THE TIME MACHINE
When he was an old man, guess what H.G. Wells told a friend what he
wanted written on his tombstone?
"G-- d--- you all: I told you so."
That's one thing to keep in mind when reading The Time Machine,
which was Wells's first novel. The Time Machine is partly a warning to
his contemporaries in the 1890s.
Now, if you've seen any of the movie adaptations of this book, you might think that Wells is warning us that there are monsters
underneath the ground, waiting until dark to come out and get us. Sure, this is part of Wells's story, but it's not really what he wants
to warn us about. He wants to warn us not to get too comfortable – that just because things are pretty good now, we shouldn't
expect them to remain that way forever. It's not monsters that are going to get us – it's time.
To really understand The Time Machine, you've got to know a bit about what was going on in the world when Wells wrote it (the
first version was "The Chronic Argonauts," which he wrote for a student magazine in 1888). It was a time of great change. In the 19th
century, a bunch of people moved from the country to the city, industry was booming, and new technologies were rapidly changing
people's lives. (Check out the Shmoop Learning Guides to the 19th century for more on that, especially the guide on technology of
the Gilded Age.)
For some people, these changes were working out pretty well, and they thought things were going to keep changing for the better,
and that science on their side. After all, Charles Darwin had published his On the Origin of Species in 1859, which argued (or so they
thought) that species evolved to get better all the time. Some even thought that the people at the top of the social ladder were
clearly better than the poor and working class because of Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest." (By the way, this idea is called
"Social Darwinism.")
Wells grew up pretty poor, but he was good at science, so he knew that the people who believed in everlasting progress and survival
of the fittest didn't have any clue what they were talking about. For one thing, Darwin's theory of evolution doesn't say that species
get better – it says that species become more adapted to their environment. For another thing, Darwin never even used the phrase
"survival of the fittest." (Wells knew Darwin's work pretty well; he studied science with T.H. Huxley, who was a big supporter of
Darwin. Huxley's nickname was – get this – "Darwin's bulldog.")
In order to show people that their ideas about "survival of the fittest" and progress weren't scientifically accurate, Wells wrote a
story about a scientist traveling into the future to discover that the pampered rich have degenerated into helpless idiots and the
oppressed poor have degenerated into subterranean cannibals. Things don't always get better as time goes on – they just become
different.
In some ways, The Time Machine is like the opposite of a fairy tale bedtime story. Instead of calming some childish fear to put us to
sleep, it's like Wells is telling his contemporaries, "you jerks should be worried," and trying to wake us up.
Why Should I Care?
Let's say your teacher has just assigned The Time
Machine and is discussing why it's an important
book. It's an early example of science fiction. It
introduced the idea of using a machine for time
travel. It's never been out of print since 1895. It
deals with the hot-button issues from its day, like
Social Darwinism and inequality.
That's the point where you should stop your
teacher. We're not living in 1890s Britain, so why
should we be interested in their issues?
The answer: because their issues are still our issues.
The Time Machine is interested in issues of social inequality and justice – in how to best organize our society so that we can live with
each other without oppression. In Wells's time, there was worry that the split between the "haves" and the "have-nots" was going to
lead to violence. Today, well, maybe we're not so worried about violence, but people still worry about the split between the rich and
the poor. From the 1890s to our own time, people still work on the question that seems central to The Time Machine: What's the
best, most just way for society to be?
The Time Machine hasn't stayed in print for over 100 years just because Wells invented the idea of a machine that would move
through time. Rather, it seems that Wells's book has remained in print because, even though much of the world has changed,
certain issues haven't. Wells would be amazed at our iPods, but he wouldn't be surprised that some people have them and others
don't.
The Time Machine Theme of Time
The Time Machine is so concerned with the theme of time that "time" is in the title. (And it's so concerned with time that the novel's
other themes are all tied up with this one.) The time in The Time Machine isn't last week or next year – that's time on a human scale.
