The victorian concepts of nature and the creation of dystopian ecology in H.G Wells` the War of the Worlds And Garrett Putnam Serviss` Edison`s Conquest of Mars - USD Repository

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE VICTORIAN CONCEPTS OF NATURE AND THE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN H.G WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
AND GARRETT PUTNAM SERVISS’ EDISON’S CONQUEST OF MARS

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the Magister
of Humaniora (M.Hum) In English Language Studies

By
Aditya Cahyo Nugroho
146332024

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2019

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

THE VICTORIAN CONCEPTS OF NATURE AND THE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN H.G WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
AND GARRETT PUTNAM SERVISS’ EDISON’S CONQUEST OF MARS

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the Magister
of Humaniora (M.Hum) in English Language Studies

By
Aditya Cahyo Nugroho
146332024

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2019

i

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

A THESIS

\
THE VICTORIAN CCNCEPTS OF NATI]Rf, AND THE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN E.G WELLS' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
AND GARRETT PUTNAM SERYISS', ,EDl.SOiY',S CONSUEST OF MARS

ffi

,\

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Aditya Cahyo
146332{

Paulus Sarwoto. Ph.D.
Thesis Advisor

Yogy*karta 4 January 2019

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

A THESIS

TIIE VICTORIAN CONCEPTS OF NATURE AJYD TIIE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN H.G WELLS' THE WAR OF TITE WOKLDS
AND GARRnTT PUTNAM SERvISS',-ElrSOrr"S CONgUEST OF MA&S

Presented by

I

Before Thesis

Qru.*.'-'

Chairperson
Secretary
N{cmbers

: l. Dra.

Theresia Enny Anggraini, Ph.D.

2.Dr-. Tatang Iskarna

17 Januar-v 20 I 9

Program Director
[Jnivcrsin'

)

i

itt

Subanar. S.J.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Aditya Cahyo Nugroho
NIM : 146332017
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE VICTORIAN CONCEPTS OF NATURE AND THE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN H.G WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS AND
GARRETT PUTNAM SERVISS’ EDISON’S CONQUEST OF MARS
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,

mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di intemet atau
media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu maninta ijin dari saya maupun
memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.
Demikian pernyataan.ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 31 January 2019

Yang menyatakan

Aditya Cahyo Nugroho

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STATEMENT OF WORK OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certif,i that all ideas, phrases, sentences unless otherwise stated,

are the ideas, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer would understand the
fuIl consequences including degree cancellation if he took somebody else's ideas,
phrases, or sentences without proper references.

Yogyakarta,

3

|

J

anuary 2019

Aditya Cahyo Nugroho

.\

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

LEMBAR PERNYATAAI{ PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di barvah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Aditya Cahyo Nugroho
NIM :146332011

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

THE VICTONAN CONCEPTS OF NATURE A]{D THE CREATION OF
DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY IN H.G WELLS'THE WAR OF THE'IT/ORLDS AND
GARRETT PUTNAM SERVISS' EDISO,^/T CONQUEST OF MARS
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di intemet atau
media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu maninta ijin dari saya maupun
memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai
penulis.

Demikian pernyataan.ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 31 January 2019

,\
Yang menyatakan

Aditya Cahyo Nugroho

\/1

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first and foremost gratitude goes to the Almighty God, Jesus Christ for
his love and guidance throughout my study. This thesis is dedicated to my beloved
parents, my late father (+) R. Bernadus Budi Sardjono and my mother Bernadeta
Widiyanti who teach me parts of this life, give me love and support me fully so
that I can be here. I also thank my brothers Benediktus Anton Harmoko and
Vincentius Andi Haryanto, S.Sn., M.Sn. who always help and support me during

my study.
I also give my gratitude to my advisor, Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D. for his
guidance and insight during the writing of this thesis. I would like to give my
sincerest acknowledgements to Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A.(Hons.), Ph.D. and
Dra. Theresia Enny Anggraini, Ph.D., who devoted to the reading and evaluation
of this thesis. I also want to express my gratitude to Dr. Tatang Iskarna, who is
willingly give his time and be my examiner. I want to express my gratitude,
respect and appreciation to all lecturers in English Language Studies Graduate
Program for their inspiring and passionate teaching during my study. I want to
thank the staff of ELS-GP mbak Marni, pak Mul, pak Sugeng for their helping
hands.
I would like to thank all of my friends in English Language Studies batch
2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, the Zaituners, my friends from IRB and all of my
colleagues in literature stream across batches, Indra, Ruly, Pras, Anggi, mas
Tama, mbak Teti, mbak Anis, Melani, Dian, Angel, Sophie, mbk Desca, Zico, Yo,
Mike, Windri, Anin, Masao and Imamu.

