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“The emotional appeal of those yells grew upon me steadily, grew at last to such an exquisite expression of suffering that I could stand it in that confined room no longer. . . It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in the next room, and had it been dumb . . . I could have stood it well enough.”
These lines appear in Chapter VIII, as Prendick reflects on the cries of the puma, which he overhears as Dr. Moreau performs his experiments in the next room. At this stage in the novel, Prendick does not yet understand the nature of Moreau’s work, yet he finds the puma’s pain extremely disturbing. Prendick’s concern for the puma’s suffering starkly contrasts with the stunning indifference of Dr. Moreau, who carries out his vivisections in pursuit of scientific knowledge. Whereas Prendick’s conscience causes him to share in the suffering of the puma, Moreau seemingly operates without any conscience at all.
“The thing before you is no longer an animal, a fellow-creature, but a problem! Sympathetic pain,—all I know of it I remember as a thing I used to suffer from years ago. I wanted—it was the one thing I wanted—to find out the extreme limit of plasticity in a living shape.”
These lines come from Chapter XIV, wherein Dr. Moreau offers a detailed explanation of his philosophy and scientific practice to Prendick and the reader. Here Moreau explains why he feels no sympathy for the animals he vivisects and transforms into Beast People. In essence, Moreau rationalizes the suffering of his subjects by thinking of them not as sentient beings, but as scientific problems to be solved. Whereas the tortured cries of the puma drive Montgomery to drink and Prendick to flee, they arouse no sympathy from Moreau, who has deliberately suppressed all concern for the pain of others. Moreau’s cruel and inhumane treatment of animals makes him far more monstrous than any of his creations.
“Had Moreau had any intelligible object, I could have sympathised at least a little with him. I am not so squeamish about pain as that. I could have forgiven him a little even, had his motive been only hate. But he was so irresponsible, so utterly careless! His curiosity, his mad, aimless investigations, drove him on.”
Prendick offers this strong condemnation of Moreau in Chapter XVI to justify his split-second decision to shoot the Leopard-man rather than allowing him to be captured and tortured by Moreau. Interestingly, Prendick claims that Moreau’s torture of the Beast People would be more forgivable if it had an immoral motive, such as sheer hate. However, Prendick finds Moreau’s cruelty inexcusable because it lacks any discernible purpose. Moreau’s amoral pursuit of science makes his cruelty senseless and unforgivable.
