The Island of Dr. Moreau: An Analysis

This more than century-old science fiction novel by Herbert George Wells addressed the issue of human-animal crossbreeding, vivisection, human nature of brainwashing, acts of altering genes and combining species, hybridization, and Darwinism, having Doctor Moreau as the protagonist and antagonist rolled into one being the so-called mad doctor on the island of his own and does the making and breaking of such natural law of life and nature, as he created beast like creatures with his own experimentation. Recapitulating it up, everyone could say that Dr.

Moreau played God in his self-created world with full of perfect being - perfect in the sense that the intelligence of a human could be combined with the strengths and physically powerful characteristics of an animal.

The idea which turns into practice of dissecting and/or vivisecting animal's body parts in relation to the continuous research and study of looking for the missing piece in pursuit of knowledge from which Charles Darwin brought up this subject matter was hereby presented in the book.

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More so, the narrator Charles Edward Prendick gave the connotation of a God-like image of Dr. Moreau's physique and personality.

Just like God who prohibited Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in Eden, that when the two disobeyed, also did the original sin starts to come into view, Dr. Moreau being the father of his masterworks, as what they called him though, persuaded these creatures not to do certain things whether it is not possible to do or just disallowed to do.

He even made his own commandments as if he is a God himself to his creatures, preventing them to act improper things such as: not to go on All-Fours; not to suck up Drink; not to eat Fish or Flesh; not to claw the Bark of Trees; and not to chase other Men, even if they are all half-animal. It was as if Dr. Moreau was trying to impose to the half-breed creatures to live like a human way such as walking with the use of only two feet, and etcetera.

During the time that the book was first circulated in the market in 1896, Britain was divided into two parts and thus involved in a wide debate about the issue of vivisecting. This was when the Victorian era encouraged scientists to bring out their full potential in medicine by using animals as their medium of experimentation and research. It might be the reason why H. G. Wells has provoked to write the book with almost the same topic.

Dr. Moreau on the other hand also tried to cross the borderline and searched beyond the limits by performing hybridization of two completely different species. However, he underestimated his creatures and never anticipated that these beasts can harm and kill him irregardless of his nonstop didactic attitude towards them.

The slain of Dr. Moreau and another character Montgomery happened as the result of revolt and reversion by the beasts. It could also be noted that the riot was due to their intense rage for Dr. Moreau's selfishness and dominance over them. We could analyze these acts as purely animal instinct. But since they are considered partly animals and partly humans, we might as well believe that humans can act as beastly as these creatures.

While Dr. Moreau played the part of a God in the novel, the one who represented as an ordinary human being was no other than Prendick. His character entailed as that of a regular man who made good actions that sometimes fall into misjudgment and untimely, and sometimes, it could be vice versa. Initially, he was interpreted as a hypocrite yet weak man.

However, his disposition in life slowly changed as the story moved so well. And just before the novel ended, the book entailed how powerful a full-blooded man's mind, values and judgment could be more than just a half-breed man as Prendick learned so many things such as the curse of executing careless exploitation of life and nature and the bad effects it may serve. These were some of the things that he managed to bring along and write when he went back into the civilized city of London following his rescue after eleven months from The Island of Dr. Moreau.

R E F E R E N C E S

Wells, Herbert George. The Island of Doctor Moreau. New York: Bantam Classics, 1994.