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Lastly, I would like to give my gratitude for those who helps during the
writing of this thesis but I cannot mention individually. Thank you, good bye and
see you when I see you.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
THESIS TITLE ...................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................. ii
THESIS DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................... iii
MOTTOS .............................................................................................................. iv
STATEMENT OF WORK OF ORIGINALITY ................................................ v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS .............................................................. vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... vii
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ viii
ABSTRAK .............................................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
A. Background of the Study ............................................................................ 1
B. Research Questions .................................................................................... 12
C. Benefits and Significance of the Study..................................................... 13
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................... 15
A. The Prior Studies of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett
Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars ........................................... 15
B. Theoretical Review .................................................................................... 23
1. Ecology in Literature ............................................................................... 23
2. Speciesism and Pessimism as Concepts .................................................. 28
3. Science Fiction ........................................................................................ 32
4. Dystopia .................................................................................................. 35
C. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................ 37
CHAPTER III
THE VICTORIAN SPECIESISM AND PESSIMISM .................................... 39
A. The Values of Speciesism and Pessimism in Wells’ The War of the
Worlds and Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars ...................................... 41
1. The Similarities of Speciesism and Pessimism in The War of the Worlds
and Edison’s Conquest of Mars .............................................................. 43
2. The Difference Values of Speciesism and Pessimism in The War of the
Worlds and Edison’s Conquest of Mars ................................................. 51
CHAPTER IV
THE CREATION OF DYSTOPIAN ECOLOGY ........................................... 56
A. Dystopian Ecology In H.G Wells’ The War Of The Worlds ................. 57
B. Dystopian Ecology In Garrett Putnam Serviss’ Edison Conquest Of
Mars............................................................................................................. 68
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................... 76
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 82

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ABSTRACT
Aditya Cahyo Nugroho, 2018, The Victorian Concept of Nature and the Creation
of Dystopian Ecology in H.G Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett Putnam
Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars:. Yogyakarta: The Graduate Program in
English Language Studies, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis explores the occurrence of dystopian ecology in H.G Wells’ The
War of the Worlds and Garrett Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars due to
the application of the Victorian concepts of Nature in the novels. This thesis uses
ecocriticism, dystopian ecology and science fiction as the theories while
speciesism, pessimism are the concepts. Ecocriticism is used to raise and
introduce the ecological criticism that can be seen in the novels, while dystopian
ecology is used to answer the ecological destruction which happened during the
aliens and human invasion in both novels. This thesis uses the concept of
speciesism and pessimism to make a sequential analysis of the novels Since the
novels are about science fiction and talk about human and non-human (aliens),
then the third theory of science fiction is also applied.
The concept of speciesism and pessimism help answering the philosophical
question of their values in The War of the Worlds and Edison’s Conquest of Mars.
The similar values of speciesism and pessimism shared by both novels are the
anthropocentrism issues and the bias position of the non-human (the Martians);
both novels also share the same position of the Martians as the suppressor and the
oppressor. The different values shared by both writers are the causality of the
invasion and subject representation in both novels where human and the Martians
share interchangeable representations.
Based on the theories and concepts, this thesis concludes that there is a
dystopian ecology that happened in the novels namely the imbalanced relationship
between human and nature (non-human), the human-centered ideology and the
ignorance of a human with the sustainability of the non-human (nature). In order
to avoid that dystopian ecology, human need radically change their perception and
treatment toward nature (non-human) whether in real life or via literary works.
Keywords: Dystopian Ecology, human, non-human, Speciesism, and Pessimism

.

