University of management and

technology
Assignment No. 2
Subject: - Communication Skills
Topic: - The Time Machine
Submitted to: - Sir Shahid Zaki
Submitted by: - Nayab Shahid
ID No.: - 13003065070
Date: - 6th February, 2015

The Time Machine

By: -H. G. Wells

Summary: The Time Traveler tells that he has invented a Time Machine.
He shows them a smaller prototype, and when he pulls a lever,
it disappears into the future. At the next week's dinner, the
Time Traveler comes in midway through the meal, haggard and
limping. He tells them of his eight days of time travel: The TT
uses the Time Machine that morning and speeds forward
through time.
The TT finally stops, and he and the machine land in a garden.
He sees a statue of a White Sphinx. He notices robed figures in
a nearby house who are watching him. One approaches him.
The creature is small and strikes the TT as beautiful but frail.
The creature speaks in a "strange tongue". The TT is stunned
to think these creatures from 802,701 AD could be fools. The
creatures bring him to a huge nearby building, where they
invite him to devour exotic fruit with them. At first, he
explains, he was confused by the strange fruits and flowers he
saw, but he later came to understand their significance.
The TT tries to learn the creatures' language, but they soon
lose interest in teaching him. He goes outside and is confused
by the repositioning of the world. He has shifted more than a
mile. He explores and sees only huge buildings. However, he
explains he was later to find out that his initial assumptions
were incorrect. The odd appearance of a well briefly diverts
the TT on his walk. He believes he has happened upon the end
of humanity. He also believes their population checks have
possibly been too effective, accounting for the abandoned
ruins. However, he admits, his explanation turned out to be
wrong. The full moon comes out, the creatures go into
buildings, and the TT finds someplace to sleep. When he

reaches the garden of the White Sphinx, he finds the Time

Machine is missing. Fortunately, without the levers, the Time
Machine is inoperable. The next day he finds hints that the
machine was dragged into the hollow bronze pedestal under
the White Sphinx, as well as nearby footprints of a sloth-like
creature. However, he does not know how to open the
pedestal, and when he indicates to the some of the creatures
that he wishes to open it, they seem deeply offended and
leave.
On his third day, the TT saves a young female creature from
drowning in the shallow river. Her name is Weena, and she
soon follows him around like a puppy, giving him flowers, and
grows distressed when she cannot keep up with his
explorations and is left behind.
On his fourth morning, The TT realizes that man has evolved
into two distinct animals, He comes up with a new theory of
how the world operates: the new species he has found are
subterranean and live in tunnels ventilated by the towers and
wells. He believes the human race has split as a result of the
widening gap between the "Capitalist and the Labourer". The
lack of interaction between the poor workers and the rich has
cut down interbreeding and created two distinct species who
have adapted to their own environments. The TT is not sure if
this is the correct explanation, but it seems the most
plausible. He wonders why the Morlocks the name of the
Underworld creatures have taken his Time Machine and why
the Eloi the Upperworld creatures cannot return it to him, if
they are the masters, and why they are afraid of the dark.
The TT cannot muster the courage to go underground and
confront the Morlocks about his stolen Time Machine. Instead,
he explores the Upperworld more, one day happening upon a
huge green structure which he calls the Palace of Green
Porcelain. Finally he descends into the well, greatly
distressing Weena. He rests in a tunnel inside it, and is woken
by three Morlocks. They flee when he lights a match, and the
TT cannot communicate with them, as they speak a different
language from the Eloi. He finds his way into a large, dark,

machine-filled cavern where the Morlocks eat meat. Soon the

Morlocks grope him. He shouts at them, then lights a
succession of matches as he escapes. The TT instantly
despises the Morlocks. As the moon wanes and the nights have
longer periods of darkness, Weena talks about the "Dark
Nights." The TT begins to understand why the Eloi fear the
darkness, though he does not know what kind of "foul villainy"
the Morlocks practice at night. He revises his hypothesis: while
the Eloi and Morlocks may have once had a master-slave
relationship, now the Morlocks are growing in power while the
Eloi are fearful. The TT decides to defend himself against the
Morlocks. First he must find weapons and a safe place to
sleep. The only place he can think of is the Palace of Green
Porcelain. He starts off the long trek with Weena, and comes
up with a new theory about the Morlocks: they breed the Eloi
like cattle for food. He sympathizes with the plight of the Eloi.
The TT decides to use a torch as a weapon against the
Morlocks, and then acquire some kind of battering-ram to
break open the pedestal under the White Sphinx, where he
imagines the Time Machine is still kept. He also plans to bring
Weena back to his own time.
The Palace of Green Porcelain turns out to be a ruined museum
with objects from the TT's time and beyond. The TT finds an
enormous room with huge, strange machines, and wonders if
he can use them against the Morlocks. He notices that the
gallery slopes downward into darkness. When he hears noises
in the darkness similar to those from the well, he breaks off
the lever of a machine. He restrains his desire to kill the
Morlocks.
The TT treks with Weena through the woods, hoping to reach
the White Sphinx by the next morning. They gather sticks for a
fire that night. At night, about a mile before a safe clearing,
the TT spots some hiding Morlocks. He distracts them by
setting fire to the sticks and leaving them there. He takes
Weena through the woods as the fire spreads behind them.
Soon, the Morlocks are on him and Weena. The TT scares them
off with a match. Weena seems to have fainted, and he carries

