The Curate Character Analysis

A religious man who has spent his life working for the church. The curate is inconsolable in his grief over the Martian invasion, utterly unable to fathom why such a terrible fate has come upon humankind. His conception of life is based on his faith, which fails to help him account for the arrival of such malicious creatures. “Why are these things permitted? What sins have we done?” the curate wails to the narrator, who—as a man devoted to reason—finds this line of thinking distasteful, even characterizing such complaints as “selfish despair.” After running into one another in the woods, the two men travel together and take shelter in an abandoned house. As they hide, yet another Martian cylinder crashes to earth, half-burying the house and keeping them from leaving. The curate and the narrator are forced to remain with one another in the kitchen, scurrying back and forth to the pantry and eating the small amount of food available there. As the days pass, the narrator grows increasingly agitated by the curate, who begins to eat large quantities despite the fact that the two men are in grave danger of starving to death. When the narrator tries to cut the curate off from the food supply, the curate acts childishly and eventually goes out of his mind, daring to speak at full volume despite the risk of being heard by the Martians just outside. Finally, in a fit of reckless despair, the curate ventures into the kitchen with the aim of making his presence known to the Martians. The narrator quickly knocks him out, but not before a Martian hears and finds its way into the kitchen—an event which marks the end of the curate’s life.