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ABSTRAK
Aditya Cahyo Nugroho, 2018, The Victorian Concept of Nature and The Creation
of Dystopian Ecology in H.G Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett Putnam
Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars Yogyakarta: Program Pascasarjana Kajian
Bahasa Inggris, Sanata Dharma University.
Tesis ini mengeksplorasi kemunculan ekologi dystopian dalam H.G Wells’
The War of the Worlds dan Garrett Putnam Servis’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars
disebabkan oleh penerapan konsep tentang alam pada masa Victoria. Tesis ini
menggunakan konsep ekokritik, ekologi dystopian, dan fiksi ilmiah sebagai teori
sedangkan spesiesisme, pesimisme sebagai konsep. Ekokritik digunakan untuk
mengangkat dan memperkenalkan kritik ekologis yang dapat dilihat di dalam
kedua novel tersebut, sedangkan ekologi dystopian digunakan untuk menjawab
kehancuran ekologis yang terjadi selama invasi alien dan manusia dalam kedua
novel tersebut. Tesis ini menggunakan konsep speciesism dan pesimisme untuk
membuat analisis berurutan dari novel sehingga dapat mejawab terjadinya ekologi
distopia di dalamnya. Semenjak kedua novel bercerita mengenai fiksi ilmiah dan
berbicara tentang hubungan manusia dan non-manusia (alien), maka teori ketiga
yaitu fiksi ilmiah diterapkan.
Di sisi lain konsep spesiesisme dan pesimisme menjawab pertanyaan
filosofis tentang nilai-nilai spesiesisme dan pesimisme yang terkuak dalam The
War of the Worlds dan Edison’s Conquest of Mars. Kesamaan nilai dari
speciesism dan pesimisme yang didapat dari kedua novel tersebut adalah masalah
antroposentrisme dan posisi bias dari non-manusia (makhluk Mars). Perbedaan
nilai-nilai yang disuguhkan oleh kedua penulis adalah kausalitas invasi dan
representasi subjek dalam kedua novel di mana manusia dan Mars berbagi
representasi yang dapat dipertukarkan.
Berdasarkan teori dan konsep diatas, tesis ini menyimpulkan bahwa telah
terjadi ekologi distopia di dalam kedua novel tersebut yang diebabkan oleh
hubungan yang tidak seimbang antara manusia dan alam (non-manusia),
antroposentrisme dan ketidakingintahuan manusia terhadap keberlanjutan
kehidupan non-manusia (alam). Untuk menghindari ekologi distopia itu, manusia
perlu secara radikal mengubah persepsi dan perlakuan mereka terhadap alam
(non-manusia) baik dalam kehidupan nyata maupun di dalam karya sastra.
Kata Kunci: Ekologi Distopia, Manusia, Non-Manusia, Spesiesisme dan
Pesimisme

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a
visible Nature. Unaware that the Nature he is destroying is this God he is
worshipping” – Hubert Reeves
A. Background of the Study
Nowadays, in the era of globalization and industrialization, the relationship
between human and nature has been on the edge of the iceberg. Human has shown
their superiority towards nature. Therefore some questions have arisen to
acknowledge that situation, for examples; human, who are we? Do we as a human
know or notice our rule in this world? Do we be the dominant one? These are the
questions we should ask ourselves, to reconsider the relationship between human
beings and the wider world, especially the environment. As summarized by Erin
James, environment, stemming from the Old French term environner (“to
surround”), environment commonly means the surroundings situation or condition
where a sentient lives, typically denote the surroundings or conditions in which an
organism lives. Customarily, that environment refers to nonhuman nature which
mostly known as the wilderness.1
Several scholars have discussed the dichotomy between human and the
nature surrounding them. Firstly, as in Raymond Williams’ depiction of nature,
“nature is perhaps the most complex word in the [English] language”. 2 The
complexity of the word relates to our understanding of problems within it. Several
questions can be addressed; such as Is it possible to live in harmony with nature?

1

Erin James, The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives. (Nebraska:
University of Nebraska Press, 2015), p.243.
2
Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature” in Essay (n.p :,1976), p.219.

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Is human a part of, or apart from, nature? By answering the questions, this thesis
explores the relationship between human to nature and vice versa in a particular
way, how both influence each other in the scope of reverential ecology reading.
Which to say, as long as the history has recorded, humans often feel indifferent
toward nature. For them, nature is something considerably seen as a ‘normal’
thing, when it goes right, humans forget it, when it goes wrong, they worry about
it.
Although several critics arise the objection of the distinction relationship of
human-to-nature and vice versa, more critics still possess differentiation of the
term “nature.” David Abram in his book, The Spell of the Sensuous, suggests the
term nature as “more-than-human”.3 The other critic, Cheryll Glotfelty exposes
nature as “nonhuman”.4 The terms “more-than-human” and “nonhuman” indicates
nature as a distinct entity and surpasses human in peculiar ways or the sacredness
of nature which is associated as supernatural or meta-human.
The binarism between human and nature generates changes in the natural
world. Unfortunately, these natural changes cause devastation on nature itself, as
Donald Hughes says that trace to our historical ecology, humans have related
issues in multiple ways to the Earth’s existences; some of these ways promise a
sustainable balance with them, while others are destructive.5
The examples of destructive actions as in Hughes explanation are “polluted
water and air, acidic precipitation, diminution of the ozone layer, global warming,
the spread of radioactive materials, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, extinction
3

David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human
World (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1996), p.35.
4
C. Glotfelty& H. Fromm, The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology. (Athens: The
University of Georgia Press, 1996), p.xix.
5
Donald Hughes, What is Environmental History (Colorado: Willey & Sons, 2015), p. 255.

