Born on 21 September 1866 in Bromley in Kent County, England, Herbert George Wells (H.G. Wells) was the youngest of 7 children of Joseph Wells and Sarah Neal. The Wells family deteriorated due to poverty and the marriage was not that happy; Joseph and Sarah would later live separately, though neither married another. (http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/) His father launched a fruitless store that sells glassware and cricket equipment. Herbert’s father was also a skilled cricket player who earned sufficient money to support his family by playing cricket professionally (http://www.egs.edu/library/herbert-george-wells/biography/). Wells was born to parents who tried but failed to escape their lower class statues. His father’s earnings as a professional cricket player was the only thing that is keeping them alive, but even this failed when he was handicapped in an accident. Because of this, Wells began his vain attempts to find a job. (http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/h_g_wells.htm). Herbert was an avid reader at an early age but it would take some time before his skills as a writer were discovered. He went and studied in Thomas Morley’s Academy for several years before poverty forced him to drop out and look for a job. He became an apprentice to a draper, but Wells did not like his job and became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School in 1883. When Herbert was granted a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, he became interested and began his studies in biology and Darwinian principles under Thomas Henry Huxley (http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/). Class became difficult for him, so he dropped out without a degree, and in 1888, moved to London University. He was given his degree in B.S. in Zoology i... ... middle of paper ... ...ian ages of England into his view of the future if capitalism continues to prevail. Wells also included his knowledge of the Darwinian principles to further discredit capitalism (http://www.gradesaver.com/the-time-machine/study-guide/about/). Wells was able to optimize his usage of themes that are evident all throughout the novel. One of the dominant themes present in the novel was the severe discrimination of social classes. Wells grew up during the time where the upper class were harsh to the lower class, and Wells captured this in his novel. In the story, the Eloi made the Morlocks into their servants, wherein they became extremely dependent on them for their survival. Morlocks, in the other hand, are oppressed and they began to rebel against the Eloi (http://www.hyperink.com/Major-Themes-And-Symbols-In-The-Time-Machine-b930a15). Capitalism and communism
The world is advancing so rapidly today, it seems that it will never stop growing in knowledge and complexity. In the novel “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, The Time Traveler, as Wells calls him, travels hundreds of thousands of years into the future through time. He arrives at a world that, at first glimpse, is peaceful and clear of any worries. As The Time Traveler explores the world, he discovers that the human race has evolved into 2 distinct forms. Although the world appeared to be the Garden of Eden, it was, in reality, the Garden of Evil. Wells uses three aspects of the futuristic world to illustrate this: the setting, the Eloi, and the Murlocks.
Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862, just a year before President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (Fradin 2). She was born in times of the Civil War and experienced the hardships first hand. Following the Civil War, Wells lived the early years of her life through the Reconstruction Era. During this time she was introduced to the freedoms and opportunities that African Americans had long been denied (SITE).
Wells was born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her father, James Wells, was a carpenter and her mother was a cook. After the Civil War her parents became politically active. Her father was known as “race'; man, a term given to African Americans involved in the leadership of the community. He was a local businessman, a mason, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Shaw University. Both parents provided Ida with strong role models. They worked hard and held places of respect in the community as forward-looking people. James and Elizabeth (mother) Wells instilled their daughter a keen sense of duty to God, family, and community.
H.G. Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent a suburb of London. His father, Joseph Wells, and his mother, Sarah, were married in 1853 and they
Ida B. Wells was born in Mississippi to a mother who was a “famous” cook and a father that was a skilled Carpenter. Her parents raised her and eventually 6 other siblings and helped each of them gain an education at Shaw University since they believed an education was very important. Ida also got into politics after her family was freed from slavery because her father joined a political group known as the Loyal
H.G. Wells does not give his main character a name as it is written in
SOURCE8: Michael Draper, "H. G. Wells," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 34: British Novelists, 1890-1929, edited by Thomas F. Staley, Gale Research Inc., 1985, pp. 292-315.
“The Time Machine” can be seen as Wells’s socialist warning of what will befall humanity if capitalism continues to exploit worker for the benefits of the rich.
