Written during a period of rapid economic growth and capitalist industrialization in Victorian England, The Time Machine is a notable work of utopian/dystopian fiction and social criticism. Most notably, it imagines the ways in which the human species have evolved (or devolved) into two separate species, the Eloi, and the Morlocks, whose relationship of struggle and survival can be read as a metaphor and prophecy for future societies. Likewise, The Time Machine also provides sharp insights into the concept of gender roles in modern society through the depiction of these two species and their relationships.