What Is The Use Of Imagery In H. G. Wells The Time Machine

The origins of mankind have long been a mystery. Humans often try to find out how life existed, but never really try to look into the future. The Time Traveler involuntarily stumbles onto the truth when he experiments with his newly invented Time Machine. Mr. Hillyer, the narrator, tells The Time Traveler story in H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine (Penguin Classics, 2005). During the entirety of the novel, the author takes time out of the story to describe the imagery to the reader and still does not disrupt the flow of the story. When The Time Traveler arrives in the future in his Time Machine, he lands next to a sphinx. Immediately he goes into detail describing the sphinx and says that “It was of white marble, in shape something like a

The reader is at the edge of his or her seat and just waiting to see what it is like. When the Time Traveler hits the ground, it’s pitch black. The Morlocks can see him through the dark and the reader is anticipating what will the Morlocks do. When the Time Traveler strikes a match, he gets a glimpse of what the Morlock’s lair is like. He describes it as, “Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare. The place, by the bye, was very stuffy and oppressive, and the faint halitus of freshly shed blood was in the air (54).” Wells overwhelms the reader with sensory details. The Time Traveler’s description of the Morlock’s lair are also indirectly a description of the Morlocks themselves. The Morlock’s are carnivorous disgusting creatures and their home is also stuffy and has the scent of fresh blood in the air. Despite the fact that they are revolting little creatures, the Morlocks work to find prey. They are quite contrary to the Eloi, who are beautiful small childlike creatures, who, however, do not work at all and resign to playing and eating fruit all day. H.G. Wells is clear to make the distinction between the two