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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Machine Stops, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology vs. Nature
Religion and Faith
Simulation vs. Experience
Human Connection
Emotion vs. Rationality
Summary
Analysis
A woman sits in an armchair in a small, hexagonal room, like the cell of a beehive. There are no windows, lamps, or ventilation openings, but it is filled with soft light and fresh air. There are no instruments, but music is playing. The only furniture is the armchair and a reading-desk. The woman, Vashti, to whom the room belongs, is a “swaddled lump of flesh,” with skin “as white as fungus.”
This opening description suggests that Vashti’s room is one of many identical rooms. It also hints that the society she lives in may be underground, which would explain why there isn’t any natural light or ventilation. Vashti’s appearance also gives a sense of how the human body deteriorates in this environment, with no sunlight and seemingly no connection to the outdoors. She is a “lump of flesh” (implying that her muscles have atrophied) and looks “as white as fungus” (implying that her skin is unhealthily pale).
Themes
Literary Devices
A bell rings, and Vashti turns off the music. She is irritable, having been interrupted multiple times while listening to the music. She knows several thousand people, so she frequently receives calls from friends and acquaintances. But she smiles when she realizes it is her son, Kuno, calling her. She tells him she can speak to him for five minutes, because she must deliver a lecture on music soon. She becomes impatient as she waits for the image of her son to appear on a round blue plate. Kuno is calling from a great distance away, as he lives on the other side of the world.
In this society, human relationships are shallow, as shown by the fact that Vashti knows thousands of people but scarcely has enough time to devote to any of them. She can only spare five minutes to talk to her own son, and she becomes impatient even in this short time. This detail—combined with the fact that Kuno lives so far away—hints that family relationships are not important in this society, although it is also clear from her initial smile that Vashti has affection for her son.
Themes
Literary Devices
Kuno tells Vashti that he wants her to come and see him. She protests that she can already see him, but he responds that he wants to see her and speak to her outside of the Machine. She is shocked and tells him he shouldn’t say anything against the Machine, but he scoffs at her for speaking as though a god had made the Machine. He believes she prays to it when she is unhappy, and he tells her not to forget that human beings made the Machine, and that it is not everything. Although he can see and hear something like her through the plate, he cannot actually see and hear her. He wants her to visit in-person so that he can tell her about the hopes in his heart.
This passage reveals that Vashti and her son are living inside a manmade piece of technology called “the Machine,” though it’s not yet clear exactly what the Machine is or how it works. It seems that people live individually in underground rooms or pods (like Vashti’s room in the story’s opening passage), and that the plates people use to communicate are part of the Machine’s technology. Unlike his mother, Kuno does not entirely fit into this society’s social norms. He distrusts the Machine, whereas Vashti worships it as though it’s a deity. Vashti cannot understand her son’s desire to see her in person, but Kuno doesn’t believe that communication via the Machine compares to face-to-face interaction. He seems to want direct experience rather than a simulation.
Themes
Vashti claims she doesn’t have the time for a visit, but Kuno counters that it takes the air-ship barely two days to fly from where she lives to where he is. She responds that she dislikes air-ships, because she doesn’t like to see the “horrible brown earth,” or the sea, or the stars. She tells him she “get[s] no ideas” while riding the air-ship, but Kuno says he gets no ideas anywhere else.
This exchange reveals more details about the world of the story: the description of the “horrible brown earth” suggests that some kind of environmental disaster has stripped Earth of all or most vegetation, and the details about air-ships suggests that this futuristic society has a sophisticated transportation system. Moreover, the fact that Vashti and Kuno live a two days’ trip apart means that although they both live in the Machine, they probably live on opposite sides of the world—which speaks to how vast the Machine is. The differences between Vashti and Kuno’s characters are also revealed in their different attitudes toward the air-ships and the stars. Kuno likes riding aboard the air-ships and gets inspiration from them, while Vashti views them as horrible and boring. Kuno perhaps enjoys riding the air-ship because he, unlike his mother, appreciates the natural world, and this is one of the few places where he can experience it, albeit from a distance. By complaining that the air-ship gives her “no ideas,” Vashti seems to mean that she only values logical and rational pursuits, while Kuno is more interested in emotional experiences.
