The Island of Doctor Moreau

For other uses, see The Island of Doctor Moreau (disambiguation).

The Island of Doctor Moreau
First edition cover
Author(s)	H. G. Wells
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Heinemann, Stone & Kimball
Publication date	1896
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	209 p.
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Wonderful Visit
Followed by	The Wheels of Chance

The Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells, who called the novel "an exercise in youthful blasphemy". The text of the novel is the narration of Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat who is left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, who creates human-like beings from animals via vivisection. The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature.

At the time of novel's publication in 1896, there was growing discussion in Europe regarding degeneration and animal vivisection. Two years later several interest groups were formed to address the issue such as the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.

Plot

The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of one Edward Prendick, a shipwrecked Englishman with a scientific education. A passing ship takes him aboard and a man named Montgomery revives him. The ship is bound for Noble's Isle. Prendick also meets a grotesque bestial native named M'ling who appears to be Montgomery's manservant. In addition, the ship is transporting a number of animals which belong to Montgomery.

As the ship approaches the island, the captain demands Prendick leave the ship with Montgomery. However, Montgomery explains that he will not be able to host Prendick either. Despite this, the captain leaves Prendick in a dinghy, after unloading Montgomery and his animals and sails away. Seeing that the captain has abandoned Prendick, Montgomery takes pity and rescues him. It is explained that ships rarely pass the island so Prendick will be housed in an outer room of an enclosed compound. The island belongs to a Dr Moreau. Prendick remembers that he has heard of Dr Moreau, formerly an eminent physiologist in London whose gruesome experiments in vivisection had been publicly exposed.

The next day, Dr Moreau begins working on a puma. Prendick gathers that Dr Moreau is performing a painful experiment on the animal, and its anguished cries drive Prendick out into the jungle. While he wanders, he comes upon a group of people who seem human but have an unmistakable resemblance to hogs. As he walks back to the enclosure, he suddenly realizes he is being followed by a figure in the jungle. He panics and flees and the figure chases. As his pursuer bears down on him, Prendick manages to stun him with a stone and observes the pursuer is a monstrous hybrid of animal and man. When he returns to the enclosure and questions Montgomery, Montgomery refuses to be open with him. After failing to get an explanation, Prendick finally gives in and takes a sleeping draught.

Prendick awakes the next morning with the previous night's activities fresh in his mind. Seeing that the door to Moreau's operating room has been left unlocked, he walks in to find a humanoid form lying in bandages on the table before he is ejected by a shocked and angry Dr. Moreau. He believes that Dr. Moreau has been vivisecting humans and that he is the next test subject. He flees into the jungle where he meets an Ape-Man who takes him to a colony of similarly half-human/half-animal creatures. Their leader is a large gray thing named the Sayer of the Law who has him recite a strange litany called the Law that involves prohibitions against bestial behavior and praise for Moreau.

Suddenly, Dr. Moreau bursts into the colony looking for Prendick, but Prendick escapes to the jungle. He makes for the ocean where he plans to drown himself rather than allow Dr. Moreau to experiment on him. But Dr. Moreau explains that the creatures called the Beast Folk were not formerly men, but rather animals. Prendick returns to the enclosure where Dr. Moreau explains to him that he has been on the island for eleven years and has been striving to make a complete transformation from animal to human. He explains that while he is getting closer to perfection, his experiments have a habit of reverting to their animal form. Dr. Moreau regards the pain he inflicts as insignificant, and an unavoidable side effect in the name of his scientific experiments.

One day, Prendick and Montgomery encounter a half-eaten rabbit. Since eating flesh and tasting blood are strong prohibitions, Dr. Moreau calls an assembly of the Beast Folk and identifies the Leopard-Man (the same one that chased Prendick the first time he wandered into the jungle) as the transgressor. Knowing that he will be sent back to Dr. Moreau's compound for more painful sessions of vivisection, the Leopard-Man flees. Eventually the group corners him in some undergrowth, but Prendick takes pity and shoots him in order to spare him from the vivisection. Prendick also believes that although the Leopard-Man was seen breaking several laws such as drinking water bent down like an animal, chasing men (Prendick), and running on all fours, the Leopard-Man was not solely responsible for the deaths of the rabbits. It was also the Hyena-Swine, the next most dangerous Beast Man on the island. Dr. Moreau is furious that Prendick killed the Leopard-Man. but can do nothing about the situation.

As time passes, Prendick becomes inured to the grotesqueness of the Beast Folk. But one day, the puma rips free of its restraints and escapes from the lab. Dr. Moreau pursues it, but the two end up killing each other. Montgomery breaks down and decides to share his alcohol with the Beast Folk. Prendick resolves to leave the island, but later hears a commotion outside in which Montgomery dies after a scuffle with the Beast Folk. At the same time, the compound burns down because Prendick has knocked over a lamp. With no chance of saving any of the provisions stored in the enclosure, Prendick realizes that during the night Montgomery has also destroyed the only boats on the island.

