The Time Machine
H. G. Wells
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
The dinner party
Why does Wells frame the story with the Time Traveller telling his guests over dinner?
Keep the conversation going
- How did the guests' doubts shape your own belief in the story?
- What does it add that we never learn his name?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
Why does Wells frame the story with the Time Traveller telling his guests over dinner?
Keep the conversation going
- How did the guests' doubts shape your own belief in the story?
- What does it add that we never learn his name?
What did you first think of the Eloi, and how did that change?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does the Time Traveller first imagine their world as a paradise?
- What did they lose to become what they are?
What makes the Morlocks so horrifying?
Keep the conversation going
- What does the Time Traveller come to understand about how they and the Eloi are connected?
- How does the story reflect the class divisions of Wells's own time?
What does Weena mean to the Time Traveller?
Keep the conversation going
- How did you feel about what happens to her in the forest?
- Can the Eloi still feel love and gratitude?
Why does the Time Traveller keep changing his theory about the future?
Keep the conversation going
- Which explanation did you find most convincing?
- What does this say about how we read other societies?
What does the ruined museum teach him about human progress?
Keep the conversation going
- Why is he so moved by the decayed books?
- What does he arm himself with there?
How did the dying world at the end of time affect you?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does the Traveller go on into the far future instead of going home?
- What is Wells saying about humanity's fate?
What do the two strange flowers Weena gave him mean at the end?
Keep the conversation going
- Where do you think the Time Traveller went?
- Is the ending hopeful or bleak?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.