Charles Darwin once said: ‘ We must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind. In this essay I will look at this quote in relation to the following texts: firstly, the science fiction novella The Time Machine by H. G. Wells and secondly, the play Mrs Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw to decide whether or not Darwin’s statement is supported by these texts. I will be critically analysing the political ideologies of Wells and Shaw in order to properly evaluate Darwin’s statement.
The plot of The Time Machine involves the protagonist, referred to as the Time Traveller by the narrator, travel through time where he meets the two new species that currently reside on Earth, replacing normal humanity: the Eloi and the Morlocks. He then bears witness to how the damage from his current century causes the degeneration of man. The story of Mrs Warren’s Profession centres on the character Vivie and her relationship with her mother who is a former prostitute and runs a brothel.
Vivie is an intelligent young woman who has recently graduated from university, her relationship with her changes and she condemns her mother when she discovers what she does for a living. Both of these texts have an interesting take on issues of class in the late nineteenth century. H. G. Wells is seen by many critics as the master of the science fiction genre and the founder of the scientific romance. Katrina Harack states of The Time Machine: “to travel through time is to confront the impossibility of synchronous presence and absence, to enact the impossible.
This is an accurate description of Wells’ novel as although the possibility of time travel forms the basis of his narrative, what the novella is mostly concerned with, however, is how nineteenth century Victorian England would affect the future. What the Time Traveller is met with in the year 802,721 is an exaggerated version of his current time. The Time Traveller travels through time and discovers that the evolution of the human race has rapidly accelerated and humanity has developed into two distinct species: the ‘Eloi’ and the ‘Morlocks’; he meets the Eloi first and concludes that the Eloi are beautiful yet useless creatures.
He later discovers that the Eloi are maintained by the Morlocks, ape-like creatures that live underground but are also highly intelligent. When the Time Traveller begins to get to know the Eloi better and investigates their living space, he observes: “the house and the cottage, which form such characteristic features of our own English landscape, had disappeared. ‘Communism,’ said I to myself. ” He noticed that the invidual family had seemingly disappeared so he concludes that they are living within a communistic society; Wells himself also held some communist beliefs.
At first, the Eloi appear to be living in a communist utopia but then it becomes apparent that it is really an exaggeration of a capitalistic dystopia that Wells himself envisioned whilst studying the state of England during the late nineteenth century. The Time Traveller’s attitude towards the Eloi is odd because he appears to remove himself from any identification with them whatsoever. He recognises that the species is the new human race but describes them as “fragile thing[s] out of futurity” and then they touch him with “soft little tentacles” (24).
Katrina Harack states that he then reacts to their lack of intellectual curiosity by hypothesising further about how this world developed. (Harack, 11). Therefore, by treating the Eloi as a sort of science experiment, the Time Traveller is able to somewhat disconnect from the situation as even though he is a scientist, he has just come face to face with the bleak future of his race and most would have found that difficult. Additionally, although he does identify human characteristics with them, he remains aloof towards their degeneration.
He even describes them as “delicious”, which, according to Harack, links him to the Morlocks as they represent the darker and cannibalistic side of society which had the possibility to degenerate into something dangerous. Whereas, when he confronts the Morlocks, he has a somewhat different reaction. He is faced with the ‘otherness’ of death in these creatures. He attempts to deal with his situation by describing the creature in front of him in relation to evolution and animals.
He refers to it as a “human spider” (Wells, 46) and it is a species derived from the working class, he experien extreme reactions to the sight of them: “Once or twice I had a feeling of intense fear for which I could perceive no definite reason” (51). The Time Traveller wants to distance himself from the Morlocks but he is unable to stop identifying himself with the Eloi: “The Eloi had kept too much of the human form not to claim my sympathy. ” There are interesting differences between the Time Traveller’s reaction to the Eloi and his reaction to the Morlocks.
He seems to associate the Eloi more with the human race even though he initially struggles to identify himself with them at the beginning. Whereas, he does assign human traits to the Morlocks such as “human spider” he finds it easier to not relate the Morlocks with aspects of the human race. This is because he is aware of both species places in society; therefore, he would subconsciously identify more with the Eloi because they represent the sterile, sheltered upper class, whereas the Morlocks represent the underground lower class workers.
Benjamin Disraeli wrote Sybil, or the Two Nations in 1845, fifty years before The Time Machine was published. Disraeli was concerned with the plight of the working classes of England and the horrific conditions in which they lived. Disraeli states that “there is no community in England… Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as oneself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour. [… ] Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets… he rich and the poor. ” The same sentiment echoes in The Time Machine as Wells writes: “… the gradual widening of the present merely temporary and social difference between the Capitalist and the Labourer, was key to the whole position. ” (Wells, 48). It is clear that even though fifty years separates the two texts, Wells believes that England’s position has not changed in the slightest. The widening gap between the rich and the poor has increased.
Wells also continues and remarks: “above ground you must nave the Haves, pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the Workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of the behaviour. In this case, the “Haves” would be the Eloi and the “Have-nots” would be the Morlocks. Therefore, it is clear from all the evidence that Wells would agree with Darwin’s statement. This is because he undoubtedly disagreed with the widening gap between the rich and poor that was only increasing.