Time in The Time Machine is on a scale that's totally beyond anything human. This is geological or even cosmic time. When the Time
Traveller jumps into the future, he doesn't watch the lifespan of a person, but the lifespan of a species – or even the lifespan of a
star. Thinking about time in this way involves looking at the long view – even though that long view moves people out of the
spotlight.
Questions About Time
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Time Traveller says that memory is a form of time travel (1.28). Is it? Are there other ways of time traveling without machinery
or magic?
How do people tell time in this book? What signs are there that the Time Traveller might have spent eight days in the future?
When they first discuss it, the dinner guests come up with some reasons why time travel might not be useful. Are they right? Is the
Time Machine presented as a useful device?
Does the novel make you think it's better to take the long view or the short-term, day-to-day view? Or is there another option?
Why doesn't the Time Traveller go back in time instead of just going forward?
The Time Machine Theme of Science
Science in The Time Machine isn't just about making awesome machines that travel through time. (For more about awesome
machines, check out "Themes: Technology and Modernization.") Rather, science is about a way of thinking. You start with an
observation, come up with a theory, test that theory, and repeat as necessary until you're reasonably sure you have the right
answer. (Or until your funding runs out. But since our protagonist is a gentleman-scientist, he doesn't need to worry about this.)
There's a lot of science in this book, since our protagonist is a scientist, dealing with scientific things in a scientific manner. Some
interesting things come up when we look closely at the science in the book. The most important being that science involves being
wrong a lot. That's all part of getting closer to the truth.
Questions About Science
1.
2.
3.
4.
What role does skepticism play in science? For instance, the Medical Man is skeptical of time travel – but is his skepticism part of the
scientific method (the kind that tests out a theory to see if there might be a better solution)? Or is his skepticism anti-science?
What experiments does the Time Traveller carry out in the future? What sort of experiments does he talk about doing? Related to
that, what sort of tools do you think he takes with him when he decides to use the Time Machine again at the end of the book?
Does science help the Time Traveller do the right thing? Are there times when science seems to get in his way?
Is science presented as something that makes us human in this novel? (You could compare how scientific the Eloi and the Morlocks
seem in comparison to the Time Traveller.)
The Time Machine Theme of Society and Class
The Time Machine presents two very different settings – the 1890s and the distant future – and seems to dare us to make
connections between them. When the Time Traveller jumps into the far future, he finds a society where the Eloi play all day and
don't do any work. It's almost like an episode of Gossip Girl, where (almost) everyone is pretty and rich. In other words, it looks
much better than the Time Traveller's own time, which is full of conflict and anxiety over the issue of class – who has to do work and
who gets to profit from the work of others. (This is a big issue in the 19th century; check out "Setting" for more on this.)
However, the future stops looking good to the Time Traveller when he realizes that the class conflict and class structure of his time
have merely evolved rather than being erased. Although some aspects of social class have changed, there are many similarities that
should make us sit up and take notice. (For instance, in both cases, the working class tends to be invisible or hard to find.) So while
the future might look like an exaggeration of the 19th century (no one is literally eating each other in Britain in the 1890s), the novel
is making a suggestion about where humans are heading.
Questions About Society and Class
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the Time Traveller's social class? Does his class affect his interpretation of the social situation of the future?
What do we know from this novel about the lives of the working class in the 19th century and their descendents, the Morlocks, in
the future? By comparison, what do we know about the 19th-century upper class and their descendents, the Eloi?
Besides class, what other ways are societies divided up in the real world today? Are those divisions present in this book?
If the Time Traveller is correct about the evolution of the Eloi and Morlocks, how did these two species come about? For instance,
how did one set of people exile another set of people underground? Is there any evidence in the novel of that going on in the 1890s?
