Considering that The Island Of Dr. Moreau was written about 116 years ago this is less a review and more of a discussion, as such I shan’t be concerned about spoilers. If you are concerned about spoilers, please go read the book, it is in the public domain, then come back and join me.
Even if you have not read the book it is likely that you are familiar with the plot from one of the several film adaptations. A man is shipwrecked and then rescued to find himself on a remote South Seas Island populated by the mysterious Dr. Moreau, his assistant Montgomery, and a whole host of deformed beast/men that Moreau has created by dark science from animals.
This was the first time I had read the original text and it was quite interesting.
The Book’s story:
Edward Pendrick was a passenger aboard the doomed ship Lady Vain. When that ship is wrecked he is rescued by another ship currently transporting a load of animals, Montgomery, and his manservant the beast/man M’Ling, to a remote and uncharted island. After irritating the ship’s Captain, Pendrick is put ashore with Montgomery and the cargo, becoming an uninvited guest of Dr. Moreau.
Left to his own devices Pendrick discovers the beast/men of the Island and wrongly assumes that they are men that Moreau has reduced to an animal like state with vivisection. He quickly learns that he has it the wrong way around, the beast/men were animals now uplifted to near human capabilities.
Moreau keeps the beast/men in check by a combination of social pressures – the beast/men all must learn the law with any violation being punished by ‘The House of Pain’ (more vivisection)- and projecting and encouraging a deity like worship of he and Montgomery.
Pendrick is horrified by the beast/men, but grows to have a greater disgust for Moreau. The doctor’s work is purposeless, he seeks no cures and no answers to pressing questions, Moreau does this because he can and it pleases him to make new life-forms. Unlike the film adaptations, in the novel Moreau is making more than just men. He combines various animals into new shapes, some from mythology and some from his own twisted mind. It is an island of chimeras.
Eventually the experimenting goes badly, leaving Moreau dead, and Montgomery falls into a spate of drunkenness. Soon the beast/men are reverting to their animal natures, the law abandoned, Montgomery is killed, and Pendrick survives months alone on the island, ever watchful for the dangers from the degenerated specimens. After many month Pendrick escapes, and nearly all adaptation end here, cutting out Wells’ intention.
Pendrick returns to civilization, but is always uneasy around other people, particularly crowds. In his imagination he feels that all he meets are on the verge of shedding their masks and reverting to animal natures just as the beast/men did. He knows this is preposterous as these are proper men and women, not animals, and of course that is partially Wells’ point, we are animals, and our recitation of law and our morals are just a thin paint job over our base animal natures.
Wells called The Island Of Dr. Moreau a ‘youthful blasphemy’ and as a man who was very precise in his wording I take this as correct. Reading the book I was struck with the impression that Moreau was a symbolism for the Christian God. A God who has created life, but made that life full of pain and terror and death. A God with numerous laws, which are handed down and not discovered by reason. A God who made countless beings who are incapable of understanding the reasons for their torment, and perhaps one who enjoys this purposeless torment.
This theme has never been explored in an adaptation, and with an eye on the box office hat is far from surprising.