her. The action has disoriented him, and he is now lost. He

camps out, gathering more sticks for a fire. He fends off the
Morlocks with the light from his matches. The TT nods off, and
wakens when the Morlocks are on him again. His matches are
gone and his fire has gone out. He grabs his lever and strikes
them. They flee, but the TT soon realizes the forest fire he
previously set is the source of their fear. Unable to find Weena,
he takes his lever and follows the Morlocks until he finds an
open space.
At the White Sphinx, he is surprised to find the bronze
pedestal has been opened, and the Time Machine is inside. He
throws away his weapon and goes inside. Suddenly, the bronze
panels close up, and the TT is trapped. The Morlocks laugh as
they approach him. The TT feels safe, knowing he has only to
reattach the levers on the machine to make his exit. However,
his matches require a box to light. In the darkness, he fights
them as he gets into the machine's saddle and reattaches the
levers. Finally, he pulls a lever and disappears.
The TT notices that, in the confusion of his fight with the
Morlocks, he accidentally sent himself into the future, rather
than the past. The TT pulls his machine's lever and watches
more of the giant crabs crawl along the beach as he shoots
forward through time. The sun grows larger and duller. After
thirty million years, all life save the green vegetation ceases
to exist, and it starts to snow. The TT stops the machine. He
feels sick and confused.
He sees a black creature crawl out from the sea, and his fear
of remaining in this environment compels him to climb back
into the Time Machine.
The TT relates to the men his travel back to the present time.
The men imply that they do not believe his story, and soon
leave. The narrator thinks more about the TT's story, unsure if
it is true. He goes to the laboratory the next day and asks the
TT if his story was true. He promises it was, and says he will
prove it in half an hour when he's done working on the
machine. He leaves, and the narrator realizes he has to meet
someone soon. As he goes into the laboratory to tell the TT,

there is a gust of wind and some odd sounds, and neither the
TT nor the Time Machine is present. When a servant tells him
he has not seen the TT outside, the narrator understands he
has traveled into time again. Three years later, the TT has yet
to return to the present. The narrator wonders where the TT's
adventures may have taken him. While the TT saw that
mankind's progress turned out to be destructive, the narrator
believes human civilization may still do some good as it
matures. The narrator also chooses to view the future as
largely unknown. He now owns two white flowers given to the
TT by Weena proof, he says, that "even when mind and
strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still
lived on in the heart of man."
Protagonist: The Time Traveler is the protagonist of the story, and remains the focal character
of the narrative, even when he is not narrating the story himself. His journey into
the future and what he finds are the focus of the story. His thoughts dominate the
story, and tend to shape the readers response to the various characters the he
encounters.

Antagonist: On one hand, the main antagonists in the story are the Morlocks. These predatory
creatures prey on the helpless Eloi, and on more than one occasion attack the
Time Traveller, almost preventing him from returning to his own time. But even
more so, the antagonist is the Time Traveller himself, as he attempts to remain a
scientific observer, drawing the proper conclusions, discerning the truth of the
future, and remaining somewhat distant from the situation, while at the same
time wrestling with his fear and apprehension of what humankind has become as
well as the possibility of being trapped forever.

Characters are as follows: The Time Traveler: A well-read and intelligent man of science. He is versed in the theories of
his day, and very clearly a Darwinist, like Wells himself, and his thoughts
echo much of Wellss own theories about the Britain of his time. He is a

man of observation, and muses quite a bit about his surroundings, in an

attempt to use logical thinking to draw conclusions about the future and
its inhabitants. The Time Traveler has a sense of humor about almost
everything he encounters, and accepts his friends skepticism. Witty and
somewhat of a joker, this aspect of his personality is part of the reason his
friends so quickly dismiss his story and demonstration as a joke.
The Narrator, Hillyer : One of the three men present at both dinners. The narrator is the only
character who gives any credence to the Time Travellers claims; he
seriously considers the possibility of time travel.

Eloi: A peaceful but weak and lethargic people who populate the surface of the
earth in the year 802701. Small in stature, and delicate featured, the Eloi
play all day, feast on fruit in great halls, and sleep in a large communal
chambers in order to protect themselves from the dark and the possibility
of Morlock attack. Easily tired and childlike, they are not interested
intellectual pursuits, or in the Time Traveller beyond his function as a
diversion.

Morlocks : An aggressive, predatory, ape-like people who live beneath the earths
surface in the year 802701. The Morlocks are the descendants of the
working class of the late 19 th century, and continue to labor, maintaining
and running huge machines deep in the earth. The have adapted
physically to life beneath the surface, with large, eyes very sensitive to
light, and light, unpigmented skin and fur. Carnivores, they feast on the
Eloi, who they maintain as a source of meat.

Weena: An Eloi who the Time Traveller saves from drowning. She becomes a
special friend of the Time Traveller, following him around and occasionally
serves as a source of information. She eventually is attacked by the
Morlocks and dies in the forest fire.