Themes
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Vashti asks what kinds of ideas the air could give Kuno. He tells her about a constellation of stars he once saw, which he imagined formed the image of a man holding a sword. He explains that men once carried swords to kill animals and other people. Vashti says she dislikes the stars and does not think his idea is very good. She asks when he first saw this constellation.
Kuno’s description of the constellation that looks like a man with a sword indicates his interest in human nature and the past, as well as his enjoyment of the natural world. This marks him as quite different from Vashti, who seems to have no interest in the constellation because of her more narrow-minded focus on rational “ideas” over direct experiences.
Themes
Kuno trails off, and Vashti imagines he looks sad. But she can only imagine this because the Machine does not communicate “nuances of expression,” only the “general idea” of a person. Vashti believes it is proper for the Machine to ignore this “imponderable bloom” of people and things, and instead to convey something that is simply “good enough for all practical purposes.” Kuno says that he wants to see the stars again, but not from an air-ship—rather from Earth’s surface, as human beings did in the past. Vashti is shocked by this, and Kuno urges her to visit him, if only to explain what is so harmful about visiting Earth’s surface.
The fact that the Machine cannot transmit “nuances of expression,” only the general idea of things, supports Kuno’s earlier point about the difference between seeing or hearing someone in person as opposed to through the Machine’s mediation. Vashti’s complaint about these “imponderable” nuances (such as facial expressions) shows that she values logic and rationality—“practical” concerns—over emotional connection with other people. Kuno’s desire to see the stars from Earth’s surface speaks to his desire for direct, unmediated experience of the natural world, as well as his interest in experiencing the world as humanity did in the past.
Themes
Vashti tries to dissuade Kuno from visiting Earth’s surface, telling him there is “no advantage” in it, since Earth is only “dust and mud,” with no life, and it is impossible to breathe the air outside without a respirator—its coldness kills unprotected humans immediately. Kuno says that he knows and will take proper precautions. Still trying to convince him not to go on the expedition, Vashti tells him that a visit to Earth’s surface is “contrary to the spirit of the age.” He asks if she means it is “contrary to the Machine,” and then his image fades—he has isolated himself, ending their call.
Vashti’s description of Earth’s surface suggests that in the world of the story, there has been some kind of dramatic environmental change that makes it impossible for Earth to naturally sustain human life. Although the causes of this environmental catastrophe are not explained, it provides a hint as to why humanity has retreated underground and now must rely on technology, such as the Machine and the respirators, to survive. Whatever the case, human beings have been largely disconnected from nature. Vashti, who does not share her son’s desire for direct experience of the natural world, cannot understand why he wants to visit Earth’s surface. Her remark that it is “contrary to the spirit of the age” suggests that this whole society has little regard for beauty or emotion, instead valuing logical ideas and practicality. Kuno again hints that his mother is worshipping and dutifully obeying the Machine, and he ends their conversation frustrated at her inability to understand his desire.
Themes
Vashti briefly feels lonely now that Kuno has ended their conversation. But then she turns on the light and is comforted by the sight of the room, with all of its buttons that summon food, music, clothing, baths, and literature and that allow her to communicate with all of her friends. She turns off her “isolation-switch,” and immediately her friends’ calls flood in, peppering her with questions and requests.
This passage reveals the extent of the Machine’s involvement in people’s lives: it provides the people who live in its underground pods with all of their basic needs, entertainment, and socialization. Though “The Machine Stops” was published in 1909, its dystopian setting echoes present-day critiques of modern technology: that it holds people back from real experiences, makes human relationships too superficial, reduces attention spans, and takes much of the meaning out of life. One might assume that such sophisticated technology would allow people to focus more on creative projects, personal relationships, and so on. But judging from Vashti’s isolated lifestyle and superficial relationships with acquaintances, it seems like the Machine makes people’s lives shallower rather than richer.
Themes
Impatient as most people in this society are, Vashti responds to most of the questions with irritation. Then she turns on the isolation-switch again so she can deliver her lecture on Australian music. She gives this lecture remotely, and afterwards she listens to a lecture on the sea. Finally she summons her bed and isolates herself, trying to think of any new ideas or events that have happened to her since she last slept.
