The Time Machine Summary

The Time Machine is an outstanding masterpiece of imaginative writing, and there is no doubt about it. Over one century after it first appeared in 1895, H.G. Wells's story of an anonymous scientist who builds a time machine and moves to the year 802,701 AD at which point he encounters humanity's descendants, the childlike Eloi and the monstrous Morlocks, continues to captivate readers and support other science fiction writers. However, The Time Machine is hardly a light-hearted film.

Wells deftly refutes a fundamental idea of his day that scientific and technical advancement will automatically result in a better future in what is, in many respects, a reply to the widely read romantic literature of the time.

The novel's distinctly pessimistic speculation on how humanity might develop if it ignores the most pressing social issues of the time, especially the exploitation of the working classes, offers a harsh indictment of unchecked capitalism and the racial divisions that tore through late 19th-century Victorian society.

Summary

Fourth-Dimensional Experimentation

The Time Traveler discusses the characteristics of time as the fourth dimension while sitting with his colleagues, including the anonymous narrator. According to the Time Traveler, who claims to have established a man's ability to go back and forth through testing, he believes individuals should be allowed to move around in time as they can in the other dimensions.

The Time Traveler leaves his lab and returns with a toy machine when his companions want to witness the experiment. He shows the machine's two levers and explains that one moves the object into the future and the other into the past.

When the Time Traveler instructs one of his visitors to pull a lever, the device disappears in a slight breeze. The Time Traveler informs the group that the machine is now traveling into the future but moving so quickly that they cannot see it. Then he takes his guests inside his lab and demonstrates the machine to them in full size.

The Time Traveler claims he is deadly serious, despite the visitors' suspicions that he is teasing them somehow. He wants to investigate time using the gadget. The narrator returns to the Time Traveler's home for dinner a week later?some familiar faces and new ones among the attendees from the last gathering.

They discover a message instructing them to begin dinner immediately; the Time Traveler will explain when he returns. When the entrance to the dining room opens and the Time Traveler enters, the group is still eating. He's shocking: filthy, pallid, and limping. After downing some champagne, the Time Traveler proceeds to tidy up.

The visitors wonder what he has been up to while he is gone. The narrator believes that it may be related to the time machine. The Time Traveler comes back, starts eating, and when asked, admits that he has been traveling across time, but he declines to reveal more until he has finished his meal.

The Time Traveler offers to share what happened with the group after dinner, but only if everyone agrees to stay quiet during the narrative. It is said in the smoking room. The visitors approve, and the time traveler starts telling his story.

Beginning of the Adventure

The Time Traveler sat inside his machine and pressed the start lever forward before almost immediately pulling the stop lever as soon as it was prepared, which was at 10 o'clock that morning. He was shocked to realize that five hours had passed when he looked at the clock in his laboratory. He pushed the start button once more.

The Time Traveler proceeded more into the future, and the laboratory lost its distinctness. The days and nights passed quickly, making him feel uncomfortable. The lab vanished quickly, and the Time Traveler found himself outside. Buildings went up and down. The Time Traveller's mood changed to carefree happiness.

However, as time went on, his anxiety increased. The Time Traveler thought that he would never be able to stop and determined that he needed to stop right away. He pulled the stopping lever, and the machine firmly threw him off.

During a storm, the Time Traveler discovered himself in a garden. He was again concerned about the kind of society he would find when he saw a white stone sphinx statue on a bronze pedestal. What if humans had become cruel? The Time Traveler ran to his tipped-over time machine after getting a fresh wave of terror, and once the rain had ceased, he turned it back upright.

He unexpectedly caught sight of some robed people. One of them, a lovely, delicate being around four feet tall, walked over to him. Others adopted. The Time Traveler couldn't grasp the exquisite language they used to communicate with him. The things didn't appear to be at all afraid of him.

The Time Traveler turned off his device by removing the control levers when he felt more comfortable. He tried for clarification of where he came from. When pointed to the sun, one of the animals noticed and thundered. To his horror, the Time Traveler learned that the creature believed he was a storm creature. He questioned whether the tiny folk was potentially stupid. Though this group appeared to indicate otherwise, he had always assumed that future generations would be highly developed.

The beings showered the Time Traveler with flowers and guided him to a beautiful but dilapidated structure. He ate the unusual fruit the beings handed him inside and tried to understand their language.

At first, they laughed at his inquiries, but they quickly got fed up with explaining things to him. The Time Traveler returned outdoors after eating to look around the globe in 802,701 AD.

The Decrease of Humanity

The Time Traveler observed many ruins and noted no single-family dwellings; the only standing structures looked like enormous, castle-like complexes. He considered communism. He observed the animals following him and noted no differentiation between them seemed to exist in both genders or symptoms of old age or illness.

