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Summary
Chapter XIX: Montgomery’s Bank Holiday
The night of Moreau’s death, Montgomery falls into despair. He decides to share his brandy with M’ling and several other Beast Folk, and the group heads out into the jungle. Prendick refuses to join them, which angers Montgomery. Prendick resolves to leave the island the next morning on a boat. As he searches the compound for supplies, he hears a commotion and the sound of gunshots. He rushes out of the house, knocking over a lantern without realizing it. He arrives on the beach to find that Montgomery and his party have been attacked. Several of the Beast Folk lie dead, including M’ling, who is gripping a broken bottle of brandy. Montgomery, who is also dying, has burned the boats to prevent Prendick from leaving. To make matters worse, the lamp that Prendick knocked over has set the house ablaze. As the sun rises, Prendick once again contemplates the lonely and desolate sea, while three Beast Folk menacingly appear from the forest.
Chapter XX: Alone with the Beast Folk
Prendick gathers his courage and speaks confidently and arrogantly to the beasts, wielding the whip, claiming that Montgomery and the other dead had broken the Law and suffered a just punishment. He commands the Beast Fok to bury the dead in the sea. The Hyena-swine confronts Prendick and refuses to bow down. Prendick attempts to shoot him with one of his last revolver rounds. The Hyena-swine runs off, leaving Prendick alone to reflect on his isolation and vulnerability. He lacks the energy and courage to attempt to fill Moreau’s shoes, so he slinks off to the huts, where he erects a small barrier and falls asleep.
Chapter XXI: The Reversion of the Beast Folk
Prendick awakes beside a Dog-man who calls him “master” and declares his loyalty. Prendick plays along, recognizing the importance of having an ally. When the two come upon another gathering of Beast Folk, Prendick attempts to gain their allegiance by asserting once again that Moreau and his House of Pain live on. He joins their tribe. About ten months pass, during which time Prendick says little of interest happened. He reports being constantly wary of the Hyena-swine and grateful for the companionship of the Dog-man. Among the Beast Folk who are loyal to Prendick, he finds the Ape-man entertaining for his habit of coining “Big Thinks,” nonsensical phrases that he repeats constantly, believing they are bits of wisdom.
But after several months, the Beast Folk gradually begin to lose their ability to speak, walk upright, and observe the Law. Prendick, too, becomes more beastly. His hair grows long, his clothes fall to tatters, and his instincts sharpen as he grows accustomed to life in the jungle. He realizes that eventually the beasts will forget his authority and overpower him, so he attempts to make a raft. He fails, but several days later a dingey drifts ashore bearing the corpses of two men. Prendick discards the corpses, loads the dingey with food and water, and pushes out to sea.
Chapter XXII: The Man Alone
Prendick floats for three days before he is rescued by a passing ship. Due to his haggard appearance, the captain and first mate do not believe his story and assume he must be crazy. He resolves not to tell anyone else his story, deciding instead to feign amnesia.
Prendick eventually returns to London but feels uncomfortable and out of place. Life in the busy city makes him feel anxious and terrified. When he meets people in the street, he imagines that they might be Beast People who could revert to beasts at any moment. He knows his fears are irrational and begins to doubt his own sanity. He withdraws to the countryside, where he lives quietly, reading great works of science and literature, studying chemistry and astronomy, and finding solace in the contemplation of the night sky.
Analysis
In the aftermath of Moreau’s death, Montgomery and Prendick respond in surprisingly different ways. As Moreau’s longtime assistant, Montgomery seems like the logical heir of his legacy and the most likely to step into his role as the enforcer of the Law. Instead, Montgomery despairs, moping about the meaninglessness of life as he reflexively reaches for a bottle. Montgomery’s nihilism in this moment is consistent with his character throughout the novel, as he frequently attributes his lot in life to chance. Lacking Moreau’s sense of purpose, he has no desire to remain on the island and no path back to English society, where is an outcast. Before declaring his “bank holiday,” he tells Prendick that he plans to cut his own throat the following day, suggesting that he has lost his will to live. His ill-advised decision to share alcohol with the Beast Folk slightly hastens his demise, but with his dying breath, he curses the “silly universe” he is leaving. Montgomery’s death thus represents a capitulation to the absurdity of the world as he sees it.
Prendick, on the other hand, surprisingly asserts himself as the new voice of Moreau’s Law on the island. Though he was no disciple of Moreau, he invokes Moreau’s name to instill fear in the Beast Folk and assure them that the Law and the House of Pain live on. He also wields the whip and the pistol to amplify his threats and shore up his authority. When the Hyena-man and the Sayer of the Law challenge his authority, Prendick fends them off, using Moreau’s old weapons to project much more power than he actually has. Unlike Moreau, however, Prendick realizes that he must form allies among the Beast Folk if he is to survive among them. Whereas Moreau despised the Beast Folk and cast them out into the jungle, Prendick accepts the service of the Dog Man and asserts himself as the leader of a group of Beast Folk, pragmatically using the Law to rule his tribe and maintain their allegiance.
The reversion that occurs in the final chapters suggests that animal instinct will ultimately override the artificial constraints of humanity. Neither Moreau’s vivisections, nor the Law, nor the threat of the whip can prevent the Beast Folk from reverting to their natural form. Prendick also undergoes a sort of reversion. Although he escapes the island and returns to London, other people find him strange in the same way that he once found the Beast People strange. Moreover, he views humanity through a much different lens than he once did. He recognizes that all people contain suppressed animal instincts, and he compares religion and other trappings of civilization to the “Big Thinks” of the Ape-man—silly vanities that do little to hide their animal natures. Prendick’s retirement to the countryside suggests that he can no longer tolerate humanity as he once understood it. Instead, he seeks life’s meaning in the solitary pursuit of scientific knowledge, contemplating his place in the universe as he gazes up at the stars.
