As the 19th century ended and the 20th dawned, much of the world was changing. In particular, world literature was moving from the ideals of Romanticism to the stark realism of novels written after the Great War. At the beginning of this change lies the novel "The War of the Worlds" by HG Wells. It is a unique work in that it can be considered an example of both literary themes present in the 1890s, Romanticism and realism. In Wells' own words, it is a "scientific novel" that combines aspects of both. Although he uses the Martian invasion of Earth as an extended metaphor to criticize imperialism in refined romantic form, his approach is very realistic through the use of verisimilitude, recounting the fictional invasion as a real event that occurred in the recent past. It is the use of this literary technique that makes "War of the Worlds" stand out among novels with similar themes but rather more conventional premises, such as Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on the topic "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an Original Essay Considering the topic, the opinions and knowledge of the general public at the time, and the prevailing literary ideas, it was crucial to establish credibility early. Otherwise the novel would have easily been dismissed as too imaginative or too confusing, and its emotional impact would have been greatly diminished. In the novel, Wells provides a basis for the use of verisimilitude by writing in the first person, past tense, and from the perspective of a participant writing his memoirs about an event that occurred in the near past, which helps give the audience the feeling of looking back at something that has already happened. This is crucial, as audiences can better relate to a highly unlikely historical event, rather than a similar event that may only occur in the future. Wells supports this basis through a description of the Martian investigation of man and introduces a comparison to imperialism by immediately explaining that “while men were occupied with their various concerns they were examined and studied [as] a man with a microscope might peer into the world. transitory creatures... in a drop of water" and that men were also "serene in the certainty of their dominion over matter" (3). Incidentally, the use of verisimilitude in The War of the Worlds has the side effect of making the novel more direct (as it ideally reads like the narrator's memoirs) and therefore more palatable to the average reader. Rather than needing an extended introduction that could span chapters and potentially put off the audience, the novel can instead introduce the more pertinent details needed to set up the underlying plot and make the transition to the main plot in just a few pages. It's an unorthodox start, but it works wonders in convincing the audience that the novel has intellectual merits that go beyond the basic story and isn't just another silly fantasy to be discarded. As the plot progresses into the narrator's account of what really happened, Wells continues to build on the foundation established in the opening pages to further incorporate verisimilitude into the novel. First, it uses accurate scientific facts to describe Mars and the Martian journey to Earth. It reminds the public of the vast stellar distances involved (140,000,000 miles), which were hardly known at the time. For the average reader, this evokes a sense of awe at the Martians' ability to cross such a distance. Then, it introduces a discussion of why the Martians wanted to come to Earth in the first place, in order to clarify muchof ambiguity as to why such different creatures (as the reader later learns) would bother to do so. At this point, as the narrator says, the theme of criticism of imperialism emerges forcefully and is addressed directly to the public: "And before judging them too harshly we must remember what... destruction our own species has wrought, not only on animals, ...but on the inferior races,” referring to the Tasmanians who were wiped out by the British settlers (5). By comparing the Martians to the British imperialists, Wells shows readers how they, through the British Empire, mistreated much of the developing world. As for the reader, seeing the resemblance between seemingly inhuman monsters and themselves is striking. Wells also draws on his own reality to provide proper names for people and places in the novel. The narrator states that the Martian preparations were spotted by several real-life astronomers such as Perrotin of Nice, Lavelle of Java, and Oglivy, a famous British observer. He also spends the night with Oglivy at his Ottershaw observatory, where they watch the launch of the first cylinder. However, regardless of what this might mean for them, the population remains indifferent, as evidenced by Punch satirizing “volcanoes on Mars” for the political cartoon (8-9). Wells then places the landing site of the first cylinder as Horsell Common, which was an open area near his home and the home of the novel's narrator. Wells could easily have placed the setting in a foreign or imaginary country, but placing it in Britain makes it all the more urgent; reading about a distant place being devastated is one thing, but reading about your hometown and surrounding cities being devastated is another. A common method of distancing oneself from a traumatic event that has happened to others is to say that it won't happen here. Placing the novel in Britain prevents the audience from resorting to that method and forces them to confront their own fears and apprehensions, both about the fictional Martians and the real effects of British imperialism on the world. Again, most of Wells's efforts to make "The War of the Worlds" read as if a real-life factual account had to come at the beginning to establish credibility, but that doesn't mean you can forget the rest of the novel. Throughout the rest of the story, Wells uses several contrasts in the British people's reactions to the Martian invasion to further support the theme. For example, the narrator describes how, after the Heat Ray is used for the first time, he meets a group of people who have only heard of it, but have not actually seen its deadly effects. One wonders: “People seem pretty silly about the municipality. What's going on apart from that?" and when an answer is given he responds that he heard "Enough, thank you" (33). The group despises the narrator because he exaggerates the crisis, which incidentally was the reaction of most people to the effects of imperialism. They dismissed it as something they didn't have to worry about, as they had only heard about it, rather than seen it directly. However, when the Martians finally emerge on their iconic tripods, people change their minds without even a small demonstration of the Heat Ray, as demonstrated by the response to Shepperton and Weybridge shortly thereafter. A similar response is described by the narrator's brother in London, as "the people in their best clothes seemed little affected by [the Martians'] strange intelligence" until the Martians arrived, after which "the whole population of the great city of six million inhabitants" [poured] en masse towards the north" (87, 91). Some.