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Get every literary device explanation for The War of the WorldsPlus so much more...
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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—Natural Disasters:
The War of the Worlds contains strategic allusions to major natural disasters. For example, in Book 1, Chapter 13, the narrator references a major real-life earthquake that hit Lisbon:
Had they left their comrade and pushed on forthwith, there was nothing at that time between them and London but batteries of twelve-pounder guns, and they would certainly have reached the capital in advance of the tidings of their approach; as sudden, dreadful, and destructive their advent would have been as the earthquake that destroyed Lisbon a century ago.
On November 1, 1755, a massive quake devastated the city of Lisbon and killed 50,000 people. In this passage, the narrator draws a direct comparison between the quake and the "sudden, dreadful, and destructive" presence of the Martians. This comparison makes the aliens' invasion seem more real and gives a sense of the scope of their destructive power.
Similarly, in Book 2, Chapter 1, the narrator references the destruction of Pompeii while describing the aftermath of a battle with the Martians:
In Sunbury, and at intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying in contorted attitudes, horses as well as men, overturned carts and luggage, all covered thickly with black dust. That pall of cindery powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii.
The Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 B.C. Much like the Earthquake of Lisbon, the eruption of Vesuvius is one of the most well-known natural disasters in history. It was also, like the Martian invasion, very unexpected—so unexpected that some of the bodies, preserved by volcanic ash, were found petrified in the very gestures of shock and fear in which they died.
Such historical allusions ground the fanciful science-fiction elements of The War of the Worlds in a sense of reality. Comparisons of the Martian invasion to past events evoke the extremity of the war's destruction. Throughout the story, Wells seems to drop hints and reminders that when humanity becomes too confident in its own safety, the earth (and the galaxy at large) have a way of reminding it of its ultimate vulnerability to any number of natural (or perhaps intergalactic) disasters.
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