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THE TIME MACHINE BY H.G. WELLS AS A DYSTOPIAN NOVEL

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS
(PAPER: ENGIN-301)
FOR THE DEGREE
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
ENGLISH

SUPERVISOR: SUBMITTED BY:

DR SHIRLEY JAIN. NAZISH BANO
Lecturer in English 2110385480028
Department of English
Isabella Thoburn College , Lucknow

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ISABELLA THOBURN COLLEGE
LUCKNOW
2023

ABSTRACT
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My essay will discuss the subject of dystopia in the work of H.G.Wells novel “The Time Machine”. I Will
discuss how the novel reflects the changing discourse of time in which it was written , the notion of
dystopian fiction. Elements of dystopia in The Time Machine focusing on the fear , anxiety, class distinction,
social upheavals of the Victorian era, and how the current social practices will affect mankind's future that
Well displays throughout the novel.

INTRODUCTION
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Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are
imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or
plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring
specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories.
Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature, in the narrow sense of writings specifically
considered to be an art form. While literary fiction is sometimes regarded as superior to genre fiction, the
two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime
fiction, romance, etc., to create works of literature. Literary fiction often involves social commentary,
political criticism, or reflection on the human condition.In general, it focuses on "introspective, in-depth
character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters.
Based on how literary fiction is defined, genre fiction may be a subset , or its opposite: an evaluative label
for written fiction that comprises popular culture, as artistically or intellectually inferior to high culture.
Regardless, fiction is commonly broken down into a variety of genres: categories of fiction, each
differentiated by a particular unifying tone or style; set of narrative techniques, archetypes, or other tropes;
media content; or other popularly defined criterion. Historical fiction places imaginary characters into real
historical events. Fictional works that explicitly involve supernatural, magical, or scientifically impossible
elements are often classified under the genre of fantasy, including Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter
series.

Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi) is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with
imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel,
parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is
related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long
been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers .Science fiction sometimes serves as an outlet to
facilitate future scientific and technological innovations.Science fiction has predicted several existing
inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and
often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.

Written during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634),
Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627), Athanasius Kircher's Itinerarium extaticum (1656), Cyrano de
Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the
Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World" (1666), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726),
are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works. Following the 17th-century development of the
novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the
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form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science
fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including "The Unparalleled
Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) which featured a trip to the Moon. Jules Verne was noted for his
attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
Many critics consider H. G. Wells is one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the
Shakespeare of science fiction." His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The
Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).
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H.G WELLS

Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer. Prolific in many
genres, he wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His nonfiction output includes works of
social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography and autobiography. Wells is now best
remembered for his science fiction novels and has been called the "father of science fiction."
In addition to his fame as a writer, he was prominent in his lifetime as a forward-looking, even prophetic
social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A
futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear
weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web.His science fiction imagined
time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering before these subjects were common in the
genre. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction", while Charles Fort called him a
"wild talent".

Wells began his writing career with fantastical novels such as The Time Machine (1895), The Wonderful
Visit (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The War of the Worlds (1898) etc. and established
himself as a master of science fiction. He even acquired a prophetic status due to foreseeing certain
mechanical and military developments which were later seen manifested in scientific fields of knowledge. In
his novel The Sleeper Awakes (1899), his concerned comment on a progressive future is truly thought-
provoking. He claims “We were making the future, and hardly any of us were troubled to think what future
we were making”. The genius of his imagination moulded along with his passionate concern for man and
society is what made him give birth to such fantasy in his science fiction.

As the social reformer in Wells grew, he shifted his focus towards delving into the lives of the lower middle
class and presenting before people their problems, issues and concerns. Anticipations (1901), Mankind in
the Making (1903) and A Modern Utopia (1905) are some of his works which carved his image, in the
British minds, of a staunch preacher of social progress. Here, Wells discusses the lost aspirations and the
unfulfilled dreams of the ordinary man and shows much sympathy for them in the guise of satire and
humour. In The Open Conspiracy: What are we to do with our lives? (1928) he defines man with typical
dark imagery laying bare his flaws and shortcomings. “Man is an imperfect animal and never quite
trustworthy in the dark”.

