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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does one use to operate the model?

2. What academic subject is based on misconceptions, according to the Time Traveler?

3. Which part of the Time Traveler's body has a half-healed cut on it when he returns to the second dinner?

4. What color is the animal the Time Traveler sees in the night on the way to look for his missing time machine?

5. To which room do the men retire to hear the Time Traveler's story?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is one possible reason the Time Traveler postulates for the physical changes from humans to Eloi?

2. Why does the Time Traveler take the lever out of the time machine when he lands in the far future?

3. What do the Editor and the Journalist think about the story the guests relate about the model time machine?

4. What is the narrator's outlook on the future at the end of the novel?

5. What does the Time Traveler see and experience as he approaches his original time period?

6. What kind of food does the Time Traveler particularly crave when he returns?

7. Describe the guests at the Time Traveler's first dinner party and what they talked about.

8. Where (in terms of to which time period/what kind of time period) does the narrator assume that the Time Traveler has traveled to at the end of the novel?

9. Why does the Time Traveler begin to share the Eloi's fear of the dark?

10. Describe the state of the time machine when the Time Traveler finally finds it in the base of the White Sphinx?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Two kinds of science fiction worlds are utopias and dystopias. Define these terms. Using examples from this novel, identify which speculative elements are utopian and which are dystopic. How does Wells play with these two kinds of science fiction worlds? Finally, offer your opinion: do you consider this novel utopian, dystopian, or something else? Be specific.

Essay Topic 2

This novel has a unique narrative shape, especially in terms of character and conflict. Consider the conflict structure and the extent to which a reader should consider the Morlocks the antagonists of the novel. What role do they play in intensifying the conflict? If they are the antagonists, who--or what--is the protagonist(s)? What ideas about humanity do these Morlocks embody, and how does that influence your analysis of them as antagonists?

Essay Topic 3

Critics have argued that Wells's predictions in this novel were intended to warn Victorian England about the growing social inequities between the working poor and the wealthy elite classes and what might happen if this trajectory did not change. Describe, using textual examples, the ways Wells's text lends itself to this interpretation. Then, offer your opinion; to what extent was Wells attempting to warn his society? Are there other interpretations these critics should consider? Do you think anyone heeded these warnings? Why or why not?

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