The Time Machine

“There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it.”

The Time Traveller explains his theory that time is a navigable dimension and that it therefore should be possible to travel across time just as a person might travel across a landscape. This theory forms the basis for his invention of a machine in which he plans to travel through time. The theory sounds scientifically plausible, encouraging readers to suspend judgment and go along with an unlikely, if intriguing, story line.

“[T]he little machine suddenly swung round, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone—vanished!”

This is the first amazing event in the story. It serves as a preview of astonishing things to come. It is also a description of how an object might appear from the outside as it vanishes into the past or future. The details of the event add a sense of realism and plausibility, hallmarks of science fiction writing.

“He was in an amazing plight. His coat was dusty and dirty, and smeared with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered, and as it seemed to me greyer—either with dust and dirt or because its colour had faded. His face was ghastly pale; his chin had a brown cut on it—a cut half-healed; his expression was haggard and drawn, as by intense suffering. For a moment he hesitated in the doorway, as if he had been dazzled by the light. Then he came into the room. He walked with just such a limp as I have seen in footsore tramps. We stared at him in silence […].”

The Time Traveller appears before his group of companions as though he has just escaped from an extraordinary experience. Each of the details of his dishevelment portends an event within a story of great adventure. It is a grand entrance, and it inspires bewilderment and curiosity, both in the minds of the Traveller’s guests and in the minds of readers. The author displays a knack for keeping his