# XII: What I Saw of the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton explained — The War of the Worlds

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

## What happens

The narrator, accompanied by an artilleryman, witnesses the Martians' devastating attack on Weybridge and Shepperton. After narrowly escaping the Heat-Ray by diving into the river, he observes the Martians' destruction of towns and the temporary reprieve when a shell destroys one Martian's hood. The chapter ends with the narrator's plan to flee to Leatherhead and then leave the country.

## Themes in this chapter

### Technology and Destruction

The Martians' Heat-Ray and armoured bodies represent advanced technology used for mass destruction, overwhelming human defenses and causing chaos.

### Survival and Instinct

The narrator's instinct to dive underwater to escape the Heat-Ray and the crowd's panicked flight highlight primal survival responses in the face of existential threat.

### Human Vulnerability and Vanity

Despite human military efforts, the Martians' power exposes the fragility of human life and the vanity of assuming dominance over nature or other beings.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Narrates the destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton, escapes the Heat-Ray by diving into the river, and plans to take his wife to Newhaven.

### The Artilleryman

Accompanies the narrator, advises against immediate travel to Leatherhead, and proposes rejoining his battery in London.

### The Martians

Five armoured Martians appear, using the Heat-Ray to destroy towns and people; one is decapitated by a shell but continues its destructive path.

## Key lines

> The Ray flickered up and down the towing path, licking off the people who ran this way and that, and came down to the water’s edge not fifty yards from where I stood.

The Heat-Ray swept along the path, killing fleeing people, and reached the riverbank near the narrator.

_Describes the indiscriminate and lethal reach of the Martian weapon._

> I screamed aloud, and scalded, half blinded, agonised, I staggered through the leaping, hissing water towards the shore.

The narrator, burned and in pain, struggled through boiling water to reach land.

_Highlights the narrator's physical suffering and desperate escape._

> The decapitated colossus reeled like a drunken giant; but it did not fall over. It recovered its balance by a miracle, and, no longer heeding its steps and with the camera that fired the Heat-Ray now rigidly upheld, it reeled swiftly upon Shepperton.

The headless Martian machine staggered but stayed upright, continuing its destructive path toward Shepperton with the Heat-Ray still active.

_Illustrates the terrifying persistence of the Martian machine even after its operator is killed._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/chapters/xii-what-i-saw-of-the-destruction-of-weybridge-and-shepperton
- 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