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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—Biblical Allusions:
The War of the Worlds contains many biblical allusions. These allusions ground the story in a real-world religious context. They also challenge certain elements of religious faith. For example, in Book 1, Chapter 1, the narrator references Psalm 49:12:
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
Here, the narrator describes the way the Martians viewed humanity before the invasion. They looked "across the gulf of space" and decided to wreak havoc upon earth. They considered humanity to be among "the beasts that perish"—a line taken directly from Psalm 49. This line appears in a hymn about the fleeting life of a human. According to this hymn, people do not endure and are like animals who perish from the earth without doing anything of much importance. It makes sense that the Martians would view humanity this way; otherwise, they might not have been confident enough to invade the planet.
Another important allusion appears in Book 2, Chapter 8 in a description of a handling machine:
I came upon the wrecked handling-machine halfway to St John’s Wood station. At first I thought a house had fallen across the road. It was only as I clambered among the ruins that I saw, with a start, this mechanical Samson lying, with its tentacles bent and smashed and twisted, among the ruins it had made.
Here, the narrator references the biblical story of Samson. Samson was the hero of the Israelites whose story appears in Judges 13-16. He tears down the temple of the Philistines with his bare hands. Thus, the term "mechanical Samson" refers to a machine that destroys human infrastructure.
Many other biblical allusions appear throughout the story—like, for instance an allusion to cities destroyed for their sinfulness like in Genesis 19. There's also an allusion in Book 1, Chapter 11 to the "pillars of fire" from Exodus 13:21. Each of these allusions refer to different moments of utter destruction, whether of a person, a city, or the entire world. The Bible never becomes a source of comfort or joy in The War of the Worlds, functioning instead as a sign of doom.
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