They were all dressed in similar clothes. Time Traveler thought about the possible logic in all of this. Humanity no longer needs male power or feminine kindness, wisdom, creative thinking, or passion in the absence of suffering or danger. The rule would be cooperation, and labor would cease.

And after reaching these heights, civilization would inevitably slowly decrease, as these stupid yet beautiful animals revealed. The Time Traveler informs those listening in the present that these first theories will ultimately be false.

The Time Traveler returned to his time machine as darkness fell in the future. He got closer and realized it wasn't where he had left it. He still had the levers in his pocket, so he knew no one could have moved the machine in time. The small people must have hidden the machine somewhere since no one could have. A white monster seemed frightened as he ran around the land and disappeared into the darkness.

He returned to the room where he had first dined earlier and requested information about where to find his machine while waking the sleeping animals he discovered there. They did nothing but stare at him in fear and confusion. After a while, and he returned to the White Sphinx statue, where he passed out on the ground after much crying and screams.

The Time Traveler's logic reappeared the following morning. He noticed drag marks in the grass and determined that someone had put the time machine within the bronze pedestal of the statue after carefully inspecting it. The creatures responded with astonishment and disregard when he attempted to ask them how to open the pedestal. The Time Traveler determined he would have to wait because he could not unlock the pedestal alone. He committed to doing more research and getting to know the species on the planet.

Further Mysteries

The Time Traveler explored the area and noted the numerous wells that seemed to dot the ground in addition to the area's natural beauty. He believed he could hear mechanical noises from inside and noticed that the wells looked like they were sucking air into the ground. He reasoned that they must be there because of some ventilation system, but for what reason? Other queries were raised: Where did the clothes and shoes originate if the little animals didn't operate?

One of the creatures involved was about to die in the river when the Time Traveler rescued her later that day. Weena was her name. After the rescue, Weena got wholly dedicated to the Time Traveller and began to follow him everywhere. Like most people of her type, she was terrified of the dark.

For this reason, they all slept in the large structures in the same room. The Time Traveler awoke before dawn one morning. He noticed ghost entities wandering about as he looked out over the landscape. The Time Traveler took shelter from the sun in one of the ruins on his fourth morning. He encountered one of the shadowy beings within. The ape-like creature retreated, but he could make out its gray-red eyes and long blonde hair. The Time Traveler attempted to pursue it, but it vanished into one of the mysterious wells.

The Time Traveler thought about this new riddle and concluded that civilization had been split into two species: one that lived above ground and one that lived below. The underground race, he said, was the inevitable outcome of the increasing gap between money and labor, which had already expressed itself in his own time.

He reasoned that the laborers pushed underground by the wealthy at some time in history were the underworld monsters known as the Morlocks. They would have been forced to continue working for the Overlanders if they didn't want to risk famine or breathing difficulties. In other words, Weena and her people, the Eloi, did not only enjoy comfort because of civilization's victory over nature; it also resulted from the victory of one class in society over another.

The Morlocks took control of the time machine, but why? If the Eloi were the ruling class, why were they terrified of nightfall since that's when the Morlocks would appear?

The more he considered it, the more confident the Time Traveler was that entering the land of the Morlocks was essential to get his time machine back. He was afraid to do this and came upon what he called the Palace of Green Porcelain one day while wandering. Even though he wished to get there, he decided to first go into one of the wells. Weena protested, but the Time Traveler kissed her goodbye and started to fall. He climbed down till he was exhausted.

Through Darkness

The Time Traveler stopped on a little ledge to take a break. Clammy hands suddenly touched him. The Time Traveler lit a light and noticed many Morlocks running down a tunnel. They carried him into a huge room where he came upon a table with a sizable section of meat on it.

On the edge of the light that the Time Traveler's match created, the Morlocks were hiding. He suddenly became aware that he only had four matches left. And the Morlocks captured him every time a fire went out. He started returning the way he had come. When his final match burned out, he was almost through with his getaway.

The Morlocks tried to grab him, but he could climb up the hole safely. The Time Traveler changed his belief that the Eloi took over the Morlocks in light of his expedition below. Perhaps they did once, but even if the Morlocks continued to make clothing for the Eloi, the Eloi were no longer in control.

The Time Traveler considered whether or not the Palace of Green Porcelain would be the safest spot to spend the night. He started to move in that direction while carrying Weena on his shoulder. Weena down at one point, followed him while he picked flowers and put them in his pockets, and she then got back up. The Time Traveler stops talking to his dinner friends in the present to reach into his pocket, pull out two blossoms, and set them on the table in front of them.

The Green Porcelain Palace

The travel back in time took much longer than anticipated, and by the time darkness fell, Weena and the Time Traveler were on the edges of the woodland. The Time Traveler allowed Weena to sleep while he kept watch because he was afraid to enter without light. He instantly realized with horror that the flesh the Morlocks were likely eating was Eloi in the middle of the night.