Post World War I, we see the complete metamorphosis of Wells as he propagated adaptation techniques and
skills through works of popular education such as The Outline of History (1920), The Science of Life (1931),
The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind (1932) etc. In The Outline of History (1928), With the
outbreak of World War 2, Wells displays pessimism for the first time in his work ‘Mind at The End of its
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Tether’ (1945) by depicting a bleak and hopeless vision of a world where nature has abandoned mankind
and is annihilating it. It is only here that we see a glimpse of negativity in the positive, optimistic, humour-
rich and reformist psyche of HG Wells. He depicts his perception of war as a source of pure destruction and
annihilation in ‘Things to Come’ (1936). He remarks “If we don’t end war, war will end us”

He believed that man could only progress through adaptation, education and knowledge. His works are
evidence of his socialist temperament and are the main source of his concept of social evolution. They call
for a revolt against traditional and conventional norms of society and clearly show him to be an advocate of
absolute freedom. In fact, Wells was so committed and dedicated to his reformist militancy that he did not
mind completely changing the theme and content of his novels in order to present a severe critique of
western society and its values. The evolution of Wells as an author is crystal clear in his works and a
comparison of his early and later works throws immense light on the factors that acted as a catalyst in this
evolution.

BACKGROUND OF THE AGE

Queen Victoria became ruler or reign of the country England so that name was given ‘Victorian age’. The
time of the Victorian age was 1837 to 1901. In the Victorian age, there were many changes that occurred in
every field in the history of Britain. There was a time, a lot of rapid changes in economical, social,
industrial, political, literary, science, religion and technology. Each and every field had vast changes. The
impact of this change was seen in the upper class of society or the whole country.
It was a time of peace, development, prosperity and sensibility. It was the time when populations of the
country Britain increased, because the people migrated to London from the countryside. It was a time of
industrial revolution. It left a good impression on human beings. But with the development of science and
invention in medicine such epidemics became curable and saved the life of the people. That was also
responsible for the increase of population. The social classes of this era included the Upper class, Middle
class, and lower class. Those who were fortunate enough to be in the Upper class did not usually perform
manual labour. Instead, they were landowners and hired lower class workers to work for them, or made
investments to create a profit. This class was divided into three subcategories: Royal, those who came from
a royal family, Middle Upper, important officers and lords, and Lower Upper, wealthy men and business
owners .
The expansion of the Middle class during this time was due to the rapid growth of cities and the economy. It
was also referred to as the Bourgeoisie, and consisted of those who had skilled jobs to support themselves
and their families. Merchants and shopkeepers became popular occupations as trade, both domestic and
overseas, flourished. The large scale of new industries such as railroads, banks, and government meant that
more labour was needed to make sure the cities were able to function. The white collar professions had the
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ability to move up in the corporate rankings and earn a higher salary. It was helpful to have connections to
those in powerful positions as they were able to get jobs more easily. Moreover, the Middle class was also
divided into two categories, higher level and lower level. People from the lower middle class typically
worked for those in the Higher level .
The Working class consisted of unskilled labourers who worked in brutal and unsanitary conditions. They
did not have access to clean water and food, education for their children, or proper clothing. Often, they
lived on the streets and were far from the work they could get, so they would have to walk to where they
needed to get to. Unfortunately, many workers resorted to the use of drugs like opium and alcohol to cope
with their hardships.
The Under class were those who were helpless and depended on the support of others. The poor and young
orphans rely on donations to survive . Some women who were unskilled and could not get any jobs became
prostitutes in order to make a living. In the 19th century, there were pioneering new forms of social and
urban organisation in Britain. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the social landscape, allowing
capitalists and manufacturers to collect huge fortunes. Although social class was no longer entirely
dependent on the circumstances of one’s birth, the divisions between rich and poor remained nearly as wide
as ever. More and more people moved from the country to the city in search of greater economic
opportunity. Throughout England, the manners of the upper class were very strict and conservative. The
gentlemen and ladies were expected to have thorough classical education and to behave appropriately in
innumerable social situations. It was the time of rapid economic changes which forced English society
determinedly towards industrialization.
Some of the contemporaries such as Karl Marx, believed that the social classes were being increasingly
driven apart, divided into the two opposing camps of the bourgeoisie and the working class. This revolution
enabled man to access means of living and production and escaped from the unpredictability of nature by
bringing an end to agricultural dominance.According to Karl Marx, the capitalist mode of production
referred to the systems of organising production and distribution within capitalist societies. Private money-
making in various forms guided the development of the capitalist mode of production. It was based on wage-
labour and private ownership of the means of production and on industrial technology which began to grow
rapidly in Western Europe and later extended to most of the world. Capitalism, a money-making activity,
had existed in the shape of merchants and money-lenders who acted as intermediaries between consumers
and producers since the beginnings of civilization.

