Characters and Characterization: The Functions of Homo Sapi

While reading The Time Machine, I was struck by Wells's use of the seven characters in the first dinner scene (Chapter 1). What, I asked myself, were their functions? This essay is a preliminary attempt to address that issue and to look at each of the seven characters in light of their functions in Wells's story.

The frame tale of The Time Machine consists of the Narrator's encounters with the Time Traveller and his guests. For the most part, the tale takes place in the home of the Traveller, with the Narrator recording the tale told by the Traveller á la Shelley's Frankenstein. One might then break up the frame tale into three parts: the first dinner (Chapter 1), the second dinner with subsequent tale (Chapter 2-11), and the final meeting between the Traveller and the Narrator.

Present in this part of the story are seven in all: the Time Traveller, the Narrator, Filby, the Psychologist, the Medical Man, the Provincial Mayor, and the Very Young Man. Each have different roles in this drama, and each represents something different.

To begin with, we should look at the role of Filby in the scheme of Wel

7.. . .the bringing into cultivation of wastelands, and the improvement of the soil generally. . .

8.Equal liability of all to labour. ("The Communist Manifesto, 237)

Long ago I had an inkling of a machine--'

Perhaps higher on the scale of rationality lies the character of the Medical Man. In our tale, the Medical Man appears to represent "Scientific people," if not by fact, then by inference due to his quick response to the Traveller's direct address to that type. Indeed, the Medical Man's rationality is perhaps more dictated by scepticism and common sense than by philosophy, as he is quick to ask questions and often quicker to positivistic sorts of statements. He asks, "Why cannot we move in Time as we move about in the other dimensions of Space?" (5). He proclaims, "There are balloons" and "Some sleight-of-hand trick or other" (5, 7). As suggested by the latter statement, his method is not without scepticism. At one point, the Medical Man calls into question the credibility of the Traveller when he asks the Traveller if "this is a trick--like that ghost you showed us last Christmas?" (11).

Some topics in this essay:
Communist Manifesto, Provincial Mayor, Medical Man's, Wells's Machine, Morlocks Eloi, Truth Filby, Traveller Traveller, Indeed Filby's, Shelley's Frankenstein, Traveller Narrator, traveller narrator, medical man's, chapter 1, provincial mayor, wells's story, seven characters, diluted presentation, frame tale,