It is at once a gripping adventure and a sharp commentary on empire, complacency and the fragility of civilisation.
The War of the Worlds by H G Wells is a novel set for IGCSE and International GCSE Literature (Cambridge International 0475). The board decides the set texts and the years they are examined, and your school confirms them. Our teachers teach whichever text your child sits.
What it is
The unnamed narrator, a writer living near Woking, witnesses cylinders falling on Horsell Common. Out of them emerge tentacled Martians, who use heat-rays and poison gas to destroy everything in their path. Book One follows the narrator's attempts to survive, protect his wife, and make sense of the invasion while London panics.
Book Two moves into a ruined landscape, where he meets a fanatical curate and a dreaming artilleryman, each reacting to catastrophe in a different way. The narrator's survival, and the way the invaders are ultimately defeated, comes through a source no human weapon had foreseen, leaving him reflecting on how small humanity's confidence has been.
Themes and ideas to track
Imperialism and the reversal of power
The English become the colonised, suffering the kind of invasion their empire inflicted elsewhere. Wells invites readers to consider the violence of conquest from the victim's side, and the Martians' calm superiority echoes the attitudes of imperial powers.
Science, progress and human complacency
Victorian confidence in technology is overturned when a more advanced intelligence arrives. The narrator's early curiosity gives way to horror, and the story warns against assuming that human dominance is natural or permanent.
Survival and the breakdown of social order
Panic, flight and selfishness spread as the invasion advances. Wells examines how quickly ordinary behaviour collapses, and the curate and the artilleryman represent contrasting failures to cope.
Nature, evolution and the limits of humanity
Wells draws on contemporary ideas of evolution to present humans as one species among many. The way the invasion ends emphasises humanity's dependence on the natural world and undermines any claim to mastery.
How the writer builds it
Wells chooses a first-person narrator who reports events with the measured tone of a journalist, which lends fantastic events credibility. Realistic place names and ordinary domestic details make the unreal seem close. The narrator's scientific curiosity, combined with moments of fear and moral confusion, gives the account emotional depth.
Wells builds tension through contrasts of scale and sound, with silence, then sudden violence, and uses vivid, specific description for the Martian machines. The two-book structure moves from invasion to aftermath, shifting the focus from external threat to inner reflection.
Studying The War of the Worlds? The paid trial lesson can start with a key moment from the text.
How to write about it in the exam
The novel is a long, episodic account. Focus each paragraph on one episode and explain one technique, such as the credible first-person voice, a contrast of scale or a shift in tone. Link Wells's methods to his ideas, for instance how scientific language makes horror feel plausible.
Since the text is pre-1929, short attributed quotations are fine, but keep them brief. Place the novel in its late-Victorian context only where it helps explain a choice, and never at the expense of close analysis.
An exam-style question to practise
How does Wells make the Martian invasion seem frightening and believable?
Plan three points before you write, with a short quotation for each. Then check your plan against the mark scheme section below.
More question angles
- Explore the ways Wells presents human behaviour in the face of disaster.
- How does Wells use the narrator to shape the reader's response?
- Discuss the ways Wells presents ideas about power and empire in the novel.
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark Literature answers against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards. For Cambridge International 0475, the objectives are summarised on our qualification page.
- AO1: Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts in the three main forms (drama, poetry and prose), supported by reference to the text.
- AO2: Understand the meanings of literary texts and their contexts, and explore texts beyond surface meanings to show deeper awareness of ideas and attitudes.
- AO3: Recognise and appreciate ways in which writers use language, structure and form to create and shape meanings and effects.
- AO4: Communicate a sensitive and informed personal response to literary texts.
- The four assessment objectives carry equal weight, about 25% each.
For The War of the Worlds, build your argument around “Imperialism and the reversal of power” and “Science, progress and human complacency”. Support each point with a short quotation. Then analyse the writer's method, using the section above.
Keep context about H G Wells brief and tied to the words on the page.
Read the text alongside these notes. This page is our own analysis and original teaching material. Where we quote this public-domain work, it is a short, attributed phrase.
Where to go next
Plan your essay with our guide to planning a literature essay, then see a worked answer in our literature essay structure model response. Browse more set-text notes or read about Literature in English tuition.
When you have written an answer on The War of the Worlds, a paid one-hour trial lesson lets the teacher who would continue mark it with you.