Evolutionary Consciousness in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

Abstract

The War of the World selucidates Wells' extraordinary power and imagination of making perfect fusion of literature with science. The central story is an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines, equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of alien invasion of Earth. The novel compares the nature of the Martian inhabitants to human evolutionary progress. In the novel, the conflict between human kind and the Martians is portrayed as a similar struggle of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Hence, Wells applied Darwinian evolution to his depiction of Martians in this novel, creating an apocalyptic invasion fantasy with monstrous aliens that have a simple bodily form, though they are far advanced in their mental capacities. This is the truth of evolutionary theory which noone can deny.