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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Book 1, Chapter 1: The Eve of the War
Explanation and Analysis—Blindness:
The motif of blindness in The War of the Worlds conveys a sense of human error and hubris. Its presence underscores humanity's vain beliefs about itself. For instance, in Book 1, Chapter 1, the narrator explains why people doubt the presence of intelligent life on Mars:
It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level.
The phrase "blinded by vanity" does not mean people were literally blinded. Instead, the word "blinded" functions metaphorically. The blind "man" functions as a stand-in for humanity as a whole. Before the Martian invasion, humans believed they were the greatest, most intelligent race in the universe. Their hubris and vanity "blind" them to reality and render them impotent against the Martians.
In Book 2, Chapter 8, blindness appears again. This time, the very minds of humanity are blinded by "terror and disaster":
[...] were the Martians – dead! – slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth. For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds.
This passage captures the shock of the Martians' defeat, which nearly equals the shock of their arrival. Again, humanity is blind to the truth until they come to a surprising realization. This time, that realization is positive: the Martians have perished and the fate of the earth seems far more stable. At every turn, though, humans are "blinded"—by vanity, terror, disaster, and every other folly that they have yet to master. Many scenes in the novel also describe the presence of dust or fog during and after battles with the Martians that quite literally obscure peoples' sight.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 5: The Heat-Ray
Explanation and Analysis—Fear:
The War of the Worlds is filled with moments of fear. The motif of fear has two purposes. The first is to remind readers of human folly, as fear often makes people act irrationally. For example, in Book 1, Chapter 16, the narrator describes a mass exodus from London:
So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning – the stream of flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel northward and eastward. By ten o’clock the police organization, and by midday even the railway organizations, were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body.
This passage contains chaotic diction—"roaring," "rising swiftly," and "guttering"—that evokes the cause of everyone's fear. It seems unlikely that readers would be able to understand, as the narrator implies, the extent of the Martians' destruction. The phrase "swift liquefaction" suggests how easily humanity is disrupted as a"wave" of fear destroys most peoples' ability to think clearly and organize themselves.
The second purpose of this motif is to show how fear can be a helpful reflex, or else it can be managed by those with special training. In Book 1, Chapter 5, the narrator says:
After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battleground of fear and curiosity.
Here, the narrator describes himself as a "battleground of fear and curiosity"; these two emotions work in opposition, pulling the narrator in two directions. After getting a first glimpse of the Martians, he wants to know more. But he knows they mean trouble, and fear keeps him from getting any closer. Instead of making him act irrationally, fear keeps him from making the dumb decision to approach the Martians. Perhaps this sense of control over his own fear, and the way he can channel it into productive decisions, makes him contemptuous of those with more immature reactions.
Book 1, Chapter 9: The Fighting Begins
Explanation and Analysis—The Color Red:
The color red often appears in The War of the Worlds. This recurring motif reinforces the theme of violence as it comes to signify impending danger. It also functions as an element of visual imagery. At the beginning of the novel, the color red appears in association with the Martians. The Martians originate from Mars, which is known as the Red Planet. When Mars passes closely by Earth, people see strange red lights. Furthermore, the narrator claims that there were red reflections on the ceiling of his brother's room the night he heard the report of the Martians' journey to Earth. And in Book 1, Chapter 11, he describes the presence of the Martians as their Heat-Rays throw "red reflections" into the sky:
It seemed indeed as if the whole country in that direction was on fire – a broad hillside set with minute tongues of flame, swaying and writhing with the gusts of the dying storm, and throwing a red reflection upon the cloud-scud above. [...] I could not see what they were doing, nor the clear form of them, nor recognize the black objects they were busied upon. Neither could I see the nearer fire, though the reflections of it danced on the wall and ceiling of the study.
Here, the narrator suggests his lack of knowledge about the exact activity of the Martians. However, he does provide a very strong visual sense of what is happening. The description of "red reflection" and "black objects" permit as much insight into the scene as he can muster. These reflections are echoed in scenes of fiery destruction just after the Martians arrive in Book 1, Chapter 9:
I saw the tops of the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame, and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin. The pinnacle of the mosque had vanished, and the roofline of the college itself looked as if a hundred-ton gun had been at work upon it. One of our chimneys cracked as if a shot had hit it, flew, and a piece of it came clattering down the tiles and made a heap of broken red fragments upon the flower-bed by my study window.
This passage includes phrases like "smoky red flame" and "red fragments." Here, red represents violence against humanity; it is the color of blood, fire, and the Martians' Heat Rays. When the Martians arrive, a multi-colored world is flooded with red elements that drastically change its landscape. The function of this motif is not only to emphasize the violence and fear of invasion; it also creates associations that give the story more color and make it more visualizable.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 11: At the Window
Explanation and Analysis—The Color Red:
The color red often appears in The War of the Worlds. This recurring motif reinforces the theme of violence as it comes to signify impending danger. It also functions as an element of visual imagery. At the beginning of the novel, the color red appears in association with the Martians. The Martians originate from Mars, which is known as the Red Planet. When Mars passes closely by Earth, people see strange red lights. Furthermore, the narrator claims that there were red reflections on the ceiling of his brother's room the night he heard the report of the Martians' journey to Earth. And in Book 1, Chapter 11, he describes the presence of the Martians as their Heat-Rays throw "red reflections" into the sky:
It seemed indeed as if the whole country in that direction was on fire – a broad hillside set with minute tongues of flame, swaying and writhing with the gusts of the dying storm, and throwing a red reflection upon the cloud-scud above. [...] I could not see what they were doing, nor the clear form of them, nor recognize the black objects they were busied upon. Neither could I see the nearer fire, though the reflections of it danced on the wall and ceiling of the study.
