In his first novel, The Time Machine, HG Wells criticizes the Victorians' fears of evolution. Charles Darwin's theories were cutting edge in Wells' time and terrified much of the upper class. What if humans evolved to the point where class roles were reversed? What if our eventual triumph over nature resulted in a blunting of human intelligence? And worst of all: what if humanity disappeared? These and other questions plagued the Victorians, providing HG Wells with material for his first novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Victorian scientists took Darwin's theory of evolution and created their own theory of decentralization. The fear was that if evolution was possible, then humans still needed to evolve. What could this mean for the future? Wells answered this question with his theory of security degeneration. In his prediction of the future, he shows us the Victorian upper class, continuing their path of idleness and transforming into weak, helpless little creatures like the Eloi. “The too perfect security of the inhabitants of the upper world had led them to a slow movement of degeneration and a general decline in size, strength and intelligence” (57). The lower class, after centuries of living in darkness and with an aptitude for hard work and machines, became the nocturnal, ugly creatures represented by the Morlocks. “Even today, do not the workers of the East live in artificial conditions to the point of being practically cut off from the natural surface of the earth? (56), explains the Time Traveler to his friends. As a strong supporter of Karl Marx, Wells came to the conclusion that if the exploitation of the Victorian lower class continued, they might eventually acquire class consciousness. This in turn could cause a rebellion, and perhaps a reversal of power between the classes, as shown by the Eloi and the Morlocks. However Wells goes further: when the Morlocks' food supplies run out, they have nothing left to eat except the Eloi themselves. This could be considered the ultimate gesture of class rebellion: cannibalism. “These Eloi were only fattened cattle, which the ant-like Morlocks preserved and fed on – probably looked after their breeding” (72). What's shocking is that Wells wasn't far from his time. The Victorian lower class greatly outnumbered the upper class, and if exploitation had continued, the upper class might have faced a revolution. The Time Traveler's theory is that by striving for modernity and achievement as the British did in the 19th century, humans can, in fact, tame nature. “The triumphs of a united humanity over nature followed one another. Things that were no longer just dreams have become projects deliberately undertaken and pursued. And the harvest is what I saw” (35). The British, for all their technological advancements, could find a cure for every illness, a triumph over every adversity, to the point that there was nothing to torment them. With this lack of adversity, upper-class humans had begun to degenerate into the weak and mindless creatures that the time traveler now considers to be the Eloi. “There is no intelligence where there is neither change nor need for change” (91). All the wonderful inventions and technologies of.