theme of evolution, implied by the previous theme. Human beings have evolved into the Morlocks and the Eloi, as a result of their ability to adapt to their different surroundings. Each of these themes suggests a warning against overly-optimistic views of progress, underscored at the end of the book in a description of the traveller:

He, I know—for the question had been discussed among us long before the Time Machine was made—thought but cheerlessly of the Advancement of Mankind, and saw in the growing pile of civilization only a foolish heaping that must inevitably fall back upon and destroy its makers in the end.

The narrator feels differently, but the overwhelming message of the book can be construed as a warning against hubris and faith in progress.

To me, the biggest and most important symbol of the story are the two flowers that Weena puts in the time traveller's pockets as a sign of her love for him and as a symbol of the burgeoning relationship that is growing between them. These of course function in many ways in this excellent story. They act as proof that the time traveller is speaking the truth, however at the same time they also are explicitly referred to at the end of the novel by the narrator as being symbolic of a hope for the future:

But to me the future is still black and blank--is a vast ignorance, lit at a few casual places by the memory of his story. And I have by me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers--shrivelled now, and brown and flat and brittle--to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and a mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.

The stories that the time traveller tells the narrator and his friends about the future of humanity are disturbing in the way that they present our evolution, but the flowers are richly symbolic of the way that however we change in the future, we still manage to retain the capacity to love and develop relationships.

The Time Machine, one of Wells's best-known works, employs a fantastical premise - a journey into the future - in order to explore some of the most pressing issues of his time, such as social divisions and evolution. He speculates upon how society may develop in future. The class struggle of his own time takes on nightmarish proportions with the picture of the beautiful but mindless Eloi, the descendants of the aristocracy, who are literally preyed upon by the savage, underground-dwelling Morlocks, the descendants of the working class. Evolution is another theme which ties in with this. It was a hot topic when the novel was written, Darwin's momentous work, The Origin of Species having been published less than forty years before. The novel comments ironically on the process, viewing it in reverse and depicting the human race in regression, having lost its intellect and all the hallmarks of an advanced civilization.  

The exploration of such topics are presented in highly imaginative form, through the device of a journey through time. Although fantastical, the novel also uses scientific and pseudo-scientific discussion on the whole possibility of time travel. As always in Wells's scientific romances, there is a strain of realism that runs throughout the novel alongside the fantastical strain, which makes it all the more intriguing. Wells here also uses the clever technique of a double narrator - one who presents the main protagonist, the Time Traveller, and the Time Traveller himself, who tells his story of his incredible journey through time.  

There are some intriguing symbols used in the book. The Time Machine itself is one. It stands for scientific possibility but also raises questions about the possible dangers of scientific experimentation. In the futuristic society, there is the engimatical symbol of the White Sphinx, and even further ahead, after the extinction of almost all life, we see the dying earth under a lurid, monstrous sun - perhaps one of the most unforgettable apocalyptic visions in all literature.