# VI: The Heat-Ray in the Chobham Road explained — The War of the Worlds

> Chapter companion for The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

## What happens

The chapter describes the Martians' use of a heat-ray weapon, which silently and swiftly incinerates nearly forty people near the pit. A crowd of onlookers, including shop people and a deputation led by Stent and Ogilvy, witnesses the massacre. The beam swings over the road, setting trees and buildings on fire, causing a panicked stampede in which three people are crushed and trampled to death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Technology and Destruction

The heat-ray exemplifies advanced Martian technology used as a devastating weapon, causing indiscriminate death and fire.

### Human Vulnerability and Vanity

The crowd's initial curiosity and flirtation turn to terror, highlighting human fragility and the vanity of assuming safety.

### Social Order and Chaos

Police and deputation attempt to maintain order, but the heat-ray triggers a chaotic stampede where social bonds dissolve.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Provides a first-hand account of the heat-ray's effects and the crowd's reaction.

### The Martians

Deploy the heat-ray, causing mass death and destruction.

### Ogilvy

Part of the ill-fated advance; telegraphs for soldiers before being killed.

### Stent

Instructs police to keep the crowd back; leads the deputation and dies.

### Henderson

Sends a messenger to the post office with a wire to an evening paper.

## Key lines

> It is still a matter of wonder how the Martians are able to slay men so swiftly and so silently.

The method by which the Martians kill people so quickly and quietly remains mysterious.

_Opens the chapter with the enigma of the heat-ray._

> That night nearly forty people lay under the starlight about the pit, charred and distorted beyond recognition, and all night long the common from Horsell to Maybury was deserted and brightly ablaze.

About forty people were left dead and burned beyond recognition near the pit, and the common remained empty and burning all night.

_Summarizes the immediate aftermath of the massacre._

> Only the fact that a hummock of heathery sand intercepted the lower part of the Heat-Ray saved them.

A mound of sandy heather blocked the lower portion of the heat-ray, sparing the crowd.

_Explains the narrow escape of the onlookers._

> All that crowd did not escape; three persons at least, two women and a little boy, were crushed and trampled there, and left to die amid the terror and the darkness.

Not everyone got away; at least three people—two women and a small boy—were crushed and trampled to death in the panic.

_Highlights the tragic human cost of the stampede._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/chapters/vi-the-heat-ray-in-the-chobham-road
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/chapters