Marxist Criticism of The Time Machine Dessi M. Gravely College

The Time Machine is a 1960 science fiction film that was produced and directed by George Pal. Based on an 1895 novel of the same title by H.G. Wells, the film portrays an inventor’s journey into the distant future and his findings. As George, the inventor, leaves his Victorian English home in the year 1900 and arrives in the year AD 802,701, he finds that civilization as he knows it has been completely lost. Soon, he discovers that humankind has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks. As Matthew Taunton notes in an article titled “Class in The Time Machine,” “H. G. Wells was a committed socialist and also a scientist with an active interest in evolution” (par. 1). Therefore, the film’s presentation of the disappearance of modern civilized standards in this future society and the presentation of the power divide between the Eloi and the Morlocks is best viewed through a lens of Marxist criticism to understand the political commentary being made.

The film opens with a scene which depicts a series of clock faces drifting through nothingness and ending with a shot of Big Ben, a notable English landmark. This opening scene symbolizes both the concept of time and modern civilization, and it helps introduce...