Written by H.G. Wells, the story of The Time Machine Essay Example For Students

Written by H.G. Wells, the story of The Time Machine Essay Written by H. G. Wells, the story of The Time Machine is regarded by some as one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. It puts forward many views on time travel, communism and other types of leadership which H. G. Wells felt strongly about, and also against. Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Kent, England. His father was a professional cricketer and shopkeeper, and his mother a former ladys maid. He took lots of short part-time jobs, including as a teaching assistant at a grammar school before going to college to study biology, where he graduated in 1888. He was influenced by a number of other writers at that time, notably Jules Verne, and he wrote his first novel The Time Machine, partly in response to the kind of writing Verne produced. The Time Machine was released as a book in 1895. This book was successful and ensured that he would not have to worry about the future. After this H. G. Wells wrote a number of other novels, with the most well known ones being, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War Between the Worlds. H. G. Wells is now sometimes named the father of modern science fiction. He died on the 13th August 1946, whilst working on a project that dealt with the dangers of nuclear war. The novel begins with the Time Traveller explaining his theories about the fourth dimension to a group of friends and associates gathered at his home for a weekly dinner. Most of the men present follow his explanations, agree in theory to most of his observations, but quickly become sceptical when the Time Traveller moves from speaking of the nature of time, to the possibility of moving within it. Their disbelief only increases when the Time Traveller offers to supply evidence to support his theories, bringing a small model into the smoking room. Made of metal, ivory and quartz, the machine, as the Time Traveller explains, is a replica of a full sized machine that he has built in his laboratory, and on which he plans to explore time. With his guests watching, he demonstrates the use of the machine, pushing a lever, which causes the model to disappear, into the future, the Time Traveller claims. Most of the men are initially disturbed by the presentation, not quite sure what to think, but most come to believe that the Time Traveller has been playing a trick on them, and easily dismiss his assertion that he plans to explore time within the next week. The following Thursday, another group of men gather at the Time Travellers house, and find that the host is not at home, but has left a note asking them to start without him. They do so, entertaining themselves with guesses as to why the narrator is not present, when their host enters, dishevelled, dirty, and limping. The Time Traveller returns after washing and changing clothes, to tell the story of his morning, in which he travelled eight days. After dinner, the men gather around him to hear the uninterrupted story. The Time Traveller then tells them that this very morning his machine was finished, and he soon departs into the future. He explains that at first he could only pay attention to the sensation of time travelling, which makes him feel queasy. Once he regains his full sentences, he begins to be able to observe more fully the speed at which he is travelling, as well as the world as time passes. He watches the swiftly changing scenery and then decides to stop to see what the future holds. His stop is sudden, throwing him from the machine into the grass. He finds he Is in the same location as his laboratory, but in the year 802701. He first encounters the Eloi, who approach him soon after his arrival, leading him into a large structure in which they eat and sleep. The Time Traveller takes part in a fruit feast with the Eloi, and explores the area around the structure, observing and making judgements about the nature of the future, which quickly are shown to be incorrect. When he is in the field next, he realizes that his machine has been moved; to where, he cannot fathom. In the next few days, the Time Traveller continues to explore the area, and in the process befriends one particular Eloi named Weena, who he saves from drowning. The Time Traveller, who normally sleeps outside, eventually meets the Morlocks, the other species who inhabit the planet in 802701. He descends down a well to the underground lair where the Morlocks lived, and fought his way back to his time machine using a metal bar and some matches. After a big struggle he finally sends himself away, but mistakenly starts going forwards to time. After millions of years he sees that the moon has disappeared, the earth has stopped rotating, and the sun just bobbed on the horizon. After being attacked by a crab-like creature he went forward again until he saw the earth grow cold and dark, with a frightening eclipse of the sun, and the last remnants of life. Inspector Goole Essay ThesisThe Time Machine was one of his earliest novels and when first written was called a scientific romance, rather than Science Fiction. Interestingly enough, a book has been written by Ronald Wright, called A Scientific Romance, which is a modern novel detailing what happened when the time machine returned to London. After Wells had witnessed the first world war he proceeded to write more non-fiction books, and undoubtedly told people that war was wrong: The professional military mind is by necessity an inferior and unimaginative mind; no man of high intellectual quality would willingly imprison his gifts in such calling. from The Outline of History 1920 He went on in that book to give profoundly pessimistic views about mankinds future prospects, as he did in his earlier novel, The Time Machine where he went forward until the world was nothing but a shocking wasteland with barely anything left living. Wells felt that writing so convincingly about it might make people actually think about what they were doing to ruin the planet. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. The Outline of History 1920 Wells passionate concern for society led Wells to join the socialist Fabian Society in London. The Fabian Society was an intellectual movement concerned with the research, discussion, and publication of socialist ideas. The Fabians believed that social reform could be achieved by a new political approach of gradual and patient argument, permeating their ideas into the circles of those with power; they aimed for democratic socialism throughout London. Wells was a member of this group for a few years before he had a falling out with the leaders of the party and left. This certainly tells us a lot about Wells political views and helps you understand more closely the remarks and points he has put in the Time Machine novel. It has also been said that Wells was a supporter of communism which explains why he had these views against capitalism and class division. He has also been recorded to have had some conversations with Lenin and Stalin aprÃÆ'Â ¨s the Russian Revolution to further this idea. The main political theme in the Time Machine is that capitalism is dangerous, and harmful to the workers, the connection Is that the Eloi are the lazy upper class supposedly unintelligent people from 19th century London, whilst The Morlocks are the working class. The point Wells tries to make is that for people to be rich and powerful, others have to be suffering for this to happen, an example in modern day society are big sports brands like Nike or Adidas, who are multi-million pound companies, but the people who suffer for their wealth are the poor people who make their goods for nothing in third world countries. The second theme in the story was that unlike some contemporary thought, humankind will not continue to develop forever, and there will be a time when backwards steps will be made. Wells changed this idea that the world would continue to improve and science would always get more advanced, with the idea that war could leave two very basic groups of people who were very uncivilised as the only people left on the earth. Wells tried to make people realise that if you all live too easily you will turn in to Eloi and sit and do nothing all day, and that Morlocks are a result of Capitalism gone mad, with the lower class rebelling against the upper classes to result in chaotic circumstances. Of course he made this clear that these changes would not happen immediately, but over long periods of time, and he tried to warn people that if nothing is done about it now then terrible things could happen in the future. In conclusion, the Time Machine by H. G. Wells was a very successful book that has been made into two films and has had numerous attempts to continue the story where Wells left off. It was meant to tell an interesting story but also to put forward views about capitalism and evolution. Even though Wells didnt use the most flowing and spectacular language, and used very scientific and dispassionate language, this didnt halt the success of the book. The main key ideas in the book are, is Capitalism dangerous? Could Communism solve societies problems? Will all the hard work that has been put in to make the world such an advanced place be wasted in the future? Are complex theories such as Time Travel possible? This book has made scholars and philosophers think about these ideas and many books regarding time travel e. g. Back to the Future, communism and capitalism e. g. Animal Farm, and evolution e. g. Planet of the Apes have been written and made into films because of H. G. Wells and his incredible imagination and view of the world.