Wells uses light, darkness, and color symbolically throughout the novel. Chiefly, these images fulfill three purposes.

Firstly, artificial lights function as symbols of civilization, both human and Martian. Chapter 1 ends with the narrator’s wife pointing out “the red, green, and yellow signal lights hanging in a framework against the sky,” which the narrator says, “seemed so safe and tranquil” (11). In this instance and elsewhere, humans take comfort in the lights of their civilization as signs of its strength and stability. However, the faith humans place in these lights proves misplaced, developing the theme of The Illusion of Power. Underscoring this point, the Martians make lights of their own. From their first perceivable appearance via telescope as “a great light […] on the illuminated part [of Mars]” (7), to the flashes that indicate the launching of their cylinders, to those cylinders’ bright descents, to the lights of their weapons and work (7), these lights act as indications of their civilization’s power. 

Secondly, the color red, so deeply associated with their planet, appears as a symbol of the Martians. The flashes from their planet are red, and their arrival on Earth immediately casts the narrator’s surroundings in a conspicuous redness, such as when the narrator and his wife prepare to leave their hometown: “The sun, shining through the smoke that drove up from the tops of the trees, seemed blood-red, and threw an unfamiliar lurid light upon everything” (46). Later, before fleeing London, the narrator’s brother attempts to get a handle on the situation under “one of the most peaceful skies it is possible to imagine, a sky of gold, barred with long transverse stripes of reddish-purple cloud” (84). The imagery is a symbolic representation of the insidious Martian advance on England. Finally, as the narrator approaches collapse after the curate’s death, he describes the light as “no longer gray, but red […] the color of blood” (157). The color, combined with the implicit violence of the description, reflects his belief that Martian victory is inevitable.

Finally, light and darkness serve as symbols of humanity’s prospects. The narrator is unable to see into the first cylinder because he “had the sunset in [his] eyes” (22). The end of the day here foreshadows the “sunset” of humankind. Later, the narrator describes the lights from the Martians’ weaponry as “so bright that the deep blue sky […] seemed to darken abruptly […] and to remain the darker after their dispersal” (27). This observation parallels how darkness in general takes on a more terrifying aspect for the narrator throughout his experiences. Despite enjoying the darkness a few nights prior when strolling about with his wife, the narrator becomes as terrified of “the dusk and stillness all about [him]” as he is of the Martians (29). The Black Smoke, which ends in “night and extinction—nothing but a silent mass of impenetrable vapor hiding its dead” (100), is especially symbolic of the danger darkness represents. Conversely, the return of light embodies the promise of humanity’s survival, from “the evening star trembl[ing] into sight” as the narrator’s brother leaves England (123), to the “dazzlingly bright” and “glowing blue” light of day as the narrator escapes the ruined house (158). Most significantly, at the moment the narrator realizes the Martians are dead, the Martian pit remains “still in darkness” even as “the rising sun struck the world to fire about [him] with his rays” (185). The image of the sunrise serves as a bookend to the opening sunset, implying a new day for humanity after its ordeal.