The Time Machine Essay, Research Paper

Let me start off this essay by saying that I believe H.G.(Herbert George) Wells is one of the most intelligent writers of his time: a true futurist. Obviously, I read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and I would like to say that it was extremely well written and sounds as though it was written fairly recently. It may just sound this way because the human race has not really tried Time Traveling. The theme of The Time Traveler is, as I see it: Think about what you are doing before doing it. The Time Traveler should have thought his journey through and taken precautions for everything that could possibly go wrong, or right for that matter. If he had done this, I am sure he would have had a camera, matches (to fight off the Morlocks), cigars (he constantly longs for them throughout the novel) and of course, his machine would not have been captured by the Morlocks.

The main characters in The Time Machine were The Time Traveler, Weena (an Eloi who The Time Traveler rescued), the Eloi as a race and the Morlocks as a race. Now that you know the main characters, I will explain their purpose in the novel and their behaviors. Weena was by far the most interesting character in the novel. She was an Eloi who was drowning while trying to bathe in a river. The Time Traveler quickly jumped into the river and rescued her. Weena then started following The Time Traveler everywhere during his explorations. He learned about the Eloi people and their language and the Morlocks from Weena. The Time Traveler was definitely intelligent. He figured out a way to travel through time! He was also a very charming, rich and friendly man, a little too anxious and curious, I would say. His anxiousness made him go to another time unprepared, nothing with him but a package of matches. The Morlocks are a futuristic equivalent to our current day primates-just uglier, smellier and they live underground. They are very aggressive and are blinded by even weak sources of light. The Morlocks are carnivorous and sometimes make a meal of an Eloi. The Eloi are a beautiful, friendly and fragile race of small creatures. They seem to have a great fear of the dark, because that is when the Morlocks come out from their Underworld. Both are descendents of humans. The Morlocks stole The Time Machine (I think) to lure The Time Traveler into the brass gates so they could make a meal out of him.

The Time Machine is about a man, whose name is not revealed, referred to as The Time Traveler. He builds a Time Machine and travels forward in time. When The Time Traveler arrives at his destination, 8 million years later, he discovers that the world is not futuristic at all, but rather primitive! The Time Traveler explores this new world and finds that there are two primitive species, the Eloi and the Morlocks, which seem to be descendents of humans. The oddest thing about the Morlocks is that they cannot leave their Underworld in daylight, because the light will blind them. This is why the Eloi stay inside during the night and the Morlocks come out. During the Time Traveler’s exploration, his Time Machine was stolen. When The Time Traveler noticed his missing machine he

began to go crazy. There were a million thoughts going through his head, the most prominent one being: the machine is gone or destroyed and he will have to spend the remnants of his life there. After this unfortunate event The Time Traveler spent most of his time exploring; at one point he went into the underworld-stupid move. He soon found that he was surrounded by Morlocks, so he lit a match. The light from the match scared the Morlocks away, then he made an escape back to the surface. At this point, the Time Traveler, to his dismay, realized that the Morlocks were not as nice as the Eloi. In fact, the Morlocks had stolen his Time Machine. One day, exploring with Weena, The Time Traveler came across what seemed to be a museum. The museum was full of items that appeared to be from our time, like guns and knives. He got a box of matches, a block of camphor and what he called a mace, which was a solid metal rod. After taking these items, he left the museum with Weena, but on the way home, it became dark. The Morlocks were following them and when they finally made their move and came over to The Time Traveler, Weena was asleep under his arm. He put her down, took out a match and lit a fire. The Morlocks disappeared and the Time Traveler fell asleep with Weena by the fire. When he woke up the fire was out, Weena was gone and he was surrounded by Morlocks. He angrily fought off many Morlocks with his mace until the remnants of the fire he had started earlier were rapidly spreading to trees. This generated a lot of light, thus generating a lot of blind Morlocks. The Time Traveler killed and injured many Morlocks with his mace as the fire got bigger and bigger. The Time Traveler made his escape and returned to the spot where he first arrived in this time. He saw the brass door opened and in the back of the room was the Time Machine! He quickly dropped his mace and ran inside of the room. The door slammed shut and Morlocks started attacking him. He went for his matches, but they were gone so he ran to the Time Machine. He screwed in the levers which activate the machine and activated it. He went even further into the future where the Sun is getting bigger and redder and the Earth cold and lifeless. He had seen enough and was having trouble breathing because the air was thin, so he went back to his time. The Time Traveler was just in time for supper with some of his friends. After he bathed and ate, he brought everyone into the smoking room to tell his remarkable story. It’s unfortunate that not many believed him. The next day the Time Traveler traveled again. This time he was prepared, with a camera and other supplies. After that, no one ever saw The Time Traveler again.

I think The Time Machine was a very good novel, but it had it’s weaknesses. For example, I would have liked to have heard more about how time traveling works. I would have also liked to have seen Weena return with The Time Traveler. I would definitely recommend The Time Machine anyone who is a sci-fi enthusiast.