‘The Cone’ is a compelling short story penned by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), first appearing in Unicorn magazine on 18 September 1895. This narrative is one of Wells’s few fictional works set in the Potteries of Staffordshire, England, a region where he resided for a brief period. Written in 1888, when Wells was still in his early twenties, it represents an early exploration of the themes that would later dominate his more famous works.
Summary
To encapsulate the plot of ‘The Cone’: the protagonist, Raut, is embroiled in an illicit affair with the wife of his friend, a man named Horrocks. Horrocks is depicted as a man consumed by his work in the industrial Midlands, showing little affection for his wife and thereby pushing her into the arms of Raut.
The story opens with Raut visiting Horrocks’ home, where he and Mrs. Horrocks discuss their affair. Their conversation is abruptly interrupted when they notice Horrocks standing in the doorway, silently observing them. The tension escalates as they are left uncertain about how much he has overheard.
Raut attempts to steer the conversation by reminding Horrocks of his earlier promise to show him ‘the works’—the ironworks. Initially forgetful, Horrocks unexpectedly regains his enthusiasm for the outing, as a ‘new light’ seems to dawn in his eyes. Mrs. Horrocks, keenly aware of her husband’s temperament, senses the danger and realizes that he likely knows about their affair, but she feels powerless to warn Raut as he departs with Horrocks.
As Raut tours the ironworks with Horrocks, the suspense mounts: does Horrocks truly suspect Raut of being his wife’s lover? What are his intentions? At one point, Horrocks shows Raut the cones atop the pipes that expel the fire and smoke from the furnaces. In a moment of apparent heroism, Horrocks seemingly saves Raut from an approaching steam engine. However, Raut soon comes to doubt whether Horrocks was genuinely trying to protect him, suspecting instead that his life was in jeopardy.
As Raut wrestles with his fear, he convinces himself that he is safe with Horrocks. However, the situation takes a dire turn when Horrocks brings Raut to the furnace, showcasing the extreme heat emanating from the cone. Seizing the opportunity, Horrocks attacks Raut, leading to a violent struggle. Ultimately, Raut is cast into the cone, where he meets a gruesome fate, boiled and burned alive.
Once Horrocks has disposed of his rival, a wave of guilt washes over him. He hastily covers Raut’s lifeless body with coal, but the final lines of the story imply that Horrocks’s heinous crime has not gone unnoticed, hinting at the inescapable consequences of his actions.
Analysis
H. G. Wells’s literary works are often marked by an inherent ambivalence or internal dialectic, wherein he employs his fiction—particularly his science fiction—to examine the virtues and vices of specific ideas or technological advancements. ‘The Cone’ serves as a quintessential example of this thematic exploration. The ironworks where Horrocks toils are portrayed with a strange beauty, as highlighted in this evocative description:
Here and there a pallid patch and ghostly stunted beehive shapes showed the position of a pot-bank, or a wheel, black and sharp against the hot lower sky, marked some colliery where they raise the iridescent coal of the place.
Raut is depicted as a romantic and poetic figure, contrasting sharply with Horrocks, who at one point remarks that Raut would describe the ‘line of red’ as ‘a lovely bit of warm orange.’ Even Horrocks, typically devoid of sentiment, finds himself inspired by the beauty of the industrial landscape.
Yet, Horrocks—his very name alluding to the ‘horrors’ of such an industrial environment—exploits this strangely captivating backdrop to commit the murder of his rival. ‘The Cone’ can thus be analyzed through the lens of the Sublime: a concept articulated by Edmund Burke in the eighteenth century, suggesting that nature can be both beautiful and terrifying, evoking feelings of awe alongside dread, particularly when it underscores humanity’s insignificance in the face of nature’s might.
While there is little that is natural about the industrial landscape of Staffordshire, we can interpret ‘The Cone’ as a classic instance of Brian Aldiss’s assertion (in Trillion Year Spree) that science fiction has its roots in earlier Gothic literature, as exemplified by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The Sublime permeates the Gothic novels of authors like Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, and Shelley herself; Wells’s ‘The Cone’ applies this concept to the man-made environment of industrialization, which is as awe-inspiring as it is perilous: a landscape that is both magnificent and macabre, we might say. Raut would likely concur.
Wells further accentuates the fiery nature of the narrative’s setting, with the term ‘fire’ recurring multiple times throughout this concise tale. This detail is both a factual representation—given the prevalence of fire in ironworks—and a metaphorical suggestion of a hellish landscape where the damned could be cast into a fiery abyss to meet their demise. The question lingers: who is the truly damned character in ‘The Cone’?