The Machine Stops
by Edward Morgan Forster
COMPREHENSION
1. Answer the following questions.
a. Who are Vashti and Kuno?
= Vashti is the mother and Kuno is her son. They live in the hexagonal rooms in the underground world.
b. Why can Vashti only talk to Kuno for five minutes?
= Vashti can only talk to Kuno for five minutes for she has to deliver her lecture on "Music during the Australian Period".
c. How does Vashti move around her room?
= Vashti moves around her room sitting on the chair. The chair was worked by machinery and it rolls her to the other side of the room.
d. Why doesn't Vashti want to travel in the airship?
= Vashti doesn't want to travel in the airship because she dislikes seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. She gets no ideas in an airship.
e. What does Kuno say that shocks Vashti?
= Kuno wants to see his mother in person, not through the wearisome Machine. This shocks Vashti.
Later, Kuno says that he wants to visit the surface of the earth and see the stars from there like their ancestors did, thousands of years ago. This socks Vashti again.
f. What details do we learn about the rooms that people live in in the underground world?
= The rooms are hexagonal in shape. They are lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no openings for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at this moment, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. There are too few furniture in them. All things are operated by machine.
These questions are more difficult. Discuss them first.
g. What do we learn about Vashti and Kuno's personalities?
= Vashti is more punctual and of mechanical mentality. She doesn't want to waste time. She is all accustomed to the machine and mechanical life style. She has less emotion. She is ok with seeing her son on the screen. She is good in the underground room. She has no fascination about nature or celestial bodies. She thinks that it is enough to see her son on the plate like screen.
On the other hand, Kuno is all bored living in that mechanical system. He wants his mother to come to see him flying in airship. He is fascinated by the night sky and the constellations while travelling in an airship. He wants to see the stars not from the airship but from the surface of the earth, as their ancestors did, thousands of years ago. He also wants to visit the surface of the earth.
h. What do we learn about the machine? What does it do? What are the positive and negative aspects of it? How do the characters feel about it?
= The machine controls all the activities of the hexagonal underground room. At times it connects with the other room and at times it isolates from one another. There is an isolation knob to make one to one connection. There are buttons and switches everywhere - buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing. There are the hot-bath button and cold-bath button. There are the button that produced literature. There are buttons to communicate with others.
The machine has its positive aspect as it can do many tasks on the go of pressing the buttons. It takes no time to execute them. The negative aspect of the machine is that it has no emotional aspect. There is no feeling or pure joy using it. It is wearisome.
Vashti feels ok with the machine. She feels good to execute all her tasks with the help of the machine. She is ok to see her son through the plate like screen. On the other hand, her son Kuno is very bored with the system of the machine. He doesn't want to see his mother through the plate like screen. He wants her mother to pay him a visit. He wants to see her mother face to face and talk about the hopes that are in his mind. To him it is a machine made by some men. He also considers the machine much, but not everything.
2. Answer the following with reference to context.
a. "And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh - a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus."
i. Who is the woman?
= The woman is Vashti.
ii. What does the description 'swaddled lump of flesh' show about her?
= The description 'swaddled lump of flesh' shows about her that she is tightly wrapped in her clothes as she is in an office. She has been described as lump of flesh as she has least movement of her limbs. She does everything by merely pressing some buttons. She moves from one corner of the room to the other with the help of her chair.
iii. What does the comparison 'face as white as fungus' show about her?
= The comparison 'face as white as fungus' shows about her that she lives in the underground room. She is not in touch with the natural air or light. In such condition, only fungus can grow and thrive. So, her face has been compared to white fungus.
b. "Vashti's next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes."
When does this happen?
= Vashti talked with her son for five minutes. After talking to her son, Vashti had to check all the messages she received during the last three minutes. So, she turned the isolation switch off to let the messages come. All the messages came with the notification bells. The room filled with the sound of the notifications.
c. "She knew several thousand people; in certain directions human communication had advanced enormously."
i. How does Vashti communicate with the people she knows? What kind of things do they communicate about?
= Vashti communicates with the people she knows with the speaking-tubes.
They communicate about the new food, latest idea, visiting the public nurseries etc.
ii. What does the author imply by the use of the phrase 'in certain directions'?
= The author implies by the use of the phrase 'in certain directions' that Vashti is known to many people around the globe with the help of that advanced technology.
iii. How could we view Vashti's world's ways of communicating as negative?
= We could view Vashti's world's ways of communicating as negative as there is no face to face meeting. And the machine can not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people. The finer details of expression is rightly ignored by the Machine.
d. "I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship."
i. Who is speaking? To whom?
= Vashti is speaking to Kuno.
ii. What has happened to the earth?
= The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no life remains on it, and one would need a respirator, or the cold of the outer air would kill him/her. One dies immediately in the outer air.
iii. How long is the airship journey between Vashti's underground room and Kuno's underground room?
= The airship journey between Vashti's underground room and Kuno's underground room is barely of two days.
iv. Where does Vashti get 'ideas' from?
= Vashti gets 'ideas' from her correspondents.
e. "The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms."
i. What is meant by the following phrases:
❐ system of public gatherings.
❐ stirred from their rooms.
=
❐ system of public gatherings. It means the old system of gathering in class, hall, or any ground.
❐ stirred from their rooms. It means that they did not get out of their own rooms. Yet they were doing a meet through the machine.
ii. Write the sentence out in your own words. Keep the meaning intact.
= The awkward public gather system had been rejected long ago; neither Vashti nor her audience went out of their rooms.
f. "His image in the blue plate faded.
'Kuno!'
He had isolated himself."
i. What makes Kuno isolate himself?
= Kuno wants to visit the surface of the earth. But his mother Vashti dissuades him from the expedition by saying that it is contrary to the spirit of the age. This makes Kuno isolate himself.
ii. What does 'isolated himself' mean in the story?
= In the story, 'isolated himself' means to disconnect the online call.
iii. How does Vashti feel after this?
= Vashti feels lonely for a moment after this.
About the Author:
Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist. He travelled across Europe and visited Egypt and India. His novel, A Passage to India (1924), brought him his greatest success. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in Literature in 13 different years. 'The Machine Stops' is a science fiction short story he wrote in 1909. It was voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, and has remained popular. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide their needs. In it he seems to have predicted new technologies such as the Internet and instant messaging.