(Before) The Inescapable Enemy: The Future of the World in The Time Machine Darth Vader, Moby Dick,

Shere Kahn, The White Witch, Big Brother, Cruella Deville: All of these exemplify the "bad guy" in the stories that many have read or heard. When delving into stories such as these, the reader often comes to one ultimate question: who is the hero and who is the villain? In literature classes, it might be more specifically discussed as the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, it is a little bit more difficult to decipher who or what are the bad guy and the good guy. While at first the major conflict may appear to be that the Eloi are the victims of the wicked Morlocks, and while the Time Traveller seems to stand as the hero in all of it, Wells' intention is completely different. Through his ominous and frighteningly personified illustration of the future world and its destruction of all parts of human society, Wells presents readers with an antagonist that is not in fact a specific person or group; rather, he depicts the enemy in the potential of the future itself, and its implications for the human race. When the Time Traveller first ventures into the future, discovering a world divided between the nave, child-like Eloi and the mysterious, threatening Morlocks, one would imagine that these two groups might be the central subjects. The Time Traveller takes a somewhat of a liking to the sweet, yet helpless Eloi, while the Morlocks appear to be the evident villains, lurking in the dark underground, only to come out and prey on the Eloi. The movie versions of The Time Machine (1960, 2002), for one, certainly illustrate this story as one of heroism and adventure: we see the Time Traveller swooping in valiantly as a savior-of-the-world, rescuing the sweet, innocent Eloi from the evil, treacherous Morlocks. In the novel, however, it becomes more apparent that all beingsthe Eloi, the Time Traveller, and the Morlocks alike- are victims of a greater force. For instance- would a great hero nearly lose his mind over running out of matches? Would a hero end up lost, engulfed in the dimensions of time? Although the Time Traveller at first serves as a savior-figure for one of the Eloi, Weena, having saved her from drowning due to her inability to swim, he fails to protect her from nature's engulfing flames in the end. As for the Morlocks- in the midst of this great forest fire, the Time Traveller is "assured of their absolute helplessness and misery in the glare" (Wells 138-139). So then, do the Morlocks really stand as such a threat, being equally as vulnerable as the Eloi, also both eventually dying out? It becomes evident that all creatures in the novel are victims of something greater. Therefore, who is the true "bad guy" in The Time Machine? In fact, the antagonistic force from which the Eloi, the Morlocks, and the Time Traveller are trying to escape is not actually a person or being at all; it is the state of the world itself. The overlying enemy in The Time Machine is the future of the world, and the consequences it holds for all humans. In the end, it is the both Eloi and the Morlocks inability to overcome the world around them that causes their downfall. After having spent time in year 802,701, the Time Traveller at one point reveals that the true enemy he fears is "the darkness of the new moon", and how it "was not such a very difficult guess what the coming Dark Nights might mean" (Wells 119). This "new moon" that the Time Traveller dreads so much is not simply the new moon of the upcoming evening - it is the blackness the future brings, the darkness that the Time Traveller is seeing threaten humanity as a whole. While the Morlocks live in literal darkness, the Eloi are kept in an

intellectual oblivion from the world around them. The "Dark Nights" indicate an entirely new age, and not one that brings much hope for society. This capitalization of "Dark Nights" puts a name, an identity on this bleak future. The state that the world has come to now stands as a threat in and of itself; it is not a specific element, but the degeneration of the world he once knew that the Time Traveller sees that truly panics him. As the Time Traveller journeys even further into the future, the apex of mankind's ultimate fate becomes clear. It seems as though the world itself has taken over, a cruel and victorious villain: The darkness grew apace; a cold wind began to grow in freshening gusts from the east [] From the edge of the sea came a ripple and a whisper. Beyond these lifeless sounds the world was silent [] All the sounds of man, the bleating of sheep, the cries of the birds, the hum of insects, the stir that makes the background of our lives all that was over. (Wells 148) The ultimate antagonist in this story is therefore not merely the worlds future, but also what it brings. The danger looming over is the potential of lifelessness itself: in other words, extinction. This is potentially the greatest menace, the greatest threat not only facing the Time Traveller, but also the Eloi, the Morlocks, the narrator, and all of humankind - including the reader. Wells presents the possibility as well as the potential and the probability of "the mere memory of Man as I knew him, being cast out of existence (Wells 123). Again, this capitalization of "Man" underlines the human race in its entirety as the character in opposition to, and eventually as a victim of, the apparent enemy: the world and what is to come of it. Considering H.G. Wells' beliefs and separate writings, this idea does not come as such a surprise. For example, in his work "On Extinction", Wells introduces Fate as "the most terrible thing a man can conceive [] one man, looking extinction in the face." (qtd. in Ruddick 174). This is essentially what we see in The Time Machine, when the Time Traveller eventually finds himself alone in a grey obscurity, only to be greeted by the "lifeless sounds" of the sea (Wells 148). As Wells describes in On Extinction, human life does not simply end; it is an entity that has "played and lost", that has "schemed and struggled (qtd. in Ruddick 173). Extinction is not described as a biological process; rather, it takes form as a murder by which human life is slowly and remorselessly annihilated (qtd. in Ruddick 173). Extinction, therefore, is not simply a possibility, but a danger to all mankind. Therefore, when reading The Time Machine, one should not look at it simply as an entertaining fiction about a man venturing through the fourth dimension. Perhaps Wells truly is trying to say that no matter what, one day in the future, human life will one day cease to exist; maybe he is trying to warn the audience, to prevent the extinction of a sophisticated society, as he depicts through the Eloi and Morlocks. Whichever the case, Wells was sending a powerful message, warning of the imminent danger that threatens all society. While this is a story, and it does in fact contain a protagonist and antagonist, the catch is that the antagonist ultimately wins in the end. It is the Future that essentially conquers over Man. Works Cited

Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. Broadview Press, Ltd. 2001. Wells, H.G. "On Extinction".(Ed. Ruddick, Nicholas). Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. 173-176. Broadview Press, Ltd. 2001.