The War of the Worlds I. UNDER FOOT. Summary

Summary

The Narrator resumes his account after digressing to his brother’s story: he and the Curate remain holed up in an empty house at Halliford, isolated by the Black Smoke. For a day and a half they wait in anxious inactivity; the Narrator is consumed by worries for his wife and frustrated by the Curate’s despair. When a Martian wanders across nearby fields and uses a jet of steam to smash windows, the Black Smoke drifts riverward and the Narrator realizes an escape route is opening. He gathers supplies and at first intends to go alone, but the Curate joins him, and together they set out along blackened roads toward Sunbury, Hampton Court and Twickenham, seeing dead bodies, scorched countryside, and chaotic flight.

As dusk falls they move through parks and villages, at times hiding from fighting-machines and watching a Martian gather humans into its carrier, which reveals that the invaders are collecting people, not merely destroying. They shelter in houses and scavenge food; at one point they find a pantry with enough provisions to live on. Later that night, while eating in a Mortlake kitchen, a vivid green glare and a tremendous concussion announce the arrival of another cylinder from Mars. The house is struck and partly buried by the impact, plaster and bricks raining down. The Narrator is stunned and loses consciousness; upon awakening they find themselves in darkness, the house largely collapsed, and a Martian standing sentinel outside. Realizing they have been covered by the fifth cylinder, they crouch in a scullery listening to metallic noises and vibrations through the ruined walls, terrified and uncertain, until hunger forces the Narrator to creep toward the pantry to eat.

Key events

1. Narrator and Curate confined by the Black Smoke at Halliford for two days.
2. A Martian lays waste to nearby fields with a jet of steam; the Black Smoke moves on.
3. They travel through Sunbury, Hampton Court, Twickenham and Richmond, seeing death and destruction.
4. They witness a fighting-machine collecting humans into its carrier.
5. They break into houses, secure food and shelter in a Mortlake kitchen.
6. A Martian cylinder strikes and collapses much of the house, burying them under rubble.

Analysis

This chapter performs several structural and thematic jobs. It re-centres the narrative on the Narrator after prolonged digression, re-establishing his voice and personal stakes—especially his anxiety for his wife—and contrasts his anxious energy with the Curate’s paralysis. The sequence of travel through familiar suburban landmarks grounds the extraordinary events in realistic geography, increasing verisimilitude and the sense that the invasion invades everyday life. Encounters with corpses, scorched land, and the vivid imagery of black dust and red masses create an atmosphere of apocalypse and displacement.

The passage where the fighting-machine picks up living people foreshadows the idea that the invaders have a purpose beyond annihilation; this moment reframes the Martians as collectors or experimenters, deepening the novel’s horror. The sudden cylinder-strike that buries the protagonists shifts the narrative tone from flight to entrapment, introducing claustrophobia and helplessness. Wells uses close, sensory detail—the hiss of steam, the green glare, the concussion, and the tactile description of debris—to produce immediacy and to move the plot through a rhythm of suspense and revelation. The contrast between the domestic pantry’s homely specifics and the alien terror outside underlines the collision of ordinary life with catastrophic violence, a recurring thematic tension in the novel.

Important quotes

“We stopped there all Sunday night and all the next day—the day of the panic—in a little island of daylight, cut off by the Black Smoke from the rest of the world.”

NarratorSets the chapter’s opening situation: the Narrator and Curate isolated and waiting in fear.

“The fifth cylinder," I whispered, "the fifth shot from Mars, has struck this house and buried us under the ruins!”

NarratorThe moment of realization that a Martian cylinder has demolished their house and trapped them.

“God have mercy upon us!”

The CurateThe Curate’s terrified response after they discover they are buried and in imminent danger.

Characters in I. UNDER FOOT.

• The Narrator
• The Curate
• The Narrator's Wife
• The Artilleryman
• The Martians