He continued walking with Weena the following day. The Time Traveler believed the Palace of Green Porcelain must have been a museum once inside. As he explored the displays, he entered a room with machines. Weena suddenly stepped closer to him, and the Time Traveler felt the presence of Morlocks at the opposite end of the dark hall.

He moved to one of the devices and severed a sizable lever to serve as a weapon. He retreated, followed by Weena. The Time Traveler briefly considered the time lost in creating all those books as he went through a damaged library. He discovered some highly explosive camphor and a glass-encased box of matches. The glass was broken and took the two things. The Time Traveler decided that as the day shortened, he should return to the time machine rather than stay in the museum. If he had his iron rod, he might have been able to enter the pedestal.

Two Tiny Escapes

Weena and the Time Traveler started to go on when they heard the Morlocks following them as they approached the woods. The Time Traveler lit a fire with the camphor and some dry brush to keep them warm as he and Weena moved through the forest. They moved fast but soon discovered that Morlocks had encircled them.

The Time Traveler laid down Weena to get a match out of his pocket and light another fire. She passed out, and the Time Traveler restored her to another location. He set up camp after realizing he had lost his sense of direction. The Time Traveler lay asleep while sitting by the fire.

When he awakened, the Morlocks were holding at him. With his steel bar, he assaulted them, killing some of them. He was confused as the others left. The Time Traveler discovered that his initial fire had become a roaring inferno. Weena was nowhere to be found despite his long search.

He hoped they would take him out of the jungle, so he pursued the Morlocks. He finally appeared on a mountainside. The heat and brightness blinded the Morlocks he discovered there, leaving them helpless. When dawn broke, he returned to the statue after one more unsuccessful attempt to find Weena.

He was startled to see the pedestal open when he arrived. The Time Traveler discovered his device inside. He walked inside even though he knew it was a Morlock trap. The pedestal panels closed behind him as he thought they would. He drew out a match to scare away the monsters, but he soon realized he had misplaced the box and that the matches were useless against anything else. The Morlocks attacked the Time Traveler, but he could enter his machine, connect the forward lever, and move it ahead.

Ending Times

Even more quickly into the future, the Time Traveler hurtled. Thousands of years it was passed quickly. However, the Time Traveler saw that the change from night to day occurred more slowly. He observed the sun getting bigger and redder. The Earth finally appeared to cease rotating completely. The Time Traveler stopped the Time Machine.

The Time Traveler observed the strange surroundings of the beach he had just landed on as the sunset. There was rich vegetation all across the planet. Air density was low. He noticed what looked to be a giant white butterfly out in the distance. He saw what he believed was a red rock crawling in his direction.

It was a vast, crab-like animal. Another crab came up behind the Time Traveler and touched his neck as he was still looking. He swiftly pulled the lever forward, advancing the leap by one month. However, he now noticed dozens of crab-like animals on the beach. The Time Traveler advanced another hundred years in horror. Nothing much had changed.

He proceeded, stopping around every thousand years to see the deterioration of Earth until he ultimately came to a standstill 30 million years in the future. The sun occupied an essential part of the sky, and the air was cold. Except for the moss, nothing else appeared to be alive. A second planet?presumably Mercury?started to obscure the sun as snow started to fall.

As the sky darkened, the eclipse began to disappear gradually. The Time Traveler, confused and on the edge of passing out, noticed a round, black monster swimming toward him in the red ocean. He re-boarded the machine and began traveling through time.

A Short Return

The Time Traveler eventually discovered that he could breathe normally once more. As he slowed the machine, he could make out a tiny shape of dwellings and once again recognized the surrounding countryside, and eventually found himself back inside his lab's walls. When he noticed his visitors at dinner, he stopped the machine, looked at the date, and entered to join them.

The Time Traveler declares that he is finished with his story and doesn't anticipate the visitors to believe it. He says people can dismiss it as mere conjecture if they want. He finds it difficult to believe it himself. Looking at the flowers on the table, the Time Traveller wonders if it was all a dream - or insane.

He springs to his feet and dashes to his lab to check out the machine. It was sitting there, coated with grass and dirt. The visitors depart while debating what they just he

That night, the narrator finds it difficult to sleep, and the following morning, he hurries back to the Time Traveler's home. He discovers the Time Traveler getting ready to go on another journey across time in his laboratory. The Time Traveler urges the narrator to wait and promises to return in 30 minutes, bringing him proof of his journey.

The narrator mentions that three years had passed since the Time Traveler left as at the time this story is being told. He ponders if the Time Traveler is still lost in time or whether he has died. The narrator is still depressed and considers what will happen to humankind. The only solace he has left is in Weena's two withered flowers, which prove that kindness will endure even after everything else in society that is good and great has vanished.