History Literature / TheTimeMachine

''[[http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/timemachine/ The Time Machine: An Invention]]'' is a classic tale of TimeTravel, published in 1895, and one of the first to use a scientific mechanism to achieve it (Wells' own ''The Chronic Argonauts'' was years earlier). Where his predecessors had used [[AllJustADream visions]] to achieve the time travel, and only sent their protagonists TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, Creator/HGWells had his protagonist invent an actual time machine and travel into the far future.

The story's vision of the future reflects Wells's [[WriterOnBoard strong]] [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies socialist]] [[AuthorTract beliefs]]. There also has been an authorized sequel by Stephen Baxter released, called [[Literature/TheTimeShips The Time Ships]]. It has been filmed three times ([[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 1960]], 1978 and [[Film/TheTimeMachine2002 2002]]), and there are many references to it in subsequent TimeTravel stories.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The protagonist is referred as the Time Traveler, and in the framing story, he tells his tale to a group of men identified by their description: The Editor, The Provincial Mayor, The Medical Man, etc. In fact, only two personal names appear in the entire book: Filby in the framing story and Weena in the future narrative.
** This is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] early when one character asks "Where's ----?", referring to the Time Traveler by name.

* AnAesop: Don't exploit the working class, or their descendants will eat your descendants (which reflects Wells' socialist views). Notably, both film versions (1960 and 2002) change the Aesop by way of changing the BackStory of the Eloi and the Morlocks. Specifically, the Aesop becomes anti-war in the 1960 film and environmentalist in the 2002 film.

* NoNameGiven: The main character-both the films decided to change this. Also every Eloi other than Weena.

* WriterOnBoard

The story's vision of the future reflects Wells's [[WriterOnBoard strong]] [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies socialist]] [[AuthorTract beliefs]]. There also has been an authorized sequel by Stephen Baxter released, called [[Literature/TheTimeShips The Time Ships]]. It has been filmed twice ([[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 1960]] and [[Film/TheTimeMachine2002 2002]]), and there are many references to it in subsequent TimeTravel stories.

The link in the first sentence will provide you with an online version of this classic (now in the PublicDomain just about [[OfferVoidInNebraska everywhere but Europe]]). You can also download the full text at [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/35 Project Gutenberg]].

** This is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] early when one character asks "Where's -----?", referring to the Time Traveler by name.

* ChasteHero: The hero saves and bonds with Weena, a member of the obviously quite promiscuous Eloi race, and she follows him around. He finds her attractive and charming, but, as he says when narrating his story, "I didn't come here to find a wife" and that's it. He sleeps with her, completely innocently. He is not even sure if she is male or female.

''[[http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/timemachine/ The Time Machine: An Invention]]'' is a classic tale of TimeTravel, and one of the first to use a scientific mechanism to achieve it (Wells' own ''The Chronic Argonauts'' was years earlier). Where his predecessors had used [[AllJustADream visions]] to achieve the time travel, and only sent their protagonists TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, Creator/HGWells had his protagonist invent an actual time machine and travel into the far future.

* ScienceMarchesOn: 30 million years is far too soon for the sun to become a red giant and there would be no liquid water on Earth by the time it did.

* AnAesop: Don't exploit the working class, or their descendants will eat your descendants (which reflects Wells' socialist views).

* DistressedDamsel: The Time Traveler forms a bond with Weena, after rescuing her from drowning.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The Eloi aren't the rulers of the world - they're the cattle.]]

* ScienceMarchesOn:
** The Time Traveler witnesses the Sun enter the Red Giant phase in only a few ''million'' years.
*** Addressed in Stephen Baxter's officially licensed sequel novel, [[Literature/TheTimeShips "The Time Ships"]], which posits the theory that the Sun going Red Giant ''billions'' of years ahead of schedule was due to accidental tampering done before the Human race devolved into the Eloi and Morlocks.
** In the future, all diseases have been eradicated, along with, apparently, the vast majority of bacteria and fungi promoting decay. Modern medicine has since recognised the development of immunity in bacteria and virusses, and the eradication of all disease seems all but impossible. Even then, new diseases would always crop up over the eons.
** The extinction of pest animals, predators, insects, and a large portion of bacteria and fungi, is portrayed as a positive achievement of mankind, and overall a betterment of the planet. Nowadays, such a scenario would be associated with a massive extinction level event, and portrayed extremely negatively.
** Similarly to the above, global warming is portrayed as an entirely positive thing.

