Erewhon · Chapter
VII: First Impressions explained
The narrator is taken through an Alpine village and imprisoned after his watch is confiscated and placed in a museum of broken machinery, revealing the Erewhonians' deep suspicion of mechanical inventions.
What happens
The narrator is taken through an Alpine village and imprisoned after his watch is confiscated and placed in a museum of broken machinery, revealing the Erewhonians' deep suspicion of mechanical inventions. He observes their physical beauty, polite customs, and the presence of shrines honoring human excellence.
Themes in this chapter
Machines and Evolution
The Erewhonians' horror at the watch and their museum of broken machinery illustrate their fear of mechanical evolution and technological progress.
Inversion of Morality
The Erewhonians treat possession of a watch as a crime, inverting the European moral framework where such objects are valued.
Truth and Deception
The narrator's initial misinterpretation of the magistrate's expression (fear vs. hatred) and his later realization highlight the theme of deceptive appearances.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
The narrator is taken through a village, has his watch confiscated, and is imprisoned; he reflects on Paley's argument and the Erewhonians' reaction to his watch.
- Erewhonians
The Erewhonians are described as exceptionally beautiful, well-bred, and suspicious of machinery; they bow at shrines and show grave displeasure at the watch.
- The Judge
The magistrate (judge) examines the narrator, confiscates his watch, and places it in the museum; he relents after the narrator shows no fear and has fair hair.
- Paley
The narrator references Paley's argument about a savage concluding a watch was designed, but the Erewhonians instead view it with horror and hatred.
Key passages
“I had thought of Paley, and how he tells us that a savage on seeing a watch would at once conclude that it was designed. True, these people were not savages, but I none the less felt sure that this was the conclusion they would arrive at; and I was thinking what a wonderfully wise man Archbishop Paley must have been, when I was aroused by a look of horror and dismay upon the face of the magistrate, a look which conveyed to me the impression that he regarded my watch not as having been designed, but rather as the designer of himself and of the universe; or as at any rate one of the great first causes of all things.”
The narrator expected the Erewhonians to see the watch as evidence of design, like Paley's savage, but instead the magistrate reacted with horror, as if the watch were a creator or first cause.
This moment inverts Paley's teleological argument and reveals the Erewhonians' unique worldview.
“It was filled with cases containing all manner of curiosities—such as skeletons, stuffed birds and animals, carvings in stone (whereof I saw several that were like those on the saddle, only smaller), but the greater part of the room was occupied by broken machinery of all descriptions.”
The museum contained natural curiosities but was dominated by broken machines, including fragments of steam engines and a carriage for iron rails.
The museum serves as a physical manifestation of Erewhonian anti-mechanical ideology.