The Time Machine · Chapter
Epilogue explained
The narrator reflects on the Time Traveller's possible fate, wondering whether he journeyed into the distant past or forward to a more enlightened age.
What happens
The narrator reflects on the Time Traveller's possible fate, wondering whether he journeyed into the distant past or forward to a more enlightened age. He contrasts his own hope for humanity's advancement with the Time Traveller's pessimistic view of civilization as a self-destructive heap. The chapter ends with the narrator finding comfort in two shriveled white flowers, tokens of gratitude and tenderness that survived even in the far future.
Themes in this chapter
Time and Perception
The narrator contemplates the vast expanse of time—past, present, and future—and the uncertainty of the Time Traveller's location within it.
Decadence and Decline
The Time Traveller's view of civilization as a foolish heaping that will destroy its makers reflects the theme of decadence and inevitable decline.
Humanity and Evolution
The narrator wonders about the future evolution of man into a more mature race, contrasting with the Time Traveller's pessimism.
Characters to notice
- The Time Traveller
The narrator speculates on his possible destinations in time and recalls his pessimistic views on civilization.
- Hillyer
The narrator, who reflects on the Time Traveller's fate and keeps the white flowers as a memento.
Key passages
“One cannot choose but wonder. Will he ever return?”
It is impossible not to speculate: will he ever come back?
The narrator opens with the central question of the Time Traveller's fate.
“He may even now—if I may use the phrase—be wandering on some plesiosaurus-haunted Oolitic coral reef, or beside the lonely saline lakes of the Triassic Age.”
He could at this very moment be exploring a coral reef from the Oolitic era, haunted by plesiosaurs, or walking along the desolate salt lakes of the Triassic period.
The narrator imagines the Time Traveller lost in prehistoric landscapes.
“I, for my own part, cannot think that these latter days of weak experiment, fragmentary theory, and mutual discord are indeed man’s culminating time!”
Personally, I refuse to believe that this era of feeble experiments, incomplete theories, and widespread conflict represents humanity's peak.
The narrator expresses hope that humanity will surpass its current flawed state.
“He ... thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end.”
He viewed human progress pessimistically, seeing civilization as a foolish pile that would eventually collapse and crush its builders.
The Time Traveller's bleak outlook on civilization is contrasted with the narrator's hope.
“And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers—shrivelled now, and brown and flat and brittle—to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.”
I keep two unusual white flowers as a comfort—now dried, brown, flat, and fragile—proof that even after intelligence and power faded, thankfulness and affection remained in the human heart.
The flowers from Weena serve as a poignant symbol of enduring human connection.