To understand this essay, it would be better to have read the book, rather than have watched the movie adaptations.
The original story by H.G. Wells applying the concept of time travel was published as a serial in the Science Schools Journal under the title, “The Chronic Argonauts.” But several years later, when asked by an editor to rewrite the story for publication, Wells decided to write an entirely different story. Whereas the first story had in it much of the adventures found in current time travel stories, the final form of The Time Machine has very little action, and contains extensive sections where the situation of man in the future is studied, compared to the author’s contemporary (nineteenth century) conditions, and is explained in a system of theories.
The Time Machine is a story saturated with pessimism, chiefly from the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley, whose interpretations of theories of Charles Darwin developed the concept of “Cosmic Pessimism.” Three areas of pessimism are presented by Wells in the story: pessimism about mankind’s ability to achieve an ideal society through scientific progress and socialist actions, pessimism about the ultimate effect evolution would have on the human race, and pessimism about mankind’s willingness to take the necessary actions that would prevent its eventual decline. This third area of pessimism, dealing with “Victorian complacency,” can be clearly seen when the story is interpreted, not as a science fiction story, but rather as an allegory about Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, and the Victorian society of the nineteenth century as seen by Wells.
The main part of the story expresses the pessimistic view of mankind’s ability to achieve a utopian society through the conquest of nature by science and through the success of socialism in overthrowing the class system that separates capitalist from laborer. Through the Time Traveller’s eyes we see the future and through his mind we see how civilization drifts toward its ultimate destiny. Wells uses a principle found in romantic poetry,1 in which a series of three ideas is presented, each idea superseding the one before it. The Time Traveller presents three theories explaining how civilization had progressed over the years to the year 802701. Each time he develops a theory, he learns more about that civilization which forces him to abandon or alter his previous theory. By the time he reaches his third theory, the story presents civilization as pure nightmare.
FIRST STAGE OF PESSIMISM
The first stage begins as the Time Traveller arrives in the future. He finds himself in what appears to be a paradise. The entire landscape is one vast garden, free from disease or harmful plants. Large palaces had replaced individual homes, suggesting to the Time Traveller that communism had won over capitalism.2 Many of his observations parallel Wells’ own idealist concepts of socialism which he developed during his years at the Normal School in South Kensington (1884-1887). There was a revival of socialist activity at that time3 and many sects held weekly meetings which attracted young radicals. Wells and his acquaintances frequented such meetings at the Kelmscott house, where they were introduced to the various philosophies of specialists, Fabians, communists, anarchists, feminists and vegetarians (not a diet, but rather a philosophy that the unnecessary killing of animals is cruel, and can lead to a disregard for human life. This is also known as humanitarian vegetarianism) who would preach their philosophies into the late hours of the night.4 At a meeting in Hammersmith Wells heard Bernard Shaw promoting Fabianism and declared himself a socialist.5 As the Time Traveller looks at the Eloi, the man in the future, he learns that he is entirely frugivorous; because there is no longer any need for specialization of the sexes due to their different tasks in society, men and women look very similar both in clothing and appearance; because there is no longer a need to protect offspring there is no longer a family unit; there is no evidence of property rights among the inhabitants; there is communal living; and there is obviously birth and population control. But because there is no longer any pain and suffering in this scientifically-altered environment, humanity has become week and feeble.6
The first theory mixes optimism with pessimism. Like the optimism of the English philosopher and biologist Herbert Spencer, Wells believed that progress is possible, but requires human effort; it doesn’t come naturally.7 Education can lead to the advancement of humanity. But there is the pessimistic side which evidences influence from Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley. For humanity to improve itself there must be a successful adaptation to the environment. But as a result of man’s adaptation he has learned to control his environment until the environment is forced to adapt to man. Once that happens, man no longer needs to struggle for survival. The weak can survive as well as the strong and are no longer weeded out of humanity. It is no longer the survival of the fittest, and humanity is on the decline.
Then the Time Traveller comes across a strange creature. It looks human, but is different from the Eloi. It is another species of man, one that lives in darkness below the surface and works on machines. He realizes that there has been no socialist progress at all. The gap between capitalist and the worker has widened even further, until they have become two different species. Looking back to his own era, he sees the beginnings of these trends. He describes how the less pleasant tasks of society are beginning to be done underground. He mentions the underground Metropolitan Railway, the East End workers who live and work in artificial conditions underground, and even the increase of underground workrooms and restaurants. He also mentions how the more luxurious areas of society are already shut off from the working class, and how higher education, available only to the rich, helps to widen the gap between the classes even further.8 Wells carries the concept of the underground worker into a later story, When the Sleeper Wakes, published in 1899. It describes the Labour Company, whose workers and their families spend their entire lives underground. Eventually they become a distinct species and speak their own dialect.9
The influence of Thomas Henry Huxley on H.G. Wells’ scientific romances has been recognized as far back as 1915.10 Huxley gave his famous Romanes lecture, entitled “Evolution and Ethics,” at Oxford University in 1893. In that lecture he discussed his concept of “Cosmic Pessimism.” According to Huxley, evolution is a biological fact intended neither for the benefit nor for the detriment of man. It will never result in any social or moral improvement in humanity. Aggressiveness in man is the result of millions of years of evolutionary training and cannot be eradicated. Human nature does not change.
