Analyzing The Question Of Humanity In The Time Machine By H. G. Wells

The question of human nature is one that has confounded humanity since humans first became aware of their own sentience. We have spent many a millennia trying to precariously balance ourselves between light and dark, good and evil, and this is not likely to ever change. In The Time Machine, H.G. Wells tackles this question of human nature by relating these two extremes of humanity through the virtuous Eloi and the malevolent Morlock, and the Time Traveler internalizes each of these extremes and displays them both through his actions in the novel.

The story begins with the Time Traveler telling his guests of his first real journey in the newly created time machine. The intellectual curiosity needed to develop and use something like a time

He risks himself to save this creature that he had previously looked down upon, and they quickly become friends after she rewards him with a flower necklace. They become inseparable — in fact, she annoys him by constantly tailing after him: “[. . .] I think, altogether, I had as much trouble as comfort from her devotion” (49), Nonetheless, he displays an innate kindness by letting her tag along, even at her most bothersome.

The Time Traveler exhibits even more of the honor within himself after his foray into the Morlock’s subterranean home. His first reaction — “[i]nstinctively I loathed them” (66) — shows he does not consider them worthy of his respect and reverence, either. The Morlock demonstrate much of the intelligence and shrewdness he was grieving the loss of earlier in the Eloi; however, he doesn’t see the Morlock as a positive progression of humanity, even if he has embodied many of their traits thus far. This betrays his similarity to the Eloi and his inherent goodness.

The Time Traveler is appalled and disgusted by the Morlock’s practice of cannibalism as well. He attempts to rationalize it, but this ultimately