We also witness some use of contrast on the first page, mainly between light and dark, “The fire burnt brightly,” and, “His usually pale face was flush and animated.” This shows that he is quite positive about what he is saying as light is a good sign. This is quite ironic as later on in the novel we find light to be good as it is where the eloi live, and dark to be bad as it is where the morlocks spend there time. The part about fire is also ironic as he takes it for granted through the novel and finds out how useful it really is when he goes to battle with the morlocks.
The second chapter is based upon the little model of the time machine going into the future. To relish beliefs of trickery he uses the psychologists finger to press the button. As the machine went into the future or past it blew a candle out. This is another reference to fire. There is also imagery involved of light and darkness as well as there been foreshadowing irony. This chapter also contains contrast of knowledge and ignorance. Knowledge of the time traveller understanding what is going on and ignorance of the people watching refusing to believe.
“lights a spill at the fire.” This is how Wells’ has shown that the audience believe what he is saying. When he takes the audience to look at the real version of the time machine he takes a “lamp” with him, this once again shows a positive status of intelligence in that the time traveller knows what he is talking about, although on the way down the dark corridor it does “flicker” which shows some doubtfulness.
We see some foreshadowing irony almost straight away in chapter three. As soon as the time traveller returns the first thing he asks is for them “to save a bit of mutton. He’s starving for some meat.” As we find out this is quite ironic as when he travels into the future he does not eat any meat. This is because no one but eloi and morlock roam the Earth and the eloi only eat fruit. The morlocks eat eloi. This is also contrast as the time traveller does not agree with how the morlock’s “harvest” the eloi and eat them when that is exactly what they do in their time.
In the future there is a certain contrast between the eloi and morlocks. The eloi are “pretty little people” and the morlocks are more or less the opposite. Another contrast is between the Victorian era and that of the future. In the future no work is done and in the Victorian era a lot of work is carried out.
How important is a match in the future? This is one question the time traveller should have seriously considered before burning all his to impress the eloi, especially after he refers to them as been “simple” and yet he wants to impress them. This is quite ironic as he is down to his last few as he comes up against the morlocks. His views on the future world have once again got him into trouble, believing everyone is simple is quite a bad idea. It backfires on him in the “underground” when he could have done with those matches to battle the morlocks.
As the time traveller is on the way to fight the morlock in the final part of his journey he lights a fire in the middle of a forest, this once again shows complete arrogance and pure stupidity. Lighting it does create suspense on the readers part as he or she realises that it will catch on. He becomes disorientated and carries on. He then goes to sleep. He awakes and finds the fire has spread fast. This been responsible for the death of his love Weena. The irony here been that the thing protecting him from the morlocks has been responsible for the death of a person it is protecting.
In my personal opinion the reason the time traveller didn’t do so well in the future world is because he judged a book by its cover. When he saw how devolved the eloi were he assumed the whole population would be like that, inlcluding the morlock, who turned out to be quite smart, except for their weakness of light. If the time traveller wasn’t so arrogant and stopped believing he was the most intelligent been around he might have done so much better in the future.
Through the novel Wells’ uses contrast of light and dark very well to produce such issues like suspense and irony. He also uses it to create and set character, and matters of tone, as well as theme. His use of contrast is largely affective all the way through the novel and makes it what it is.