THE TIME MACHINE

The Time Machine is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells first published in a serialised
form in 1895 in the magazine The New Review. In May that year it was published in book form. The work is
generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel
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purposely and selectively forward or backward through time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is
now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle or device. Utilising a frame story set in then-present
Victorian England, Wells' text focuses on a recount of the otherwise anonymous Time Traveller's journey
into the far future. A work of future history and speculative evolution, Time Machine is interpreted in
modern times as a commentary on the increasing inequality and class divisions of Wells' era, which he
projects as giving rise to two separate human species: the fair, childlike Eloi, and the savage, simian
Morlocks, distant descendants of the contemporary upper and lower classes respectively.It is believed that
Wells' depiction of the Eloi as a race living in plenitude and abandon was inspired by the utopian romance
novel News from Nowhere (1890), though Wells' universe in the novel is notably more savage and brutal.
In his 1931 preface to the book, Wells wrote that The Time Machine seemed "a very undergraduate
performance to its now mature writer, as he looks over it once more", though he states that "the writer feels
no remorse for this youthful effort". The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life
and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations.

PLOT

The book's protagonist is a Victorian English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey,
identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. Similarly, with but one exception (a man named
Filby), none of the dinner guests present are ever identified by name, but rather by profession (for example,
"the Psychologist") or physical description (for example, "the Very Young Man").
The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth
dimension and demonstrates a tabletop model machine for travelling through the fourth dimension. He
reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person through time, and he returns at dinner the
following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device. At first he thinks nothing has happened but soon
finds out he went five hours into the future. He continues forward and sees his house disappear and turn into
a lush garden. The Time Traveller stops in A.D. 802,701, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small,
elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating
buildings, and adhere to a fruit-based diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack
of curiosity or discipline. They appear happy and carefree but fear the dark, and particularly moonless
nights. Observing them, he finds that they give no response to mysterious nocturnal disappearances, possibly
because the thought of it alone frightens them into silence. After exploring the area around the Eloi's
residences, the Time Traveller reaches the top of a hill overlooking London. He concludes that the entire
planet has become a garden, with little trace of human society or engineering from hundreds of thousands of
years prior, and that communism has at last been achieved.
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Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller is shocked to find his time machine missing and
eventually concludes that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy
doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Luckily, he had removed the machine's levers
before leaving it . Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who
live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Exploring one of many "wells" that lead to the
Morlocks' dwellings, he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise of the
Eloi possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the
favoured aristocracy has become the intellectually degraded Eloi, and their mechanical servants have
become the brutal light-fearing Morlocks.
Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that due
to a lack of any other means of sustenance, they feed on the Eloi. The Time Traveller theories that
intelligence is the result of and response to danger; with no real challenges facing the Eloi, they have lost the
spirit, intelligence, and physical fitness of humanity at its peak.
Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her
plight, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes
Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure dubbed "The Palace of Green Porcelain", which turns
out to be a derelict museum. Here, the Time Traveller finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude
weapon against Morlocks, whom he must fight to get his machine back. He plans to take Weena back to his
own time. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the
forest for the night. They are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, whereby Weena faints. The Traveller
escapes when a small fire he had left behind to distract the Morlocks turns into a forest fire; Weena and the
pursuing Morlocks are lost in the fire and the Time Traveller is devastated over his loss.
The Morlocks open the Sphinx and use the time machine as bait to capture the Traveller, not understanding
that he will use it to escape. He reattaches the levers before he travels further ahead to roughly 30 million
years from his own time. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth: Menacing reddish
crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing enormous butterflies, in a world covered
in simple lichenous vegetation. He continues to make jumps forward through time, seeing Earth's rotation
gradually cease and the sun grow larger, redder, and dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the
last degenerate living things die out.
Overwhelmed, he goes back to the machine and returns to his own time, arriving at the laboratory just three
hours after he originally left. He arrives late to his own dinner party, whereupon, after eating, the Time
Traveller relates his adventures to his disbelieving visitors, producing as evidence two strange white flowers
Weena had put in his pocket.
The original narrator then takes over and relates that he returned to the Time Traveller's house the next day,
finding him preparing for another journey and promising to return in a short time. However, the narrator
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reveals that he has waited three years before writing and stating the Time Traveller has not returned from his
journey.

