The Time Machine

What do you find interesting about the style The Time Machine is written in?

There are many things that I found interesting about The Time Machine as it is an incredibly successful adventure story. Wells uses all the usual aspects including danger, near death experiences, a great hero, a love interest and successful villains. However he still manages to write in a unique and appealing style; this is what I liked and found most interesting about The Time Machine.

One distinctive feature of the book is that it rarely uses names for individual characters. In chapter one the majority of characters who have been invited to the Time Traveller's "meeting" are referred to by their professions rather then their Christian names. For example, the Psychologist and the Provincial Mayor, this is also true of the novel's main character, the Time Traveller. In fact, only three characters are actually given names; Mrs Watchett (the maid), Filby, and of course little Weena. I think the lack of names is rather impersonal but the fact that they are referred to by their professions is extremely significant. It shows that this is how the Time Traveller regards them because to him their emotions and personalities do not matter; it was not because of these that he invited them to discuss his time machine. He asked them to join him to discuss the machine and the theory of time travel so that he could see their points of view as intellectuals rather than as people. He wanted the opinions of a Medical Man and a Psychologist, not the opinions of two men named called Fred and Boris. It also prevents unnecessary complications, it is not essential for us to know the names of these characters because they are hardly mentioned it is irrelevant. However, their jobs are very important to us because it shows that the Time Traveller only wanted very clever people at this meeting, he did not want time-wasters or people, who in his opinion, could not possibly have anything of any relevance to contribute to the discussion.

At first I found it immensely interesting and if I am honest rather annoying how Wells had used so few female characters. Especially as there were several intellectual professionals invited to discuss the time machine and not one of them was a woman! In today's society this would be regarded as discrimination against women and Wells could be called a sexist. However, as I continued to read the book, my thinking progressed and I reminded myself exactly when this book was written. Once I had remembered this detail it became clear to me why there were so few female characters in the novel and why out of the two that there were, one was considered weak and given the derogatory name of Little Weena, and the other was a maid. Throughout the novel women are insinuated as being: childlike, feminine, physically weaker than men, afraid, delicate, non-intellectuals, and as having un-evolved minds! During the period in which The Time Machine was written women were considered to be a lot weaker, less important, less clever, and less socially adequate. The only jobs women would really have had would have been as servants to men, this also explains why the Time Traveller regards Weena as little, pathetic and weak. However, when the Time Traveller is in the year 802,701 A.D women and men are still regarded as equals as there is not really much distinction between them.

I found the descriptions used by Wells in this book amazingly detailed and well thought out. Some are comical and others are scary but the majority are just brilliant without being either. My personal favourite is when the Time Traveller describes the Eloi as having a "Dresden-china type prettiness" (25) about them. In those four short words he conveys to the reader a perfect image of what the Eloi look like. As soon as I read that description I had an extremely clear image in