The Time Machine - 1895 by Herbert George Wells

PRESENTATION

Instead of writing a book on social policy where, through a careful analysis of the defects of the system in which the different human social classes function together (one too favored and the other too exploited), the author could have described the future of humanity , H. G. Wells prefers to use a more common citizen-friendly reasoning and create a science fiction narrative.

In this narrative the reader will not have to deal with the understanding of political science concepts with the vocabulary and rhetorical and dialectical formalism typical of political environments. Ninth! Not at all.

The reader will have direct experience of the future social results of our civilization thanks to the use of a 'time machine' which will take him, together with the protagonist, to visit the final outcome of humanity and life on this dear planet of ours.

The powerful instrument whose functioning we will see in this novel, let it be clear, is not the time machine, but rather Charles Darwin's Theory of the Origin of Species, which the author of the novel knew very well as he was a teacher of natural Science.

This novel is, in my opinion, Wells' masterpiece, a prophetic work that powerfully evokes a world destiny that is anything but reassuring.

ANALYSIS

The action narrated during the novel unites two important science fiction topics, which are quite different from each other, which, taken individually, can very well constitute a complete theme for a science fiction story.

These two topics are the technology of the future, of which the time machine is a very suggestive symbol, and the utopia of a civilization of the future, which in this novel is represented by an abandoned but still functioning city, which is located near of the place where the main narrative action takes place, i.e. the natural park where the descendants of humanity live: the Eloi and the Morlocks.

With respect to the central topic of the novel, that of political criticism of human society, the two topics that constitute the narrative action perform an important function for the purposes of expounding the author's thesis.

While the time machine allows the narrator to move along the timeline and describe the positive and negative properties of each historical era of the future, both from a social and environmental point of view, the abandoned city allows the narrator to make available to the reader and to the protagonist all that historical information that explains the events of humanity from the day in which the time travel of this story began, up to that distant future where the protagonist arrived with his machinery.

I must warn the reader of this post that in Wells' novel the visit to the New London municipal library takes place AFTER the protagonist's arrival in the park where the Eloi people live. Instead, in the 2002 film 'The Time Machine', the visit to the library takes place BEFORE, in a previous era, when the utopian city and the library were still inhabited.

The reason for this modification of Wells' novel by the director of the film is known only to the director, but I would like to underline the fact that the writer's choice to show the abandoned city and library, at a time when humanity has lost all interest in civil life and culture, it is fully consistent with his thesis of political criticism of human society.

A narration of events different from how the writer organized it would cause such situations to lose meaning in the overall picture of the story.

Completeness of information

Before analyzing this parameter, it is necessary to clarify that the organization of the narrative voices of this novel is complex.

Although the narrative frame of the novel has a friend of the time traveler as narrator, the narrative action featuring the time traveler is presented by the time traveler himself.

The presence, therefore, of two narrative voices in this book, although it may give rise to confusion, serves to produce two different modes of narrative actions.

The narration given by the time traveler's friend expresses disbelief towards the story and supports the analytical thoughts the reader might have when hearing this adventure.

The time traveler's narrative expresses the intelligence of the human being who experiences the adventure of time travel firsthand and, therefore, must interpret the facts to make the right decision.

In both cases, these narrators do not have a declared identity for the reason that they must be 'impersonal'.

Their impersonality allows the reader to identify with each of the two types of narrators deeply, without being distracted by the attributions of identity they have.

In fact, it seems clear that the other friends of the time traveler to whom he tells his adventures have a declared identity. From their identities, and their professions, we learn that the entire group of people are residents of London.

Much more detailed is the information regarding the descendants of humanity.

The story informs us about the names of the two species of humans, how they live, their physical attributions and even what thoughts they seem to have at certain moments in history.

The narrative also goes so far as to tell us who their distant ancestors were: the Eloi are the descendants of the rich ruling class and the Morlocks are the descendants of the subordinate working class.

The completeness of information achieved to describe the future of humanity is so detailed that it can be compared to that found in scientific theories of anthropology. But I will talk about this in the next analysis parameter.

Scientific verisimilitude

The scientific principles on which this novel is based are two: time travel and the evolution of the human species in the distant future.

