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.
In The War of the Worlds, the Martians usurp humanity's control. For a brief period of time, aliens become the tyrannical masters of earth. Following humanity's loss of control, the metaphor of "dethronement" appears in Book 2, Chapter 6:
I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel. With us it would be as with them, to lurk and watch, to run and hide; the fear and empire of man had passed away.
The narrator, a common man, realizes that he was once part of what he sees as a "master" race—that is, he saw human beings as a ruling species. He was never a king, but he says that he has been "dethroned," since his former position as a privileged being has been stolen. The sense that he has been dethroned depresses him; he feels like a mere animal who must run and hide from a predator. He then compares himself to a rabbit whose burrow has been destroyed by people digging the foundation of a house, which creates a contrast with the kingly metaphor and also invites the reader to ponder the impact of human life on wildlife. This range of similes and metaphors, which evoke both powerful rulers and weak animals, force readers to reconsider the depths and heights of the human capacity for emotion, achievement, and reason.
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.