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of species, soil erosion, overpopulation”.6 These destructions that illustrate human
superiority arises out of the fact that they are earth’s only perfect creature. As
Joseph Meeker discovers, though human lacks the ability to photosynthesis and
fly, their superiority brain can make "great epic poems and mediocre office
memos."7 This uniqueness has made differences between human and other earth’s
creatures. Due to their superiority, humans have to take responsibility for what
they have done.
Historically speaking, human are categorized as an aggressive species. It can
be seen from the history of human and nature relationship; the most significant
issue is the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species in the 19th
century. In his explanation of the book, Darwin stated that Homo Sapiens was
ensnared into the web of nature which became a part of nature not apart from
nature. On the Origin of Species situated human and nature in the same ecological
context; whereas human, plants, and animals in the same qualified condition of
life.8
They shared the same cooperative ecological protector as one unity. On the
other hand, in his later explanation of the book, he concluded a different
conclusion on how “survival of the fittest”9 is justified, actual compulsory to take
it for granted the ruthless exploitation of nature for human needs. He explicitly
said that
We can so far take a prophetic glance into futurity as to foretell that it will
be the common and widely spread species, belonging to the larger and
6

D. Hughes, What is Environmental History, (p. 255.
Joseph W. Meeker, The Comedy of Survival: Literary Ecology and Play Ethic (Arizona:
University Arizona Press, 1997), p. 3.
8
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or, The Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Harvard: John Murray, 1873), p.56.
9
C. Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, , p. 61.

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dominant groups within each class, which will ultimately prevail and
procreate new and dominant species.10
The above quotation explore that the dominance and exploitation of nature
are the product of invasion, either nature or human. In other words, it is
commensurate as the biological and social invasion. The species that intrude into
others’ habitat are considered as an invasive species which explained by Lewis H.
Ziska and Jeffrey S. Dukes in the book Invasive Species and Global Climate
Change. They asserted that include invasive species are “plants, animals or
microorganisms not native to an ecosystem, whose introduction has threatened
biodiversity, food security, health or economic development”.11 Though the above
explanation exposes on plants, animal or microorganisms as the invasive species,
it can also be stated that human also an invasive species because they are not
native to an ecosystem, and their existences threathening the other biodiversity.
There are some evidence to classify human as an invasive species. The
mission of Apollo 13 (where human step the moon for the first time) stated that a
human is a curious species which wants to know to explore everywhere to show
off their existences. Human has already done their inavision since the beginning
of their existence, while during the Industrial Revolution their ruthless
explouitation has changed the fate of all Victorian people from “the Romantic
ideal” to more “Pesimisstic ideal”.

That pessimistic point of view that has

narrated the changes in the relationship between Victorian people and nature since
then nature in the Victorian era used as an object of satisfying human needs.
Another result of human dominancy is how natural environments are subjected to

10
11

C. Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, p. 444.
Lewis H Ziska and Jeffrey S. Dukes, Invasive Species and Global Climate Change (Oxford:
CABI, 2015), p. ii.

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a relentless expropriation in ongoing plunder and massive ravage just as
mercilessly as the colonized people themselves.
When the European started to expand their territory into the third world’s
countries largely using military forces, followed by a rationalist policy of
conquest and possession, then the catastrophes occur. As Ania Loomba states,
“military violence was used almost everywhere ... to secure both occupation and
trading ‘rights:’ the colonial genocide in North America and South Africa was
spectacular”. 12 The shrinkage of human invasion to the natural world also
reflected in political and economic philosophies. Due to that economic
philosophies Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have argued, for example, equated
the exploitation of nature with the exploitation of workers. Thus, Engels wrote:
''The earth is the first condition of our existence. To make it an object of trade was
the last step toward making human beings an object of trade".13
What was even bizarre than the barbarity exercised on the indigenous
peoples at the Imperial time were the acts of ecological dexterity over nature, with
the continuous consequences to affect the entire planet until today. By the end of
the 19th century, the Victorian Era, “most of the Earth had been parcelled out to
one metropolitan power or another”.14 This Victorian period can be stated as the
successful era in the British Empire, when the rise of the nation pointed by the
industrial revolution and the technological development. These advancements