DYSTOPIA IN LITERATURE

The creation of the Dystopian Narrative began, when attitudes towards human nature and society started to
change across the globe. The first published work of literature pertaining to this idea is Thomas More’s
Utopia, in which he combined a most penetrating criticism of his own society, its irrationality and its
injustice, with the picture of a society which had solved most of the human problems which sounded
insoluble to his own contemporaries. Therefore, people who lived under the burdens and hardships of the
16th and 17th centuries were actually more optimistic about a better future for mankind than the generations
to come.
Although More gave the literary canon the term “utopia” in 1516, the idea of a “utopia,” or paradise, is
much older than that . Society has been fantasising about places in which humanity’s problems are obsolete
since the beginning of time. The concept of the “utopia” is found in places like “the biblical Eden, Greek
and Roman stories of the earthly paradise and the idea of a golden race or age”. Therefore, authors like More
were influenced by these early religious and philosophic texts to create a world where the hardships of the
time were non-existent and where life could be lived happily and justly. With the everyday hardships that
individuals faced during this time period, stories and myths like these may have well been the only escape
from reality. however, perspectives towards human nature began to change. This change started with the
breakout of the First World War and then became amplified after World War II. It is suggested that the
brutality and violence portrayed between the European nations in the First World War, managed to destroy
two-thousand-year-old Western tradition of hope and to transform it into a mood of despair . Therefore,
perspectives on human nature changed, and the events following the First World War, such as the rise of
Stalin and an economic crisis all over Europe, created a unanimous sense of doubt that the world could ever
get any better. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi party led to the breakout of the Second World War and the
eventual use of atomic weapons. Human beings were now seen as barbaric, selfish creatures and society was
destined to destroy itself. People were no longer hopeful for the future but rather, dreaded it, and literature
began to reflect these new negative feelings.
This new brand of dystopian literature or “anti-utopian” literature pointed out the errors in utopian ideas
when applied to a real human society. Critics of utopianism have claimed that the word “utopia” equates
with the word “perfect,” and a perfect society would be one that is “finished, complete, or unchangeable”.
Obviously, a human society could never be capable of these things indefinitely, and therefore a “utopian”
society will always become a dystopian one. Ultimately, this new genre of dystopian literature directly
reflected society’s opinions on “utopianism” following the rise and eventual downfall of such regimes.
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The first three novels that fall into the “dystopian literature” genre are Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World, and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We. These novels essentially act as the “counterpoints” to the
utopias written in the centuries prior. Despite the apparent critiques on politics, these novels also critique the
same inventions and new technologies that were making everyday life easier. This perspective of a mistrust
in the machine and modern technology varies greatly from those living during More’s era. While man was
now able to solve many of its hardships during the industrial revolution and forward, new, modern problems
were simultaneously being created. The increase in technology simultaneously created a sense of fear of
what it could do.
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THE TIME MACHINE AS A DYSTOPIAN NOVEL

The Time Machine (hereafter TTM) as a major work of dystopian fiction. This short novel can be
interpreted on different levels – it can be considered a work of social criticism – as Wells's Socialist warning
for what could happen in the future if society does not embrace equality and humanity and if capitalism does
not stop exploiting workers for the benefits of the rich. Wells's scientific study made him a passionate
believer in humankind's perfectibility through scientific discoveries. Being a tireless and constantly
frustrated working reformer, Wells implemented what he could not achieve realistically in life in his world
of fantasy. Then, as perceived that his fantasy romances brought no change in the society, he started to warn
human beings with his dystopias. Looking at it from a different angle it can be regarded as a novel about
Social Darwinism – Evolution / devolution . In fact, the novel is so rich in symbolism that it can be
interpreted on different levels –'The Time Machine' can be viewed as a 'history machine' and even 'The Eloi',
'The Morlocks', 'The Palace of Green Porcelain' and 'The White Sphinx' have both symbolic and realistic
values.
From the first sight, one can think that the world explored by the Time Traveller in 802,701 AD is a utopian
one. Nevertheless, as the action of the novel progresses, gradually this assumption is diminishing when he
discovers that instead of one world, there are two – one of the Eloi, pseudo utopian and the other one is of
the Morlocks, a gloomy and dystopian one. TTM is primarily a social critique of H.G. Wells's Victorian
England projected into the distant future. Wells was a Socialist for most of his life with Communist
leanings, and he argued in both his novels and non-fiction works that capitalism was one of the great ills of
modern society.
Class distinction dichotomizes the future society of TTM into a utopian and a dystopian one. These
dichotomous societies reflect the class struggle throughout history. The ruling class leads a utopian life on
the surface, while the poor class leads a dystopian life in the underground. The gist of the novel is the
struggle between these two species and these two modes of life. As a result, the world of TTM is the world
of contradictions: the paradisiacal world of the Eloi/ demonic world of the Morlocks; herbivorous race/
carnivorous race; lightness/darkness and gentle people/ harsh people.
Throughout the novel, Wells describes the species of the futuristic society in a very negative way using
unfavourable adjectives for describing both types –the Eloi are referred to as 'frail, fragile, and foolish'
creatures, also as 'indolent and easily fatigued' , 'idle and non-productive' while the Morlocks
are described as 'savage, wild and cannibalistic.' More adjectives with negative connotations are used for the
Eloi throughout the novel. Gradually, the more the Time Traveller gets acquainted with the Eloi and the
Morlock's way of living, the fiercer he attacks them. His description of these species culminates in the
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animal imagery of both types. The Eloi are referred to as "cattle" and the Morlocks in terms of unpleasant
animal life: as 'apes', 'worms', 'lemurs', 'rats' 'ant-like', and 'spiders'. (TTM, p. 49)

