In The Time Machine, H.G Wells depicts the workings of a Capitalist society very
well. His representations of the classes might be subtle, but the Morlock is an
obvious attempt at representing the lower class on several levels. The upper
classes in history have been very scarred of the size and capabilities that the
lower classes hold over them. The very notion that the Morlocks are underground
not only puts them physically under the Eloi’s but also represents to me, a
ghetto like existence, that we see in our society today. They are depicted as a
dark, aggressive people. Much like how the upper class may look at the lower
classes today. The Morlocks come up and snatch an Eloi from above down into
their existence. This might be a similar fear that someone of the upper class
might have today. This notion, whether true or not, shows a common fear of the
upper class to the subordinate group. In history most revolutions occur because
of the differences in financial status. The French revolution occurred towards
the Bourgeois and the American Revolution, fought to stop taxation without
representation (a financial reason). I recently walked through New York City and
felt that the biggest problem was not between the races (although that is a
problem), but the ever-widening difference between the haves and the have-nots.
I believe it might have been Karl Marx that foreshadowed a society with a huge
chasm between rich and poor, that results in a revolution from the lower class
and overthrows the upper. In his view the lower class would then create a
Utopian society (of which Marx did not give detail into) ridding the culture of
all the problems imposed on them. This has yet to happen in any revolution of
significance. Even many years after the book was written, Wells is still able to
depict the fears that the class systems today fear. Nothing has really
fundamentally changed, and the Eloi’s and Morlocks represent this well.