Prendick lives with the Beast Folk on the island for months after the deaths of Moreau and Montgomery. As the time goes by, the Beast Folk increasingly revert to their original animal instincts, beginning to hunt the island's rabbits, returning to walking on all fours, and leaving their shared living areas for the wild. They cease to follow Prendick's instructions and eventually kill his faithful companion, a Dog-Man created from a St. Bernard. Luckily for him since his efforts to build a raft have been unsuccessful, a boat that carries two corpses drifts onto the beach (perhaps the captain of the ship that picked Prendick up and a sailor). Prendick uses the boat to leave the island and is picked up three days later. But when he tells his story he is thought to be mad, so he feigns amnesia.

Back to England, Prendick is no longer comfortable in the presence of humans who seem to him to be about to revert to the animal state. He leaves London and lives in near-solitude in the countryside devoting himself to chemistry as well as astronomy in the study of which he finds some peace.

Main characters

• Edward Prendick - The narrator and protagonist.
• Doctor Moreau - A vivisectionist who has fled scandal to live on a remote island in the Pacific to pursue his research of perfecting his Beast Folk.
• Montgomery - Dr. Moreau's assistant and Prendick's rescuer. A biologist who enjoys a measure of happiness in England. An alcoholic who feels some sympathy for the Beast Folk.
• Beast Folk - Animals upon which Moreau has experimented upon, giving them human traits via vivisection. They include:
  • M'ling - Montgomery's bear-based servant. Moreau combined a bear, a dog, and a horse to create him.
  • Sayer of the Law - A large gray unspecified animal that recites Dr. Moreau's teachings about being men to the other Beast Folk.
  • Leopard-Man - A leopard-based rebel who breaks the Law by killing and eating a rabbit.
  • Hyena-Swine - A carnivorous hybrid of hyena and pig who becomes Prendick's enemy in the wake of Dr. Moreau's death.
  • Satyr-Man - A goat creature. He is described as unsettling and "Satanic" in form by Prendick.
  • Fox-Bear Witch - A female hybrid of fox and bear who passionately supports the Law. Prendick quickly takes a dislike to her.
  • Sloth Creature - A small, pink sloth-based creation. Described by Prendick as resembling a flayed child.
  • Dog-Man - A Beast Man created from a St. Bernard who near the end of the book is Prendick's faithful companion. He is killed when the Beast Folk start regressing back to their primitive states.
  • Ape-Man - A monkey or ape creature that considers himself equal to Prendick and refers to himself and Prendick as "Five Men" because they both have five fingers on each hand which is uncommon among the Beast Folk. He is the first Beast Man other than M'ling that Prendick speaks to. He has what he refers to as "Big Thinks" which on his return to England, Prendick likens to a priest's sermon at the pulpit.

Adaptations

The novel has been made into a movie on five occasions:

• Ile d'Epouvante (The Island of Terror) was a 1913 French silent film (also spelled L'Ile d'Epouvante and Isle d'epouvante). The 23-minute two-reeler film was directed by Joe Hamman in 1911 and then released in 1913. By late 1913, the film had been picked up by U.S. distributor George Kleine and renamed The Island of Terror for its release in Chicago.

• Island of Lost Souls (1932), with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi.

• Terror Is a Man (1959), with Francis Lederer, Greta Thyssen, and Richard Derr. This Filipino film, directed by Gerardo de Leon, was reissued in the United States in 1964 as Blood Creature. Leon partnered with Eddie Romero to direct and release two follow-up films in 1968: Brides of Blood and Mad Doctor of Blood Island. All three were produced by Lynn-Romero Productions.

• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977), with Burt Lancaster and Michael York. This film was turned into a novel by Joseph Silva and published by Ace.

• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), with Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis, Fairuza Balk, and Ron Perlman.

An amateur adaptation of Wells' novel, The Island of Doctor Agor, was made in 1971 by a then 13-year-old Tim Burton.

Seattle, Washington's Taproot Theatre Company performed a theatrical adaptation (adapted for stage by Sean Gaffney) of the novel in 1999. The performance was filmed by Globalstage Productions and is available on video.

Moebius Theatre performed an audio adaptation of the story at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, on September 2, 2012.

In 2013, the book The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd was published. It tells the story of Dr. Moreau's daughter, Juliet and her travels to the island and her discovery of her father's horrible secret, the creatures that her father created.

Scientific plausibility

H.G. Wells was a firm believer that the events that occurred within The Island of Doctor Moreau are entirely possible should it be ever tested outside the confines of science fiction in literature. For more, see "The Limits of Individual Plasticity".

