Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE TIME MACHINE 1

Analysis of The Time Machine Regarding Victorian Concerns About Class and Labour Division
After the Rise of Factories

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Eastfield College
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Analysis of The Time Machine Regarding Victorian Concerns About Class and Labour Division

After the Rise of Factories

The novel The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells, was written in 1895. This was a time in

the late Victorian era. During the mid to late1800s, the industrial revolution in England led to an

abundance of factories being built, as is the nature of industrialization. In The Time Machine,

Wells goes to great lengths to paint a picture of two distinct classes of society that have evolved

in the year 802,701. There is the upper level world that is beautiful and magical which is

inhabited by the Eloi. Consequently, there is a lower level world that is dark, depressing, and

savage. This world is populated by the Morlocks. The Eloi are small, beautiful, elegant people

who take great pleasure in picking flowers and eating fruit. They are clothed in beautiful silken

robes and do not appear to ever have to do any work. The Morlocks are ape like nocturnal

creatures who dwell in the wells below the beautiful earth and strike fear in the hearts of the

upper level inhabitants. This paper will analyze the work of H.G. Wells in The Time Machine in

regards to the late Victorian concerns about class and labour divisions after the industrial

revolution when the factories began their dominance in England and argue that Wells believed

there may be consequences to extreme divisions of class and labour.

Herbert George Wells was born to parents who were originally servants but became

shopkeepers (James, 2016). Rather than working in his parent’s shop, he took the road of

education and studied biology under the guidance of T.H. Huxley, who was a Darwinism expert,

graduating in 1890 from what is now know as Imperial College London (James, 2016). Wells

never worked as a scientist but he went on to write multiple journal pieces and books (James,

2016). Wells inspired many people to respond to his works (James, 2016). His first books were
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actually science text books (James, 2016). His great scientific knowledge and education is

important to understand when analyzing what Wells is trying to communicate in his works.

Scientist evaluate their environment and draw conclusions on evidence they see. Wells no doubt

expressed his hypotheses about the unstableness of class and social order, that was going on in

his own time, in his work of The Time Machine.

An understanding of late Victorian times and what life was like after the rise of factories

is also crucial for analyzing Well’s message in The Time Machine. Money was not the factor of

one’s class standing. Sally Mitchell explains in her book Daily Life in Victorian England, “Class

was revealed in manners, speech, clothing, education, and values”, rather than the emphasis

being on how much money a person possessed (Mitchell, 1996, p.17). Classes were separated in

every way from where they lived to the customs they observed and were expected to act by the

standards in their own class, never of those above or below them (Mitchell, 1996, p.17). In The

Time Machine, Wells creates this same division as he describes the Eloi, the upper level world

and seemingly the upper class, as all small, beautiful, playful people. The lower level Morlocks,

first presumed as the lower class, are ape, ghost-like, quick and savage. These two different

classes do not interact on a daily basis. Their locations of their daily world are completely

separate. The Eloi do not dare to venture to the underworld. The Murlock’s intrusion on the

upper world in the dark of night is unwelcomed by the Eloi. The Eloi live in great fear of the

dark of night. The fact that the savage Murlocks can only surface to the upper world at night, in

the dark unseen by the beautiful people, speaks greatly about the division of the two classes and

may implicate how Wells sees class divisions in his own time. In Victorian times, working and

laboring people were often physically dirty from their work (Mitchell, 1996, p.18). The
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aristocrats (high class) enjoyed land ownership and making money off of rent from their property

(Mitchell, 1996, p.22).

It is interesting to note the class of the party guests that lead into the tale of The Time

Machine, especially because Wells himself was the son of parents who were once servants

(James, 2016). In the beginning of the book, we are introduced to party guests that will be

hearing the story of the Time traveler in his time machine. These party guests include the

scholarly and knowledgeable figures of the Medical Man, the Psychologist, the Editor, and the

Journalist. The Time Traveler himself is described as a scientific man. Wells also includes the

Silent man, who contributes nothing to the conversation. The guests are not even called by

names, they are named as titles. In Victorian times, out of approximately every four people,

three did manel work such as factory or agricultural labor (Mitchell, 1996, p.18). Every guest

hearing the Time travelers story, with the possible exception of the Silent Man, would be

considered to be an exception rather than the majority. It can be inferred that all the party guests

have a degree of education barring the one who adds nothing to the story, the Silent Man. Wells

is portraying that class matters here and there is a distinct division.

In addition to noting the party guests who hear the Time travelers story, the first party

guests should also be considered. These guests included Filby, the Medical Man, the

Psychologist, the Philosophical Inventor, Provincial Mayor, and the Very Young Man. At this

first party, when the Time Traveler is first explaining his theory that time travel is possible and

has an experiment he is working on to prove it, there is one character who is the only guest ever

given a first name, Filby. Due to the fact that Filby is called by name and not by title, Wells

portrays him as a man who has an insignificant job or education. Filby is the guest at the first

party who continually dismisses the Time Traveler’s theory. Filby is portrayed as the pest of the
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party, as he states such things as “It’s against reason”, “but you will never convince me” and sits

there laughing (Wells, 1895 pp.13-14). Filby does not even bother to show up to the second

party, further showing his lack of interest or understanding of the Time Travelers theory.