12

Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 112.
Friedrich Engels in Larry L Rassmussen Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 166.
14
John Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment
(New York: New York University Press, 1999), p. 87.
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make England be the pioneer of the economic changes. As C.F.G Masterman
explains in the preface to The Condition of England that:
I believe there are possibilities as yet undreamt of, for the enrichment of
the common life of our people, and that in another century men and
women—and children—may be rejoicing in experience better than all our
dreams. I am not pessimistic, but I am anxious, as I believe all the thinking
men of today are anxious, when they realize the forces which are making
for decay (viii).15
In spite of the positive side of British advancement, it has negative aspects
in it. The industrial revolution in England starts the economic reaction of countries
over the globe. It triggers countries’ grouping based on economic strata. In The
Norton Anthology of English Literature, Stephen Greenblatt relies on the
argument that during the industrial age, England has become the wealthier country
with enormous income than other countries. This statement triggers condition to
enable them to gain influence toward market over the globe. Greenblatt, et al.
explain:
leadership in commerce and industry was being paid for at a terrible price
in human happiness, that a so-called progress had been gained only by
abandoning traditional rhythms of life and traditional patterns of human
relationships……a sense too of being displaced persons in a world made
alien by technological changes that had been exploited too quickly for the
adaptive powers of the human psyche (ibid).16
Therefore, the reaction towards this provision is quite diverse, from the
aristocracy class, writers, and commoners. Many writers of this era do not agree
with the industrial policy; which latency said on the unpleasant harmony of
human relationships. Its overt allusions to imperialist practices, which led many

15
16

C.F.G Masterman, The Condition of England (London: Faber & Faber, 2012), p. viii.
Stephen Greenblatt, The Norton Anthology of English Literature (New York: W.W. Norton and
Company, Inc, 2018), p. 1025.

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critics such as Warren Wagar in H. G. Wells: Traversing Time which points out,
“to regard Wells’ tale as a devastating critique of European imperialism”.17
This thesis seeks to explore how literature is employed by selected
Victorian authors to question the changing relationship between human and the
non-human, the changing process, which results in two paradigms of Victorian
concept on nature, that are speciesism and pessimism. Peter Singer coins the term
"speciesism" in his book Animal Liberation; he says that “speciesism is a
prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s species
and against those of members of other species”.18 Moral worth cannot be based on
a biological factor such as species, just as it cannot be based on race or minorities.
According to Singer, “it should be obvious that the fundamental objections to
racism and sexism . . . apply equally to speciesism. If possessing a higher degree
of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends,
how can it entitle humans to exploit nonhumans for the same purpose?”. 19
Avoiding those speciesism, racism or sexism, it required to treat other beings as
equal to others because they have the right to life.
The other concept of nature that appears in the Victoria era is “pessimism”
which is related to the term humanity. The Victorian Age witnessed a radical
transformation in the representation of the natural world described in the literary
works, from the inspirational and benign to hurtful and competitive. The idea of
human dictated the bucolic, the figurative nature's treatment as a kind of the

17

Warren Wagar, H.G. Wells: Traversing Time (Connecticut: Weslyan University Press, 2004), p.
54
18
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. (London: Harper
Collins, 1975), p. 6.
19
P. Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, p. 6.

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divine entity was indifferent to nature. Nature no longer exists as an environment
but as the autonomous agent on the other living beings. This new, pessimistic
model can be seen in poems like Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam (183738), an elegy to his friend, with lines like “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” which
evoke a blood-thirsty conception of the world.
Therefore the distinction between human and non-human (nature) need to
be clarified, so forth the analysis of the problem is needed. There are two objects
on this study which embracing human and non-human relationship, the first one is
H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worldswhich published in 1898 and the second one is
Garrett Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars published six weeks after the
final chapter of The War of the Worlds. Those two objects considered as a science
fiction novel. The first novel is one of the H.G. Wells’ books collection, the others
such as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The
Invisible Man (1897) and many more.
This research uses The War of The Worlds as one of the research objects.
This novel was written during the Victorian era, whereas technological
advancement became the main theme in England. Therefore, the late Victorian
revival of romance, replete with inhuman invasions, monstrosities, and
degenerations became obsessed with such threats at the very moment when
England no longer faced a significant military threat or imperial competition from
its European rivals.
The second novel is Edison’s Conquest of Mars (1898) which was written
by Garrett Putnam Serviss (an astronomer and a sci-fi novelist) and circulated in
the same period with The War of the World but different area, not in England but