The Time Machine Theme of Change
Besides clocks and the position of the sun, change may be the best way to measure time. (In fact, since we can use clocks and the
position of the sun to tell time only because they change, we could say that change is the only way to measure time.) When things
change, we know that time has passed. Since The Time Machine tells a story about a great deal of time passing (who doesn't want to
visit the year 802,701?), there's also a great deal of change in the story – change to the environment (the future is hotter…until the
sun starts dying), change to social structure, change to the species. Everything changes in The Time Machine, except maybe Time
itself and the other forces of nature – those seem to be pretty constant.
Questions About Change
1.
2.
3.
4.
What has changed between the Time Traveller's time and the Eloi/Morlock future? Are there certain patterns? (For an example,
flowers have changed in the future, but there are still flowers.)
The Time Traveller makes a few comments about how the future seems to have played out certain tendencies that were going on in
his time. Where does he make those connections?
If The Time Machine presents the world as constantly changing, what happens with the Eloi and the Morlocks after the Time
Traveller leaves? Could the Eloi – now hunted by the Morlocks – start to regain the strength that they've lost?
Are there any aspects of the world that don't seem to change in this novel?
The Time Machine Theme of Technology and Modernization
Wells didn't invent the idea of time travel. Just to take one example, it's
central to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. But Wells did (more or less)
invent the idea of a machine for time travel (which is one bit of technology
we'd give up our DVR for). Interestingly, although technology is really
important in this novel, the Time Traveller doesn't really describe the
technology he sees in the future. This isn't a catalog of cool new gadgets.
What he describes most is the effect this technology has had on people.
Wells wants to show us not technology for its own sake, but how humans
adapt to using that technology and how we're changed by it. (This includes
when society loses technologies, like fire or writing, neither of which the
Eloi have retained.)
Questions About Technology and Modernization
1.
2.
3.
4.
Is technology in The Time Machine always useful? If not, is there some way to tell the useful technology from the harmful?
(Or to keep useful technology from having bad consequences?)
The Time Traveller argues that civilized men are changed by their access to technology. Is this shown to be true or false in
the novel? For instance, how does the Time Traveller act when he doesn't have technology around?
Besides the Time Machine, what other technology can be found in the novel? How does it affect the way people live and
think?
What can you tell from looking at some ordinary bit of technology in the novel, like shoes? (It may seem silly, but try it: How
do the Time Traveller's shoes compare to the Eloi's sandals and the Morlocks' shoelessness?)
The Time Machine Theme of Passivity
There's a lot of passivity in The Time Machine, from people lounging in their awesome chairs all day, to entire societies giving up
when the monsters come to get them, to the world no longer spinning. The most obvious example of passivity is the laziness and
weakness of the Eloi, who can't keep up with the Time Traveller. Similarly, there's the laziness of the 19th-century dinner guests.
Maybe they work hard during the day, but what we see is mostly people sitting around after dinner, drinking and talking. Third, we
could also talk about passivity on the cosmic scale. When the Time Traveller visits the very distant future, it seems that the universe
has lost energy and slowed down.
Questions About Passivity
1.
2.
3.
4.
Who is more passive, the Eloi, the Morlocks, or the 19th-century humans? In what ways are these different groups passive?
Passivity seems like a negative trait in this novel, but is action always the right choice? A useful passage to think about is when the
Time Traveller examines the Palace of Green Porcelain.
Is Weena as passive as the other Eloi?
We've identified a few different ways to be passive. One could be lazy or paralyzed with fear, and neither case involves much
movement. Are there other ways to be passive in this novel?
The Time Machine Theme of Fear
Generally speaking, we don't like being afraid (except for Halloween, scary movies, and roller coaster rides). But fear can be useful:
for example, when it tells us to get out of the way when a falling boulder is about to smash us. This seems to be the position that The
Time Machine takes on fear: it's a good motivator, and sometimes you need to be motivated. So in some ways, The Time Machine
celebrates fear.
However, while fear sometimes helps the Time Traveller, it sometimes trips him up. For instance, when his Time Machine
disappears, rather than look at the issue calmly and think about what's best to do, the Time Traveller runs around and yells at the
Eloi (which almost never helps). So fear in The Time Machine can help or it can hurt. In this sense, fear is a lot like fire or other tools:
useful in some situations, but dangerous when it gets out of control.
