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The Machine Stops summary
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Detailed summary of The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. Helpful literary interpretation AO5 for OCR English Literature A-Level. Used to get 100% in final exam.
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The Machine Stops summaryThe Machine Stops by E. M. Forster is set in a world where the surface of the Earth is
uninhabitable. Humans live underground and are governed by an omnipotent and
omniscient Machine. Despite the Machine being created by humans, slowly the
underground population becomes subservient to the Machine and refuses to disobey its
orders. Travel above ground is permitted but largely frowned upon; needing a respirator
when travelling leads to many preferring to stay below. Every person lives in an isolated box
where their every need is provided by the Machine - communication is made through a
video conferencing machine that allows individuals to share ideas and knowledge.
Vashti and Kuno (mother and son) live on opposite sides of the Earth, both underground.
Vashti embraces her life governed by the machine and is content, whilst Kuno is a rebel of
sorts and is reluctant to talk to her through the Machine. Vashti is persuaded to endure the
journey to Kuno, travelling upon an “air-ship” that was “a relic from the former age”. Served
by humans, Vashti did not like to look outside onto the barren Earth, claiming that it gave
her no ideas.
Once she arrives to see her son he tells her that he has been “threatened with
Homelessness” (exposure to air, killing him) by the Machine after travelling above ground
illegally. Vashti is appalled by his behaviour and Kuno declares that she thinks “it irreligious
of me to have found out a way of my own.” Fierce denial of this Machine worship occurs
and persists throughout the novella, but it is quite clear that Vashti and others do worship
the Machine - earlier, Vashti holds up “The Book of the Machine” and cries “O Machine! O
Machine” while holding it to her lips; these clear religious connotations are hard to miss,
especially considering the heavily-religious time in which this novella was written.
Once Vashti returns to her normal life the “respirator” apparatus that sustains life in the
outer world is abolished and “Technopoly”, a religion worshipping the Machine, is officially
established. Now that the completely obedient underground population has forgotten that
the Machine was a human creation and not a spiritual entity many of the Machine’s
developing problems are ignored and attributed to its omnipotence. The Mending
Apparatus, a system that repairs the Machine’s defects, fails during this time.
Kuno is transferred from the Northern Hemisphere to the South Hemisphere, now living in a
room near his mother’s. He suspects that the Machine is slowly breaking down and tells her
that “The Machine Stops”. The Machine continues to deteriorate and again the subservient
humans turn a blind eye to the obvious defects - since the Mending Apparatus would
usually repair every problem present in the Machine, no human had knowledge of how to
repair it.
The Machine finally collapses as Vashti admits “that civilization’s long day was closing.” It is
here that the rhetoric describing the Machine and the underground civilisation changes, as
Vashti “opened her prison and escaped” into the dark tunnel and the piercing air - humans
“were dying by hundreds out in the dark” and her tears “wept for humanity”.
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