Time Traveller

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AMDG                                                                                    28th May

English Coursework

Time Traveller

Why does what the time traveller view in the future world exemplify a Victorians worst fear coming true?

The Victorian era was a time of development and advancement. Whether it is medical, scientific or technological, the Victorian age was a great step forward for man. It was a time were the working class people began to move from the countryside to the new developing towns and cities. Man had jus discovered the use for fossil fuels in the industrial revolution, and it was after that point the human race started to excel. It is the Victorian age and its entire people that moulded our world into what it is today.

As the years went by, the cities and towns grew larger, the discoveries made were changing the way the world works and as all this was happening, the Victorian people began to get over confident about their achievements and their future. They believed that things in the future could only get better, and being as naïve as they were, they continued to do so.

The message Wells was trying to get across to his Victorian audience was that this arrogant, over confident attitude they had come to develop over time would get them into further trouble in the future and in his book “the time traveller” H.G Wells shows the downfall of the human race and fears of the Victorian people coming true.

Wells starts off the book by describing the main character in his story, the time traveller whose name through out the book is not mentioned.

The time traveller is joined with a contrast of the various types of Victorian people. These include: a psychologist, a newspaper editor, the provincial mayor, a doctor, Filby and a very young man. Here Wells is trying to show the different views portrayed by the different people about time travel. However, all the men involved fail to show any enthusiasm. They all either show scepticism, or pay no attention to what the time traveller has to say.

The medical man in particular decides to contradict what the time traveller says on several occasions by interrupting his speeches with objective phrases such as “not exactly” or jus questioning the time traveller’s methods. Where as Filby shows arrogance towards the time traveller and shares most of the same view the average Victorian showed towards the future. “You can show black is white by argument, but you can never convince me.” In this story the role of Filby represents the average Victorian person, narrow minded and arrogant towards unique views.

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In the second chapter, the time traveller shows his audience a prototype of the time machine. He then sends his prototype ahead into time. “The little machine suddenly swung round, perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone-vanished.”

Then in the third chapter, the time traveller moves on to the future.

“I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute, and every minute marking every day”

As the time traveller moves forward in time he witnesses rise and fall of great buildings and civilizations. He watches the Victorian world he ...

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