# The Morlocks — The Time Machine character guide

> The Morlocks in The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Morlocks, No Morlocks

**First appearance:** 0004-v

## Snapshot

Pale, subterranean inheritors of the dark, whose persistent fingers grope for the Time Traveller's levers and whose laughter murmurs up from below.

## Who they are

They live beneath the ground the Eloi walk on, and the Time Traveller's first descent into their world turns curiosity into a scramble for survival — clinging hands, a skull that rings under his head-butt, matches that will only strike on the box. Their theft of his Time Machine makes them not just a menace but a lock on his only way home, and their patient, murmuring pursuit defines the middle of the story. They matter because they invert the reader's expectation of who the future belongs to, and because their darkness is the thing Weena's fear has been pointing at all along.

## Relationships

### [Weena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters/weena)

_rivalry_

Weena is terrified of the Morlocks, who represent the dark, cannibalistic force that ultimately claims her life.

### [The Eloi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters/the_eloi)

_rivalry_

The Eloi are prey to the Morlocks, who emerge at night to capture and feed on them, creating a predator-prey dynamic.

### [Weena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters/weena)

_rivalry_

Duplicate entry; the Morlocks' predation on Weena underscores the brutal hierarchy of the future world.

### [Weena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters/weena)

_rivalry_

Weena is terrified of the Morlocks, who represent the dark, cannibalistic force that ultimately claims her life.

## In the story

### [Chapter VI: The Descent into the Underworld](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/vi)

Described as pale, chinless, with large lidless eyes; they inhabit the underworld, are carnivorous, and attempt to capture the Time Traveller.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/vii)

The subterranean, predatory species that the Time Traveller now understands to be the true masters of the future world.

### [Chapter VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/viii)

Referenced as the feared creatures that the Time Traveller prepares to defend against; also suspected of removing some museum cases.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/ix)

Pursue the Time Traveller through the wood, are blinded and panicked by the fire, and suffer casualties.

### [The Time Traveller's Realization and Escape](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/x)

The Morlocks trap the Time Traveller in the Sphinx chamber and attempt to capture him, but he escapes.

### [Chapter XII: The Return and the Aftermath](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/chapters/xii)

Referenced as having carried the Time Machine into the pedestal of the White Sphinx.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters/the_morlocks
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_time_machine_se/characters