In the book The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, there are two different types of a race. The Eloi and the Morlock. The Morlock live in a well-run hell below while the Eloi live in a rundown garden of eve above. The reason for this is probably because the Morlock work and the Eloi don’t. If you don’t work nothing gets done. So the Eloi didn’t work and everything above ground was worn down except for a few houses. The Morlock would work all day underground making clothes and shoes for the Eloi. Everything was nice underground because the Morlock where working. The Eloi had enslaved the Morlock and this was also one of the reasons that the Morlock worked so much and the Eloi didn’t work at all. Maybe the Eloi would have worked if they hadn’t enslaved the Morlock. The Time Traveler explains them as “very indolent creatures.” The Morlock were not indolent at all. They were very industrious. This industriousness made the underground a well-run place. The laziness of the Eloi made the aboveground a very rundown place. 

 The Time Machine

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is about a man called “The Time Traveler” that travels from the 19^th century to the year 802,701 A.D. The future that he sees is not what he expects, for when he gets there, he meets the Eloi and the Morlocks who are two sub-divisions of the human race. The Eloi are very strange and indolent creatures. They have curly blonde hair, fair skin, and little suction cup type instrument on their hands. Whereas the Morlock are very smart, hardworking creatures. They have large eyes, gray fur that covers their bodies, and are almost ape-like. The Eloi live on the land above ground. It would be very beautiful, if they took care of it, but they are too lazy. On the other hand the Morlocks live underground and because they are smart, and care about where they live, they take care of their home. It may not be the most beautiful place in the world, but it’s their home. I think that is why Wells describes the two homes as “a neglected Garden of Eden and a well-run Hell below”. The Eloi neglect their home. They are just too lazy to do any work. All they do every day is sleep, bathe, eat fruit, and play. The Morlocks do not neglect their home at all. Underground is not the best place to live, but the Morlocks like the dark, so they make it work. So when Wells says a neglected Garden of Eden, he means that the Eloi are very lucky to be living where they are. And by not taking care of it like they are supposed to, they are neglecting it. When he says a well-run Hell below, he means that they work hard to keep everything nice. They actually built equipment to help them live. The Morlocks do so much work that the Eloi would never even dream of doing. That is why it makes sense to say it is a neglected Garden of Eden and a well-run Hell below.

The Time Machine -- H.G.Wells

          In The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, like many other authors, uses the “under world/upper world” metaphor to create symbolic meaning for the Eloi and the Morlocks.  Traditionally, the Upper world is seen as utopian and the underworld as hellish. Authors sometimes use this metaphor to produce an evangelical emphasis, wanting to persuade readers to strive for goodness and avoid evil.  This metaphor has religious meaning because to be “good,” in a Biblical sense, one must be both productive and obedient.  In the story of the Garden of Eden, the inside of the garden is Utopian, much like the Eloi’s world. In both stories though, the inhabitants do not behave as they should and evil enters their Elysium.  Adam and Eve follow God’s instructions and work in their garden:  “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15, King James Bible).  However, even though Adam and Eve keep busy and husband their garden, they disobey God’s instructions about avoiding The Tree of Knowledge and they eat the forbidden fruit.  As a result, they lose their Paradise and are cast out of the Garden of Eden.  Since they have never seen the real world, it appears to them as a type of Gehenna.  In The Time Machine, the Eloi never disobey anyone, but they have no responsibilities and do no work.  They are not productive and as result, they become imbecilic.  To the time traveler, this fate seems like a type of hell itself and he theorizes that being productive may be what keeps people human.  At the same time, that can be taken too far.  The Morlocks, who do nothing but work, live underground and Wells depicts that as hellish.  This ruins the Utopian world of Eloi because they must live in fear that their slaves will eat them alive.  This novella was written in the time of the industrial revolution, so perhaps H.G. Wells is warning others that if the poorer classes are enslaved in dark, dank factories and the wealthy are lazy and unproductive, the poor will rise up and fight back. 

Eloi VS. Morlocks

Mason Unthank

April 16^th, 2014

Great Books

Mrs. Stephanie Berry           

In the story “The Time Machine,” by H.G. Wells the Eloi live in a city, which is a bit dilapidated. This gives it the feel of a neglected Garden of Eden. There are probably many reasons for this. The Eloi are very indolent (physically and mentally lazy,) and don’t do any work. They would much rather be playing outside than working on rebuilding an entire city. The Eloi enslaved the Morlocks so they could do the hard labor for them, reducing the amount of time they have to work. The main course of an Eloi’s day is waking up, eating playing, bathing, sleeping, and so on and so forth. The Morlocks however differ. The Morlocks in “The Time Machine” are a much more versatile species. They can build, are strong, and smart. When “the time traveler” enters one of the wells, he notices series of tunnels and elaborate machinery. This gives the Morlock world the feel of a well-organized hell. The Morlocks use their muscles to build and do work for the Eloi, their brains to design machinery and plan attacks and are just overall a better species for the type of world they live in. The Eloi and the Morlocks were both supposed to have evolved from humans, but when looking at their differences, this can be hard to believe. 

Time Machine Defintitions

Acacia: A small tree or shrub belonging to the genus Acacia, of the mimosa family, having clusters of small yellow flowers.

Acacia trees are one of the giraffe’s main food sources.

Procure: To obtain or get by care, effort, or the use of special means.

Bob was lost and hungry, so he decided to procure some food.

Imperceptible: Something not capable of being perceived by the senses.

The lighting was so poor it was imperceptible.

Brontosaurus: (Animals) any very large herbivorous quadrupedal dinosaur of the genus Apatosaurus, common in North America during Jurassic times, having a long neck and long tail: suborder Sauropoda.

The brontosaurus grazed on the taller trees with the help of its long neck.

Words to Research from the Time Machine

Wane: To appear to become thinner of less full. “The moon was on the wane: each night there was a longer interval of darkness” (282)

Dexterous: Having or showing a great skill or cleverness: showing dexterity. “All the buildings and trees seemed easily practicable to such dexterous climbers as the Morlocks, to judge by their wells, must be.” (283)

  Aperture: A hole or a small opening in something. “Swinging myself in, I found it was the aperture of a narrow horizontal tunnel in which I could lie down and rest” (278)

 Hermetically: Closed tightly so that no air can go in or out. “I found it in a sealed jar, that by chance, I suppose, had been really hermetically sealed” (294)

Time Machine Research Words :3

The word “interminable” means endless, annoying and hard to bare. They use this word in The Time Machine when the time traveler goes off into his ‘interminable’ voyage. “So that it was the Psychologist who sent forth the model Time Machine on its interminable voyage.” The word unfathomable means too deep or impossible to be measured. “Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future.” The word Steatite means a soft heavy compact variety of talc having a soapy feel; used to make hearths, tabletops and ornaments. “In another place was a vast array of idols – Polynesian, Mexican, Grecian, Phoenician, every country on earth I should think. And here, yielding to an irresistible impulse, I wrote my name upon the nose of a steatite [soapstone] monster from South America that particularly took my fancy.”