What was a vacation with the Eloi becomes a prison with the Morlocks. Not only that, the Morlocks stole his Time Machine, so he's stuck here unless he deals with them. But suddenly he learns there's a whole other world underground. This has happened to all of us at one point or another, right? The Time Traveller thought he would understand the future if only he understood the Eloi. Oh, and there's an entire other species of post-humans living underground, the Morlocks.

So here begins the mystery: What has happened to the human species? Complication The Time Machine goes missing. Later, though he begins to see that while the world is beautiful, it's also ruinous the Eloi are beautiful, but weak and dumb. Although the Time Traveller is anxious about what he'll find in the future, his initial impression is one of beauty and ease. He wanders into a strange future will he be able to understand it or remain confused by it? At first the Time Traveller's impressions of the future may seem like the beginning of a potential conflict. In many ways, we think the main conflict of this novel is between the Time Traveller and confusion. He also tries to understand the future world, which looks like a paradise but doesn't quite make sense. Conflict The Time Traveller tries to understand the Eloi, who are beautiful but frail. If he claims to have visited the future, we probably listen a little more closely. (If you've read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness or Henry James's Turn of the Screw, you'll recognize this kind of opening.) If someone has a story to tell, we listen.

(Chapters 1 and 2)Ī couple of guys sit around while one of them tells a story. Initial Situation The Time Traveller says that he's been to the future and has a story to tell about what he found.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells