mercy” - humans are just as guilty as the martians, links to colonialism
CONT: colonialism, particularly the British treatment of natives

Question 22

“‘A shell in the pit,’ said I, ‘if the worst comes to the worst, will kill them all.’” - Narrator comforting his wife

Answer 22

“will kill them all” - human complacency and arrogance, have not realized how superior the martians are.
“A shell in the pit” - foreshadowing, the peak of human military might (artillery is a new invention) is still not even able to compete with martians.
CONT: Technology is much weaker than martians

Question 23

“Talk about fishers of men—fighters of fish it is this time!” / “It ain’t no murder killing beasts like that.” - Soldiers talking about the martians before the initial attack

Answer 23

“fighter of fish” - human complacency, severely underestimating the power of the martians
“killing beasts like that” - idea that humans are more advanced and martians are the lesser species.

Question 24

“What good is religion if it collapses under calamity? … Did you think God had exempted Weybridge? He is not an insurance agent.” - Narrator talking to curate

Answer 24

“collapses under calamity” - martians strength is able to destroy the pillars of society like religion
“what good is religion” - narrator providing a critique on religious institutions, reflecting Wells’ own views on it

Question 25

“He was as lacking in restraint as a silly woman… this spoiled child of life thought his weak tears in some way efficacious” - Narrator describing the curate while they are trapped in the house

Answer 25

“silly woman” - belittling and sexist language used to emphasise the weakness of the curate
“weak tears” - belittling the curate and portraying him as a coward.

Question 26

“selling his papers for a shilling each as he ran - a grotesque mingling of profit and panic” - narrator brother describing someone fleeing london

Answer 26

Capitalism prevailing over one’s life, “as he ran” - in a panic for his life yet still focusing on how to make a profit
“profit and panic” - juxtaposition, things going together when they normally shouldn’t

Question 27

“a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel… the fear and empire of man had passed away” - narrator while making his way to Kew

Answer 27

“animal” - ideas of evolution to make the humans less advanced than the martians and are being ruled by them.
“martians heel” - martians are completely in control here and the humans are powerless

Question 28

“minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic” - opening chapter

Answer 28

“beasts that perish” - reducing humans to weak animals that they used to control and rule
“vast and cool” - highlighting the power difference between the martians and humans.

Question 29

“bolted as blindly as a flock of sheep” - narrator describing the people fleeing the initial attack

Answer 29

“as blindly as” - simile to emphasise how quickly and without thought they fled, not making decisions for themselves but instead following the crowd.
“flock of sheep” - has connotations of not leading but following others

Question 30

“the glittering Martians went to and fro, calmly and methodically spreading their poison cloud” - narrator describing martians just before the thunder child

Answer 30

” calmly and methodically” - martians have lost all emotions that make humans weak
“poison cloud” - humans not advanced enough to identify the cloud, highlighting the advancements of the martians