Wells also disagreed with Capitalism and The Time Machine serves as a warning as to what will happen if England’s society remained as it did. I am now going to move on and analyse Bernard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession while taking into considering his political and social beliefs. Bernard Shaw was far ahead of his time when he decided to stage a play centring on prostitution in 1893, unafraid of criticism. Expectedly, he was met with harsh reviews from critics and it was banned for thirty two years until public opinion had changed.
Mrs Warren’s Profession was later published in 1894 in a volume called Plays Unpleasant. The play is still held in high esteem by critics in relation to feminism as the play contains strong working class women and he “did not ignore the difficulties raised by his male experience of the relationship between the sexes or forget the differences within the women’s movement itself. ” Shaw wished for both man and woman to work in harmony in partnership with one another in order to achieve various goals for the human race such as “happiness, welfare and perfection. He had also declared himself in favour of the right to vote for women and has declared that both the sexes should possess equal political rights. (Griffith, 181). Shaw, much like Wells’ political position, states that he “was a Socialist, detesting our anarchical scramble for money… ” In Mrs Warren’s Profession, his socialist views Slips into Crofts as Shaw saw the corruption of a capitalist’s society.
Ganz argues that Shaw uses Crofts as a mouthpiece to criticise society; for example, when Crofts says: “As long as you don’t fly openly in the face of society, society doesn’t ask any inconvenient questions. ” (265). This implies that the upper classes were free to do anything as long as you do not “fly openly in the face of society” as they were seen as superior; those belonging to the lower classes would definitely not be offered this freedom from criticism.
Gareth Griffith believes that “the strong, dynamic women of the plays were said to have inspired many women to break the bonds of their Victorian upbringing. ” (Griffith, 157). Vivie is an example of the Victorian ‘new woman’ that broke the mould of the typical ‘feminine beauty’ found in many novels of the time. A’new woman’ is a woman that is considered different from previous generations; and is one who challenges or rejects the traditional roles of wife, mother, or homemaker and what was seen to be typically feminine and, furthermore, advocates independence for women and equality with men.
Vivie is a ‘new woman’ as she openly disregards her mother’s occupation and rejects a woman’s tradition roles as she says: “But my work is not your work, and my way not your way. ” (Shaw, 284). Even Frank comments on Vivie’s ‘new woman aspects’: “Such character! Such sense! And her cleverness! ” (226). It took a lot of courage for women in the nineteenth century to completely dismiss society’s expectations of them; even more so to cut ties with her own family in order to pursue her own interests.
In the preface to Plays Unpleasant Shaw outlines his political views and his views on gender equality. Shaw criticises current society and he argues, as Mrs Warren puts it herself, ‘the only way for a woman to provide for herself decently is for her to be good to some man that can afford to be good to her’ (26). In Victorian England, there was no viable way for a woman to live sustainably through her own career; the only way of living was to marry a rich man and become head of the household.
This view is central to Mrs Warren’s outlook but feminist critic Germaine Greer who has criticised Shaw’s focus on a wealthy woman in charge of a brothel whilst ignoring unsuccessful prostitutes. She states: “Shaw’s argument seems to be that all working-class girls are whores who can be. The rest are plain losers. ” Greer does have legitimate concerns as Shaw appears to slightly romanticise being a brothel owner and there is no mention of other prostitutes that exist outside Mrs Warren’s ‘circle’.
Additionally, Mrs Warren’s comment is actually very ironic due to the character of Frank as he appears to view Vivie as a potential personal bank account; Frank’s father was worried about Vivie’s social position but Frank did not care as “[she has] the money” (228). Shaw then continues writes he “believes any society which desires to found itself on a high standard of integrity of character in its units should organise itself in such a fashion as to make it in reasonable comfort by their industry… (Shaw, 26). Shaw criticises both men and women and he thinks they are both responsible for the current inequality in society. He agrees that women should not have to prostitute themselves in order to make a livelihood but thinks “rich men without conviction are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity” (27). Shaw believed that without a legitimate channel for a person’s intellect, they might decide to go through illegitimate channels in order to satisfy their curiosities.
Therefore, when evaluating Shaw’s political ideology and other beliefs, it becomes obvious that Shaw would agree with Darwin’s view: We must bear without complaining the undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind’. As he placed the blame for social inequality on those of his sex for requiring the service of prostitutes, rather than the women themselves. In conclusion, it is clear that during the time period in which The Time Machine and Mrs Warren’s Profession were written in, England and English society were going through some intense changes.
Theories of degeneration were very popular during the time period. Those belonging to the upper classes tended to believe that they were superior to those of the lower classes, which is why they thought that degeneration was a problem of the lower classes. In The Time Machine, Wells offers a Marxist critique of capitalism as the Eloi are sustained by the Morlocks. The Eloi’s society was built upon the backs of the Morlocks; an echo of what was also happing in England during the time The Time Machine was published.
Wells implies that the upper classes would not be able to survive if it was not for the workers sustaining their lifestyle. Additionally, Shaw and Wells share a similar political ideology and that materialises in the work of both. They have similar ideas on socialism and the worrying state of the lower class in contrast to the upper class. Therefore, both The Time Machine and Mrs Warren’s Profession support Darwin’s statement as their opinions become apparent through the setting and characters in the texts.
