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
In the years following Kuno’s escape to the surface, respirators are abolished. Most people are in favor of the change, because people like Vashti always considered the habit of visiting Earth’s surface for no reason but simple curiosity to be unnecessary, even “improper.” Only some lecturers complain about the change, because they are no longer able to obtain first-hand experience of their subject matter. But even this objection disappears once the lecturers realize that lectures about the outside world are just as interesting when they are compiled from a collection of other sources rather than from first-hand experiences. One lecturer, who specializes in the French Revolution, even proclaims that first-hand ideas are unreliable and dangerous, and that it is better to study the many layers of second-hand interpretations about a subject than to experience it directly.
In some sense, the respirators represent the separation of humanity and nature—they are only necessary because human beings are no longer able to survive on Earth’s surface. But at the same time, the respirators are only necessary in a society that still finds some value in the experience of going to Earth’s surface, as Kuno did. Like air-ships, they are a relic of an older time, when humanity was more curious about the world outside of the Machine. Now, this society increasingly rejects the value of nature and of experience, in favor of the simulation of reality that the Machine provides. This disdain for direct experience is summed up by the lecturer’s conclusion that future generations will know far more about the French Revolution than those who experienced it directly.
Themes
Literary Devices
The second major development that occurs during these years is the reestablishment of religion. People who had worshipped the Machine in private now become more open about it. They worship the Machine because they depend on it for every need, from food to clothing to shelter to communication.
Humanity’s utter dependence on the Machine for all their needs and wants contributes to the impression of god-like power. Kuno’s earlier suspicions about Vashti’s religious attitude toward the Machine become clearer here.
Themes
To the people of this society, the Machine is the “friend of ideas,” “the enemy of superstition,” “omnipotent,” and “eternal.” Prayers and rituals are created. The word “religion” is carefully avoided, and theoretically everyone still recognizes that human beings created the Machine, but practically everyone but a small minority worships it as a god. Different branches develop that worship different parts of the Machine. There is also the threat of persecution, in the form of Homelessness, against those who do not believe.
This development of a religion that worships the Machine is paradoxical, because its doctrines reject “superstition” and celebrate rationality, yet the worship itself is entirely superstitious, not rational. Even as people know logically that humans created the Machine—not the other way around—they act as though it is a god. The reason for this attitude is perhaps because no one really understands how the Machine works as a whole, making its operations seem miraculous.
Themes
Literary Devices
These developments are not simply the Central Committee’s dictates, but rather the product of trends in society itself—what could be considered “progress.” Knowledge of the Machine became so specialized that no one understood the system as a whole. Humanity has “overreached itself,” exploiting nature too far. Progress is now linked entirely with the Machine’s progress.
Control in this society is not maintained simply through political oppression. To the contrary, the majority of people in the society worship the Machine and accept its values as their own. Indeed, these attitudes are only natural considering the circumstances in which they live, as they depend on the Machine for their very survival. The story presents a complex dystopia, in which humanity’s demise is not simply the fault of a repressive government, but rather the fault of an entire social system—and humanity itself, which has created this system.
Themes
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Vashti’s life continues peacefully until the “final disaster.” Some of her friends receive Euthanasia, and she even requests it herself, but so far she hasn’t been granted her request because the death rate is not allowed to exceed the birth rate. One day, she receives a call from Kuno, learning that he is still alive and has been transferred to a room near her own. He tells her that “the Machine is stopping.” She laughs at the apparent absurdity of his statement, and Kuno ends their call in anger.
The normalization of euthanasia in this society suggests that even a process as natural and unpredictable as death has been turned into something controlled and sterile. Human life isn’t considered sacred or valuable, so older people like Vashti’s friends can simply choose to die if the birth rate exceeds the death rate. Vashti has become so accustomed to worshipping the Machine as an omnipotent god that the idea that it could ever cease to function is entirely nonsensical to her. Yet the mention of a “final disaster” and Kuno’s statement that “the Machine is stopping” suggests that people’s faith in the Machine is misguided.
Themes
Vashti calls a friend and, referring to Kuno as “a man who was my son,” tells him about Kuno’s statement, saying it would “impious” if it wasn’t so insane. Her friend speculates that Kuno’s statement might have something to do with the recent problems with the music—Vashti’s symphonies have recently been disfigured by interfering sounds, and the Committee of the Mending Apparatus has assured her it will be fixed soon. The defects in the music, combined with Kuno’s remark, worry Vashti. She makes a formal complaint to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus. Vashti’s friends complain of similar issues—for example, one friend’s thoughts are always interrupted by a jarring noise.
