The War of the Worlds: Context (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature)

Context

Understanding the context in which the novel is set, how it was received when it was written and its literary context or genre can help to develop your understanding of the novel. 

For WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature, you are assessed on AO3 (context), so you must show your understanding of the relationship between The War of the Worlds and the context in which it was written in your exam response. Here are some contextual influences on the novel to consider: 

• Socialism and changes in society

• Wells' influences as a writer  

• Victorian England

• The science-fiction genre

Socialism and changes in society

• There was a significant increase in the middle classes in England at the time the novel was written, largely brought about advances in society at the time:

  • People became more interested in socialism as a result — and more concerned about the disparity between different social classes

  • Socialism focuses on the idea that communally owning and managing industry and property has benefits for all

  • Wells, like many other intellectuals at the time, was a committed socialist and wrote essays on this political theory 

  • The novel shows both the breakdown of society and divisions between social classes – the invasion is a social leveller as, regardless of their social status, the narrator and other characters are reduced to fighting for basic necessities like food

• Religion played less of a role in governing people’s behaviour: 

  • Wells' presentation of the weak and flawed curate perhaps reflects the declining influence and power of religion in society

• Some of Wells' other novels, including The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, explore the growing divisions between social class and how humans were becoming increasingly materialistic 

  • Some critics have argued that Wells reiterates his socialist views through the fiction that he has produced

Wells' influences as a writer

• Wells was brought up in poverty and worked hard to become a writer as well as a scientist, overcoming a lifetime of illness

• As was common with many writers in the Victorian era, Wells serialised The War of the Worlds between April and December 1897, publishing the novel in instalments in Pearson’s Magazine in the UK:

  • Due to its incredible success and impact, it was later published as a complete novel 

• He was influenced by one of his teachers, T. H. Huxley, a supporter of Darwinian theory, and was interested in the theory of natural selection and evolution:

  • Wells's interest in evolution and the survival of the fittest is reflected in his presentation of the Martians, who are more evolved than humans (with greater intelligence and more technological advancement) and more adept at managing change 

  • Social order and hierarchies are disrupted in the novel, as is the natural order, with humans becoming a subordinate species to the Martians and no longer dominant (like other animals)  

• The unnamed narrator in the novel is quite similar to Wells: 

  • Like Wells, the narrator is very interested in science, and he is similarly determined to survive and overcome adversity

• Some critics have seen The War of the Worlds as questioning or challenging British imperialism, with the Martians being symbols of colonialism:

  • Wells commented that the plot of the novel was inspired by the brutal treatment – the “war of extermination” – of Tasmania’s Aboriginal people by European colonisers (referenced in Chapter 1)  

• Wells appears to also be critical of Victorian pillars of society, such as the church and the military, through his presentation of the curate and the artilleryman

The science-fiction genre

• In The War of the Worlds, Wells introduces a range of tropes from the science fiction genre, such as dystopian societies, alien invasions and life forms from other planets

• Science fiction largely focuses on new advances in technology and how these might have an impact on society:

  • In The War of the Worlds, Wells shows how the invasion of the Martians, using technology from another planet, can have devastating outcomes

• H.G. Wells is widely regarded as one of the most important writers of science fiction: 

  • In the 1800s, during a time of great scientific advancement, Wells developed the genre by incorporating aspects of both futuristic scientific elements (such as his “Heat-Ray” weapon) and imaginary elements (an alien invasion) into his writing

  • In War of the Worlds, Wells shows what can happen when science and technology take over – and how humans can be unprepared for the consequences  

Victorian England

• The late 1800s, when the novel is set, was a time of great social change:

  • There was a considerable gap between rich and poor, exacerbated by changes in technology due to industrialisation 

• In 1851, the Great Exhibition, housed in London’s Crystal Palace, celebrated the latest advances in technology, such as barometers, microscopes and medical instruments: 

  • The physical presence of Crystal Palace, set in a natural landscape surrounded by much vegetation, demonstrated how humans could dominate nature through technology 

  • Wells is perhaps using these ideas in the novel, focusing on significant technological change and how it can impact people’s lives

• British imperialism had reached its peak during the 19th century with the expansion of the Empire, supported by Queen Victoria:  

  • Many countries all over the world were ruled by Britain, although there was an end-of-era feeling at the end of her reign, and the Empire’s power was decreasing

  • Some people feared that Britain was in danger of being invaded one day, linked to the war in 1870–1871 between France and Germany

  • The Martians in the novel are representative of this fear of invasion and war but Wells is also offering a criticism of imperialism and colonial expansion through

    the Martians’ ruthless destruction 

• London was the first city in the world to have a population of over five million by the 1890s when the novel was written:  

  • As the heart of the British Empire, Wells chose this setting as a major focal point for the story

• Queen Victoria was nearly eighty when The War of the Worlds was published, and fear of her death coincided with fears about an apocalyptic event:

  • The Martians’ arrival and subsequent destruction is also indicative of society’s fears at the time

Sources

Paudyal, B. (2009, March 22). Trauma, sublime, and the ambivalence of imperialist imagination in H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. 

Wills, M. (2023). What The War of the Worlds Had to Do with Tasmania. JSTOR Daily.