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Tuan Anh Chau

Dr. Dushane

ENGLISH 4381

17 October 2021

Literary Analysis Essay (Prompt 3)

In 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published, controversially

proposing that the diverse groups of species possibly share the same ancestral roots and that

evolution proceeds via natural selection. Nevertheless, Ray Lankester later theorized natural

selection can lead to three stages: balance, elaboration, and degeneration, essentially countering

the general misconception about Darwin’s natural selection theory, as applied to humanity, being

a linear path of more superior upgrades. Despite the fact that the evolutionary theory remained

largely radical during its time, the science fiction works of the 19th century and onward would

soon capture the theme and offer various speculations about the religious, social, existentialist

implications behind the proposed theory. Evidently, in Forster’s “The Machine Stops,” the

depiction of a future human population relying on the services of a mysterious artificial machine

to meet their personal needs without having to work sparks questions about the ideas of progress

and superiority of our species. On the other hand, Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race

imagines a utopia created by a species which, albeit of similar ancestral roots, is far more attuned

to nature and far more advanced religiously and socially than the society dwelling on the surface

of the Earth. In H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, humanity would face an existentialist crisis

as an extra-terrestrial civilization dominates Earth with overwhelming armed forces, which

ultimately makes readers reassess humans’ standing in the universe as a whole. In the three

aforementioned works of science fiction, the prevalent influence of the evolutionary theory and
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the concept of degeneration seems to manifest itself in terms of speculations regarding the ways

humanity, in the age of scientific and technological advances, will survive and develop in the

future. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to further demonstrate how the discussions regarding

the implications behind the theory of evolution and degeneration show up in the 19th century

works of science fiction with supporting evidence through the different details from Edward

Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race, H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, and E.M. Forster’s

“The Machine Stops.”

In The Coming Race, Lytton describes a utopian with more advanced philosophies, social

structure, and power. The life in Vril-ya is tranquil and void of anger, crime, passion, and

conflict. And technological advances are perceived to be an integral part of the process to bring

the asymmetrical nature of humanity’s conflicting virtues and competitiveness to the point of

saturation: “For they brought the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority

in numbers, discipline, or military skill.” It is possibly implied that capitalism, progressivism,

and democracy are just stages of humanity’s evolution are just a stepping stones toward the

perfect society. Be that as it may, behind the facade of a more superior being, what primarily

drives the underground dwellers’ perception of a perfect society is fueled by simply technology.

In my opinion, considering the people of the Victorian era were skeptical of scientific changes,

Lytton’s vision of a more advanced species having its achievements fueled mainly by

technological advances reconciles with the contemporary fears of change and of contradiction

with the view of the Church.

Although the underworld civilization lead a different life from the dwellers of the surface,

both societies share the same ancestral roots with their modifications derived from the conditions

of their living environment, Lytton also adopts Darwin’s theory on the origins of species to
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explain the origins of the people living under the surface of the Earth, stating that the civilization

could have come from the frog, either in the form of an upgrade or a downgrade: “Again, the

Frog had the power to live alike on land and in water – a mighty privilege, partaking of a

spiritual essence denied to the An, since the disuse of his swimming bladder clearly proves his

degeneration from a higher development of species.”

There is indeed an air of superiority in the way Zee explains to the narrator about their

origins, specifically their seemingly higher level of adaptability. Such implication can be

connected with the early reactions toward the meanings behind Darwin’s evolutionary theory

which mentions humans share the same ancestral roots with apes. Based on normal biological

reasonings, aren’t reptile less susceptible to harms from environmental changes compared to

apes? What would become of humanity if they come into contact with a species of a more

superior origin? Lytton’s underground civilization possibly serves as a reminder for the Victorian

fear of inferiority complex over humanity’s place in the grand scheme of creationism and

evolution.

H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds also addresses the fear of the Other, which spawns

from the conflicting receptions of Darwin’s theory. The story presents how evolution works as a

biological process in accordance with influences from environmental elements. The Martians did

invade Earth with overwhelming forces and technologies far advanced than our own yet they are

eventually defeated by God’s earliest and most basic creation, the bacteria. The author later

writes, “By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his

against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For

neither do men live nor die in vain.” The keywords include adaptation and persistence. Through

millennia of growth and adaptation, humanity have gained the right to be the dominant species of
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its world. Though, before the ending, the humans in the story get to taste their own medicine by

being the receiving end of a conqueror’s desires. They are then faced with a limited set of

options to ensure their own survival, which later exposes their unpreparedness, lack of self-

awareness, and hubris:

“Those who stop obey orders. Able-bodied, clean-minded women we want also - mothers

and teachers. No lackadaisical ladies - no based rolling eyes. We can’t have any weak or

silly. Life is real again, and the useless and cumbersome and mischievous have to die.

