The Time Machine : by H.G.Wells - Essay Example

Prompt 4. Analyse the social evolution of human species between 1895 AD and 802,701 AD. as implied in the novel. The Time Machine The reader in is introduced to nineteenth century England Victorian society of 1895. Wells move the reader back and fourth through time. The narrator, the time traveller and Weena an Eloi female are the main characters of the novel. The book begins in the late 1800 Victorian England society.

The time traveller is lecturing a group of men in his house about the fourth dimension which is time. The time traveller believes that it is possible to move about in time just the same way we do in the three other dimensions. This paper will analyse the social evolution of human species between 1895 AD and 802, 701 AD as implied on the novel The Time machine. The late Victorian Era was an epoch of great civilization and progress. The time traveller is disappointed to see that the 802,701 AD society is not as civilized.

The society in this epoch is communal and lacks the vigor and intellect of nineteenth century Victorian society. Social evolution can be defined as the gradual progress of a societys institutions, social forms etc. In The Time Machine, Wells portrays that social progress between the Victorian society and 802,701 AD to be in reversal. Wells is trying to warn the society from being complacent in the way things currently are. He feels that things could turn for the worse. Nineteenth century England was a period of great industrial progress.

Darwism was at play. The human species was improving for the better. Social evolution and inequality are central themes in this work. Wells strives to indicate how the pampered social class had degenerated into weak and frail beings living in constant fear of the Morlock. The oppressed poor had on the other hand evolved into marauding cannibals feeding on the frail Eloi. Wells theoritized how the working class has been reduced to live underground and only operate noctanally. With not much to eat they turn to cannibalism.

Wells in trying to warn mankind of what is likely to befall mankind if the exploitive capitalist society persist. Wells tries to spur holes on social Darwinism preached in this epoch. According to Social Darwinism, those who succeed are perceived to have good qualities and would continue to do so owning to their good qualities. Those who did not succeed socially where perceived to have poor qualities and deserved to fail even become extinct. Wells believes that this view is erroneous. He believes that socially successful persons only evolved in adaptability and were not necessarily better than their not so successful peers.

Wells who came from a poor family had since moved to a higher social class. This fact alone proves that he was not any better than the poor neighbours he grew up with but only that he had been able to adapt for the better. In short, social evolution did not necessarily lead to perfection as perceived during this epoch. Evolution only lead to greater complexity and adaptability in a specie and these complexities may even enfeeble a specie. At a first glance, the Elois seem as a perfect specie of advanced social age; but as the time traveller observes them more, he realizes that the advancement in civilization has actually made them frail.

With no pressing need to survive, they had evolved into a stupid, lazy and weak generation. Work citedWells, H. G., and H. G. Wells. TheWheels of Chance; The Time Machine . London: J.M. Dent, 1935.Print.