Reading and Journal Questions on H.G. Wells' The Time Machine

GENERAL, OVERVIEW QUESTIONS

• 1. This is the first of what Wells called his "scientific romances." What elements make the story a romance?
  • a) Does the structure of the plot follow the parabola of the romance quest as defined by Joseph Campbell and Northrop Frye? Try graphing the plot out as you read.
  • b) Do the characters fall into romance categories?
  • c) Is the imagery typical of romance archetypes? Need to mark and keep track of opposing clusters of edenic and demonic images.

• 2. What about the "scientific" part of the definition? What elements of The Time Machine are scientific (or pseudo-scientific)? What sciences are used or referred to?

• What about the issue of "verifiablity"? What are the mechanisms Wells uses to make his time-travel premise credible?

• What is Well's attitude towards science as revealed by the Time Traveller's character? How does he do as a representative scientist? Does his behavior reveal any flaws in the scientific perspective?

• 3. Social criticism is the third element seen as essential to the mixture which finally produced modern sf. What are the targets of Well's social criticism?

SPECIFIC STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

• You need to set up a Gliederung, a chapter by chapter anatomy of the novel. Try writing a one-sentence or key-word summary of the main event of each chapter, or try graphing the highs and lows as the chapters develop.

• Here are some questions about specific elements:
  • 1. Why the frame of the dinner party? What purpose does it serve?
  • 2. What is the symbolic import of the sphinx?
  • 3. What are the mythic resonances of the Eloi and Morlock? Do they wholly correspond to good and bad -- angel and devil? Is the Time Travller more like an Eloi or a Morlock? How are the two groups related to gender steroetypes?
  • 4. What is the purpose of Weena in the plot?
  • 5. Beginning with Chapter 5, the Time Traveller provides a model of the scientific method at work in coming up with first one, then another, then another hypothesis as to how the Eloi and Morlock division came about. What are these three hypotheses? What is the social critique implied by each one?
  • 6.What's the point of the extended travel into the future in Chapter 11?

• Extra Credit
  What similarities of theme, attitude, vision etc. do you find between The Time Machine and Wells' short stories, "The Country of the Blind" and "The Star" (in anthology)?

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