- Summary
- Wells Herbert
- Time Machine
The science fiction work "The Time Machine", written by the English writer Herbert George Wells, tells about the world of the future. The creator of a fantastic machine that allowed him to move in space went to this world. The hero ended up in a place where human beings degenerated and two branches formed - the Eloi and the Morlocks.
The narrator, finding himself in a new world for him, left the time machine in the open and went to a populated area to establish contact with its inhabitants. The man, having spent some time among the Eloi, concluded that progress on his native Earth had stopped. A traveler in a new world makes friends with Weena, whom he saves while swimming. She fell in love with her savior and tried to spend a lot of time with her savior.
And the Morlocks, who lived in an underground city and came to the surface only at night, found a time machine and hid it. Having discovered this, the narrator began to take steps to find the mechanism.
From Uina the narrator learned that the Eloi are afraid of the dark. The man became interested in this fact, and he began to conduct research at night. The traveler accidentally met the Morlocks. He saw several creatures in an old building that had an entrance to the Underworld, where the merlocks lived. The narrator went along the underground passage. He first entered a gigantic cave in which there was a huge number of working mechanisms. Here the man almost died, but managed to return to the surface.
This journey allowed the narrator to deduce where the creatures in the strange world came from. The Morlocks were once simple poor people. All their lives they lived in the darkness of the Dungeon and maintained the operation of the mechanisms. Gradually the Morlocks learned to see perfectly in the dark. These creatures were smaller and much weaker than those that lived on the surface. The Morlocks' body became covered with whitish fur, and their eyes began to hurt from the light of day.
The Eloi were the descendants of the rich. They weakened and became graceful. They also lost the skills to perform any physical effort. Representatives of both branches were not required to use mental abilities. Over a long period of living without thinking, they lost the ability to think logically and turned into half-humans and half-animals. For a long time, the Morlocks supplied the Eloi with everything they needed on the surface, but then the supply of food in the underground world was depleted. The Morlocks came to the surface on moonless nights, kidnapped the Eloi and ate their meat.
The narrator wanted to get out of this world as quickly as possible. He took Weena with him and actively began looking for a time machine. One night, the man and Weena found themselves in the forest and were attacked by Morlocks. To save himself, the narrator started a fire, and Weena died in the fire.
The next day, the traveler found a room in which the Morlocks hid a time machine. But there was a trap set for the man. But he figured out the Morlocks' plan, managed to outwit them and entered the time machine. Then the man moved to another world. Here the narrator saw that the Sun had almost darkened and there was no life on Earth. This view had a depressing effect on the narrator, and he wanted to quickly return to his time. In the end, he found himself in his own time in his hometown.
On Earth, the narrator told his family and friends about his journey, but no one believed him. Therefore, the man set out on a new journey to obtain evidence of his travels. But he did not return from it.
In the work, H.G. Wells tried to prove that both a rich man and a poor man can become stupid if they do not make attempts to develop themselves.
You can use this text for a reader's diary
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"Time Machine" summary
The main part of the work describes the world of the future (802701), to which the Time Traveler goes. This world is a kind of dystopia - scientific progress and social inequality have led to the degradation of humanity. The book describes two types of creatures into which the human species has turned - the Morlocks and the Eloi.
The author describes in the first person the eight days spent in this world by the Time Traveler.
After meeting with the Eloi, he, unaware of the Morlocks, calmly leaves his Car at the place where it “stopped” not far from the White Sphinx memorial, and he himself joins the Eloi and tries to establish language contact with them.
At the same time, he tries to understand the structure and essence of the new human society and comes to the first, rather half-hearted, conclusions that scientific and technological progress on Earth has stopped and humanity has reached a state of absolute peace.
Meanwhile, the Morlocks, who, despite the loss of intelligence, retained a purely mechanical interest in technology and the ability to maintain it, find the Time Machine and hide it in the hollow pedestal of the White Sphinx.
Having discovered the loss, the Traveler almost goes crazy, but in the end he calms down and understands that the Machine could not have disappeared by itself, which means it can be found.
He manages to discover traces of carrying the Time Machine, leading to the doors in the pedestal of the Sphinx, but all attempts to find out anything from the Eloi encounter a wall of complete misunderstanding and rejection.
At the same time, the Traveler has a friend from among the Eloi - Uina, whom he saved when she was drowning while swimming in the river. To his complete surprise, Uina becomes affectionately attached to the Traveler and spends almost all her time with him, even bothering him to a certain extent. However, he does not dare to push away her expressions of feelings, himself experiencing an overwhelming loneliness.
From Uina, the Traveler learns for the first time that in the new human world everything is not as smooth as it seems at first glance - for example, the feeling of fear that seemed to him to be forever lost by the Eloi actually remained in the form of an inexplicable and universal fear of the dark.
While exploring the cause of this phenomenon, the Traveler accidentally sees several Morlocks at night, and then for the first time encounters one of them in daylight in a dilapidated dark building with access to the Underworld.
