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Events as tense and exciting
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. In this extract, the narrator takes cover in the River Thames and watches a battle between the Martians and hidden artillery units.
Explore how Wells presents events as tense and exciting in this extract and elsewhere in the novel.
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Marking points
- 1 Focus on how events are made tense and exciting in both the extract and wider novel.
- 2 Use precise textual references and analyse Wells’ methods, including pace, narration and language.
- 3 Show relevant contextual understanding of science, technology and fin-de-siecle anxieties.
- 4 May discuss the Martians’ threat, human resistance, and the narrator’s eyewitness reaction.
Full-mark answer
A strong answer would analyse how Wells builds tension through the Martian machine’s movement, the sudden simultaneous gunfire, violent sensory detail and the narrator’s immediate first-person reactions. It would explore labels such as 'monster' and 'Thing', the Heat-Ray threat, the brief excitement of 'Hit!', and the limited nature of the 'momentary exultation'. It would connect this to other tense episodes in the novel and to contextual anxieties about invasion, science and technology.
Why this answer loses marks
Analyses filmed versions of The War of the Worlds instead of the novel.
The examiner report states that analysis of filmed versions cannot be credited in this examination; the answer must focus on Wells’ novel.