Meanwhile, the distinct and educated guests indulge the Time Traveler. Even though the

Psychologist thought it was all “humbug”, he still wanted to see the experiment (Wells, 1895,

p.16). Wells is conveying that men of education have a more open-mindedness to possibilities.

These men would be happy to let lower class, less educated men such as Filby, be left behind to

due the grunt work for society, while they benefit from their ignorance.

Education in an important theme in Wells intimation of divisions in class. Wells himself

was well educated. In his article Science journals: The worlds of H.G. Wells published in Nature

(2016), Simon James tells us “Owing, in part, to his own escape from apprenticeship into an

intellectual life, Wells was driven by the conviction that education was paramount to clear

thinking and efficient, happy lives” regarding Wells emphasis on education (p.162+). In The

Time Machine, the upper level Eloi seem to have a perfect world. But Wells has the Time

Traveler asking himself, “Were these creatures fools?” as the Time Traveler has convinced these

beautiful people that he has come from the sun (Wells, 1895, p.55). Yet still, the Eloi society

seems to have figured out the world of all play and no work. The Time Traveler says “I saw

mankind housed in splendid shelters, gloriously clothed, and as yet I had found then engaged in

no toil” (Wells, 1895, p.72), possibly referencing the status of upper class versus lower class in

Wells present time. The Time Traveler goes on to ponder “I could find no machinery, no

appliances of any kind. Yet these people were clothed in pleasant fabrics that at times need

renewal…” and suddenly wonders where all their supplies come from. (Wells, 1895, p.97) These

upper-class inhabitants must have been smart enough to make this world for themselves. This
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world that seems to live a happy life, reflecting Wells aforementioned conviction. For the

Morlocks world was much less desirable. Through Well’s words “…very stuffy and oppressive,

and the faint halitus of freshly shed blood was in the air” (p.128) the Time Traveler describes the

world of the Morlocks. In his book Underground writing: the London Tube from George

Gissing to Virginia Woolf (2010), author David Welsh explains “In order to explain this strange

world, Wells again resorts to the real underground. The Time Traveler points out that the

‘existing circumstances’ of his own time, the 1890s, already suggest a division between social

classes…” (p.82) demonstrating that Wells does in fact use what would have been his current life

experiences and circumstances, to convey his messages in his works.

After the industrial revolution, the population of England grew rather quickly (Mitchell,

1996, p.14). Mitchell tells us, “…industrialization goes hand in hand with rapid increases in

population…” despite the fact that factory life was viewed as much harsher than the “previous

rural life” of the farmlands (Mitchell, 1996, p.14). A well-known result of the industrial

revolution is the rise of factories and thus, the employment opportunities for laboring class

people. When the population and financial means of a certain class of citizens grow, there voice

and demands tend to grow along with them. When the population of the class and their demands

expand fast, it can certainly be cause for alarm for the citizens of the superior class to become

uncomfortable with their position in society. Wells appears to send this same message as he

reveals the true standing of the Eloi and the Morlocks in his novel. While at first it seems, the

Eloi are the superior class, that is actually not the case. The Time Traveler remembers “Then I

thought once more of the meat I had seen (when he was in the underworld), I felt assured now of

what it was…” (p.147) and concludes the Eloi are simply cattle that the Morlocks raise and feed

upon (Wells, 1895, p.148). The Morlocks keep the Eloi clothed and fed and free of labor, but for
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their own personal gain. The Time Traveler eventually understands that the Eloi, with their

diminished strength due to no desire or need to work, are not served by the Morlocks due to an

“old habit of service” (Wells, 1895, p.136), but rather for the keeping up of them to be

slaughtered as food. Mitchell tells us “Strikes, union advances, and labor organizations were

powerful forces for change in the last years of the century” and the British Labour Party was

formed by the time 1900 came around (Mitchell, 1996, p.14). Wells saw this first hand, and

perhaps this fueled his belief that the long-time suppression of the under-class society should be

contemplated with concern or even fear.

H.G. Wells was no doubt a brilliant and educated novelist. His credentials with his

background of a degree in science give his voice in his works a certain authority that can not be

denied. Wells clearly had ideas about the division of class and labor that he portrayed in his

novel The Time Machine. There are many parallels between his future world he writes about,

and the concerns about the division of class and labour at a time when factories took rise in late

Victorian England.
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References

James, S. J. (2016). Science journals: The worlds of H. G. Wells. Nature, 537(7619), 162+.

Mitchell, S. (1996). Daily life in Victorian England. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Wells, H.G. (1895). The time machine: An invention. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

Welsh, David (2010). Underground writing: the London Tube from George Gissing to

Virginia Woolf. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.