Despite Huxley’s tremendous influence upon Wells, this is one area where Wells was not yet quite willing to agree with Huxley. He still believed that man could be reformed, and that if humanity heeded his warning it could face a Utopian civilization instead of decline. It was this flickering ray of hope that led to his writing of three books dealing with the concept of a Utopian society where government would eventually disappear simply out of nothing to do: no laws to enforce, no disputes to settle. In In the Days of the Comet (1906), the comet spreads a substance into the atmosphere which eliminates suffering, disease, cruelty, giving way to the Great Change where free love is acceptable and the family structure is no longer needed. The Shape of Things to Come (1933) predicted a World War in 1940, followed by a Utopian society made of humans who have learned their lesson about war, with Samurai who set out to enforce this Utopia against those who still want to make war. In Men Like Gods (1923) a traveler chances upon a Utopian town that no longer needs government or Samurai to enforce its conduct.
But if a Utopian society is to come about, it must be through human effort, particularly through socialism. Wells quotes himself from an article on the Labour Unrest in a 1912 issue of The Daily Mail:
Wells saw this possibility of hope, but the chances of this hope successfully restraining the fall of man seemed unlikely. He saw education of the masses as the hope of mankind, if it could lead to a thirst for advancement. And yet the best that he could hope for was to postpone man’s ultimate decline.12
NOTES:
1. Frank McConnell, The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells (New York: Oxford University Press; 1981) 82.
2. Wells, The Time Machine, iv.
3. Norman & Jeanne MacKenzie, H.G. Wells: A Biography. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973.) 62.
4. MacKenzie, 62.
5. Lovat Dickson, H.G. Wells, His Turbulent Life and Times. (New York: Atheneum, 1969.) 35.
6. Wells, TTM, iv.
7. Jack Williamson, H.G. Wells: Critic of Progress. (Baltimore: The Mirage Press; 1973). 26-29.
8. Wells, TTM v.
9. Mark R. Hillegas, The Future as Nightmare, H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians. (Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press; 1967.) 46-47.
10. Richard Hauer Costa, H.G. Wells. (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc.; 1967. 22.)
11. H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (Since 1866). (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.; 1967). 568. (Originally published in 1934.)
12. Williamson, 26-29.
H.G. WELLS' THE TIME MACHINE:
ONE CHRISTIAN'S PERSPECTIVE
(PART ONE OF THREE)
ONE CHRISTIAN'S PERSPECTIVE
(PART ONE OF THREE)
The original story by H.G. Wells applying the concept of time travel was published as a serial in the Science Schools Journal under the title, “The Chronic Argonauts.” But several years later, when asked by an editor to rewrite the story for publication, Wells decided to write an entirely different story. Whereas the first story had in it much of the adventures found in current time travel stories, the final form of The Time Machine has very little action, and contains extensive sections where the situation of man in the future is studied, compared to the author’s contemporary (nineteenth century) conditions, and is explained in a system of theories.
The Time Machine is a story saturated with pessimism, chiefly from the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley, whose interpretations of theories of Charles Darwin developed the concept of “Cosmic Pessimism.” Three areas of pessimism are presented by Wells in the story: pessimism about mankind’s ability to achieve an ideal society through scientific progress and socialist actions, pessimism about the ultimate effect evolution would have on the human race, and pessimism about mankind’s willingness to take the necessary actions that would prevent its eventual decline. This third area of pessimism, dealing with “Victorian complacency,” can be clearly seen when the story is interpreted, not as a science fiction story, but rather as an allegory about Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, and the Victorian society of the nineteenth century as seen by Wells.
The main part of the story expresses the pessimistic view of mankind’s ability to achieve a utopian society through the conquest of nature by science and through the success of socialism in overthrowing the class system that separates capitalist from laborer. Through the Time Traveller’s eyes we see the future and through his mind we see how civilization drifts toward its ultimate destiny. Wells uses a principle found in romantic poetry,1 in which a series of three ideas is presented, each idea superseding the one before it. The Time Traveller presents three theories explaining how civilization had progressed over the years to the year 802701. Each time he develops a theory, he learns more about that civilization which forces him to abandon or alter his previous theory. By the time he reaches his third theory, the story presents civilization as pure nightmare.