The Medical Man: One of the three men present at both dinners. He considers the Time
Travellers theories and stories, treats the subject seriously at first, but
challenges him and remains extremely skeptical. At the demonstration, he
maintains that the Time Traveller played a trick on them all.

The psychologist: One of the three men present at both gatherings, who thinks time

traveling would be useful, especially for historians, but does not believe in
the possibility of it. After the second meeting and hearing the Time
Travellers story, he seems unaffected by it, and does not offer an opinion
of it.

The Editor: He is present at the second meeting only. He is the editor of a well-known
(but unnamed) daily paper. Outspoken, he remains skeptical of the Time
Travellers story, making jokes about the Time Travellers appearance at
dinner, as well as after he tells his story.

The Journalist: He is present at the second dinner only. He unsuccessfully tries to amuse
the dinner party with anecdotes, and after the Time Travellers story,
seems uninterested in whether the story is true or not.

Provincial Mayor: He is present at the first meeting only. He is not very intelligent, nor a
man of science.

Filby: He is present at the first meeting only. He is described as an

argumentative person with red hair, and believes Time Travellers
theories go against reason.

A very young man: He is present at the first meeting only. He participates in the discussion
about time traveling and the fourth dimension.

Man with a beard: He is present at the second meeting only. He is quiet and shy, and
unknown to the narrator.

SYMBOLS: The Sphinx: When the Time Traveler encounters the Sphinx, Wells is drawing an analogy to a wellunderstood literary symbol, alluding to the Greek myth of Oedipus and the riddle that
Oedipus had to solve. In using the Sphinx, Wells is telling the reader that the Time
Traveler is faced with a riddle as wellthe mystery of what happened to the human race.
He attempts to understand that mystery while also solving the puzzle of how to get his
time machine back.

In the original Oedipus myth, the solution to the riddle of the Sphinx compares the length
of one day to the lifetime of a man from infancy to death. The Sphinx is therefore a
symbol of human evolution and Wells' use of the Sphinx suggests that The Time
Machine is examining man's evolutionary path. The resulting discovery of the two races
and their relationship to each other suggests that Wells is predicting the fall of mankind
and humanity.

The Dark: In the book, the dark is a symbol of what man most fearsin this case, it is a version of
himself. Children are often afraid of the dark, but we expect that they will grow out of that
fear as they become aware that there is nothing in the dark to truly harm them. When the
Time Traveler meets the Eloi, he discovers their childlike fear of the dark and, at first, it
seems this is due to their naivety and lack of intellect.
But then the Morlocks arrive, and we discover that the cannibalistic race live in the dark
underground world below the Earth's surface. Wells has chosen to place the powerful,
ruling Morlocks in the dark to symbolize the possibility that the evil nature of humans
could overtake our gentler nature, forcing us to live in a dark, malevolent world. The Time
Traveler has to enter that world to battle his way through the darkness and back to his
time machine in order to escape.

The Time Machine: The machine itself is a symbol that Wells uses to explore man's own influence over his
destiny and to suggest that man has some control over whether or not we will end up in
the future that the Time Traveler sees. Through the ingenuity of his own imagination and
scientific curiosity, the Time Traveler creates the machine, expecting to find incredible
technological and cultural advances when he arrives in the future.
Instead, he finds that the world is quite different than he expected. The machine is taken,
and the Time Traveler has to fight to get back to his machine and to return to his own
world, representing the hope that with the knowledge of the future he has seen and now
shared with the narrator (and reader), man might be able to make changes in the present
in order to avoid the horrible future that will otherwise be man's destiny.

Major themes: The Time Machine has two major themes. The first, that capitalism is
dangerous, and harmful to the workers, is evident from the connection,
made outright by the Time Traveller, between the Morlocks and late 19 th

century laborers and the Eloi and the London aristocracy. Though the
aristocrats may be in control at the turn of the 20 th century, as long as
their power rests on the mistreatment of other human beings, and on the
distancing of the worker from the product of their labor, that power is
uncertain. The upset in the established hierarchy did not come not from a
revolutionary overthrow, but through gradual changes made over an
expanse of time, but the effect is the same, for in the waning days of
humanity, there is no seclusion from the predatory nature of the former
workers.
This provides the basis for the second, more important theme, which
questions the assumption that most people held at the end of the 19 th
century (and continue to hold today) that humankind will continue to
progress, and that improvements in society and culture are a given thing.
Though Wellss story on some levels might be considered optimistic, in his
realistic portrayal of what might be possible to do with science, it is
extremely pessimistic, offering a warning of the unfettered and
unthinking trust in progress, scientific and otherwise.

Minor Themes: On a more cheerful note, a minor theme can be found in what Wells seems
to be saying about human emotion: one of the only things that will survive
throughout time is sympathy and emotion, as seen in the relationship
between Weena and The Time Traveller. The Time Traveller becomes
attached to Weena because she seems the most human of the Eloi for the
reason that she clearly feels affection for the Time Traveller. In this way,
she demonstrates a kind of sympathy for him and the position in which he
finds himself.