Vashti’s love for music and desire to share her passion with other people suggest that, in some ways, human nature has remained the same. People in this society still want to pursue their interests and connect with others. But because of the life she is accustomed to and the values of this society, she is not really able to engage with her interests or relationships on anything but a superficial level, even viewing music and nature as sources of rational “ideas” rather than sources of beauty or outlets for emotional expression.
Themes
Vashti picks up the Book of the Machine lying beside her on the reading-desk. It contains instructions for everything she can imagine—what buttons to press if she ever needs something. She holds it “reverently,” looks around as if afraid someone might be watching, and then she kisses the Book and murmurs, “O Machine! O Machine!” After performing this “ritual,” she looks up the departure times for the air-ships going from the island in the southern hemisphere underneath which she lives to the island in the northern hemisphere underneath which her son lives. She tells herself she does not have time to travel and goes to sleep.
This passage confirms that Vashti and her son live on opposite ends of the world, though they both seem to live in the underground Machine. Vashti’s “reverent” attitude toward the Book of the Machine, as she performs this “ritual” before looking up the air-ship schedule, shows the truth in her son’s claim that she “worships” the Machine as a god. This religious attitude seems to go against this society’s logical, rational mindset, but it makes sense considering that Vashti (and likely everyone else in the society) doesn’t seem to understand the Machine’s inner workings—only which buttons to press. Therefore, it appears to Vashti as something mystical and all-powerful, keeping her safe from the uninhabitable outside world and providing everything she could possibly need or desire. Her reluctance to travel to visit her son demonstrates the relative unimportance of face-to-face human interaction in this underground society. If Vashti’s attitude is any indication, most people here are rushed, impatient, and uninterested in having experiences outside the confines of their rooms.
Themes
Vashti continues to follow her predictable daily routine. She talks briefly to Kuno, asking him if he has been on Earth’s surface since they last talked, but he says he will not talk to her until she comes to visit him. She consults the Book again and becomes agitated. She presses a button to open her door and looks down a tunnel. To visit her son, she would simply have to summon a car to bring her down this tunnel and into the air-ship station. This air-ship system was established by the previous civilization, before the creation of the Machine. Vashti reflects on the strangeness of that civilization, for trying to bring people to things rather than bringing things to people.
Vashti faces a conflict between her desire to maintain a good relationship with her son and her extreme reluctance to travel beyond her room. Vashti’s reflections on the air-ships, which are a remnant of a past civilization, show just how much humanity’s values have changed as a result of the Machine. People no longer want to travel to different places now that it is possible for the Machine to fulfill people’s wants without needing to leave their rooms.
Themes
Vashti is frightened of the tunnel. She hasn’t seen it since her last child was born, and it is not quite as she remembered it. Terrified by the prospect of “direct experience,” Vashti closes the door. She lies to Kuno, saying she cannot visit him because she is unwell. Immediately, the medical apparatus in her room provides a thermometer, stethoscope, cool pads, and medicine—apparently Kuno has telegraphed her doctor. Irritated, Vashti asks Kuno why he can’t visit her. He says he cannot leave because “at any moment something tremendous may happen.” She asks if he has been to Earth’s surface, and he tells her not yet. He says he cannot tell her anything more through the Machine.
Vashti’s fear of the tunnel, described as a terror of “direct experience,” shows how much the Machine has changed people’s lifestyles and values, to the point that they no longer want to set foot outside their isolated pods. The medical apparatus in Vashti’s room (as opposed to a human doctor) is an example of how simulation has come to be seen as an improvement over reality. Kuno’s statement that “something tremendous” is about to happen, and his reluctance to tell Vashti too much through the Machine, hints at the possibility of surveillance on the Machine’s communications. It also foreshadows a potential catastrophic event.
Themes
Literary Devices
Vashti thinks about Kuno as a baby and their past visits. In this society, parents have no duties to their children after they are born—instead, they are raised in public nurseries. However, she has stayed in contact with Kuno, even after he was transferred to a room on the other side of the world, because there was “something special” about him, indeed about all of her children. Vashti decides she must “brave the journey” if Kuno desires. She wonders what Kuno meant by saying “something tremendous might happen.” Clasping the Book, she opens the door to the tunnel and summons a car.
