Key Themes & Exam Technique
Exam Format Overview
The War of the Worlds question sits in the 19th-century novel section of your modern and literary heritage paper. It tests AO1 (response with textual references), AO2 (analysis of methods and effects), AO3 (context) and AO4 (accurate spelling and punctuation). This is typically a closed-text exam. Check your exam board’s specimen paper for the exact format, mark weightings and timing.
You may face an extract-based question (analyse a given passage, then extend to the whole novel) or a discursive question (no extract; choose your own evidence). Both require clear argument, embedded quotations, and woven Assessment Objectives.
AO1 = response with textual references. AO2 = analysis of Wells’s methods and effects. AO3 = understanding of Victorian context (imperialism, evolution, class). Weave those three together rather than answering them in separate sections. AO4 also carries marks here for accurate spelling and punctuation.
Structuring an Analytical Response
Use the WHAT-HOW-WHY model: WHAT (state your point, AO1), HOW (analyse Wells’s method with a quotation, AO2), WHY (embed context, AO3). For Wells, key methods include: first-person narration, scientific register, imperial analogy, documentary realism, the anti-climactic ending.
Aim for 4–5 analytical paragraphs within the time allowed. Begin with a clear thesis and end with a brief conclusion linking back to your opening argument.
Imperialism: “Before we judge of them too harshly...” — narrator’s direct comparison. Technology: “a monstrous tripod, higher than many houses” — scale of threat. Human response: “that swift liquefaction of the social body” — civilisation’s collapse. Resolution: “slain by the humblest things” — ironic defeat.
Key Quotations to Memorise
Imperialism: “Before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought.” Technology: “an almost noiseless and blinding flash of light” (Heat-Ray). Evolution: “slain by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth” (bacteria). Civilisation: “never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together.”
Retelling the plot: the reader already knows the story. Every sentence should analyse, not narrate. Ignoring AO3: Wells wrote this novel specifically to critique imperialism — context is essential. Treating the novel as just an adventure story: always link events to Wells’s social purpose.
Memorise short quotations per theme: imperialism (“ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought”), technology (the Heat-Ray), evolution (bacteria), civilisation’s collapse (the London exodus). Practise embedding them in analytical sentences.