The Hopeless Outlook for Victorian Society in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine

The Hopeless Outlook for Victorian Society in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine

In the 'Time Machine', H G Wells writes about what he depicts the

future to be like. He explains in great detail his views of evolution

and Dystopia. The world he has travelled to could for all he knows be

another planet. It is the definition of a Dystopia, with to opposite

species living against each other, one calm and peaceful whilst the

other is out to destroy the calm species, needing to kill them to

live. Wells writes about a future where technology has advanced so

much that people become lazy causing technology to go back on itself.

In the first two chapters of the novel, Wells depicts the Victorian

age as a highly civilised society. This is noticeable very early on by

the professions of the guests, (Psychologist, Medical Man and

Provincial Mayor.) All of these professions are skills which take a

very high standard of learning. The language is another way, the

narrator especially uses long, complex words such as " expounding" and

"instantaneous." The language used is unusual, and it varies greatly,

for example "spasmodic" The way in which the narrator 'speaks' to the

reader comes across as very professional and well structured. The Time

traveller and his companions live a life of luxury, this is shown in

the plans of the evening and the order in which they do things, such

as have dinner, then discuss other issues in a more comfortable

environment such as the smoking room. The Time Machine suggests that

the time traveller has a certain class above everyone else as it takes

a large amount of educational understanding to create some things as

amazing as...

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...ople treat the world in such a way that it can turn out like this.

In the epilogue it shows signs that there can be a good future for

mankind no matter what the Time Traveller had discovered. The narrator

says 'The future is still black and blank' possibly meaning that no

one really knows how the future will turn out or whether things that

the Victorians invented would still be used in the future, this could

also mean that our actions are so unpredictable that we could change

the way of the future very easily.

Overall I do think that Wells presents a hopeless outlook for

Victorian Society because he is suggesting that over such a long

period of time everything that the Victorians have done for society

would be forgotten and slowly people will change their views on

inventions and just act the same until people revolt.