Questions About Fear
1.
2.
3.
4.
What do the various characters fear?
How does fear relate to the other emotions the Time Traveller feels, like awe? How does fear relate to passivity?
When does fear help the Time Traveller? When does it hurt him or his plan?
Are there times when the Time Traveller should be more afraid than he is?
The Time Machine Theme of Awe and Amazement
The Time Machine is full of incredible things for us to be amazed at, such as: 1) the Time Traveller being late to his own dinner party
(only slightly amazing); 2) the housekeeper zooming across the room or moving in reverse (more amazing); 3) the realization of how
tiny human issues are compared to the scale of the universe (maybe more amazing than we need).
But there's a flip side: the more incredible something is, the less likely it is to be true. (The etymology of "incredible" actually means
"not to be believed.") This is one of the central tensions in the book: the Time Traveller has been on this amazing journey, but he
can't get anyone to believe him. In fact, his experience might be so amazing that his usual vocabulary breaks down when he
attempts to describe it.
Questions About Awe and Amazement
1.
2.
3.
What happens when the characters feel awe? What actions do they take?
Compare the dinner guests' reactions to the disappearance of the model Time Machine and the ragged appearance of the Time
Traveller. Are the dinner guests awed in both cases? How do their reactions differ?
Do the Eloi or the Morlocks experience awe? If so, what does that tell us about those characters? Is awe an integral part of being
human?
The Time Machine Theme of Man and the
Natural World
Did you ever discuss in school whether humans
were animals? We imagine Wells would say, "of
course humans are animals – but a special kind."
In The Time Machine, there is a fairly steady
tension between these positions: either humans
are just another part of the natural world (just
another animal), or they're special.
There are arguments for each of these positions
in this book: for instance, humans evolve like
other species, but they can also direct evolution
(see 4.25). This is a serious issue for the Time
Traveller, who witnesses both increasing human
control over nature and nature's continued
control over humanity. That is, people may make
new technology that changes the environment
(Humans 1, Nature 0) – but then they evolve in
reaction to that changed environment (Human 1,
Nature 2). So humans might be special, but not
that special.
Questions About Man and the Natural World
1.
2.
3.
According to the Time Traveller, how do people control the natural world?
When the Time Traveller discusses time travel in the first chapter, he says we use technology to overcome nature. For example, the
hot-air balloon helps us overcome the natural force of gravity. Is technology competing with nature? Are they opposed?
What sort of natural instincts does the Time Traveller exhibit? Are his instincts helpful to him? Does he ever succeed in ignoring
them?
The Time Machine Theme of Community
Most people don't think much about community in The Time Machine. After all, it's more the story of a species than a community,
right? While this is the story of a species (and social classes within that species), it's also the story of community. It's about finding
people to share feelings with and a place you can call home. We may overlook this because, in many ways, the Time Traveller is a
man without a community: whether he's in the 1890s or in the far future, he's surrounded by people who don't really understand
him. This doesn't mean he's totally alone or has no community, though. For instance, in the future, he starts to feel at home because
of Weena and seems to absorb the Eloi's feelings. So we find community even when we don't expect it.
Questions About Community
1.
2.
3.
4.
What different communities are represented in this novel? Which community seems most stable and happy to you?
The Time Traveller says he has absorbed some of the feelings of the Eloi. Does that mean he has become a part of their community?
Is it necessary for people to share feelings in order to form a community?
Evolution is a big theme in this novel, on the species level. Do communities also evolve?
Although the dinner guests mostly don't believe the Time Traveller's story, they listen very closely to him and less closely to Filby
(see Chapter 1). Which is more important to a community in this novel: listening to others or believing them? Is it even possible to
separate the two?
