The War of the Worlds Is a Masterpiece of Suspense and Thrilling Writing

Authors Avatar
David McKay War of the Worlds essay 17/9/01

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS IS A MASTERPIECE OF SUSPENSE AND THRILLING WRITING

During the book, "The War of the Worlds", H.G. Wells does manage to create an atmosphere of suspense and tension, with some thrills to accompany them.

His amazing knowledge of space and the unknown, combined with a wild imagination, given incentive by the creatures around him, gives the threat of a space invasion more plausible then it would without the knowledge and creativity. Since he is a scientist, his factual evidence backing up his imagination gives it a more realistic outcome, as more intense. We know that what he is saying is true, that it does have meaning and that makes us more into the story than a totally fictional story, involving aliens.

HG Wells also spends a lot of time describing the Martians in depth. He probably does this to make the whole thing more plausible.
Join now!


To improve the plausibility that an attack from Mars could happen, he adds in a motive for the Martians to attack Mars. He tells us that the Martians have gone on in time now, explaining the superior knowledge, but this also means that their planet is soon doomed and they will be looking for a nice new place to stay. Since the Martians are basically the same as humans in that they come from a planet similar to ours, Earth would be at the top of their Command and Conquer list.

He gives us the impression at ...

This is a preview of the whole essay