Identity Breakthrough

[Relyt]

In the War of the Worlds community there has been a long-unanswered question: Who was the narrator? Some have speculated it is just some random person who lives in the same place and has a similar career as Wells, while others believe H.G. Wells IS the narrator.

I have read the book my ninth time recently and made a breakthrough in the identity! In chapter 2 (book 2) "What We saw from the Ruined House" the narrator goes on describing the Martians and their machinery. He then makes a reference to a magazine article written by a different writer before the war about the future evolutionary form of man. This article actually existed and it is called "The Man of the Year Million," the author of which is H.G. Wells himself!

Therefore the identity is still a mystery, but I can tell you this: The narrator is NOT H.G. Wells!

[Lensman]

Yes, Wells satirized his own article "Man of the Year Million" in WOTW. Long-time forum members will remember this was discussed on the old WOTW forum.

Still, it's an interesting argument that this "proves" the Narrator isn't Wells. But, to play devil's advocate...

One could argue that Wells *was* the Narrator, and the backhanded reference to Wells' article was the Narrator poking fun at himself.

After all, either way-- whether WOTW is viewed as fiction written by Wells, or as a true account in which Wells reported what he had seen and heard-- H.G. Wells *was* poking fun at himself.

[Relyt]

Aww you hurt my feelings.

Not really, but I did expect a more enthusiastic reply to that, probably because I've read the novel 9 times and I just noticed.

[Lensman]

Sorry, I could have worded my reply more politely... and have now edited it a bit.

Have you seen the Punch cartoon which is mentioned in passing in WOTW?

I have some discussion of how the "Man of the Year Million" relates to the overall themes of WOTW at my WOTW FAQ website, and the cartoon is there also:

www.freewebs.com/wotwfaq/analysis.htm

If I recall correctly, Wells lived in the area near Maybury/ Woking which the Narrator describes as being where his house is located. So in support of your argument, there's other evidence Wells was "really" the Narrator.

[Relyt]

You didn't need to edit it, if you notice the "Not really" I meant that it didn't hurt.
I think being a head on 2 hands would be rather fun.........anyone got a chainsaw?

I wonder if anyone else has read this thread?

[Lensman]

May 5, 2008 22:21:06 GMT 1 Relyt said:

I wonder if anyone else has read this thread?

Up at the top it says (at the time I write this) "read 30 times". I *hope* that's not just us two!

[Relyt]

Those are probably just guests looking at it.

[Scifishocks]

The Narrator wasn't Wells... and I sincerely think that he used his narrator as an 'everyman'. Someone 'blank' to watch the invasion for us.
The Narrator, basically, saw all Wells wanted us to see.
In the sequel I wrote, I made sure the two people were separate.... in fact, in my work, they were friends. And they both knew the Artilleryman too.
That wasn't convenience for what I wanted to do. It just seemed to me, right from the outset, that Wells and his creation were not one and the same person. And I basically used them accordingly.

[Lensman]

The Narrator was a writer; so was Wells. The Narrator writes "My particular province is speculative philosophy". This seems an accurate description of Wells' writings. Wells was raised a strict Calvinist, who by the time he wrote WOTW had rejected religion and considered himself an atheist. The Narrator seems to reject religion, and in his treatment of what the Curate says, even ridicule it. However, in moments of great stress he resorts to prayer and piety... which might be expected from someone raised to be religious.

Charles has pointed out that the Martians can be seen as the agents of sweeping social change, overthrowing the aristocratic social order which Wells detested.

And, as I said, the Narrator seems to live in the same place as Wells. Like Wells at the time WOTW was published, he is married but seems to have no children.

In other words: In every way I can think of, the Narrator seems to be identical to Wells. So, Nerfy: Why should we think they're two separate people? In what way are they different?

[Tripod]

When I first read the novel I was convinced that it was H.G.Wells himself going through all this. Later at the old WotWOnline forum some members pointed out to me that it wasn't Wells but an unnamed narrator. I've come to accept this idea. Simply because it doesn't matter, of course the narrator shares many ideas and qualities of Wells. But doesn't every writer use parts of his beliefs and personality into his characters? One could say Michael Crichton is Ian Malcolm of 'Jurassic Park'. I believe Wells based the narrator on himself but changed the character when the story called for it. You could even go as far as saying that Wells is every single character not only in 'War of the Worlds' but in his other stories.

Tripod

[Relyt]

There is another possibility concerning Wells. Perhaps in the story Wells didn't live in Maybury, maybe he lived somewhere else.

[Reppu]

May 6, 2008 13:24:31 GMT 1 Tripod said:

.... I believe Wells based the narrator on himself but changed the character when the story called for it. ...

I agree with you. It is undeniable that Wells based the narrator on his own experiences, and the whole message of the novel is basically the expressions of some Well's deep beliefs and views of life. However i wouldn't go as far as to say that the narrator is Well's himself. He's just a fictional character builded up to Well's convenience.

[Charles]

May 6, 2008 4:33:19 GMT 1 Lensman said:

The Narrator was a writer; so was Wells. The Narrator writes "My particular province is speculative philosophy". This seems an accurate description of Wells' writings. Wells was raised a strict Calvinist, who by the time he wrote WOTW had rejected religion and considered himself an atheist. The Narrator seems to reject religion, and in his treatment of what the Curate says, even ridicule it. However, in moments of great stress he resorts to prayer and piety... which might be expected from someone raised to be religious.

And, as I said, the Narrator seems to live in the same place as Wells. Like Wells at the time WOTW was published, he is married but seems to have no children.

In other words: In every way I can think of, the Narrator seems to be identical to Wells. So, Nerfy: Why should we think they're two separate people? In what way are they different?

We can be sure the narrator isn't meant to be taken as Wells himself - inspite of outward appearances, by how negatively the narrator reacts to the artilleryman's ideas on social (re)organization. Many of those ideas reflect what the real Wells believed (or at least was thinking about) in 1897/8, and would be refined in Anticipations a few years later.

[stormchaser]

The identity can be whoever you want it to be in my view. It's what the reader decides. This surely must be the intention behind the story and how it was written.

It's a simple theory, yet an even simpler answer. That's my view anyway.

[paranormalhandy]

Hi everyone. ;D Sorry, but I couldn't find a "newbie says hello" section, so I'll just have to dive straight in. I used to be on eveofthewar.com a few years ago, as well as the dark swamps of the Tim Hines imdb pages.

Anyway, this thread has interested me greatly. I've been in Woking twice over the last few years and picked up some War of the Worlds-themed cycling guides which shone a lot of light on the town as it was around 1895.

So, some thoughts (most based on those guides):

Wells lived on Maybury Road in 1895 - not Maybury Hill. It seems that this is a big difference - literally, the wrong side of the (railway) tracks. It also seems his and Jane's house was originally one of a group of four, which stood alone on the edge of Horsell Common across the road from the Railway line, a couple of hundred yards from the bottom of Maybury Hill. Now the street has houses and shops all the way along, but in 1895 it seems it was semi-rural. Behind Wells' house was, and is, the gas works leading down to the Basingstoke Canal.

The Narrator's house seems as if it was about a quarter of a mile away (and several steps further up the social ladder). It's sometimes said the house may have been Maybury Knowle on the crest of the Hill road, although I'm pretty sure that was built after 1900 (GB Shaw lived there in 1903). I'm sure I read somewhere that it seems that the Narrator's home was probably on one of the side streets to the west of Maybury Hill, on the North slope, looking down over Oriental College (which stopped being a College in 1898), the Mosque, directly over the railway to where Wells' house was on Maybury Road, and out beyond the gasworks onto the (in those days, far larger but less wooded) Common.

So - Wells created a character who was richer, and lived in a more salubrious area than he had in 1895. There's also the fact that the novel seems to be a fantasy of the near future, rather than the then-present. Again, I think I read somewhere it's been estimated the actions meant to happen around 1905, although I could be wrong. The years 1890 - 1905 was a time of great expansion and house-building in the semi-rural areas of Maybury and Woking (Woking itself was a fully-funded New Town in all but name from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards); and the areas that to Wells would have been open fields in 1895 were rapidly filled in with twee late Victorian villas within ten years. It's possible Wells took more than a little pleasure in destroying what was then rather garish modern architecture!

Anyway, I've gabbled enough. I really could talk for hours about that area of Woking, it really is fascinating and beautiful in the context of the novel. But I would say, in conclusion, that the narrator is NOT Wells - he's more likely what Wells in 1895 thought the Wells of 1905 might have been.