The Time Traveller begins his time travelling as an optimistic Social Darwinist, believing civilization will
continually advance, but he quickly reverses his thoughts once he observes the Eloi and the Morlocks.
Therefore, evolution does not lead to the "perfectibility" of any species, as is generally perceived, but to the
increasing adaptability and complexity of the species. The Time Traveller is shocked when he discovers
that,
instead of progressing, these creatures have degenerated. Wells thinks that the communal way of living and
man’s triumph over nature do not lead to perfection but lead to degeneration of human beings, physical
ability and mental talents as seen in the case of the Eloi:

'You see, I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would
be incredibly in front of us in knowledge, art, and everything. Then one of them suddenly asked me a
question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children – asked me, in
fact, if I had come from the sun in a thunderstorm!' (TTM, p. 26)

The Eloi are not only dull-minded, but they are sexually indistinct due to the close resemblance of the sexes
which is the result of their over idleness and excessive rest . Comfort, ease and security led to the demise of
intelligence especially on the part of the Eloi. Therefore, the amelioration of the conditions of life, and man's
triumph over nature ironically do not lead to man's perfectibility but to his degeneration.

'The too-perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, to a
general dwindling in size, strength, and intelligence. That I could see clearly enough already’. (TTM, p. 48)

In the future society discovered by the Time Traveller the human feelings such as sympathy and true love
have disappeared. A good example is when Weena was seized with a cramp no one was ready to rescue her
while she was about to drown . Furthermore, Wells depicts that there are no more strong emotions and
family relationships. Instead of love and making the family, the Eloi enjoy themselves by playing, singing
and dancing in the sunlight . All the joy of the Morlocks is their night hunting of the Eloi. Through the
technique of contrast between the Eloi and the Morlocks, Wells tries very hard to bring into light the
continuous class struggle and the contradictions of the future society. The Eloi are soft, weak creatures,
small in stature and effete in gesture and conduct, they devote their time to the simple pleasures of erotic
play and eating delicious fruit. The Morlocks, toiling in their underground factories, make everything the
Eloi need for their easy existence. Nevertheless, like human spiders, the Morlocks emerge after dark to prey
upon the Eloi, who are meat for them. The physical and the spiritual degeneration of the Eloi in TTM will
consequently bring about the cultural and the linguistic deterioration. In the future community of the Eloi
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and the Morlocks, culture and the artistic impetus that give colour and meaning to life will be diminished .
Language, the most effective vehicle for expressing culture and art, and which is the most significant mental
invention made by man will also be on the wane:

'Either I missed some subtle point, or their language was excessively simple – almost exclusively composed
of concrete substantives or verbs. There seemed to be few, if any, abstract terms, or little use of figurative
language. Their sentences were usually simple and of two words, and I failed to convey or understand any
but the simplest prepositions.' (TTM, p.39)

From the first sight, the Time Traveller thinks that "there were no signs of struggle, neither social nor
economical struggle. In spite of all these deficiencies, the Time Traveller still thinks that he has discovered a
'social paradise' and the age he reached with his Time Machine is the 'Golden Age' (TTM, p.44). However, it
is a Elysium to the Traveller, who puts together this equation as his first hypothesis to explain what he sees:
that monotony of environment plus a stabilised population equals cessation of competition, and stagnation of
body and mind.
But the more the Time Traveller progresses in his narration, the more this outlook fades. Then the Time
Traveller discovers that the upper-world species are not the sole inhabitants of this world, for there are other
under-world species who are very different from the previous one.
Society, Wells thought, was splitting into two castes that eventually would evolve into separate species
because of their different conditions of existence. On the one hand, were the owners of capital, doomed to
mental and physical enfeeblement because they never had to struggle to survive; on the other were the
workers alienated from their labour as Marx says, made increasingly stunted, amoral, and angry by the
harshness of their labour conditions and life. Wells's future dystopia showed what he thought would happen
when this division reached its end. As such, Wells's vision of the future becomes as shocking to the socialist
or humanist as to the bourgeois reader. Wells imagines the separation of workers and capitalists taken to the
extreme. At last, Wells thinks that the Sunset of mankind has come as he states:

"It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane. The ruddy sunset set me thinking of
the sunset of mankind" (TTM, p.31).
After long years of struggle, the Morlocks, the evolved, nocturnal, Underworld members of the working
class are now the true masters; they breed the Eloi like cattle and stalk them at night. The class warfare and
the revenge of the slaves (the Morlocks) on their former masters (the Eloi) ends with hunting, terrorising and
eating the Eloi, as the ancestors of the Eloi metaphorically preyed on their subjugated workers.
These two opposing classes produce a violent class struggle, with neither class seeming a preferable
alternative to today's humans. This struggle between them is implied to be the consequences of today's
distinctions, showing the worst parts of both classes; the feebleness of the rulers and the mechanical nature
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of the workers. The combination of evolution and class differentiation has provided a society in TTM with
two distinct, undesirable classes These cannibalistic, monstrous Morlocks literally eating the beautiful Eloi
are easily read as a savage satire, or reverse-satire, on the inherent violence of class in late 19th century
Britain. The opposition of the Eloi and the Morlocks can be interpreted in terms of the late 19th century
class struggle, but it also reflects "an opposition between aestheticism and utilitarianism, pastoralism and
technology, contemplation and action, and ultimately, and least specifically, between beauty and ugliness,
and light and darkness." The degeneration of human kind into Eloi and Morlocks, followed by further
degeneration into crabs and polyps reflects the entropic philosophy of Wells in the 1890s. The ill effects of
capitalism, with its close ties to Social Darwinism and entropy.
On the surface, the Eloi live in a "sexual utopia" in which the idea of free love has reached its crescendo.
number of essays and novels. As the Time Traveller remains more among the Eloi, the Time Traveller
understands them better and concludes that his first theory was very wrong. The tale of 802,701 A. D. is a
political commentary of late Victorian England. It is a dystopia, a vision of a troubled future. It recommends
that current society must change its ways lest it end up like the Eloi, terrified of an underground race of
Morlocks. In the Eloi, Wells satirises Victorian decadence. In the Morlocks, Wells provides a potentially
Marxist critique of capitalism.
In the future society explored by the Time Traveller, the division of labour is so strict and it is carried to the
extreme. At one point, the ancestors of the Morlocks must have been driven underground to work for the
ancestors of the Eloi, but now the balance of power has shifted. In their restful ease, the Eloi have grown
weak, while the Morlocks in the toil and suffering have grown strong. He imagines that both are the
descendents of man, and that the instinct against cannibalism must have gone out of style.
Wells's vision of the future, with its troglodytic Morlocks that descended from the working class of his day
and the pretty but helpless Eloi devolved from the leisure class, may seem as an antiquated political theory.
It emerged out of the concern for social justice. Describing two classes that seem to have solitary
capabilities, TTM applies to industrialised society, warning of the great gap between the ruling class and the
workers. The Time Traveller notes, "the gradual widening of the merely temporary and social difference
between the Capitalist and the Labourer was the key to the whole position" (TTM, pp. 46-47).

This evolution can be interpreted as a harsh critique of capitalism; though the Time Traveller believes the
two species are equally happy, the numerous defects just in the Eloi – notably their weakness and stupidity –
indicate Wells's disapproval of capitalist evolution. The Eloi are representatives of the upper class of
Victorian England, childishly leading lives of luxury, while the Morlocks are projections of England's
oppressed workers, toiling underground to provide for their masters. However, there is evidence that the Eloi
fear the Morlocks, and that they cannot get the Time Machine back from them.
The Time Traveller at the end reaches an opposite conclusion. Therefore, he revises his hypothesis: while
the Eloi and Morlocks may have once had a master-slave relationship, now the Morlocks are growing in
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power to the point that they hunt the Eloi. It is a theory of revenge of the working class on those who have
deprived them of natural living and have exploited them throughout different stages of history.
The Time Traveller's Victorian upper-class disgust with the poor comes out in Chapters 8 and 9. First, he
"instinctively" loathes the Morlocks, much as someone raised in class-conscious English society would
immediately react to poverty. When he figures out that the Morlocks are the true masters of the Eloi, his
sympathy with the Eloi overshadows whatever ideas he may have about the rich being justly punished. The
Eloi, the last vestiges of the humanity he embraces, are too much like the Time Traveller for him to take
great delight in their defeat.
The Time Traveller's third theory on the world of the Eloi is revealing because it clarifies many facts. By
depicting the Morlocks gaining the upper hand in the class warfare, Wells in TTM launches a fierce attack
on the capitalistic system. It shows how the capitalist system destroys all human relationships. As the Time
Traveller theories, the working class has been pushed underground for so long that it has evolved into
distinct, nocturnal species. However, at some point the Morlocks – the underground group – ran out of food
and were forced to hunt down the Eloi, which they now breed like cattle.The Morlocks are very similar to
the miners of the Victorian times. The only difference is that they lived underground and in the dark, but the
miners did not live underground, though they did spend most of their time working there. The Morlocks
seemed much like slaves to the Eloi, because that is what the miners were like to the upper class.

