The War of the Worlds: Book 1, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The narrator returns to the pit at sundown to find hundreds of spectators in a commotion while the cylinder unscrews. As the crowd pushes back and forth, a man falls into the pit, and a humming sound emanates from the Thing. The cylinder’s lid falls to the ground with a heavy, metallic thud. The narrator sees “greyish, billowy movements” in the dark hollow of the cylinder as something with eyes like “two luminous discs” emerges, wriggling one tentacle and then another into the air, little appendages that look like grey snakes. The narrator feels a sudden chill, and a woman behind him screams. He starts forcing his way back through the crowd, all the while keeping his eyes trained on the cylinder behind him as more and more tentacles extend into the air. 

As he tries to make his escape, the narrator continues to looks at the Martian over his shoulder, noting its size (that of a bear), its flat eyes, and its strange mouth dripping with gooey saliva. The Martian quivers and pulses as it squeezes out of the cylinder. The narrator observes that the Martian’s features are “intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous.” Recalling this initial glimpse, he writes, “Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.” Abruptly, the Martian drops from the top of the cylinder, vanishing from the narrator’s sight into the pit. Upon hitting the ground, it moans a “thick cry,” and yet another circular being appears in the cylinder’s hole.

The narrator breaks into a run and heads toward the nearest tree line. Although he tries to run as fast as possible, he finds himself unable to take his eyes off the pit, staring at the aliens over his shoulder as he sprints. Upon reaching the trees, he stops and looks back to see a “round, black object bobbing up and down on the edge of the pit.” This is the backlit silhouette of the man who fell in—his head rises as he tries to climb out, but suddenly he sinks down and vanishes completely, pulled back with a shriek. The narrator points out how strange the entire sight of Horsell Common would be to somebody unaware of the situation. He remarks upon the abandoned wheelbarrows used for selling soda and the “row of deserted vehicles with their horses feeding out of nose-bags or pawing at the ground.”