The Time Machine Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory
Fire
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
You probably noticed that there's a lot of fire in this book. Some of it is really hard to miss, like the first fire the Time Traveller starts,
which gets out of control and burns down the forest (9.2). (Smokey the Bear is not going to be happy.) There are several smaller fires
that are important in the story, too, like when the Time Traveller uses his matches to escape the Morlocks (6.11). These are
examples of fire playing a really central role in the plot.
There are other fires that might be easier to miss. For instance, the Time Traveller uses his matches to amuse the Eloi and distract
Weena from an upsetting topic (5.35, 5.41). We even find fire in 1890s London. When the Time Traveller demonstrates his model
time machine, for instance, he places it in front of the fireplace so that everyone in the room can see it clearly (1.53). There's also
the time when the Time Traveller lights his pipe using a spill (a long, thin piece of wood or rolled paper) – bad for his health, but
good for proving how important fire is in the novel (1.62).
There are also times when the absence of fire is important: for instance, when the Time Traveller and Weena lie down to rest in the
forest by a bonfire and wake up to discover that it has gone out and the Morlocks are attacking (9.9).
So why does fire play such an important role in the novel? For one thing, as the Time Traveller observes: "what a rare thing flame
must be in the absence of man" (9.3). In other words, it's people who make fire. Our use of tools is one thing that sets us apart from
other animals, and fire is one of our most important (and maybe oldest) tools.
However, that doesn't mean that fire is always our friend. Fire can be useful (for fighting off the Morlocks and seeing things at night),
but it can also be misused. And fire can become dangerous, as we see when it burns down the forest and probably kills Weena.
So perhaps fire symbolizes technology in the novel. Like any technology, fire can be used or misused, and it can have unintended
consequences. Technology makes our lives better, but – if you believe the premise of the novel – it can make humans lazy and
ultimate lead to their demise.
The White Sphinx
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
The White Sphinx is the first thing the Time Traveller sees in the future, and it's also the key to getting him out of the future (since
that's where the Morlocks hide his Time Machine). So the White Sphinx seems pretty important. How important? So important that
we've decided to give you two totally different theories about it.
Theory #1 says that the White Sphinx is important because of its mythological meaning. If you remember your Greek mythology, the
Sphinx...well, there are several versions, but the important thing to keep in mind is that the Sphinx asked a riddle and ate people
who failed to answer it correctly. So the first thing the Time Traveller sees upon arriving in the future is the statue of the White
Sphinx. Soon his Time Machine disappears into the Sphinx, which kind of sets up a riddle that the Time Traveller has to solve: what
the heck is going on? Not only that, but if he doesn't figure out the riddle, there's a chance the Morlocks will eat him. In other words,
the Sphinx might be there to indicate to the reader that the Time Traveller has to solve the riddle or die.
Now here's another interesting connection: in most versions of the myth, the Sphinx's riddle is something like, "What walks on four
legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?" Think about it for a second before we give you the
answer....
Give up? The answer is Man. You crawl as a baby, walk on two legs as an adult, and use a cane (or walking stick) when you get old.
(Although maybe that last part should involve a motorized wheelchair these days. Ah, technology!) So check this out: every once in a
while the Time Traveller will say something like, "It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane. The ruddy
sunset set me thinking of the sunset of mankind" (4.24). It seems like there's something of a connection between the riddle of the
Sphinx (about the aging of man) and the Time Traveller observing (in fast-forward) the aging of the human race.
OK, on to Theory #2, which is that the Sphinx is an important symbol because many people in Wells's time (roughly speaking) used
"Sphinx" to refer to the sort of class division that, in The Time Machine, leads to the Eloi-Morlock split. Here's an example:
In Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward (1888), a Bostonian goes forward in time to the year 2000 and finds a utopia, or perfect
society. This is one of the books Wells is probably thinking of when he has the Time Traveller talk about utopian books. (Check out
the "Allusions" section for more.) Interested in how they created this utopia, the Bostonian asks his hosts, "what solution, if any,
have you found for the labor question? It was the Sphinx's riddle of the nineteenth century, and when I dropped out the Sphinx was
threatening to devour society, because the answer was not forthcoming."
So that's one example of someone using "Sphinx" to indicate that the problem of class seemed unsolvable to many people in the
19th century. There are others, like Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present, which has a chapter called "The Sphinx."
The White Flowers
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
While telling his story, the narrator shows his audience the two white flowers – "not unlike very large white mallows" (7.6) – that
Weena stuffed in his pockets. When he finishes his story, his dinner guests consider these flowers as evidence: they're weird flowers,
so they could be proof that he actually did time travel. But in the Epilogue, the unnamed narrator decides to treat the flowers as
symbols. He asks himself what these flowers mean, and this is the answer he comes up with:
And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers – shrivelled now, and brown and flat and brittle – to witness that even
when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man. (Epilogue.1)
So for the narrator, the flowers are symbols of good things. He may be wrong, though, so let's ask the question he seems to be
asking himself: What do these flowers represent?
Well, to begin with, let's note that these aren't the first flowers to appear in the book. When the Eloi first see the Time Traveller,
they put a necklace of flowers on him, which makes the future sound kind of like Hawaii (4.6). Then they start giving him more and
more flowers. Weena also gives him flowers after he saves her from drowning (5.23). So the narrator seems justified in his belief
that the flowers are connected with nice things: friendship, welcome, tenderness, and beauty.
That kind of sounds like the Eloi themselves, doesn't it? The Time Traveller mentions that the flowers are "delicate," like the Eloi
(4.6). But in the future, "delicate" has a downside – things that are delicate are also weak. Now, there are some differences between
people and flowers – for example, flowers are purposefully bred by people, as the Time Traveller notes: "We improve our favourite
plants and animals [...] gradually by selective breeding" (4.25). This is, for the Time Traveller, "the subjugation of Nature" (4.25). In
other words: Humans 1, Nature 0.
People, on the other hand, are not purposefully bred toward some end. But in both cases, the end result is the same. In the future,
we have flowers and people who are both delicate and beautiful, sweet but weak. With that in mind, it looks more like Nature is
beating the Human team.
So there are a few things those flowers could represent: (1) the kindness that survives in the future; (2) the weakness that survives in
the future; (3) the fact that people are subject to nature's laws.
For more on this, check out the use of other images of nature, like the word "garden." For instance, in 4.22, the Time Traveller calls
the world a "waste garden." What does this mean?
What’s Up With the Ending?
Seriously, what is up with that ending? It's very open-ended. The Time Traveller disappears and never comes back. We don't know
where he went or why. The unnamed narrator makes some guesses to show the range of possibilities: maybe he's with our primitive
ancestors or dinosaurs (not at the same time, of course), or maybe he's in the nearer future. Which all basically means that we don't
know where he is or why he hasn't come back.
It's curious that the narrator's main concern is "Where did the Time Traveller go?" not "Why didn't the Time Traveller come back?"
While the questions are clearly related, this epilogue keeps us focused mostly on the issue of time travel and keeps us away from
asking what happened to him. (Is he so happy that he decided not to come back? Did the Morlocks eat him? We'll never know.)
The ending is not only open-ended when it comes to the Time Traveller's fate; it's also somewhat open-ended about the moral of
this whole story. While the Time Traveller is pessimistic about the future of humanity, the unnamed narrator finds a way to be
somewhat optimistic. He notes that, sure, something will be lost in the future (little things like "mind and strength"), but certain
essential parts of humanity will remain (like "gratitude and a mutual tenderness"). Even if he is incredibly optimistic, though, it's
unclear what the narrator thinks is worthwhile in the final part of the Time Traveller's story, where he sees the almost totally
desolate beach.
Ultimately, the ending is pretty ambiguous, and critics have come to different conclusions about whether it's hopeful or hopeless. It
seems as if Wells has purposely left this conclusion as open-ended as possible – perhaps in order to leave the final decision up to us.