FIRST STAGE OF PESSIMISM
The first stage begins as the Time Traveller arrives in the future. He finds himself in what appears to be a paradise. The entire landscape is one vast garden, free from disease or harmful plants. Large palaces had replaced individual homes, suggesting to the Time Traveller that communism had won over capitalism.2 Many of his observations parallel Wells’ own idealist concepts of socialism which he developed during his years at the Normal School in South Kensington (1884-1887). There was a revival of socialist activity at that time3 and many sects held weekly meetings which attracted young radicals. Wells and his acquaintances frequented such meetings at the Kelmscott house, where they were introduced to the various philosophies of specialists, Fabians, communists, anarchists, feminists and vegetarians (not a diet, but rather a philosophy that the unnecessary killing of animals is cruel, and can lead to a disregard for human life. This is also known as humanitarian vegetarianism) who would preach their philosophies into the late hours of the night.4 At a meeting in Hammersmith Wells heard Bernard Shaw promoting Fabianism and declared himself a socialist.5 As the Time Traveller looks at the Eloi, the man in the future, he learns that he is entirely frugivorous; because there is no longer any need for specialization of the sexes due to their different tasks in society, men and women look very similar both in clothing and appearance; because there is no longer a need to protect offspring there is no longer a family unit; there is no evidence of property rights among the inhabitants; there is communal living; and there is obviously birth and population control. But because there is no longer any pain and suffering in this scientifically-altered environment, humanity has become week and feeble.6
The first theory mixes optimism with pessimism. Like the optimism of the English philosopher and biologist Herbert Spencer, Wells believed that progress is possible, but requires human effort; it doesn’t come naturally.7 Education can lead to the advancement of humanity. But there is the pessimistic side which evidences influence from Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley. For humanity to improve itself there must be a successful adaptation to the environment. But as a result of man’s adaptation he has learned to control his environment until the environment is forced to adapt to man. Once that happens, man no longer needs to struggle for survival. The weak can survive as well as the strong and are no longer weeded out of humanity. It is no longer the survival of the fittest, and humanity is on the decline.
Then the Time Traveller comes across a strange creature. It looks human, but is different from the Eloi. It is another species of man, one that lives in darkness below the surface and works on machines. He realizes that there has been no socialist progress at all. The gap between capitalist and the worker has widened even further, until they have become two different species. Looking back to his own era, he sees the beginnings of these trends. He describes how the less pleasant tasks of society are beginning to be done underground. He mentions the underground Metropolitan Railway, the East End workers who live and work in artificial conditions underground, and even the increase of underground workrooms and restaurants. He also mentions how the more luxurious areas of society are already shut off from the working class, and how higher education, available only to the rich, helps to widen the gap between the classes even further.8 Wells carries the concept of the underground worker into a later story, When the Sleeper Wakes, published in 1899. It describes the Labour Company, whose workers and their families spend their entire lives underground. Eventually they become a distinct species and speak their own dialect.9
The influence of Thomas Henry Huxley on H.G. Wells’ scientific romances has been recognized as far back as 1915.10 Huxley gave his famous Romanes lecture, entitled “Evolution and Ethics,” at Oxford University in 1893. In that lecture he discussed his concept of “Cosmic Pessimism.” According to Huxley, evolution is a biological fact intended neither for the benefit nor for the detriment of man. It will never result in any social or moral improvement in humanity. Aggressiveness in man is the result of millions of years of evolutionary training and cannot be eradicated. Human nature does not change.
Despite Huxley’s tremendous influence upon Wells, this is one area where Wells was not yet quite willing to agree with Huxley. He still believed that man could be reformed, and that if humanity heeded his warning it could face a Utopian civilization instead of decline. It was this flickering ray of hope that led to his writing of three books dealing with the concept of a Utopian society where government would eventually disappear simply out of nothing to do: no laws to enforce, no disputes to settle. In In the Days of the Comet (1906), the comet spreads a substance into the atmosphere which eliminates suffering, disease, cruelty, giving way to the Great Change where free love is acceptable and the family structure is no longer needed. The Shape of Things to Come (1933) predicted a World War in 1940, followed by a Utopian society made of humans who have learned their lesson about war, with Samurai who set out to enforce this Utopia against those who still want to make war. In Men Like Gods (1923) a traveler chances upon a Utopian town that no longer needs government or Samurai to enforce its conduct.
But if a Utopian society is to come about, it must be through human effort, particularly through socialism. Wells quotes himself from an article on the Labour Unrest in a 1912 issue of The Daily Mail:
“I have pointed out that nearly all the social forces of our time seem to be in conspiracy to bring about the disappearance of a labour class as such and the rearrangement of our work and industry upon a new basis. That rearrangement demands an unprecedented national effort and the production of an adequate National Plan. Failing that, we seem doomed to a period of chronic social conflict and possibly even of frankly revolutionary outbreaks that may destroy us altogether or leave us only a dwarfed and enfeebled nation....”11
NOTES:
1. Frank McConnell, The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells (New York: Oxford University Press; 1981) 82.
2. Wells, The Time Machine, iv.
3. Norman & Jeanne MacKenzie, H.G. Wells: A Biography. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973.) 62.
4. MacKenzie, 62.
5. Lovat Dickson, H.G. Wells, His Turbulent Life and Times. (New York: Atheneum, 1969.) 35.
6. Wells, TTM, iv.
7. Jack Williamson, H.G. Wells: Critic of Progress. (Baltimore: The Mirage Press; 1973). 26-29.
8. Wells, TTM v.
9. Mark R. Hillegas, The Future as Nightmare, H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians. (Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press; 1967.) 46-47.
10. Richard Hauer Costa, H.G. Wells. (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc.; 1967. 22.)
11. H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (Since 1866). (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.; 1967). 568. (Originally published in 1934.)
12. Williamson, 26-29.
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