Science: Before Wells, other people had written fantasies
about time travel. Wells, however, was the first to introduce
authentic scientific speculation to the genre. The Time Traveller
describes in great detail his theories on the fourth dimension
and his observations on astronomy and evolution while on his
journey. Many of these ideas were inspired by Thomas Huxley,
Wells’s teacher at his London science college.
Society: As with all good science fiction, the background
of a future fantasy can be an effective way of illuminating
deficiencies in present day society. The land of the Eloi and the
Morlocks is a mirror of the Victorian class system, and is a vision
of the troubled future such a system could entail. Too much
comfort and absence of suffering have turned the manager
class into a race of pretty but useless pleasure-seekers. They
have become too weak and stupid to help themselves, and
have even lost the basic human instinct to help others in
trouble. The Time Traveller is initially beguiled by their childlike
simplicity, but ends up being contemptuous. The Morlocks, on
the other hand, represent the dehumanisation of the working
classes. Unlike the Eloi, they still know how to make things,
but they have become brutal predators of the night. In Wells’s
view, this is a warning of things to come if society does not do
something to rectify its inequalities and absurdities while there
is still time.
Adventure: This has, of course, all the ingredients of a
traditional adventure story: a hero trapped by an unseen
enemy overcomes overwhelming odds and escapes
from an impossible situation!