Frame Narrative
Why is the novel structured the way it is? What use are the dinner parties?
Who is telling the story (or stories)? Who is the intended audience?
To whom does the Time Traveler speak? Why?
What kind of man is the Time Traveler? His guests?
What does he mean when he tells them "Take it as a lie - or a prophecy"?
What happens at the end?
What do you make of the epilogue?
How do these frames impact you as a reader?
Consider the frames in this novel in relation to Frankenstein and Baron Munchausen.

Time Travel
What makes time travel interesting? Why the future and not the past?
What is the significance of 4-dimensional geometry?
How is the future different?
Why is the machine described as beautiful at the beginning and ugly at the end?
What does time travel teach us?
What possibilities and paradoxes do you see?

Eloi and Morlocks
Can you give a good physical description of the two peoples? Why do they look and behave the way they do? How are the sexes distinguished? Ages?
How does the Time Traveler relate to the Morlocks and Eloi? Why?
Why does he call the Eloi "these new men of mine"?
How and where do the Eloi live? The Morlocks? Why?
How did these two people evolve?
What role do machines have in this future? Human intelligence? Creativity?
What is Weena's role in the Time Traveler's story? What happens to her?
Why don't her companions try to save her from drowning?
Why do the Morlocks take the time machine?
Where are your sympathies as far as the Morlocks and Eloi? Why?
In what way does the future of humanity seem to be connected with our past?

Social Structure and Social Commentary
What do we really learn about the functioning of the future world?
Consider the several hypothesis the Time Traveler advances to explain the future world. How do these explanations differ from one another? How do we know, as readers, that e is right? How does this model scientific method?
How is the world of the future in Wells' novel similar to the world in Metropolis?
What comment might Wells be making on the social realities of his own time?

Palace of Green Porcelain
What is the Palace of Green Porcelain? Why is it important?
What would one expect or hope to find there?
How does the Time Traveler find the palace useful?

End Times
Why does the Time Traveler presses on to the end of the world?
What does he find there?
What does this mean for readers of the story?

Science and Science Fiction
What makes this novel science fiction?
What characteristics does it share with the other works we have read?
What elements of nineteenth century science are incorporated into this work?

History
Consider the story's place in history.
How does this story respond to the technophilia and scientific enthusiasm of its time?
How is history represented in the story itself?

Science and Technology
What things is science capable of explaining?
Are there things science cannot explain? If so, what are some examples?

Living With/In the Machine
How do characters in the story relate to the technology around them?
How does living with or within the machine change them?
What does it mean to call Vashti's room a "cell" in a beehive?
How is the body treated in this world?
What does it mean to be in constant contact with the rest of the world?
But to never touch anyone?
Why don't they hear the humming of the machine?
What have the people living with/in the machine given up?
What is atavism?

Distance
How is distance made irrelevant in this world?
What kinds of distance are portrayed?
Consider geographical distance, personal distance, distance from thought.
Why don't people touch one another?
Is it significant that everyplace in the world is the same? If so, why?
Why is distance from original thought important?

Understanding and Religion
How is it that the Machine is said to have done away with all religion and superstition?
Why do people begin to worship the Machine?
What is the relationship between understanding and worship?

Ideas
What are "ideas"? Why are first-hand ideas bad?
Why doesn't Greece give Vashti any ideas?
Does our own society idealize the concept of the "idea"?
What might it mean that Kuno gets ideas from the stars?

"Man is the Measure"
Why does Kuno say that his first lesson in rediscovering a sense of space was "man is the measure"?
How and why might man be the measure of things?
How are the senses important here?
How do others in this society measure their worlds?

"The Imponderable Bloom"
What is the "imponderable bloom" of humanity?
What is essential about our humanity?
What makes us human or special?
How is the body important?
The senses?
For what reason do Vashti and Kuno weep near the end?

The Machine Stops
How does the society react when the Machine begins to break down?
How dependent are they on the Machine?
To what extent does it serve them? To what extent do they serve it?
Why does silence kill?
Will someone start the machine again in the future?
Are humans capable of turning away from technologies that negatively impact their humanity?

Utopia and Dystopia
What elements of this story seem utopian?
What would make it a dystopia?
How does one tell the difference between a utopia and dystopia?
What is the ultimate goal of a society? What can or should be sacrificed for this goal?