Here, the narrator suggests his lack of knowledge about the exact activity of the Martians. However, he does provide a very strong visual sense of what is happening. The description of "red reflection" and "black objects" permit as much insight into the scene as he can muster. These reflections are echoed in scenes of fiery destruction just after the Martians arrive in Book 1, Chapter 9:
I saw the tops of the trees about the Oriental College burst into smoky red flame, and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin. The pinnacle of the mosque had vanished, and the roofline of the college itself looked as if a hundred-ton gun had been at work upon it. One of our chimneys cracked as if a shot had hit it, flew, and a piece of it came clattering down the tiles and made a heap of broken red fragments upon the flower-bed by my study window.
This passage includes phrases like "smoky red flame" and "red fragments." Here, red represents violence against humanity; it is the color of blood, fire, and the Martians' Heat Rays. When the Martians arrive, a multi-colored world is flooded with red elements that drastically change its landscape. The function of this motif is not only to emphasize the violence and fear of invasion; it also creates associations that give the story more color and make it more visualizable.
Related Themes:
Book 1, Chapter 16: The Exodus from London
Explanation and Analysis—Fear:
The War of the Worlds is filled with moments of fear. The motif of fear has two purposes. The first is to remind readers of human folly, as fear often makes people act irrationally. For example, in Book 1, Chapter 16, the narrator describes a mass exodus from London:
So you understand the roaring wave of fear that swept through the greatest city in the world just as Monday was dawning – the stream of flight rising swiftly to a torrent, lashing in a foaming tumult round the railway stations, banked up into a horrible struggle about the shipping in the Thames, and hurrying by every available channel northward and eastward. By ten o’clock the police organization, and by midday even the railway organizations, were losing coherency, losing shape and efficiency, guttering, softening, running at last in that swift liquefaction of the social body.
This passage contains chaotic diction—"roaring," "rising swiftly," and "guttering"—that evokes the cause of everyone's fear. It seems unlikely that readers would be able to understand, as the narrator implies, the extent of the Martians' destruction. The phrase "swift liquefaction" suggests how easily humanity is disrupted as a"wave" of fear destroys most peoples' ability to think clearly and organize themselves.
The second purpose of this motif is to show how fear can be a helpful reflex, or else it can be managed by those with special training. In Book 1, Chapter 5, the narrator says:
After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battleground of fear and curiosity.
Here, the narrator describes himself as a "battleground of fear and curiosity"; these two emotions work in opposition, pulling the narrator in two directions. After getting a first glimpse of the Martians, he wants to know more. But he knows they mean trouble, and fear keeps him from getting any closer. Instead of making him act irrationally, fear keeps him from making the dumb decision to approach the Martians. Perhaps this sense of control over his own fear, and the way he can channel it into productive decisions, makes him contemptuous of those with more immature reactions.
Book 2, Chapter 8: Dead London
Explanation and Analysis—Blindness:
The motif of blindness in The War of the Worlds conveys a sense of human error and hubris. Its presence underscores humanity's vain beliefs about itself. For instance, in Book 1, Chapter 1, the narrator explains why people doubt the presence of intelligent life on Mars:
It has air and water and all that is necessary for the support of animated existence. Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level.
The phrase "blinded by vanity" does not mean people were literally blinded. Instead, the word "blinded" functions metaphorically. The blind "man" functions as a stand-in for humanity as a whole. Before the Martian invasion, humans believed they were the greatest, most intelligent race in the universe. Their hubris and vanity "blind" them to reality and render them impotent against the Martians.
In Book 2, Chapter 8, blindness appears again. This time, the very minds of humanity are blinded by "terror and disaster":
[...] were the Martians – dead! – slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth. For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds.
This passage captures the shock of the Martians' defeat, which nearly equals the shock of their arrival. Again, humanity is blind to the truth until they come to a surprising realization. This time, that realization is positive: the Martians have perished and the fate of the earth seems far more stable. At every turn, though, humans are "blinded"—by vanity, terror, disaster, and every other folly that they have yet to master. Many scenes in the novel also describe the presence of dust or fog during and after battles with the Martians that quite literally obscure peoples' sight.
Related Themes:
Book 2, Chapter 9: Wreckage
Explanation and Analysis—Church Bells:
Church bells are an important motif in The War of the Worlds. At the beginning of the novel, churches carry on their normal activities despite signs of danger. But when the Martians arrive, all the churches begin ringing their bells to warn people of the coming invasion. This officially confirms the presence of danger to the masses. At the end of the novel (in Book 2, Chapter 9), the church bells ring to signify the end of the war, the death of the Martians, and the safety of humanity:
Thence the joyful news had flashed all over the world; a thousand cities, chilled by ghastly apprehensions, suddenly flashed into frantic illuminations[...]. The church bells that had ceased a fortnight since suddenly caught the news, until all England was bell-ringing.
This passage reminds readers of how much time has passed since the last period of normalcy—namely, two whole weeks, as the bells "had ceased a fortnight" due to the Martian invasion. But now, they ring joyfully, and the "illumination" of peoples' minds mirrors the ringing of the bells. Throughout the story, Wells suggests that the church is responsible for social organization and safety, despite its ultimate failure to protect people.
It might seem strange to include churches and bells in an adventure or science fiction narrative. But many elements of this novel—including an emphasis on Darwinism and allegorical parallels to European conquest—reveal Wells's interest in real-world religion, science, and politics, as well as his tendency to speculate about possible futures. Realistic elements make this story more engaging and frightening by creating ties to reality.
Related Themes:
