Described by some critics as gruesome and by others as grim, H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau depends on the mad scientist characterization that would continue to be popular into the 20th century. Intent on transmitting a moral in his tale, Wells conjures up a surgeon named Moreau who seeks to develop a civilization of animals converted into humans. His experiments go amiss, and in an echo of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the results of his efforts prove monstrous.
The novel’s format adopts the familiar journal narrative, as it opens with a statement by Charles Edward Prendick explaining that his uncle had been lost for 11 months. Following the sinking of the vessel on which he traveled, the Lady Vain, he was presumed drowned until rescued from a small open boat believed to have belonged to another shipwreck named the Ipecacuanha. Suffering from memory loss attributed to trauma, Prendick did have among his possessions a written account of his time spent on what the nephew presumed was Noble’s Isle, a small uninhabited island. When his nephew later discovered the account, he verified that the Ipecacuanha disappeared while carrying various animals toward the South Pacific at about the time of his uncle’s supposed adventure, a fact that supported the truth of his story.
Version 1.0.0
As Prendick’s tale unfolds, Wells inserts much foreshadowing of the horrors to come. While floating in a small boat with two companions from the shipwreck, Prendick writes that one “gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking” after their store of fresh water had been exhausted. He never states what that horrible thing is, but adds that if the proposal were accepted, “we should have drink,” suggesting that they discussed drinking their own blood, or perhaps even cannibalism. The two men grapple with one another and fall from the boat, leaving the narrator to write that he remembered laughing and later wondered at his own reaction: “The laugh caught me suddenly like a thing from without.” The blood imagery and suggestion of some inhuman force clues readers that a bizarre fate awaits Prendick.
At last rescued and taken aboard a ship, Prendick is kept inside a room where he hears various animal sounds and is given some “scarlet stuff, iced” to drink. He notes that “it tasted like blood, and made me feel stronger,” and then observes a “misshapen man,” with hairy neck and sunken head between his shoulders who turns at the sounds of dog growls “with animal swiftness.” The blood elixir, mysterious noises, and inhuman characteristics of the ship’s servant further intensify reader anticipation.
When Prendick arrives on the island, he comes to know its two human inhabitants, the assistant Montgomery and Dr. Moreau, well. He spends some time there before discerning Moreau’s purpose. The odd creatures he sees on the island bother him for an unknown reason, striking him as strange, yet familiar. Suddenly, he perceives why they cause offense; all resemble both animals and humans. He learns that Moreau has created creatures from parts of dogs, pigs, pumas, rats, hyenas, and other animals, then imbued them with human characteristics, such as speech. When Prendick expresses his outrage, Moreau explains his “grafting” experiments will prove a boon to mankind, allowing weaknesses to be corrected and new civilizations to form. Prendick recoils, labeling the work “monsters manufactured.” Moreau excuses the seeming immorality of his act by claiming, “it all lay in the surface of practical anatomy years ago, but no one had the temerity to touch it.”
Prendick establishes an uneasy relationship with the humans/animals, demanding they address him as master and obey his commands. Predictably, the creatures revolt and overpower and kill first Moreau and then Montgomery in horrifying fashion. Prendick is left to battle a hyena-swine, but enjoys the loyalty of a Saint Bernard–man who remains by his side.
He observes the “Beast Folk” over the next weeks as they slowly regress, their animal natures taking over. What speech they had learned disappears, and they stop wearing clothes. Feminist critics would find interesting the fact that “the pioneers in this, I noticed with some surprise, were all females,” and that the narrator labels their acts a “disregard” for “the injunction of decency.” Monogamy was disregarded and “the tradition of the Law was clearly losing its force.” The Beast People kill Prendick’s dog protector, and then he spots a schooner sail. He signals the boat on which he sees two men facing one another, but it drifts aimlessly, eventually coming to shore and revealing that the men are dead. He climbs in and pushes from shore, observed by wolf-beasts and “the horrible nondescript of bear and bull.” Upon returning to London he becomes a recluse, as men begin to remind him of the Beast People.
Wells succeeds in suggesting that man’s animalistic nature can prove detrimental to culture, but his prose somewhat sacrifices subtlety to sensationalism, partially due to its format as an emotional first-person account. He clearly emphasizes the fact that scientific developments do not always promote progress and that an ungoverned pursuit of scientific power may lead to the ultimate sacrifice, as it did for Moreau. The novel caught the public’s imagination and was converted to film three times, in 1933, 1977, and 1996. In reviewing the 1996 version, critics claimed it translated well to that time period, with the Prendick character a plane crash survivor and Dr. Moreau a Nobel Prize in medicine winner. The addition of a romantic plot between Prendick and Moreau’s daughter offended some purists, but technology makes the premise of the animal conversion more plausible, and special effects blend men and beasts more satisfactorily than had previous versions.
Bibliography
Gill, Stephen. Scientific Romances of H.G. Wells: A Critical Study. Cornwall, Ontario: Vesta, 1975.
Lightman, Alan. Introduction to The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H. G. Wells. New York: Bantam Books, 1994, vii–xiv.
Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis
Slave Narrative 
Analysis of Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier 
Analysis of Molly Keane’s Good Behaviour 
Analysis of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook
You must be logged in to post a comment.