A science fiction novel written in 1895, The Time Machine has been widely acknowledged to be the original inspiration of modern popular concept of time travel, where time travellers rely on a device or vehicle to move deliberately forward or backward in time. The narrator identifies the protagonist as the ‘Time Traveller’, and narrates the Time Traveller’s journey to A.D. 802,701, where he met the graceful and childlike Eloi communities, who are characterised by a lack of curiosity and discipline, and the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who lives underground.

The narrator learned of the Time Traveller’s adventures through what the Time Traveller shared over a dinner party, and there is as much notions open to discussion at the dinner table as in the Time Traveller’s tales. For instance, by the reactions of different guests (Psychologist, Editor, Mayor etc.), what kinds of viewpoints can you deduce from the Victorian society at the time? Is there a link between a certain viewpoint and the occupation or profession through which it was voiced? Meanwhile, what does the Time Traveller’s adventures suggest about the author’s viewpoint about society and class? The Time Traveller theorises Eloi as livestock and Morlocks as ranchers; what kind of class struggle do you think took place to turn the working class (the Morlocks) against the leisure class (the Eloi)? What does the Eloi’s physical and intellectual incapability symbolize for the leisure class it evolved from? Similarly, what does the Morlock’s brutality represent for the working class it evolved from? How does Weena’s existence reflect the author’s beliefs about human bonds and affection?