The War of the Worlds · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
The Narrator
major
Also known as I, me, mine, myself
An unnamed philosophical writer whose cool, cosmic curiosity turns to survival instinct when he becomes an eyewitness to the Martian invasion of southern England.
The Martians
major
Also known as Martians, the armoured Martians, These Martians, The sprawling Martians
Vast, cool, unsympathetic intellects from a dying Mars who cross the gulf of space to claim Earth with heat-rays, poison gas, and towering three-legged machines.
The Curate
major
Also known as curate
A terrified clergyman who shares the narrator's hiding place and collapses into religious hysteria as the Martian catastrophe dismantles his faith and reason.
Ogilvy
supporting
Also known as poor Ogilvy
An astronomer who is among the first to confirm the Martian projectiles and rushes to warn the world before the Heat-Ray silences him.
Henderson
minor
Also known as poor Henderson
A journalist who reports the landing and is killed by the Martians.
Stent
minor
The Astronomer Royal who leads the delegation to the first cylinder and is killed.
Miss Elphinstone
supporting
A young woman fleeing the invasion with her panicked sister-in-law, rescued by the narrator's brother as the Martians reach the Essex coast.
Lord Hilton
minor
A local landowner who tries to organize resistance and is killed.
Thunder Child
minor
Also known as The Thunder Child
A British ironclad warship that rams a Martian tripod before being destroyed.
The Artilleryman
supporting
A shaken soldier who survives the Martian rout and later proposes a futile underground resistance scheme to the narrator.
The Narrator's Brother
supporting
He is the narrator's younger brother, a student in London when the Martians land, and his chapters follow the city's collapse from the inside — the crush at the railway stations, the looted shops, the roads choked with refugees. Where the narrator is reflective and methodical, Frank acts on impulse and nerve, and that difference matters: his half of the story shows the invasion as a social catastrophe, not just a scientific one. His decision to protect the Elphinstone women gives the flight from London a human anchor amid the chaos.
Mrs. Elphinstone
minor
The sister-in-law of Miss Elphinstone, fleeing London with her.