Both of these principles are sufficiently described in the story.

The theory of time travel is explained in the first chapter, as the reader begins reading the first page. This choice is excellent, as it immediately gives an idea of the scientifically ambitious nature of the story.

Starting the novel with a lesson on 'geometries of the fourth dimension', that is, time, the reader immediately understands two things: the first is that the narrative calls upon all the intelligence he has at his disposal, since it is an extremely mental abstraction, logical reasoning with an academic flavor, the second thing is that with a premise of that kind you can expect to read about truly impressive events that concern the destiny of the world and of humanity, something that will be fully confirmed in the course of reading.

Stylistically speaking, therefore, a more illuminating and emphatic beginning of the novel could not have been chosen, which is accentuated by the mysterious demonstrative experiment that the time traveler will show to his friends, among whom the first narrator is also present.

The writer should not be reproached for not having given a technical explanation of the technological principle that makes the time machine work. Wells is more interested in proving scientific theories, rather than playing with fantastic symbols of technological modernity.

The second scientific principle of the novel is the theory of human evolution over a period of eight hundred thousand years.

Eight hundred thousand years is a long time and is perfectly consistent with Darwinian evolutionary theories on the origin of modern man.

Eight hundred thousand years ago Homo Erectus still lived on Earth and his anatomical and cultural differences with us, today's men, are many.

Therefore, putting such a long time between the man of today and the man of the future, whose anatomical, intellectual and cultural attributions are so evident and profound is, in my opinion, an exact choice from the scientific point of view, which demonstrates Wells' preparation on the topics of Darwinian evolutionism.

The explanation that the writer gives to the evolutionary changes that human beings of the two opposing social classes have undergone over the millennia deserves praise; this explanation demonstrates that he understood very well the way in which the environment, behavior, food and other evolutionary factors act in a species to produce one quality rather than another, thus determining an evolutionary change.

The feeling that arises in the reader when reading this evolutionary transformation of masters and servants is one of commiseration.

There is so much sadness in seeing how the prestigious pride of the masters' superiority has been lost over time, resulting in a lineage of naive and useless people who are 'bred' solely to become the food of the Morlocks.

There is so much sadness in seeing how the trade union demands of the working class (always considered the emblem of the social redemption of the serfs who deserve more respect and social esteem), have been lost over time until arriving at a lineage of astute and insensitive, well-organized individuals who exploit their masters' great-grandchildren to... eat them.

Creativity in Fantasy

Analyzing this novel with the parameter of creativity in the fantastic component, one cannot fail to recognize that it is H. G. Wells' masterpiece.

The list of narrative inventions would be long, with countless descriptive details capable of evoking both wonderful suggestions and chilling and shocking impressions.

Oh yes, there is no doubt, from an artistic point of view, this novel demonstrates a suggestive power that is expressed with very original aesthetic figures, which not even the films that took it as inspiration have managed to match.

The meaning of the ending

I am convinced that the entire novel is constructed to keep itself in balance with its final epilogue.

Without the epilogue, this story would only express so much pessimism towards humanity.

It is the first narrator who is entrusted with the task of pronouncing the thought that acts as the moral conclusion of the story; this is why the first narrator is so important in the organization of the novel, since he tells us about the time traveler in the third person, both at the opening of the novel and at its closing.

So, what does the first narrator tell us at the end of the novel?

He confides to us this thought of his: that if after eight hundred thousand years in the hearts of human beings, even though they had been relegated to a lower evolutionary stage, like so many idiots without self-awareness, there was still the feeling of devotion and gratitude, then, perhaps, this is precisely the primordial and original quality that resides in each of us, and which makes us aware of good and evil.

This thought is uttered while looking at the flowers that Weena, the Eloi girl from the future, had put in the pocket of the time traveler's jacket to thank him for having been saved only by him, in the face of the indifference of her fellow citizens.

The comfort and hope given to us by this morality may seem small in the face of the dramatic future that awaits humanity. Maybe that's exactly how it is.

In fact, the comfort of this morality appears fragile and delicate to us just like Weena's flowers.