The public nurseries and lack of required parental duties in this society are evidence of its emphasis on utility and convenience over emotion, tradition, or family connections. However, parents still seem to feel naturally affectionate toward their children, as shown by Vashti’s desire to stay in contact with Kuno and her sense that there is “something special” about her kids. Vashti’s willingness to “brave the journey” to see Kuno shows the strength of her love for him. This suggests that Vashti is a complex character rather than simply a cog in the Machine. She is capable of strong human emotions, foreshadowing that she might undergo a change if “something tremendous” does happen.
Themes
Few people travel in this society, because Earth, owing to the “advance of science,” is now the same everywhere. Human beings no longer move around physically, and instead “all unrest is concentrated in the soul.” The air-ships are a “relic” of an earlier civilization, remaining in service only because this is easier than putting a stop to the system. So the air-ships continue on their mechanical paths, often empty or with very few passengers. In this world, humanity has apparently conquered nature.
The importance of direct experience has been so diminished that most people have no desire to even leave their rooms, despite the ease of travel. Indeed, underground society is apparently so uniform that everywhere in the world looks the same. The detail about “unrest concentrated in the soul” suggests that although technological advances and social changes may have transformed human behavior, the human soul remains fundamentally the same. People are still restless and long for novelty and adventure, but they fulfill these desires virtually rather than through direct experience. The details about how the air-ships continue to travel the same paths, even though they have become mostly obsolete, suggests that the Machine operates automatically, requiring little human intervention. This is a potentially dangerous situation, as it means that these systems are taken for granted without any real understanding of how they operate. The air-ships also represent humanity’s apparent conquest of nature, in that people are no longer limited by natural constraints like the inability to fly. But this seems to be a hollow conquest, because humanity is cut off from the natural world’s beauty.
Themes
As Vashti catches sight of the air-ship, she is seized by the “horror of direct experience,” unused to the unfamiliar smells and the experiences of walking and being seen and talking directly to other people. As the passengers board the air-ship, the man in front of Vashti drops his Book. This disturbs all of the passengers, because they are used to the floors in their rooms automatically raising the Book if it falls, whereas the gangway to the air-ship does not have this capability. So, the “sacred book” remains motionless on the floor. All of the passengers stop, and the man who dropped the book cannot even bring himself to pick it up. One of the passengers says they will be late, and so they all continue to board the ship, walking over the book.
This almost surreal scene highlights how unaccustomed everyone in this society is to venturing outside of their rooms and directly experiencing the world. The incident of a man dropping his Book is particularly shocking to the passengers because of the quasi-religious awe that they for this “sacred” object and, by extension, for the Machine.
Themes
Vashti’s anxiety increases as she boards the air-ship: there is a female flight attendant whom she will have to talk to if she wants anything during the trip, and Vashti is enraged to feel that she is stuck with an inferior cabin. Frightened, Vashti caresses her Book and murmurs “O Machine! O Machine!” to comfort herself.
Vashti’s anxiety is caused by the fact that the world outside is strange and unpredictable compared to her routine, isolated life in her familiar room. Vashti is not used to socializing in person, which explains her nervousness about interacting with the flight attendant, a more difficult prospect than simply pressing a button on the Machine and talking through a plate. Meanwhile, Vashti’s quasi-religious attitude toward the Machine is again demonstrated in her prayer to her Book.
Themes
The air-ship takes off. They fly over the coast of Sumatra, and Vashti looks at the stars, which she finds “intolerable.” The passengers are angry at the careless flight attendant, who forgets at first to lower the blinds and turn on the light. When the air-ships were built, people still had a desire to “look direct at things,” which no longer exists in this society. The blind in Vashti’s cabin is flawed, so she can still see a single star and later is disturbed by the unfamiliar light of dawn.
Though the flight attendant only appears in passing, she’s important because she, unlike most of the people in this society, regularly experiences the outside the Machine. Therefore, her behavior deviates slightly from the social norms that the other characters follow. This is first demonstrated in her forgetting to shut the blinds. The windows, like the air-ship itself, are obsolete—a hold-over from the time when people still valued directly observing and experiencing the world. Now the windows—and the views of stars, sunlight, and landscapes that they offer—are nothing but a nuisance.