The Morlocks lost their humanity because of a long process of exploitation and persecution. The ancestors
of the Eloi have driven them away with force from the civilised world for many centuries. They have been
treated violently and like animals were reduced to living in sordid conditions. Thus, they lost their humanity
and were turned into ferocious beasts. Because of the harsh treatment of the Morlocks, physically they
became stronger and started to attack the weak Eloi during dark nights. They terrorise and avenge
themselves upon the Eloi and eat their meat. In effect, violence breeds violence. Thus, the former master-
slave relationship has shifted when the Morlocks become the masters of the Eloi:

The Upper-world people might once have been the favoured aristocracy, and the Morlocks their mechanical
servants; but that had long since passed away. The two species that had resulted from the evolution of man
were sliding down towards, or had already arrived at, an altogether new relationship. The Eloi, like
Carlovingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed earth on sufferance: since
the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface
intolerable. And the Morlocks made their garments, I inferred, and maintained them in their habitual needs,
perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service... But, clearly, the old order was already in part
reversed. Ages ago, thousands of generations ago, man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and the
sunshine. And now that brother is coming back – changed! Already the Eloi had begun to learn one old
lesson anew. They were becoming reacquainted with Fear.'
 Bano17
(TTM, pp. 54-55)

By the example of Eloi and Morlocks, Wells warns of Capitalism and its consequences to mankind. The
vision that is presented in TTM shows or rather forecasts the results of the social split between the leisurely
wealthy upper class and the working class, especially in Victorian England. While industrialists revelled in
their unbounded wealth, droves of men, women, and young children toiled long hours for meagre wages in
dirty, smoke-filled factories. The increasing development of the division between “upper” and “lower” class
will lead into further disaster in the distant future when the best part of mankind will turn into cattle and the
worst into cannibals. When so, that is the end of humanity.
Both the Eloi and the Morlocks have been produced by a genetic differentiation, which stems from the
earlier separation of the ruling class and the proletariat – and here Wells inverts the optimism of the Marxist
theory of the class struggle as he had already inverted Darwin. The final episodes of TTM are gloomy and
heart sickening. They denote the end of human species on the earth due to the ecological disaster. Travelling
further into the future, the sign of the physical world disappears step by step until no trace of human beings
is left. All that the Time Traveller can see are crab-like creatures and lichens. He then travels thirty million
years into the future. The air becomes very thin, and the only sign of life is a black blob with tentacles. He
sees a planet eclipsing the sun. An incredible darkness and blackness follows. On the verge of fainting, he
climbs back on the machine, and as he does, he notices a black blob with tentacles flop over in the distance.
It is the only evidence of animal life. What the Time Traveller sees at the end of his journey is total
ecological, biological and social disaster, in addition to horrifying darkness This was one of the major social
theories of the late 19th- century which adapted Charles Darwin's theories on evolution to justify 19th-
century social stratification between the rich and the poor. In other words, evolution has problems in
application to the world of mankind, since man changes his environment as he himself changes. Therefore,
the changing environment may not always produce desirable changes in man, and Social Darwinism's
argument that those who succeed in a given environment are naturally superior is not valid.
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CONCLUSION

The dystopian world of the Eloi comes to the surface that contains much of the political message. Here, the
reader sees in the Time Traveller's remarks a thinly veiled criticism of contemporary social mores in
Victorian England. It is crucial to note that the Time Traveller does not move in space, but only in time.
Therefore, we can read the novel as a projection of England's future. Here, the Time Traveller concludes that
the world of the Eloi is a dystopia, or a negative utopia:

'The great triumph of Humanity I had dreamed of took a different shape in my mind. It had been no such
triumph of moral education and general cooperation as I had imagined. Instead. I saw a real aristocracy,
armed with a perfected science and working to a logical conclusion, the industrial system of today. Its
triumph had not been simply a triumph over Nature, but a triumph over Nature and the fellow-man.'
(TTM, p.48)

In TTM, Wells presents the idea that capitalism is dangerous. Now man is divided into two species: one of
them is the upper species and the other is nocturnal and subterranean . This class distinction and social
segregation lead to the difference in the mentality and later on in the language of the Eloi and the Morlocks .
That is, there is complete misunderstanding between the Eloi and the Morlocks due to the total difference of
their environments, which induces two different languages. That is quite natural, because after such a long
segregation, the needs and the interests, the ideas and the behaviour of each group will be so far from each
other that none of them will understand each other .Thus, without an attractive choice when looking to the
extremes, TTM shows that humanity must choose to resolve the problems of class conflict. Rather than
achieve progress through exploitation and hatred, progress must be achieved through mutual benefit. The
Time Traveller believes that he has happened upon the end of humanity, and that the advances of civilization
in agriculture, medicine, shelter, community, pacifism, and so on logically enfeeble its inhabitants, since
hardship forces humans to use their intelligence for survival. While civilization has evolved into some sort
of perfection, it has outstripped the progress of its inhabitants. Within these increasingly self-sufficient
civilizations, the inhabitants weaken, their energy dissipated through entropy: "Under the new conditions of
perfect comfort and security, that restless energy would become weakness." There is no longer "survival of
the fittest" for, as The Time Traveller points out, "what we should call the weak are as well equipped as the
strong" (TTM, p. 33).
The Time Traveller formulated three theories about the destiny of mankind in the remote future. First, he
thinks that the Eloi are the sole descendents of humanity. He assumes that scientific progress continues to
 Bano19
make life easier for humans, so much so that they lose their edge, becoming stupid and lazy. He implies that
this fate is the result of communism, as if the lack of competition drove the human race to indolence.
Second, after he discovers the Morlocks, he thinks that the Morlocks are the slaves of the Eloi. He still feels
that the Eloi have devolved into frail creatures because their life is too easy, but he believes that the
Morlocks, humanity's other descendent, have evolved into brute workers. He thinks that this is capitalism's
division of labour taken to the extreme.
Finally, the Time Traveller explains he has only seen a "half-truth" in the environment so far; what this other
half is will be essential to unlocking the various mysteries so far. The Time Traveller realises that man has
evolved into two distinct animals, the "Upper world" creatures and the nocturnal ones below.
He believes the human race has split due to the widening gap between the "Capitalist and the Labourer," and
that the poor have been increasingly relegated to underground areas, while the rich have remained on the
surface. The lack of interaction between the "Have-nots" (the poor workers) and the "Haves" (the rich) has
cut down interbreeding and created two distinct species who have adapted to their own environments.
Nevertheless, he believes that the species are equally happy. He believes humanity has not triumphed merely
over nature, but over "Nature and the fellow-man."
The future is not a Communist state, as he previously believed, but an excessively capitalist one that has
completely erased all human symptoms from both species. Moreover, the Time Traveller sees a natural
integration of capitalism and evolution in human history. The differences between the rich and the poor in
contemporary England, especially in places of habitation, have led to the physical evolution of two distinct
species.

To conclude, one can clearly pinpoint Wells's message –

Every utopia contains its own dystopia. In this short novel, Wells puts humanity before a very difficult test.
There are only two destinies awaiting man on earth – one of them is full of love, kindness, and mercy. The
other is tinted with hatred, selfishness, and animosity. Man should choose one of these alternatives. The first
one will lead to peace, harmony, and happiness. The other will lead to revenge, death, and destruction.
However, if man chooses the first way, humanity can at least enjoy happiness before the advent of inevitable
ecological disaster that will destroy all living creatures on earth. Wells's future is a world in which men
harked back to cannibalism and there is no trace of intellectual life on earth.
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REFERENCES
1.Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide (London: Greenwood Press, 1994)
2 .J. R. Hammond, An H. G. Wells Companion (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1979),
3.Patrick Parrinder, "History in the Science Fiction of H. G. Wells"
4.Bernard Bergonzi, "The Time Machine: An Ironic Myth" The Critical Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter,
1960),
5.Theodore Dalrymple in "The Dystopian Imagination", www.city-journal.org (accessed February 20,
2007).
6.John Lawton, ed., H.G. Wells: The Time Machine (London: Dent, 'The Everyman Library', 1995),