the time machine characters

Characters

The Time Traveller - The Time Traveller's name is never given. Apparently the narrator wants to protect his identity. The Time Traveller is an inventor. He likes to speculate on the future and the underlying structures of what he observes. His house is in Richmond, a suburb of London.

The Narrator - The narrator, Mr. Hillyer, is the Time Traveller's dinner guest. His curiosity is enough to make him return to investigate the morning after the first time travel.

Weena - Weena is one of the Eloi. Although the Time Traveller reports that it is difficult to distinguish gender among the Eloi, he seems quite sure that Weena is female. He easily saves her from being washed down the river, and she eagerly becomes his friend. Her behavior toward him is not unlike that of a pet or small child.

Summary

A group of men, including the narrator, is listening to the Time Traveller discuss his theory that time is the fourth dimension. The Time Traveller produces a miniature time machine and makes it disappear into thin air. The next week, the guests return, to find their host stumble in, looking disheveled and tired. They sit down after dinner, and the Time Traveller begins his story.

The Time Traveller had finally finished work on his time machine, and it rocketed him into the future. When the machine stops, in the year 802,701 AD, he finds himself in a paradisiacal world of small humanoid creatures called Eloi. They are frail and peaceful, and give him fruit to eat. He explores the area, but when he returns he finds that his time machine is gone. He decides that it has been put inside the pedestal of a nearby statue. He tries to pry it open but cannot. In the night, he begins to catch glimpses of strange white ape-like creatures the Eloi call Morlocks. He decides that the Morlocks live below ground, down the wells that dot the landscape. Meanwhile, he saves one of the Eloi from drowning, and she befriends him. Her name is Weena. The Time Traveller finally works up enough courage to go down into the world of Morlocks to try to retrieve his time machine. He finds that matches are a good defense against the Morlocks, but ultimately they chase him out of their realm. Frightened by the Morlocks, he takes Weena to try to find a place where they will be safe from the Morlocks' nocturnal hunting.