H.G. Wells
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Herbert George Wells was something of a Renaissance man in the sense that he demonstrated facility in a number of different areas, exploring through his writings such topics as history, science, sociology, and philosophy. He has become best known for his science fiction works, but these as well reflect his interest in other subjects, notably various sociological concerns of the era as to what progress would mean into the next century and how human beings would fare in the developing scientific world. Wells was particularly concerned over themes that related to the evolution of society and to the ways in which society served the interests of the masses, or failed to serve those interests. An examination of his writing shows that Wells believed in progress and sought to understand and shape the future development of society in a progressive direction. As is evident in many of his works, Wells combined a vision of a technological future with a healthy skepticism about the ability of that future to remake the human being. War of the Worlds offers a particular vision of the coming to earth of creatures from another planet, but what is equally fascinating is the response of those people to what happens to them. Tai Vu refers to an article by Frank McConnell showing that Wells was concerned that people were too taken with their own everyday needs and with such issues as class-rank to see the dangers facing humanity, and in his novels Wells tried to bring these dangers to the
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f the fantastic. Second, Wells uses the newer scientific principles of his time, in this case evolutionary theory and the theories of contagion and infection by microorganisms. Third, Wells allows a criticism of his society and of mankind in general to be developed within the narrative (Aldiss 122).
In the structure of the novel, the narrator provides the voice of human reason in a world where many of his fellow human being are paralyzed with fear. They find that their complacent life has been interrupted forever by the coming of the Martians and that the power they thought they possessed in the universe is not as great as they believed. Wells finds that the sort of confrontation with the unknown that he depicts in War of the World would have an effect on mankind, and that effect he finds is to change our notion of ourselves and our relation to the universe:
The broadening of man's views that has resulted can scarcely be exaggerated. Before the cylinder fell there was a general persuasion that through all the deep of space no life existed beyond the petty surface of our minute sphere. Now we see further (Wells 163).
This is also the effect that Wells would like to have with his fiction--to expand the view humanity takes
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Approximate Word count = 1667
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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