In H.G. Wells’s novel The Time Machine, the Eloi, delicate and childlike floor dwellers of the far future, are preyed upon by the subterranean Morlocks. These Morlocks, tailored to a lifetime of darkness and business, seize and devour the Eloi, revealing a disturbing dystopian ingredient on this seemingly idyllic future world. This predatory relationship types a central battle and affords a commentary on social class and the potential penalties of unchecked technological and societal evolution. The Time Traveller’s preliminary notion of the Eloi as a utopian end result offers solution to a horrifying discovery, showcasing the darkish underbelly of this future society.
This dynamic between the Eloi and Morlocks serves as a strong allegory. It explores the potential risks of a society divided by excessive social stratification. The Eloi, representing a leisure class, have turn into so depending on the unseen labor of the Morlocks that they’ve misplaced their independence and turn into livestock. Wells’s work, written throughout a interval of burgeoning industrialization and widening class disparities, makes use of this science fiction situation to warn towards the potential penalties of neglecting social duty and permitting unchecked exploitation. The destiny of the Eloi highlights the fragility of a civilization constructed upon inequality.
