by Greg Bernard

Created on: May 16, 2008

The Time Machine and The Hound of the Baskervilles were written by two contemporaries; H.G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In being contemporaries, they were likely influenced by some of the same ideas and philosophies. Both their books contain some common elements; many having to do with science and technology.

"In doing so," said Dr. Mortimer, who had begun to show signs of some strong emotion, "I am telling that which I have not confided to anyone. My motive for withholding it from the coroner's inquiry is that a man of science shrinks from placing himself in the public position of seeming to indorse a popular superstition." In The Hound of the Baskervilles Dr. Mortimer did not wish to make himself seem foolish to the scientific community by making it look like he believes the hound may be real. He is a completely different character than the Time Traveler in The Time Machine. "I will," he (the Time Traveler) went on, "tell you the story of what has happened to me, if you like, but you must refrain from interruptions. I want to tell it. Badly. Most of it will sound like lying. So be it!" The Time Traveler didn't care what the scientific community thought of him, unlike Dr. Mortimer.

In The Time machine even when the time traveler's friends see the evidence of his journey, they don't believe him. The Editor stood up with a sigh. "What a pity it is you're not a writer of stories!" he said, putting his hand on the Time Traveler's shoulder.
"You don't believe it?" "Well-" "I thought not." But when the evidence is given to Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, he doesn't immediately reject it. It's part of his job as a detective to not assume anything without evidence for or against it.

One way that the theme of The Hound of the Baskervilles relates to science and technology (the application of science) is the phosphorus found on the hound. "A cunning preparation of it," said Holmes, sniffing at the dead animal. "There is no smell which might have interfered with his power of scent." The phosphorus was an excellent example of how science and technology can give rise to superstition. The Time Machine's theme relates to science in a very different way. The Time Machine's attitude towards it is more about the future of science and technology. It's about how and in what ways science and technology will affect the future. Even nature, which is a science, had advanced: "This adjustment, I say, must have been done, and done well; done indeed for all Time,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>