Vashti’s description of Kuno as a man who “was” her son means that she has disowned him because of his “impiety” toward the Machine. This suggests not only Vashti’s fanatical worship of the Machine, but also the superficiality of human relationships in this society, in which family connections can be dissolved at will. Vashti’s unwillingness to try to understand her son’s warning renders her all the more vulnerable to the Machine’s “stop,” which is foreshadowed by the issues with her music.
Themes
As time goes on, the defects are not repaired and only grow worse, but people adapt themselves to them. Humanity, by now, has grown so “subservient” to the Machine that they accommodate its “every caprice.” But the failure of the sleeping apparatus—causing everyone around the world to go without a bed—is a more serious defect, as humanity is not yet “adaptable” enough to go without sleep. People begin to panic, suspecting that someone is meddling with the Machine, perhaps out of a desire to establish a dictatorship. People call to “avenge the Machine,” punishing anyone who meddles with it with Homelessness.
People’s reactions to the growing defects show how humanity, rather than adapting the Machine to serve their needs, now adapts their needs to suit the Machine. However, there is a limit to this, which becomes evident when the Machine’s defects begin to disrupt more primal needs like sleep, showing that human nature is not totally malleable. The ensuing panic shows how worship of the Machine has reached the point that no one can conceive of the possibility that the Machine itself might fail—instead, they assume that someone must be actively sabotaging it. Indeed, it may be possible that someone, or a group of people—perhaps the “Homeless” that Kuno spoke of—have indeed sabotaged the Mending Apparatus, but this is never explained for certain.
Themes
The Committee of the Mending Apparatus admits that the Mending Apparatus is itself in need of repair. The lecturer from earlier gives a speech exhorting people to be patient and make sacrifices while the Mending Apparatus recovers. The world is still linked by the communication that the Machine makes possible. Only the old and sick continue to suffer, because Euthanasia is no longer working, causing human beings to once again suffer pain.
People living underground are made vulnerable by the fact that they have become so dependent on the Machine. They’ve accepted its role in their lives as a given and view it as a deity rather than a piece of humanmade technology, so no one understands how the Machine as a whole works anymore. This means that they can no longer control the Machine, nor can they fix it if it ever goes awry. The Mending Apparatus is apparently broken, and no one knows how to fix it—so, it’s likely that the whole system will fall apart, and Kuno’s warning will come true.
Themes
The artificial light begins to dim, and the air starts to go foul. People begin to propose more drastic measures, such as establishing a dictatorship. As panic grows, people pray to their Books, which contain the “proofs of the Machine’s omnipotence.” There are rumors of hope that the Machine might still be fixed. But then, suddenly, the entire communication system collapses, and the world as they know it ends.
The panic created by the Machine’s demise causes this previously stable society to start falling apart. Many people retreat into worshipping the Machine, which illustrates the core issue: humanity no longer understands and is no longer capable of controlling the technology that they themselves have created. Instead, they believe that the Machine is powerful enough to be “omnipotent” (like a god) and hold out hope that it will fix itself.
Themes
At the moment of this complete collapse, Vashti is lecturing, and she does not realize what has happened at first, until she remembers Kuno’s statement: “the Machine stops.” But she holds out hope that everything will be alright, as there is still light and air in the room, and as long as she has her Book, there is still security.
Vashti’s feeble belief that the Book could possibly save them from this situation demonstrates how she and the rest of this society cling onto their irrational worship of the Machine, even when the Machine is clearly failing.
Themes
But when the Machine’s hum stops, leaving only utter silence, Vashti breaks down, for she has been surrounded by the hum her entire life. This silence even kills many people. In her panic, Vashti presses on the button that opens the door of her cell. The tunnel is filled with crowds of people who are panicking and slowly dying. Surrounding them all is the silence, which is “the voice of the earth and of the generations who have gone.”
Tragically, it takes a disaster of this scope for Vashti to have a shared experience with other people. But this occurs only at the moment of their deaths, and Vashti turns away from the possibility of human connection in terror. The silence that surrounds them in the aftermath of the Machine’s collapse represents the triumph of both the natural world and human nature over the artificial world created by technology.
