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The Island of Dr. Moreau is on its surface an action-packed science-fiction thriller, but it is also a novel of ideas, probing the implications of nineteenth-century Darwinism for age-old notions of morality, science, religion, and human decency. The tale begins in the aftermath of the sinking of the Lady Vain, a symbol of the wreckage of traditional values brought about by the emergence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Edward Prendick, a survivor of this philosophical shipwreck, floats aimlessly on the sea, subject to the cruelty of nature, until he is rescued by an absurd ship and deposited on an even more absurd island. Bewildered, confused, and terrified, he struggles to explain the grotesque features of the islanders and the mysterious work of Dr. Moreau. When he finally realizes that the islanders are Beast People, animals wrought into human-like creatures by Moreau, he is forced to reckon with the moral implications of Moreau’s ruthless vivisections, as well as the physical and psychological torture he inflicts on the Beast People.
The opening chapters of the novel rapidly develop the central mystery, building tension through Prendick’s confused and bewildered narrative. On the dingey and the schooner, Prendick encounters brutish men, ferocious animals, and a grotesquely deformed person, M’ling, who behaves like a man but has animal features. In many ways, these early chapters highlight the similarities between humans and animals, a central premise of Darwinism’s notion that humans evolved from animals. Prendick, an educated and civilized man, becomes increasingly confused and astonished by the brutish people he encounters. When he realizes that Dr. Moreau is vivisecting the puma, his aversion to pain and suffering forces him to flee into the jungle, where he meets a number of Moreau’s terrifying creations, half-human, half-animal. Chased back to Moreau’s compound by the Leopard-man, the spooked Prendick gets another shock when he barges in on Moreau vivisecting the half-transformed puma, which he mistakes for a human.
Prendick’s early confusion and terror reflect his inability to reconcile his binary notions of human and beast with the Beast People all around him. But when the Ape-man takes him to the cave, Prendick’s horror softens to perplexity. Although he remains fixated on their physical grotesqueness and their pathetic attempts at human behavior, he recognizes that they are not to blame for their plight. Prendick’s introduction to the Law exposes the fundamental hypocrisy of Moreau’s treatment of his creations. For although Moreau has wrought the Beast People from animals, his Law teaches them to despise and repress their animal instincts and aspire to behave like “men.” Moreover, Prendick quickly surmises that the Law is primarily self-serving, designed not to lift the Beast People toward a human ideal, but to suppress behaviors that pose a threat to humans.
Moreau’s explanation of his methods affirms the depravity of his research and casts him as a sort of angry and unjust god on the island. When Prendick confronts him about the pain he inflicts on the animals, Moreau launches into a self-righteous diatribe that equates his scientific pursuits with divine purpose. At the same time, he dismisses pain as irrelevant and expresses his contempt for the very Beast People he has created. Despite his efforts to mold them in his own image, the Beast People inevitably lapse into animal behavior, at which point Moreau casts them out of his Eden and banishes them to the jungle. Yet he remains in their consciousness via the Law, which he has implanted in their minds along with the threat of punishment.
The novel builds to a climax by heightening the tension between the Law and the animal instincts of the Beast People, which threaten Moreau’s tyrannous rule. Prendick’s arrival on the island raises suspicions among some of the Beast Folk, who realize that this new human lacks the god-like omnipotence of Moreau. Mutilated rabbits and other ominous signs suggest that the Law is losing its grip on the Beast Folk, as they give in to the overpowering compulsion to hunt. Moreau’s decision to punish the Leopard-man for tasting blood only serves to excite the animal instincts of the Beast People who chase him. When the puma escapes, killing Moreau and triggering a broader rebellion of the Beast Folk, Moreau’s repudiation is complete. His divine mission fails, along with his presumptuous attempt to overrule the laws of nature.
In the novel’s final chapters, Prendick struggles to maintain his humanity as the last surviving human on the island. When the Beast Folk realize Moreau is dead, Prendick surprisingly invents a self-serving lie that immortalizes Moreau and his oppressive Law. To protect himself from the more dangerous Beast Folk, Prendick wields the whip and the Law to assert his authority, much like Moreau had done. Moreover, he exploits the simple-mindedness of the more loyal Beast Folk, cultivating alliances for his own self-preservation. During the ten months that he lives with the Beast Folk, Prendick’s own animal instincts sharpen, even as the instincts of the Beast Folk gradually erode their human traits. This regression signifies the indomitable nature of the beast, which resides in animals and humans alike. When Prendick finally manages to return to civilization, he is a changed man. He now sees through the transparent veneer of civility that passes for humanity. Yet he does not despair, nor does he renounce science. Instead, he withdraws from society and takes refuge in astronomy, contemplating his place in the universe as he gazes upward.
