Essay About Time Traveller And Miniature Time Machine

The Time Machine
Essay Preview: The Time Machine
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Chapters 1 and 2
Summary
The Time Traveller is in his home, speaking to a group of men that includes the narrator.
He is lecturing on the fourth dimension. He tells them that a cube exists not only in space,
but also in time. Time is the fourth dimension. Many of them are skeptical. The Time
Traveller claims that one should be able to move about in the fourth dimension just as
one can move about in the other three. After all, he notes, we are constantly moving
forward in time, why not move faster or slower or even backward? He produces a
miniature time machine, the size of a clock, made of ivory and crystal. The Time
Traveller explains that one lever sends the machine into the future and the other one
sends it into the past. He asks one of the guests to push the forward lever, and the
machine disappears in a small gust. He claims that the machine is now gliding forward
into the future. The guests ask why they cannot still see it, since they too are moving into
the future, and the Time Traveller explains that it is moving forward too quickly to be
seen, like the spokes of a wheel or a speeding bullet. The guests are amazed. The
Traveller then shows them a much larger machine, with which he plans to explore time.
The narrator concludes that not many of the guests believed the Time Traveller, as he was
a very intelligent man, likely to play elaborate pranks. The narrator returns to dinner at his
house the next week. The guests include some of the men from the previous week and
some new guests. They have been instructed to begin dinner without their host. When he
enters, he is incredibly dusty and dishevelled. He quickly drinks some champagne, then
goes to wash up. The narrator suggests to the other guests that their host has been
travelling in time. The others are incredulous and make sarcastic remarks in reply. When
the Time Traveller is finally ready to tell his story, the guests quickly raise objections.
The Time Traveller says that he has no energy to argue and will speak only if everyone
agrees not to interrupt. The guests agree, and sit in increasingly rapt attention as the story
begins.
Chapters 3 and 4
Summary
The Time Traveller gets on his machine and pushes the forward lever just a little. He feels
a dizzying sensation, and when he looks at the clock in his lab he sees that five hours
have passed. He then presses the forward lever a bit more. Night and day fly by in
increasingly rapid succession. Soon the lab disappears. He can see the hazy outline of
buildings as well as the sun going in a continuous path across the sky that moves up and
down with the seasons. A feeling of headlong motion turns into exhilaration. He begins to
worry that when he stops the machine it will land where there is already some solid
object, and he will be obliterated. He becomes very frightened and pulls the lever to a
stop. He ends up flying headlong through the air.
The traveller finds himself in a hail storm. As it passes, he notices a giant statue of a
white sphinx on a bronze pedestal. He begins to fear what man may have evolved into.
Perhaps it is something very cruel or savage. He notices large buildings, and as he turns
his time machine over on the right side, he notices that some figures in rich robes are
observing him from the nearest building. One of the creatures approaches him. It is
beautiful but very frail, reminding the Time Traveller of someone afflicted by
tuberculosis .
More of the creatures surround him, speaking in a “sweet and liquid tone.” They seem
free of fear, and he feels safe. He removes the control levers from his time machine so
that no one else can use it. The creatures have large eyes, curly hair, and thin red lips.
When he points up to the sun to try to explain where he has come from, one of the
creatures makes the sound of thunder, thinking that he came from the hail storm. He
wonders if they are fools and is flooded with disappointment. They begin to run about and
shower him with strange flowers, and he laughs at how wrongly he had imagined the
future.
The creatures take the traveller into one of their large buildings. It is covered with strange
hieroglyphics. They give him a meal of strange fruit. He tries to learn a few words. They
laugh at his attempts to speak their language, and soon grow weary of teaching him. They
seem foolish and indolent. He walks out to explore the world of 802,701 AD. There are
ruins. He notices that all of the creatures live together in huge buildings. He also notices
that there are no outward signs of gender, and that there are no old people. He thinks he
has arrived in a communist paradise, and that these creatures are the result of a world
without hardship and fear. He thinks how in his own time,