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in America, it is a sequel of an unauthorized version of The War of the Worlds by
unknown writer entitled Fighters from Mars and considered as an altered version
of Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Garret Putnam Serviss was an American
astronomer who was also a writer focused on science fiction theme even though
he was a lesser-known novelist. The novel was about the revenge of human to the
Martian lead by Thomas Alfa Edison, and it was only six weeks apart from the
final chapter of Wells’ The War of the Worlds.20
It is commonly known that the genre of those novels is categorized as
science fiction, which is a genre that tells about the futuristic concept of upcoming
events that in this thesis relate to human and nature relationships. The human and
nature relationships are very closely related to human and human relationships
because when their relationship corrupted, then it will impact to the condition of
nature, for example, the use of machines in the factories and its waste disposal.
As long as human operate machines and dispose the waste aimlessly and
intensively, nature will be poisoned.
According to Rene Descartes in Discourse on Method, the figure of the
human has a distinguished natural place from machines and animals where it
shares with all other human beings a unique and common essence, of meaning in
the historical as which called “human nature”.21 Descartes’ statement emphasizes
that the world of human and nature is secluded, whereas the line between human
and nature blurred for the advance of science and technology.

20

Thomas Hockey, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (New York: Springer, 2007), p.
1072.
21
Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method (London: Hackett Publishing, 2012), p. 45. “Human
nature” is the way classical humanism perceives human beings that human have some kind of
invariable quality within us that makes us human.

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Cary Wolfe in Animal Rites addressed that literary criticism tends to treat
non-human appearing in literary texts as a symbol for some human social issues,
such as ethnicity, gender, or colonialism.22 Timothy Clark further elaborates the
problem:
In most canonical literary texts, the place of non-human life is both
pervasive but unseen. It is simply so uncontroversial as to make alternative
readings centered on animals seem almost like a change of discipline. Any
study of text on the non-human always becomes a study of humanity in
some sense. . . . At the same time, once the issue of animal exploitation is
raised about a text, it immediately becomes obvious in ways that may leave
little more to say.23
As mentioned above, nonhuman in canonical literary texts is often used to
address other oppressed groups, such as women or ethnic minorities. Wolfe
considers this as an extremely problematic act because when the discourse of
species is used to highlight the mistreatment of these social others, it
automatically requires that we take for granted the “institution of speciesism,”
which embraces the ethical acceptance to kill animals based on their species.24
Therefore, if the interpretation of non-human suffering which told in a literary text
as an analog for social problems, then it can be agreed with the assumption that
pain in non-human has no intrinsic value and it only becomes a matter of
significance when used as a symbol for human suffering. Wolfe’s concern is not
simply for nonhuman, but for human others as well, because
as long as this humanist and speciesist structure of subjectivization remains
intact, and as long as it is institutionally taken for granted that it is all right
to systematically exploit and kill nonhuman animals simply because of their
species, then the humanist discourse of species will always be available for
22

Cary Wolfe, Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist
Theory (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 2003), p. 124.
23
Timothy Clark, Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept (New
York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), p. 187.
24
C. Wolfe, Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory,
p. 7.

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use by some humans against other humans as well, to countenance violence
against the social other of whatever species – or gender, or race, or class, or
sexual difference.25
Therefore, to question the humanist theories and the discourse of species is very
important, not just regarding non-human equality, but from a strictly humanrelated aspect as well.
The economic leadership and technological mastery trigger the unamiable
relationships, which has lead human forget about the nature, as they will only
concern about themselves. Therefore, The War of the Worlds reflects the idea of
ecological concerns for the technological mastery of the British Dominion
towards the ecological situation in the third world countries. In The War of the
Worlds, Wells presents the depiction of Martian domination towards the Earth
where it changes the condition of the Earth. The arrival of the Martians is a
representation of the British invasion vis-à-vis the third world countries such as
India, South Africa, etc. In other words, The War of the Worlds is a medium of
ecological criticism vis-à-vis the British invasion which is in line with the
materialism.
There is a kind of differentiation in animal studies, which admits that
killing human life is worse than killing a mouse for laboratory research. Although
the issue is not unproblematic, it is a poor excuse to rely on the humanist ideology
that allows cruelty to nonhuman beings. The problem that speciesism creates is
that when members of other species primarily considered as “other than human,”
that is, based on what they are not, instead of what or who they are, people see
and consequently treat other species not as individuals but as a single mass.
25

C. Wolfe, Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory,
p. 8.

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This thesis aims to depict the Victorian concepts of nature which portray
the dystopian ecology in the novels. Do the concepts of speciesism and pessimism
share the same value in both novels? Thus the question needs to be answered
through the connection between technological used in the novels. In relation, this
research wants to compare the invasion between species, human and alien (nonhuman) which of the species deal huge impact on nature or environment. In sum,
the exploitation of nature, the destruction of the environment and the socioeconomic-cultural changes due to the species’ invasion and associated with the
technological advancement period expressed through The War of the Worlds and
Edison’s Conquest of Mars create the different association on the meaning of
invasive species.
B. Research Questions
This thesis looks at the idea and concept of speciesism and pessimism that
causes dystopian ecology of nature, reflected in the novels. Although the texts
share the different point of view in writing, they have the similarity in common
which is science fiction. Science fiction itself always dealt with the future forecast
by technology. Based on the background information above, this study focuses on
the issues concerning with the advancement of technology which creates a
different level of relationship between human and nature (non-human). The thesis
questions formulated as follows:
1. How are the Victorian concepts of nature regarding speciesism and
pessimism depicted in H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett
Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars?

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2. How do the Victorian concepts of nature regarding speciesism and
pessimism create the dystopian ecology in H.G. Wells’ The War of the
Worlds and Garrett Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars?
C. Benefits and Significance of the Study
This research is conducted with the goal to read the different ways in which
The War of the Worlds and Edison’s Conquest of Mars address the question on
speciesism and pessimism and the creation of dystopian ecology in the novels.
The goal of this research is looking for the incidents of speciesism and pessimism
mirrored in the novels, which incidents committed by the characters, the narrator,
or the text itself, and whether or not they expressed critically. The other goal,
through the analysis of the two discourse objects composed for the reign of
dystopian ecology in H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett Putnam
Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars. The discourses found out that the problem of
dystopian ecology is caused by the centrical humanist values on it. In theoretical
point of views, this thesis is eager to increase the theoretical knowledge and
knowing the anthropocentrism attitudes.
The significance of this research is the possibility to change the attitudes of
human towards nonhuman in written texts and consequently in real life as well.
This research eagers to encourage readers as well as researchers to question their
way of reading the relationship between human and non-human, and hopefully
improve the status of non-human species as the literary object, and consequently
moral subjects as well. Along with the reading of the non-human as an allegory
for human social issues, this thesis also addresses the non-human as non-human

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and focus on the relationships between different species; not only between human
and

non-human

but

also

between

human.

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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter divided into two parts, the first part summarizes the prior
research of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett Putnam Serviss’
Edison’s Conquest Mars. The second part discusses The War of the Worlds and
Edison’s Conquest Mars in the view of ecological reverence to analyze the
standpoint of the human role in the natural world.
A. The Literary Studies of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and Garrett
Putnam Serviss’ Edison’s Conquest of Mars
Many literary critics in this field of criticism have mapped a history of
nature’s exploitation which led and caused by the destructive habits of human
thought regarding the environment. These thought processes have founded on the
continuing belief that is echoed by Lance Newman in Marx's Ecology:
Materialism and Nature. He states that the philosophical attention on the
introduction to ecocriticism is allegedly materialist concern with the environment
aligned with historical changes, in which “people were meant to exercise
dominion over nature, or that nature is a passive receptacle of the fertilizing
human mind, or that limitless growth is the essence of human social destiny”.26
Those above explanations help this study to emphasize the human dominion over
nature basically based on the materialistic point of view.
This dominance of nature was originally a necessity to survive even though
as the society developed, the passion for controlling nature remains. Simon Estok
describes this fear of and needs to control nature as “an adaptive strategy that is
26

Lance Newman, Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature (New York: John Bellamy Foster,
2000), p. 205.

15

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now perhaps as useful for our survival as other long obsolete adaptations: the
appendix, the tailbone, wisdom teeth, and so on”.27 Even though Estok states that
the fear and the needs to control nature as an adaptive strategy to survive, it is not
commonly well accepted, considering many things that have been ruled out by the
subsequent statement, for example, other beings existences. Our adaptive behavior
soon or later has led to the destructive habits that largely contribute to today’s
ecological crisis.
Today’s ecological crises apparently can be traced to the western tradition
or religion coined in the Bible. This affirmation conceptualized in the Genesis
which says,
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and the cattle, and over
all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth”.28
It is a kind of justification for western people to explore and exploit nature.
Therefore, those explanations strengthen the justification that since the earth is
created the human has a different position, separated from nature, therefore, they
can control it.
It is known that western science, philosophy, and religion teach that human
is the center of the earth, which rivers, trees and animals (non-human) are for
human; in conclusion, their existence is for a human. Human only considers nonhuman based on their economic value or instrumentalist attitude. Many of
scientists or even the environmentalist use their rational scientific human-centered
reason to protect the natural world (rivers, forests, and animals) by conserving,
preserving and taking care of their condition, but the actual reason behind that
27
28

