Topic > The Rise and Fall of Humanity: A Comparison of the Time Machine in Film and Fiction

In The Time Machine, HG Wells faces the impossible task of imagining the future of our world. The story features the Time Traveler (George), the main character of the story, and his many adventures in the year 802,701 AD. Later, in 1960, Wells' crazy prophecy was made into a film. However, when it came time to adapt the book into a film, many changes had to be made to the plot of the story so that audiences could understand the chain of events that take place. Some of the discrepancies in the plot took place in Weena's river scene, the talking rings scene, Weena's death, and the Eloi's rescue mission from the Morlocks. Each change was made with clear intent, and the most crucial of these differences departs from Wells's pessimistic tone while preserving the key themes of the original text. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, we see plot differences between Weena's near-drowning experience in the river, described in the book and the film. At this point in the film, George (the time traveler) had just arrived in the future and came across the Eloi by the river. This was the first time in the film that George had seen the Eloi, whereas in the book George had met some of the Eloi at the sphinx statue when he first arrived. Also in the film, George saves Weena on her first day in the future, while in the book the time traveler saves Weena on her third day. In the book the time traveler observes: “Well, on the third day of my visit… to save the feebly crying, drowning little creature… I caught the poor mite and brought her safely to shore ...I found out her name was Weena. "(Pozzi 43). This shows that the director chose to change the order of events in the film. He chose to change this because in the first days of George's visit to the future, he thinks a lot and wonders about the strange world they live in the Eloi and so to make the film more interesting the director chose to skip some of the dialogues that took place in the book This was a good decision on the part of the director because it immediately attracted the audience and made Weena the love interest of George, which came into play later in the film. Another plot discrepancy between the book and the film is the talking rings scene. In the book George cannot understand the language of the Eloi so consequently he has to understand from just how the Eloi society is built George states, “I decided to make a determined attempt to learn the language of these new men of mine” (Wells 27). However, in the film the Eloi speak English so George is free to ask them questions about their lives and social structure. However, the Eloi are not educated and do not understand why they do not have to work and why there are no elders. As a result, the director added the talking ring scene, in which George and Weena visit what appears to be a museum and listen to the rings talk when you spin them. The rings act as a historian. Weena doesn't understand it, but George does. The rings mean that George doesn't have to discover Eloi society on his own, because the rings give him all the answers. The rings confirm: “I am the last one who remembers how each of us, man and woman, made our own decision. Some chose to take refuge in great caves and find a new way of life far below the earth's surface. The rest of us decided to take our chances in the open” (The Time Machine). This allows George to learn about the,.