Symbolism & Setting
Key Themes
The five most important themes in The War of the Worlds for the exam are: imperialism and colonisation, evolution and survival, the fragility of civilisation, the limits of technology, and humanity’s place in the universe.
Imperialism & Colonisation
The novel’s central argument is a reversal of imperialism. The Martians treat humans exactly as the British treated colonised peoples: conquering territory, extracting resources (blood), and transforming the environment (red weed). Wells makes this parallel explicit with the Tasmanian reference. The entire invasion is a thought experiment: what if the most powerful empire on Earth experienced what it had done to others?
This colonial critique operates on multiple levels. The Martians conquer territory (Surrey, London), extract resources (human blood for feeding), and transform the environment (the red weed displacing English vegetation). Each of these mirrors a specific aspect of British imperialism. Wells also shows how colonisation dehumanises both the coloniser and the colonised. The Martians treat humans with clinical indifference — the same indifference that British administrators showed towards the peoples they governed. By forcing his readers to experience this indifference as victims, Wells creates empathy for the colonised world.
The Martians colonise Britain as Britain colonised others: military conquest, resource extraction (human blood), environmental transformation (red weed). Wells’s opening reference to the Tasmanian genocide makes the parallel explicit.
Evolution & Survival
Darwinism underpins the entire novel. The Martians are a more evolved species applying the logic of natural selection. The bacteria ending shows that survival depends on biological adaptation, not heroism or technology. Wells challenges human exceptionalism — we are one species among many, vulnerable to extinction.
The Darwinian framework is consistent throughout the novel. The Martians are described in purely biological terms: large brains, no digestive system at all, reproduction by budding rather than sexual intercourse. They represent what humanity might become after millions of years of further evolution — pure intellect without emotion. Wells studied under Huxley and understood evolution as an ongoing, amoral process. The bacteria ending is the ultimate Darwinian statement: survival depends on adaptation, not superiority. The Martians, despite their intelligence, lack one crucial adaptation — immunity to Earth’s microbes — and this kills them.
Victorian society prided itself on progress, order, and stability. Wells shows how quickly these collapse: the army fails, the class system dissolves, crowds become mobs, religious faith crumbles. The message is that civilisation is not permanent or guaranteed — it depends on conditions that can be destroyed overnight. This theme resonated powerfully in the early twentieth century as two World Wars proved Wells right.
Understanding these thematic interconnections allows you to write more sophisticated exam responses. Rather than discussing themes in isolation, the strongest candidates weave multiple themes together in every paragraph, showing how Wells constructs a unified argument about humanity’s vulnerability, the moral bankruptcy of empire, and the humbling power of natural forces beyond human control.
The Limits of Technology
Victorians worshipped technological progress — railways, telegraphs, steam engines, and warships seemed to prove human mastery over nature. Wells systematically destroys this confidence. The artillery fails. HMS Thunder Child is sunk. Communication networks break down. Even the Martians’ superior technology ultimately fails — killed by something technology cannot control: bacteria. The message is that technology is a tool, not a salvation.
Wells extends this critique beyond military technology. The telegraph and railway — the communication and transport networks that held the Empire together — are among the first systems to fail. Newspapers stop printing. Trains stop running. Without these systems, Victorian society cannot coordinate a response. Wells understood that advanced societies are fragile precisely because they are complex: the more interconnected a system is, the more catastrophically it fails when disrupted. This insight feels remarkably modern — it anticipates twenty-first-century concerns about infrastructure vulnerability and systemic risk.
Both human and Martian technology fail. Human weapons cannot stop the Heat-Ray. Martian technology cannot prevent death by bacteria. Wells argues that technology is always limited — evolution (biology) is more powerful than invention (engineering).
The novel ends with the narrator reflecting that we cannot regard this planet as “fenced in and a secure abiding place for Man”. The invasion has permanently changed human self-perception. We are not the centre of creation but one vulnerable species in a vast, indifferent cosmos. This anticipates the existential anxiety of the twentieth century and makes the novel feel startlingly modern.
Linking Themes for the Exam
In the exam, the strongest responses will connect themes rather than treating them in isolation. For example, imperialism and evolution are linked because Social Darwinism was used to justify the Empire. The fragility of civilisation and the limits of technology are linked because Victorian confidence rested on both social institutions and engineering achievements. Humanity’s place in the universe connects all the other themes: the novel argues that we are not exceptional, not invulnerable, and not the pinnacle of creation. Every theme contributes to this central argument about humility.