Summary: Time Machine
H.G. Wells The Time Machine
The heroes of the novel are mostly not named. Among the listeners of the Traveler's story are a Psychologist, a Very Young Man, a Provincial Mayor, a Doctor and others. They are present when the Traveler returns from the future, who appears to his guests not in the best shape: he is limping, his clothes are dirty, his car is bent. And no wonder - in the past three hours he lived for eight days. And they were full of adventures.
Setting out on his journey, the Traveler hoped to get into the Golden Age. And indeed, millennia of human flourishing flashed before him. But they just flashed by. The car stopped at the moment of decline. What remains from the past are dilapidated palaces, excellent plants cultivated for centuries, and juicy fruits. One problem is that humanity, as we imagine it today, has completely disappeared. Nothing remains of the old world. It is inhabited by the lovely “Eloi”, the underworld is inhabited by the bestial “Morlocks”. The Eloi are truly lovely. They are beautiful, kind, cheerful. But these heirs of the ruling classes have completely degenerated mentally. They do not know how to read and write, do not have the slightest idea about the laws of nature and, although they are having fun together, they are not able to help each other under any circumstances. The oppressed classes have moved underground, where some complex machines operate and are serviced by them. They have no difficulties with food. They devour the vegetarian Eloi, although out of habit they continue to serve them,
However, all this is not immediately revealed to the Traveler. His appearance in 802801 was preceded by the journey itself, during which years merged into millennia, constellations moved, and the sun described a continuous visible circle.
Fragile, non-viable, but beautiful in their own way, the Eloi were the first to appear to the eyes of the Traveler. However, he still had to solve the complex mystery of this incomprehensible society. Why are there countless waterless wells here? What is this noise from cars? Why are the Eloi so beautifully dressed, although they are incapable of any work? And doesn’t the answer to the latter (and many other circumstances) lie in the fact that our feelings and abilities become sharp only at the grindstone of labor? And it has been broken for a long time. And we also need to understand why the Eloi are so afraid of the dark and there are no cemeteries or crematoria in the visible world.
In addition, the Traveler is hit by a blow already on the second day. He discovers with horror that the time machine has disappeared somewhere. Is he really destined to remain forever in this alien world? His despair knows no bounds. And only gradually does he begin to make his way to the truth. He has yet to meet another human breed - the Morlocks.
This is also not easy.
When the Traveler just landed in a new world for him, he noticed the colossal figure of the White Sphinx standing on a high bronze pedestal. Is his car hidden there? He starts hitting the sphinx with his fists and hears some giggling. He remains in complete ignorance for another four days. When he suddenly sees in the darkness a pair of shining eyes that clearly do not belong to any of the Eloi. And then a small white creature, clearly not accustomed to daylight, appears to him with a strangely lowered head. This is the first Morlock he saw. It resembles a humanoid spider. Following him, the Traveler discovers the secret of waterless wells. They are connected into a single ventilation chain that makes up the exits from the underground world. And, of course, it was the Morlocks who hid, and, as it turned out later, dismantled, studied, lubricated and reassembled his car. Since then, the Traveler has only been thinking about how to get her back. He ventures on a dangerous undertaking. The staples along which the Morlock hiding from him descended are too thin for the Traveler, but at the risk of his life he still grabs them and penetrates into the underworld. Long passages open in front of him, where creatures with inhumanly pale faces without chins, with eyelidless reddish-gray eyes live, and there are tables with chopped meat. There is only one salvation - the Morlocks are afraid of light and a lit match scares them away. You still have to run and start the search again; especially since now he knows that he should get into the pedestal of the White Sphinx.
To do this you need to acquire a suitable tool. Where can I get it? Maybe there is something in the abandoned museum? This turns out to be difficult. Over so many millennia, the exhibits have turned to dust. Finally they manage to find some rusty lever, but on the way they have to endure a fight with the Morlocks. In the dark they become dangerous. In this battle, the Traveler loses the only human being to whom he managed to become attached. At his very appearance, he saved little Weena, who was drowning in the complete indifference of those around her. Now she has disappeared forever, kidnapped by the Morlocks.
However, the trip to the museum was in a certain sense of the word in vain. When the Traveler, holding his club in his hands, approached the White Sphinx, he discovered that the bronze doors of the pedestal were open and both halves were pushed into special grooves. In the depths there is a time machine, which the Morlocks could not use also because the Traveler prudently unscrewed the levers at the very beginning. Of course, it was a trap anyway. However, no obstacles could prevent the Traveler from moving through time. He sits down in the saddle, secures the levers and disappears from this world full of dangers.
However, new challenges await him ahead. When the car, having braked for the first time, tipped over on its side, the saddle moved and the Traveler turned the levers in the wrong direction. Instead of returning home, he rushed into an even more distant future, in which predictions about changes in the solar system, the slow extinction of all forms of life on Earth and the complete disappearance of humanity come true. At some point, the Earth is inhabited only by crab-like monsters and some other huge butterflies. But then they disappear too.
It goes without saying that the Traveler’s story is hard to believe. And he decides, taking his camera, to once again “take a look” through the millennia. But this new attempt ends in disaster. It is foreshadowed by the sound of broken glass. The traveler never returns. But the novel ends with a phrase full of enlightenment: “Even at a time when a person’s strength and intelligence disappear, gratitude and tenderness continue to live in hearts.”
