# The War of the Worlds — Character guide

> Key figures in The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

- [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/narrator.md): An unnamed philosophical writer who witnesses the Martian invasion firsthand.
- [The Martians](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/the_martians.md): Intelligent, tentacled invaders from Mars who devastate southern England with heat-rays and poison gas.
- [The Curate](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/the_curate.md): A panicked clergyman who shares the narrator's hiding place and descends into religious hysteria.
- [Ogilvy](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/ogilvy.md): An astronomer who first confirms the Martian projectiles and is killed by the Heat-Ray.
- [Henderson](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/henderson.md): A journalist who reports the landing and is killed by the Martians.
- [Stent](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/stent.md): The Astronomer Royal who leads the delegation to the first cylinder and is killed.
- [Miss Elphinstone](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/miss_elphinstone.md): A young woman fleeing the invasion with her sister-in-law, later rescued by the narrator's brother.
- [Mrs. Elphinstone](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/mrs_elphinstone.md): The sister-in-law of Miss Elphinstone, fleeing London with her.
- [Lord Hilton](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/lord_hilton.md): A local landowner who tries to organize resistance and is killed.
- [Thunder Child](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/thunder_child.md): A British ironclad warship that rams a Martian tripod before being destroyed.
- [The Artilleryman](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/the_artilleryman.md): A soldier the narrator meets who later proposes a futile underground resistance scheme.
- [The Narrator's Brother](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters/the_narrators_brother.md): A medical student who escapes London and rescues the Elphinstone women.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_war_of_the_worlds_se/characters