The Time Machine 2

Study Guide Questions for Chapter Two

If you are looking for the beginning of the study of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of available book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Arrogance

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. According to the narrator, what were the “Serious people who took him seriously” hesitant to do concerning the Time Traveller?

2. What was the surprising situation that the guests of the dinner party were met with upon their arrival at the Time Traveller’s house?

3. Describe the appearance of the Time Traveller when his guests first laid eyes upon him.

4. What were the various reactions to the sight of the Time Traveller upon his appearance?

5. What did the Time Traveller want to do before he was willing to speak?

6. According to the Time Traveller, what had he done since “four o’clock” that afternoon?

7. Under what condition did the Time Traveller agree to tell the men his story?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. What did the narrator mean by saying, “the Time Traveller was one of those men who are too clever to be believed?”

2. What did the narrator mean by saying, “it is a mistake to do things too easily?”

3. What kind of inferences can be made from the Time Traveller’s overall appearance and demeanor upon arriving at the dinner party?

4. How could the Time Traveller have lived “eight days” since “four o’clock?”

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. The Narrator said, “The serious people who took him seriously never felt quite sure of his deportment; they were somehow aware that trusting their reputations for judgment with him was like furnishing a nursery with egg-shell china.” Define the concept of “reputation.” Why should a person’s reputation be important to them? Does everyone want the same kind of reputation or does the kind of reputation a person desires vary? What accounts for any variation in the kind of reputation people seek? What ought a person to desire concerning their reputation?

2. The narrator stated, “He sat back in his chair at first, and spoke like a weary man. Afterwards he got more animated. In writing it down I feel with only too much keenness the inadequacy of pen and ink—and, above all, my own inadequacy—to express its quality. You read, I will suppose, attentively enough; but you cannot see the speaker’s white, sincere face in the bright circle of the little lamp, nor hear the intonation of his voice. You cannot know how his expression followed the turns of his story!” What are the strengths and the limitations of the written word? Is it always to be preferred to see and hear something for one’s own self or are there any benefits in receiving a written record of some event or story? If first hand experience is always to be preferred, why? If sometimes the written account is to be preferred, explain under what conditions this might be so.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Proverbs 22:1 and relate it to the first Rhetoric question above. What are we told about the concept of a person’s reputation?

2. Read Daniel 4:28-37. How does this help make sense out of the reference to Nebuchadnezzar in The Time Machine?

3. Read 2 Peter 1:16-21. Relate this passage to the second rhetoric question above. How does it affect your original answer?