The Time Machine: Novel Summary: Chapter Five

Major character introduction as well as theme and plot development helps to make this the longest, and probably the most important chapter in the book.  As he wakes on his second day in the future, the Time Traveler finds that his time machine has been taken.  Investigation leads him to believe it has been pushed into the hollow bronze base of the White Sphinx.  Frustrated, the Time Traveler loses his temper and harasses some of the passing Eloi trying to reclaim his passage home.  Distraught, he somehow manages to scrape together his patience and calm himself by thinking that he will somehow get the time machine back.  In order to try and gain a better understanding of this new world, the Time Traveler continues his exploration of the Thames River Valley.  For the first time, he notices a large number of pipes protruding from the ground, both short and tall.  Seeming to appear in pairs, he concludes that the smaller of the set is some type of well and the larger is a type of smokestack, all a part of some vast underground ventilation system.  Much like his first theories, this one too will later prove to be inaccurate. 
Weena is also introduced in this chapter in a rather interesting manner.  On his third morning, the Time Traveler is watching the Eloi bathe in the river when one of them is swept away by the weak current.  When none of the pathetic little creatures attempts a rescue of the seemingly lost member, the Time Traveler wades into the river and grabs her (he tells us he is assuming it is a 'her').  He will spend much of his remaining week in the future with Weena, the 'woman' he rescued, learning the language and ways of the Eloi. 
The Time Traveler soon learns that emotions are not lost on these people of the future, contrary to what he first thought.  He makes specific note of their terrible fear of the dark.  "Darkness to her was the one thing dreadful." Later in the chapter, our hero first encounters the Morlocks, a race of subterranean humans.  He describes a Morlock as ape-like with white skin and large eyes, adaptations that most likely are the result of living beneath the surface for ages.  The introduction of these Under-worlders forces him to change his hypothesis on the position of society. He now reasons that the Eloi represent what he calls the "Haves" and the Morlocks would then be the "Have-nots."