Themes
Literary Devices
The previous civilization had tried to build air-ships that could travel as quickly, or even faster, than Earth’s rotation, but they found no success. So many accidents occurred because of these high-speed air-ships that the Committee of the Machine, which at the time was only just rising into prominence, outlawed this pursuit as punishable by Homelessness. This failed attempt to “defeat the sun” marked the end of humanity’s interest in anything to do with the sky, and after this, science became concerned only with problems that were certain to be solved.
This story about humanity’s failed attempt to “defeat the sun” dramatizes the death of how humanity used to approach science, as a field that sought to understand and master the natural world. The present society has lost this vision of science because of its overwhelming focus on practicality, no longer investigating any questions that might have complicated answers.
Themes
Annoyed by the light that shines through her blind, Vashti tries to fix it, but she winds up making the blind fly up altogether. She is horrified at the prospect of being hit by the direct sunlight and calls for the flight attendant. The attendant is also horrified, but she cannot fix the blind, and she advises Vashti to move to a different cabin.
Vashti’s horror at the possibility that the sun might shine directly on her might simply suggest that people who live in this society are not well-adapted to bright light because they spend all their time underground. However, taking into account Vashti’s indifference toward the stars and the scenery she’s passing over, her fear of the sunlight also symbolizes her fear of directly experiencing the natural world.
Themes
Literary Devices
The flight attendant is a bit unusual compared to other people in this society, who are mostly all alike. This is perhaps due to her out-of-the-ordinary occupation, which requires her to frequently talk to passengers directly. When Vashti nearly falls trying to dodge a beam of sunlight, the flight attendant touches Vashti in order to steady her. Vashti views this as “barbaric” and lashes out at the flight attendant, who apologizes. In this society, people never touch one another.
The fact that Vashti is so horrified by human touch—even when it is simply intended to prevent her from falling—shows how thoroughly human connection has been eroded in this world. The flight attendant, similar to Kuno, serves as a reminder that human nature has not changed, despite society’s efforts to do away with emotion and human connection.
Themes
The flight attendant tells Vashti they are flying over Asia and shows her the Himalayas. The attendant says they were once called “The Roof of the World,” a name that Vashti finds foolish. The attendant explains that in the past, no one could imagine anything above the mountains but the gods. Society has advanced dramatically “thanks to the Machine,” a statement that Vashti and another passenger echo. Vashti asks the flight attendant to close the blinds because the mountains “give [her] no ideas.” Below, the forests have all been destroyed, turned to newspaper pulp during the “literature epoch,” and there are also the ruins of old cities.
Vashti’s disdain for one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders is a stark indication of how humanity has become separated from nature. Vashti’s single-minded focus on “ideas,” and her inability to see how they could be found in something like natural scenery, show this society’s disregard for emotional experiences of the sublime in favor of more logical thought. The detail about forests being destroyed to make newspaper suggests that this underground society came about after humanity destroyed the environment on Earth’s surface, making it uninhabitable.
Themes
The passengers avoid one another, impatient to land and go back underground. The other passengers are mainly young men, traveling from public nurseries to inhabit the rooms of people who have died. The man who dropped his Book is traveling back home after fathering a child. Vashti is the only passenger who is traveling for private reasons only. She glances at Earth again, seeing mountains—the Caucasus—that resemble a man. She closes the blind, finding “no ideas” there. Later she looks again and sees a peninsula and islands—Greece—and closes the blind, muttering again “no ideas here.”
Again, people are not interested in traveling because they find no value in the natural world. As a result, most people use the air-ships only infrequently, during major life events such as having to move from the public nurseries to a room of their own, or conceiving a child. These actions are not undertaken solely by personal choice, but rather with the Committee of the Machine’s approval. There seems to be very little emotion attached to these life milestones, because family connections don’t exist the way they used to. Vashti’s indifference to the Caucasus and Greece further emphasizes her separation from the natural world and lack of interest in direct observation.
Themes