* ScienceMarchesOn: In-universe as the Time Traveler witnesses the Sun enter the Red Giant phase in only a few ''million'' years.
** Addressed in Stephen Baxter's officially licensed sequel novel, [[Literature/TheTimeShips "The Time Ships"]], which posits the theory that the Sun going Red Giant ''billions'' of years ahead of schedule was due to accidental tampering done before the Human race devolved into the Eloi and Morlocks.

* WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture: Discussed extensively; the Time Traveler suspects that the people of the future, having conquered all disease, found no reason to develop any further technologically. Because of this, they degenerated into mindless beasts. This seems a valid theory at first, until he realizes with creeping horror that he ''also'' doesn't see any broken legs or other inevitable injuries. It's because [[spoiler:the underground humans prey on the weak at night]].

''[[http://pd.sparknotes.com/lit/timemachine/ The Time Machine]]'' is a classic tale of TimeTravel, and one of the first to use a scientific mechanism to achieve it (Wells' own ''The Chronic Argonauts'' was years earlier). Where his predecessors had used [[AllJustADream visions]] to achieve the time travel, and only sent their protagonists TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, Creator/HGWells had his protagonist invent an actual time machine and travel into the far future.

* UnreliableNarrator: Various hypotheses about the nature of the Eloi as the story progresses, with the narrator admitting that even the TheReveal might be just another wrong theory. Also, due to the FramingDevice, the narrator's spellings of the few samples of Eloi language that readers get are likely poor reflections of the actual phonology, as neither the Time Traveller nor the outer story's narrator is a linguist by profession.
* UrbanSegregation (the genesis of the Morlocks and the Eloi)
* {{Veganopia}} (Eloi eat the produce of an enormous garden, whose pests are at least locally extinct)

* WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture: Discussed extensively; the time traveler suspects that the people of the future, having conquered all disease, found no reason to develop any further technologically. Because of this, they degenerated into mindless beasts. This seems a valid theory at first, until he realizes with creeping horror that he ''also'' doesn't see any broken legs or other inevitable injuries. It's because [[spoiler:the underground humans prey on the weak at night]].
* WeirdSun: Travelling millions of years into the future, Time Traveler notices the sun growing larger and more red, as well as slowing down on its way across the horizon, until finally setting still forever. He concludes that the Earth must have ceased to spin around its axis.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Discussed in-universe, as the time traveller explains that his theory of the Eloi and the Morlocks might as well be just a result of his seeing everything from a political point of view. However, he calls it the most plausible one.

* CockroachesWillRuleTheEarth: Probably the UrExample: at the end of the book the Time Traveller discovers that in the distant future Earth's dominant life form is going to be some sort of giant crab-like creatures.

** This is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] early one character asks "Where's -----?", referring to the Time Traveler by name.

* FramingDevice: The narrator is a guest at the Time Traveler's party, who for all but the first two chapters and the final chapter is taking dictation from the Time Traveller.

* IWantMyJetpack: Probably the UrExample of the trope. Time Traveler arrives in the distant year 802701, expecting to see all those marvelous achievements of mankind, and what does he find? A {{scavenger world}} inhabited by tiny childish people who think he fell from the sun.
* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe: In chapter 7, the Time Traveller plans to take Weena back to his home time.
* IndustrializedEvil: By the year 802,701, the machinery and industry operators have become Morlocks, beast-like creatures who live in darkness underground and surface only at night to feed on the helpless Eloi. This is evoked as social commentary on the brutalization of the Victorian working-class.

* NoNameGiven: The main character, both the films decided to change this. Also every Eloi other than Weena.
** Many other fictions has given the time traveller different names: the author himself (unless he was the narrator), Bruce Clark Wildman ([[Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer Wold Newton universe]]), Adam Dane (''The Rook'' comic), Theophilus Tolliver (''[[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Doctor Who]]'' comic strip), and Robert James Pensley (''The Hertford Manuscript'' by Richard Cowper).

