How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[…] the coming storm of Fear blew through the streets. It was the dawn of the great panic. London, which had gone to bed on Sunday night oblivious and inert, was awakened, in the small hours of Monday morning, to a vivid sense of danger. (1.14.44)
The narrator also refers to fear as a wave in 1.16.1. What does it do to your reading to have this fear talked about as if it were something physical? Does it make fear sound as real as the Martians?
Quote #8
But varied as its composition was, certain things all that host had in common. There were fear and pain on their faces, and fear behind them. (1.16.51)
Here we have another good quote on the contagion of feelings. In this passage the narrator's brother is escaping London and runs into a huge mass of people. The crowd is made up of many different kinds of people, but they are all similar in that they're all terrified. Now, when you have something in common, you might expect some sort of community to evolve. But it seems as if fear isn't enough to build a real community on. (And yet, at the end of the book, isn't it fear of the Martians that promotes "the commonweal of mankind" [2.10.8]? )
Quote #9
I must confess the stress and danger of the time have left an abiding sense of doubt and insecurity in my mind. (2.10.11)
Whatever good the invasion has done for Earth as a whole, the terrifying experience has scarred the narrator. And yet the invasion was supposed to be good because it made humans feel less secure, and therefore less prone to our complacent folly. Does that mean fear and insecurity useful or not?