In The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, the Time Traveller first visits the year 802,701, where Wells begins to establish that humanity has split into two opposite and startling sub-species, the Eloi and the Morlocks, similar to “modern” humans. After his associations with the Eloi and finally outsmarting the Morlocks, the Time Traveller escapes millions of years into the future to a period devoid of human life, and once more after that to see the final devolution of man. With these experiences centuries into the future, it is clear Wells does not possess an optimistic outlook on his interpretations of the future, but rather one of regression. Wells’ idea that humanity is doomed to devolution and eventual extinction is shown through the
As a Christian, I don't personally believe in evolution in general; I don't think humans evolved from a lower life form and I don't think we will be here for another 800,000 years to evolve into anything else. But the logical scientist in me is nonetheless intrigued at the possibilities presented in The Time Machine. So what would happen to the human race a few hundred millennia from now? Would it divide into two distinct races that live separately from one another as Wells describes? I personally don't think this would happen. The human race seems to have a stubborn quality about it -- anytime there is a challenge or obstacle to face, we tend to try to overcome it in one way or another. I remember reading somewhere recently (I can't remember where) that humans have a natural tendency to resist captivity or oppression. This is why slavery is never permenent, and the history of man is littered with uprisings and revolts. This line of thinking begs the question: if indeed the Morlocks were forced underground at one point or another, why did they stay there? Even if they accepted their new environment without question, they were going to run out of food eventually -- no sun means no plants or vegetables, correct? This is where the Time Traveler presumes that the Morlocks began to feed on the Eloi out of necessity. But wouldn't the Morlocks just return to the surface at this point? Why would they stay underground if their only food was on the surface? It doesn't seem to make sense. Nevertheless, the year 802,701 as envisioned by Wells is fascinating. I have always loved good stories, especially imaginative ones, and I must admit that The Time Machine has become one of my favorite works of literature.
The future, at first, looks much better than the TT own time, but he soon deliberates that the ‘class conflict’ and ‘class structure’ from his own time have simply evolved rather than effaced. The concept of this future society, in which Wells portrays, can be perceived as a socialist warning of the possibilities that may befall mankind if capitalism continues to occur and workers are continually exploited for the benefits of the rich. As previously expressed the TT conjectures that the working class has been pushed underground for such a time that they have adapted and evolved into a primal, nocturnal species (pg. 79). Whilst, the upper class society has remained above ground, and their advanced civilization, filled with amenities, has changed them into feeble, indolent, and dependent species (pg. 126). The way the tables have somewhat turned and the Morlocks now ‘farm’ the Eloi can be seen as a Marxist revolution of sorts of the future society. A revolution where the oppressed working class has banded together and have overthrown the ruling class. At the time of the publishing of this novella, The Time Machine was an expression of Wells ' concerns for his 19th century audience, his unease of what may occur if the industrial revolution further divided the classes and how this rampancy of capitalism would solemnly effect
For many years, the well-known novelist, H.G. Wells has captivated the minds and imaginations of readers with his multiple best-selling books; The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The War of the Worlds. These selections however are not Wells’ most controversial novel. The Time Machine, written in 1895, is Wells’ most talked about work. Multiple different themes and various sides are seen to be taken within this novel, one of these main themes being the separation of classes. While the Morlock’s and the Eloi, in H.G. Wells’ novel; The Time Machine, play an extremely important role in distinguishing the future for this book, one has reason to believe that there is a broader underlying meaning for these two types of civilization. In fact, this underlying meaning is believed to relate back to Wells’ own personal life during the Victorian Period, in which the working and higher classes were at extreme differences towards each other, and where Wells, being a part of the middle class, felt and experienced firsthand; the clashing of these two divisions in Victorian society.
George Herbert, the seventeenth century poet and author, lived and wrote at the dawn of an age of reason, when the English people were students of both the sciences, such as chemistry and physics, and of religion. This was a time when "Clergymen were authorities on all matters, bishops designed flying boats, lawyers knew the fine points of theology, [and] physicians wrote exquisite lyrics and impassioned prose" (Witherspoon 298). In such a time, a literary work would quickly be forgotten if it could not inspire interest. Thus it is, perhaps, that Herbert wrote some of his most strongly religious poems, such as "Easter Wings" and "The Altar," with such an eye-catching and unique style of construction. In "Easter Wings," Herbert uses a highly uncommon form, both in appearance and mechanics, to draw attention to a simple and otherwise familiar religious subject. The very pattern, language, and shape all serve to emphasis the common content of the poem.
From a historical standpoint, there is evidence of a relationship regarding social issues during Wells’ own time and the setting of The Time Machine. The setting of the novel occurs during the late 1800s and the year 802,701. The late 1800s were the end of the Victorian Era, when the idea of Social Darwinism was at its height. At this time, the economies, governments, and technologies of the White European countries were advanced in comparison to that of other cultures. The Time Traveller rhetorically asks himself, “[e]ven now, does not an East-end worker live in such artificial conditions as practically to be cut off from the natural surface of the Earth?” (Wells 41). Here, the Time Traveller makes a relationship between what he sees in the future, non-workers living above ground and workers livin...
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, a novel about a man’s journey through the future or criticism to the evolution of human race? The Time Traveler sets out on this journey not knowing what he would find or see in the year 802,701. When he arrives he comes across people known as the Eloi. The Eloi are uneducated, small beautiful creature who don’t work or have any political issues. What seems at first like a utopian society that he heard of in the 19th century, turns out to be quite different as he finds out about the creatures who live under ground, the Morlocks. The Morlocks are the “working class” and creatures that consume Elois. By providing these two different classes Wells is trying to prove the devolution of society through the knowledge of the “upper class” and “lower class” in the Victorian Era. Throughout the Time Machine H.G Wells tries to demonstrate how the