Simon C. Estok, The Ecophobia Hypothesis (London: Routledge Publisher, 2018), p. 31.
King James Bible, (Gen 1: 26)

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action is because the human can use them gradually for their benefit. The example
is forestation, the purpose of forestation is to preserve the forest from extinction,
but the actual reason is for human health benefit. There are a lot of examples
which show the actual reason for natural world preservation.
The preservation and conservation of the natural world illustrate the old
paradigm held by a human based on their perspective and hypocrisy. The old
paradigm of human and nature relationship depended on the superiority of human
beings which makes a kind of superiority complex in their relationship, about
human rule the earth. Glen Love in his influential essay “Revaluing Nature” spots
on the old paradigm of a modern society that “human domination of the biosphere
is an overriding problem”.29 Therefore, this old paradigm of this problem needs to
be changed through the discovery of new language of respect and reverence for
nature, which is different with Darwinian concept of “natural selection and the
survival of the fittest”30 that all species must compete with each other to survive.
It is not about a competition of the species but connectivity, interdependency, and
reciprocity of mutual relationship between the human and natural world (species).
In Social Darwinism, Darwin said that human or species will always compete in
the world and those who are strong, wealthy and powerful can win; that is the idea
of “the fit of the fittest”.31 This idea comes from the old paradigm thought that rise
from the imperialistic values.
The novel The War of the Worlds reflects these destructive habits of
thought, by reinforcing an imperialistic perspective that strengthens human

Glen. A Love, “Revaluing Nature” Western American Literature 5.. 23 (tahun): 203
C. Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or, The Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for, p. 5.
31
C. Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, , p. 5.

29
30

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superiority over and separates from nature. Regarding the situation in the
Victorian era, Victorian readers were encouraged to feel detached from nature and
lose any sense of responsibility regarding the damage they were inflicting upon it.
In concordance with the previous statement, Prince Albert speech in Spielvogel
reflects that British economic success is because of the divine will. “In promoting
[the progress of the human race], we are accomplishing the will of the great and
blessed God”.32
Supporting above explanation, Barri Gold writes that “instead of pursuing a
‘deep’ ecology among the Victorians, we may look for a kind of ‘social’
ecology…the roots of environmental problems in social problems”. 33 It was
Victorian society’s belief in their separation of nature that allowed for the
continued exploitation of the landscape for technological advancement and needs
consumption whereas the act of imperialism of British Empire also leads to
another ecological destruction.
It is obvious that most of the British Empire which, as a specific
manifestation of anthropocentric thought and systematically exploit and reshape
the local peripheries ecosystem for the welfare of the center. John Bellamy Foster
and Brett Clark state that social Darwinism is “robbing the periphery of its natural
wealth and exploiting ecological resources”34, which according to them went hand
in hand with the “genocide inflicted on the indigenous populations” 35 ; and
“undisguised looting, enslavement, and murder”36 were turned into a capital in the

32

Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization 7th ed (London: Cengage Learning, 2014), p. 713.
Barri Gold, “Energy, Ecology, and Victorian Fiction,” in Literature Compass 9. 2 (2012): 217.
34
John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth (New
York: Monthly Review Press, 2010), p. 189.
35
J. B. Foster and B. Clark, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, p. 188.
36
J. B. Foster and B. Clark, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, p. 189.

33

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dominating center. These passages illustrate the conception of nature from a
Victorian perspective.
Since the nature controlling was a priority for the British economic welfare,
they disregarded the environmental consequences of their actions unless of course,
their economic interests were at risk. For instance, massive deforestation and soil
erosion on the Malabar Coast, because of “silting up of commercially important
harbors”37 in the mid-19th century, convinced the East India Company to consider
setting up a forest-protection system. They did so, however, not for ecological
reasons but because “forest conservation and associated forced resettlement
methods ... became a highly convenient form of social control”.38 Similarly, the
progressive deforestation on the Canary Islands, Madeira and Barbados had
resulted in the loss of fertility of the soil which demanded conservation policies to
be implemented. Apart from deforestation, whose adverse effects on the climate is
well known today, contamination of water and air, and “pollution caused by
extractive and productive processes”, 39 led to the loss of biodiversity, the
extinction of plant and animal species, which disturbed natural balancing of the
biological regions over the world. Moreover, the exploitation of the native people
that mostly are the guardians of the environments resulted in socioeconomic
issues on such scale that even today their legacy, as international problems, is not
resolved.

37

Jonathan Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (eds), Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture:
Three-Volume Set (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 11.
38
J. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (eds), Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture: ThreeVolume Set, p. 12.
39
J. B. Foster and B. Clark, The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, p. 193.

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John Miller further explores the corre