Dec 23, 2009

The War of the Worlds | Characters

During the 1960s through the 1990s, critics have fussed about the "passivity" of the characters of The War of the Worlds. The Narrator, in particular, is faulted for being primarily a cowering observer. Such criticism misses the point of Wells's characterizations. The people of England respond as people have responded before to invasions of technologically more advanced peoples. "Since the Martians were evidently intelligent creatures," the Narrator notes, "it had been resolved to show them, by approaching them with signals, that we too were intelligent." Apples are brought as gifts, and...