* ScienceMarchesOn: In-universe as the Time Traveller witnesses the Sun enter the Red Giant phase in only a few ''million'' years.
** Addressed in Stephen Baxter's officially licensed sequel novel, [[Literature/TheTimeShips "The Time Ships"]], which posits the theory that the Sun going Red Giant ''billions'' of years ahead of schedule, was due to accidental tampering done before the Human race devolved into the Eloi and Morlocks.
* SocietyMarchesOn: Back when the book was written, English society could be mostly divided into two classes, the aristocracy and working class. H. G. Wells assumed this model would remain for over 800 thousand years, finally separating mankind into two different species. However, the twentieth century brought radical changes in society and today even the middle class has three subclasses.
* SpellMyNameWithABlank (the one time the Time Traveller is addressed by name, this trope is used.)

* TeleFrag: While building the machine, the Time Traveller considered that when he arrived he might be inside an object, causing a "far-reaching explosion." He decided it was a necessary risk.

* TheyCalledMeMad (several of the main character's colleagues scoff at his theories about time travel, which, of course, turn out to be true.) In the end, though, only the Editor thinks the story is false-the other friends are implied to have believed him (the Doctor, for example, very reluctantly tells the Time Traveller is suffering from overwork, and accepts the flower the Traveller brings back as decent proof), but the Writer is very certain that the Traveller is telling the truth.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Played with briefly, when the Time Traveller nears the end of his story. His thoughts grow more rambling and he starts to wonder aloud if he's somehow imagined the whole experience, or if he's only imagining being home right now. He insists upon seeing the time machine again for himself and, once he does, he comes back to his senses.

The time traveller decides this is the inevitable result of class struggle. The parasitic rich have degenerated into the effete Eloi while the working classes, treated like beasts, have become just that. The time traveller later mentions that this explanation may be wrong, but never gives an alternative.

After a succession of adventures, the time traveller returns to his machine, takes a short trip ToTheFutureAndBeyond when the sun itself is dying, then returns to the present day, where he tells his story. A few days later, he sets off again, and never returns.

* ChasteHero: The hero saves and bonds with Weena a member of the obviously quite promiscuous Eloi race and she follows him around. He finds her attractive and charming, but, as he says when narrating his story, "I didn't come here to find a wife" and that's it. He sleeps with her, completely innocently. He is not even sure if she is male or female.
* CockroachesWillRuleTheEarth: Probably the UrExample: at the end of the book the Time Traveller discovers that in the distant future Earth's dominant lifeform is going to be some sort of giant crab-like creatures.
* CryingWolf: One reason the Time Traveller's friends are so skeptical of his claims at first is that he's tricked them into believing outlandish, and false, stories [[NoodleIncident several times before]].
* DistressedDamsel: The Time Traveller forms a bond with Weena, after rescuing her from drowning.

* EatTheRich: The Eloi are the descendents of the wealthy masters of modern society reduced to a state of intellectual and physical infancy, while the Morlocks are the descendents of the poor and working class reduced to brutal apes. Guess which race eats which.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep - The protagonist is referred as the Time Traveller, and in the framing story, he tells his tale to a group of men identified by their description: The Editor, The Provincial Mayor, The Medical Man, etc. In fact, only two personal names appear in the entire book: Filby in the framing story and Weena in the future narrative.
** This is even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] early one character asks "Where's -----?", referring to the Time Traveller by name.
* FashionsNeverChange: Discussed in chapter 1. The Medical Man points out that observing the Battle of Hastings in person would attract attention: "Our ancestors had no great tolerance for anachronisms."

* FramingDevice: The narrator is a guest at the Time Traveller's party, who for all but the first two chapters and the final chapter is taking dictation from the Time Traveller.

* AnAesop: Don't exploit working class, or their descendants will eat your descendants (which reflects Wells' socialist views)

* DownerEnding: When he travels even further into the future he finds that even the Morlock civilization eventually collapsed, civilization never recovered, and the only human-descended animal he can find is a rabbit analogue.