Themes
Deciding that it is better to die in solitude, Vashti closes her door again to “wait for the end.” Her room disintegrates, and the light fades. She prays to the Book, but the darkness becomes complete, and the air begins to dissipate. Turning desperate, she screams, prays, and strikes at buttons. By chance, she hits the button that opens the door again, and she sees hundreds of people dying in the tunnel.
Vashti still clings to the hope that the Machine might start working again, relying on her old methods of praying to the Book and hitting buttons. At this point, she still rejects the possibility of human connection, deciding that it would be better to die alone.
Themes
Vashti “open[s] her prison and escape[s],” spiritually but not physically. She cries at the sight, and someone else—Kuno—cries close by, both of them “[weeping] for humanity.” They both understand the sublime beauty of humanity, who had “made god in his image,” and how humanity is now dying, “strangled in the garments” they themselves have woven. They weep for society’s “sin against the body,” the devaluation of muscles and nerves and the five senses.
Vashti, who has closely adhered to her society’s norms and values throughout the story, now experiences a transformation in the depths of despair. Only when she has lost everything the Machine provided to her does she realize that it has destroyed, rather than strengthened, humanity. She now finally understands her son’s viewpoint, just as they are finally reunited before their deaths. She sees how beautiful humanity is, but also how they have created the tools of their own destruction through technologies like the Machine. Kuno and Vashti recognize that their society’s “sin against the body”—confining people to underground rooms—has led to the disintegration of the human spirit. In a sense, the people of this civilization emotionally and spiritually died long before they physically died.
Themes
Literary Devices
Vashti asks Kuno if there is any hope, and Kuno answers that there is none for them. Vashti crawls to him over the dead bodies. Kuno tells her he is dying, but they at least are touching and talking in reality, not simply through the Machine. He kisses her and tells her that even though they are dying, they have “recaptured life” and are “[coming] back to their own.”
This final reunion between Vashti and Kuno is bittersweet, because even though both characters realize they are dying, they also finally reconcile, because Vashti now recognizes that her son was about the Machine all along. Vashti’s relationship with Kuno, which she previously rejected in favor of the Machine, is now mended. The physical contact between them indicates that they have reached a deeper level of connection now than what was possible through the Machine. The idea that they’ve “recaptured life” and are “coming back to their own” seems to mean that once everyone underground has died and the Machine has fully broken down, the Mending Apparatus will stop destroying the natural world. Then, the Homeless living aboveground will be the only people left, and they’ll live in accordance with human nature rather than trying to alter human nature through technology.
Themes
Vashti asks Kuno if it is true that there are still humans on Earth’s surface, if this underground darkness is really not the end. Kuno tells her that he has “seen them, spoken to them, loved them,” that they are waiting for this civilization to end, when they will no longer be the Homeless. Vashti says that “some fool” might start the Machine again in the future, but Kuno assures her that “humanity has learnt its lesson.”
Vashti, like Kuno, loves humanity and holds out hope that even if they must die, some essential part of humanity might survive. In saying that he has “seen, spoken to, and loved” people aboveground, Kuno may be referring to communing with the voices of the dead that he heard as he approached the surface. Or it could be that in the years following his initial escape to the surface, he made other journeys and spent time among the Homeless. Although the Homeless people’s ability to survive above the surface is never explained, one possibility is that Earth’s surface is actually still capable of supporting human life, but that the physiology of those who live underground has altered so much that they are no longer adapted to it. Vashti’s worry that someone might simply start the Machine again after this disaster shows her transformation: she now rejects the Machine and embraces Kuno’s alternate vision of humanity reclaiming the world from technology.
Themes
As Kuno and Vashti speak, the whole city breaks apart when an air-ship crashes into it. Before they die, they see the “nations of the dead” and a brief glimpse of the “untainted” sky.
The air-ship has a symbolic resonance as both part of the Machine’s system and a holdover of an earlier time, when humanity was closer to the natural world. Its destruction of the underground city suggests that this civilization’s demise is a product of both the system’s failings and aspects of human nature and humanity’s past that this society has failed to eradicate. Kuno and Vashti’s glimpse of the “nations of the dead” suggest their connection with the past generations of human beings, and their glimpse of the “untainted sky” shows how nature survives, triumphing over technology.
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