Analysis of the Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is considered a “classic” in today’s literary community. I also believe that this novel is a good book. It was an interesting story the first time I studied it, and I have found new ideas each time I have read it since. It is amazing that such a simple narrative could have so many complex ideas. Unfortunately, some do not take the same position that I do. They cast it off as a silly little novel that deserves no merit. Obviously I disagree with these critics. The Time Machine follows the criteria that I believe a good novel should have. A good novel should include an element of fantasy and should stimulate ideas in the audience that they never came to realize before. The aspect of good versus evil should also be incorporated into a novel, mainly to capture the reader’s attention. If readers find themselves rooting for a particular character or set of characters against another, they become involved in the novel. The characters should also be realistic so the audience can relate to them. The Time Machine follows these criteria with few exceptions.
Why should this novel be looked at now, 100 years after it was written? The Time Machine is a science fiction novel that has a much different view of the future than the view that is commonly held today. Modern society foresees the future as a technologically advanced society that would make our present society look primitive. Many movies today portray this view of the future. Wells’s view of the future is the antithesis to the one that is held today. The regression of society is rarely discussed as the future. The idea that human beings have reached their progressive and evolutionary peak could be an actuality. The Time Machine could be a possibility for the future despite the universal belief that humans still have a long way to progress. Neither technology nor peacefulness exists in the future that The Time Machine portrays.
Wells apparently has a grim outlook for what society will evolve to in the future. Wells introduces a meta-utopia or a dystopian future, which is, to say the least, a radically unique idea. A meta-utopian society is one that regresses instead of progresses. The protagonist of the book, the Time Traveller, builds a time machine and...