The Time Traveller values intelligence above all other human traits, and he is disappointed that future humans are not only unintelligent, but also weak, silly, and uncurious. For a while, his relationship to the Eloi is defined only by intellectual interest and not by real empathy, but it is through his friendship with Weena that he begins to feel true affection for and identification with these creatures. Put another way, it is in the kindness of the Eloi that the Time Traveller can locate their humanity. Weena loves putting flowers in the Time Traveller’s pockets (she treats his pockets like “an eccentric kind of vase for floral decoration”), and this gesture represents the kind nature of the Eloi. Weena’s flowers are also the only piece of compelling evidence of his travels that the Time Traveller brings back to the present, and they represent hope for humanity in the face of such a bleak tale of the future of mankind. As the narrator notes, the flowers serve “to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.”
Weena’s Flowers Quotes in The Time Machine
And I have before me, for my comfort, two strange white flowers—shriveled now, and brown and flat and brittle—to witness that even when mind and strength had gone, gratitude and mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man.
Weena’s Flowers Symbol Timeline in The Time Machine
