The Machine Stops

Forster tells the story from Vashti’s perspective in a limited third-person point of view—the story is narrated from the outside looking in, referring to characters as he or she. It is limited because the narrator only knows Vashti’s inner thoughts and emotions. In “The Machine Stops,” this point of view is interesting because Vashti is both the protagonist and foil to Kuno as she does not change or grow over the course of the story. Kuno, who embarks on a vast journey of transformation, is on the periphery. Typically, the foil exists to contrast the protagonist and highlight the character's transformation. Vashti’s point of view describes the dystopian society from the inside, and how changes in the larger picture affect the daily lives of the average person rather than the extraordinary one. The most important moments in the story are revealed through secondhand storytelling as they are filtered through Vashti’s understanding.

The language in the story personifies the Machine and its different mechanisms, which means that the characters endow a nonhuman object with human qualities. Although Vashti notes that the Machine is manmade and therefore not an object for religion, she (and the others) pray to the Machine as if it has a will that might be influenced.