Editing The Time Machine (section)

==Scholarship==
Significant scholarly commentary on ''The Time Machine'' began from the early 1960s, initially contained in various broad studies of Wells's early novels (such as Bernard Bergonzi's ''The Early H.G. Wells: A Study of the Scientific Romances'') and studies of utopias/dystopias in science fiction (such as Mark R. Hillegas's ''The Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians''). Much critical and textual work was done in the 1970s, including the tracing of the very complex publication history of the text, its drafts, and unpublished fragments.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

===Academic publications===
A further resurgence in scholarship came around the time of the novella's centenary in 1995, and a major outcome of this was the 1995 conference and substantial anthology of academic papers, which was collected in print as ''H.G. Wells's Perennial Time Machine''.<ref>{{cite conference |conference=H.G. Wells's ''Time Machine'' centenary conference, 1995 |title=H.G. Wells's Perennial Time Machine: Selected Essays from the Centenary Conference, "The Time Machine: Past, Present, and Future" |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2001}}</ref> This publication then allowed the development of a guide-book for academic study at Master's and Ph.D. level: ''H.G. Wells's The Time Machine: A Reference Guide''.<ref>{{cite book |title=H.G. Wells's The Time Machine: A reference guide |publisher=Praeger |year=2004 |last1=Hammond |first1=John R. |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0313330070}}</ref>

The scholarly journal ''The Wellsian'' has published around twenty articles on ''The Time Machine'', and a U.S. academic journal ''The Undying Fire'', devoted to H.G. Wells studies, has published three articles since its inception in 2002.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Index to The Undying Fire |url=http://hgwellssociety.com/wellsian/theundyingfire/ |website=The H.G. Wells Society |access-date=9 December 2020 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713060412/http://hgwellssociety.com/wellsian/theundyingfire/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Subtext of the names ''Eloi'' and ''Morlock''===
According to Leon Stover in his book ''The Time Machine: An invention name'', the name ''[[Eloi]]'' is the Hebrew plural for [[Elohim]], or lesser gods, in the [[Old Testament]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Stover |first=Leon |title=The Time Machine: An invention – A critical text of the 1895 London first edition |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=1996 |isbn=978-0786401246 |location=Jefferson, NC |pages=7}}</ref> However, this derivation is unlikely as the word 'Elohim' is already in the plural, with the singular being 'eloah'. <ref name="Strong 1890">{{cite book |last=Strong |first=James |author-link=James Strong (theologian) |chapter=H430 - 'elohiym |chapter-url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=H430 |title=[[Strong's Concordance]] |date=1890 |publisher=[[Blue Letter Bible]] |access-date=1 August 2020 |quote={{lang|he|'''אֱלֹהִים'''}} '''ʼĕlôhîym''', el-o-heem; plural of H433 ({{lang|he|אֱלוֹהַּ}} ĕlôah); gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:—angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.}}</ref>

Wells's source for the name ''Morlock'' is less clear. It may refer to the [[Ancient Canaanite religion|Canaanite]] god [[Moloch]] associated with child sacrifice. The name [[Morlock]] may also be a play on ''{{Not a typo|mollocks}}'' – what miners might call themselves – or a Scots word for rubbish,<ref name=":0" /> or a reference to the [[Morlachs|Morlacchi]] community in Dalmatia.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC |article=The rise and fall of 'Morlacchismo': South Slavic identity in the mountains of Dalmatia |last=Wolff |first=Larry |title=Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2003 |editor-last=Naimark |editor-first=Norman |pages=49 |editor-last2=Case |editor-first2=Holly |isbn=9780804780292 |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320155431/https://books.google.com/books?id=u5tUbUyXtToC |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Symbols===
''The Time Machine'' can be read as a symbolic novel. The time machine itself can be viewed as a symbol, and there are several symbols in the narrative, including the Sphinx, flowers, and fire.

* The statue of the Sphinx is the place where the Morlocks hide the time machine and references the Sphinx in the story of [[Oedipus]] who gives a riddle that he must first solve before he can pass.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology |last=Alkon |first=Paul K. |publisher=Twayne Publishers |year=1994 |isbn=978-0805709520 |location=New York |pages=52–53}}</ref> The Sphinx appeared on the cover of the first London edition as requested by Wells and would have been familiar to his readers.<ref name=":0" />
* The white flowers can symbolize Weena's devotion and innocence and contrast with the machinery of the time machine.<ref name=":1" /> They are the only proof that the Time Traveller's story is true.
* Fire symbolizes civilization: the Time Traveller uses it to ward off the Morlocks, but it escapes his control and turns into a forest fire.<ref name=":1" />