They ought to die. They ought to be willing to die. It’s a sort of disloyalty. After all, to

live and taint the race. And they can’t be happy” (Wells).

In the desperate race for survival, there arises an audacious take on a genetic algorithm or

method to determine the fittest to produce the next generations, one that is based on subjective

social representations. It is arrogant and clearly undermines the basic information behind

human’s evolution. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin states:

“It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the

world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and

adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever

opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and

in organic conditions of life.”

Evolution is no way superficial but is a painstaking process that takes years to visibly

manifest. There were indeed different misconception about Darwin’s evolutionary theory and

perhaps at moments his discoveries could have been mystified into wild imaginations. One

purpose of The War of the Worlds might have been to rectify some of the Victorian
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misunderstandings of Darwin’s explanations for the origin of species. This can correlate with the

Victorian fear of being outwitted and overpowered by a species far superior to humanity.

“By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his

against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are.

For neither do men live nor die in vain” (Wells).

It is ironic in a way as before Orson Welles’s Halloween prank broadcast happened in 1938,

World War 1 happened as a result of imperial expansion of European superpowers. Perhaps the

story might have been geared by the author toward being a satirical analogy to the contempt for

the obsoleteness of imperialism, which, by definition, refers to policies of increasing a country’s

power via means of either diplomacy or military force. The Martians plot-wise did invade Earth

through overwhelming weaponries and the element of surprise, slaughtering the native

inhabitants of our world and taking territories. Humanity has always possessed its own hubris as

a part of its flawed nature: the possession of pride, obsession and passion. We have Manifest

Destiny, the concept of racial science, the enlightened species, or the pursuit of becoming god-

like. These long-established variations of humanity’s hubris are enlarged and pushed forward by

the advance of pure science and warfare.

“The Machine Stops” discusses a specific Victorian reaction to the implications behind

the evolutionary theory and degermation – that is, the anxiety and fear toward a society

dependent on industrialization and uncompromising optimism toward progress based on the

potential of scientific advances. The story acts as a jaw-dropping jab against the British

anthropocentric perspective, and exposes the hypocrisy and instability of human nature. The plot

does not follow the idea that humanity, as a dominant species and the conqueror of nature, would

soon develop into a more advanced species capable of even more incredible feats. Instead, the
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readers are shown a dystopian, a greatly degraded one. In this world, people live in a caged

world and do nothing to make a living. They live in a predictable cycle with repeated

conveniences. Is this really the final destination for the Victorian emphasis on uncompromising

progress based on the potential of scientific advances? Vashti has her own assessment of what

could be considered enlightened thinking after years of evolution:

“And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded her own -

the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing

people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when

men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms!” (Forster)

Essentially, according to Vashti, humanity would evolve to a point in which competition

and the desire for advance would become null and void and simply cease to appeal to nature of

man. Lankester considers degeneration to be “a gradual change of the structure in which the

organism becomes less adapted to less varied and less complex conditions of life…” Evidently,

Forster depicts a world where humanity become enslaved and utterly reliant on the pursuit of

convenience. There is no competition, no compromise, no need for passionate intimacy, and

obviously no progress. In “The Machine Stops,” humanity is a species that went “beyond facts,

beyond impressions” and without any kind of personality. Although they live a life of comfort

with everything handed without much effort, the people are reduced to cage animals,

succumbing to the rule of a system created by the best of their intellectuals. Interestingly, the

enforcement of laws by an anonymous committee detached from the individualistic interests of

the lower classes seem to resemble the structure of imperialism which goes against Victorian

progressive idealisms. In Forster’s imaginary world, humanity is a proud species with an

inherent hubris of arrogance; however, as they become more attuned to the excitement of
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technological advances and increased lavishness, they lose a sense of themselves. This implies

another path of Darwin’s evolutionary theory: maladaptation.

In conclusion, similar to how romantic and modernist literary works embodied the spirit

of their respective era, science fiction takes over the mantle as the new influential form of

literature which possesses adequate artistic sensibility and relevance to capture the essence of the

new era of innovation and exploration and caters to the increasingly curious and doubtful

audience of the 19th century. Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race, H.G. Wells’s The War

of the Worlds, and E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” have vividly captured contradictory

reactions and fears of the Victorian people toward Darwin’s evolutionary theory and the concept

of degeneration. The juxtapositions between the appearance of a more advanced species or

system and humanity in the plots of the aforementioned works represents the fear of uncertainty,

of chaos, and of inferiority when it comes to the place of the human race in the grand scheme of

evolution.
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Works Cited

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, and Simmema. The Coming Race. Amsterdam, Netherlands,

Amsterdam University Press, 2008.

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or Preservation of

Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, John Murray, 1872.

Forster, E. M. The Machine Stops. Classicly, Epub ed., Oxford and Cambridge Review, 1909.

Wells, H., and Danahay. The War of the Worlds. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Amsterdam

University Press, 2003.