Popular culture

• In the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the wizard Astoroth is said to have lived on the Isle of Naboombo, where he developed a spell to make animals more like humans.

• In the The Uncanny X-Men comic book series during the writing tenure of Chris Claremont, and most prominently during the X-Tinction Agenda story-arc, there was a character named Dr. David Moreau who was the Genengineer of the island-nation of Genosha - the country's chief genetic scientist, an office of vital importance to the nation. In his position as Genengineer, Moreau performed tens of thousands of procedures on the nation's mutant population (and on mutants from other countries who were captured by Genosha's Press Gang), procedures which transformed the mutants into Mutates, altering their minds and genetic structures.

• Dr. Moreau appears as Alphonse Moreau in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics. He works in the countryside producing Beast Men who resemble characters from children's literature (like Rupert Bear under codename H-9 and Mole, Ratty, and Mr. Badger from The Wind in the Willows). One of his creations manages to help stop a Martian invasion.

• The Simpsons also devoted a segment of their "Treehouse of Horror XIII" as a parody. Instead of transforming animals into men as Dr. Moreau does, Dr. Hibbert instead transforms the residents of Springfield into animals.

• An episode of Sliders was loosely based on novel. The sliders arrived on a jungle island populated by Beast-Men who had been created by a somewhat self-righteous scientist - the lone human inhabitant. This man demands fealty from his "creations" and punishes those who disobey him with torturous experimentation. Most of the beastly characters in this episode appear to be derivative of various species of cats, although there is one Dog-Man who serves the scientist as a manservant. In an apparent homage to earlier adaptations, the Doctor is played by Michael York, co-star of the 1977 film version.

• In the episode 'Just Add Water' from MTV's animated series Daria, Daria Morgendorffer must go on a cruise for a school field trip. Upon being woken up from a dream while taking a nap, Daria mumbles "Mom? Dr. Moreau invited you to the island, too?"

• The Mighty Boosh feature an episode in the Zooniverse with Moreau-like animals and a vivisectionist theme.

• In the comic book tie-in to the Van Helsing movie, Gabriel Van Helsing discovers Dr. Moreau working in the sewers beneath Paris. Dr. Moreau used one of Griffin's formulas to turn one of his Beast Men invisible.

• In the MMORPG game Champions Online, there is a character named Dr. Philippe Moreau. He is the grandson of Henri Moreau and a member of VIPER. He used his grandfather's notes and modern technology to make his army of Beast Men.

• California New Wave group Oingo Boingo included a song based on the book, called "No Spill Blood", on their 1983 release Good For Your Soul.

• Another New Wave band, Devo of Ohio, used the "are we not men?" quote in their song "Jocko Homo" and in the title of their first album.

• An episode of the Johnny Bravo animated series, entitled "The Island of Johnny Moreau", involves Johnny traveling to an island where a female scientist is turning humans into human-animal hybrids. Johnny himself is mutated with hamster DNA, but later undoes the effects on himself - only to affect the rest of the planet.

• Dr. Moreau is mentioned in John Wyndham's short story Una, and Wyndham's story is to some extent both a parody and a critique of Wells' story.

• In Mass Effect 3: Citadel, Jeff "Joker" Moreau yells "Welcome to the island of doctor me!" as he mowes down hapless enemy troops in a story he's making up to get free drinks.

• During Metal Slug 3's first mission, a song called "Blue Water Fangs (The island of Dr. Moreau)" plays in the background.

Notes

References

• Canadas, Ivan. “Going Wilde: Prendick, Montgomery and Late-Victorian Homosexuality in The Island of Doctor Moreau.” JELL: Journal of the English Language and Literature Association of Korea, 56.3 (June 2010): 461-485.
• Hoad, Neville. “Cosmetic Surgeons of the Social: Darwin, Freud, and Wells and the Limits of Sympathy on The Island of Dr. Moreau”, in: Compassion: The Culture and Politics of an Emotion, Ed. Lauren Berlant. London & New York: Routledge, 2004. 187-217.
• Reed, John R., “The Vanity of Law in The Island of Doctor Moreau”, in: H. G. Wells under Revision: Proceedings of the International H. G. Wells Symposium: London, July 1986, Ed. Patrick Parrinder & Christopher Rolfe. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna UP / London and Toronto: Associated UPs, 1990. 134-44.
• Wells, H. G. The Island of Dr. Moreau, Ed. Steven Palmé. Dover Thrift Editions. New York: Dover Publications, 1996.
• Wells, H. G. The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Critical Text of the 1896 London First Edition, with Introduction and Appendices, Ed. Leon Stover. The Annotated H.G. Wells, 2. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland, 1996.

External links

• The Island of Doctor Moreau at Project Gutenberg
• Reading of The Island of Doctor Moreau
• A draft of the 1996 films screenplay, dated April 26th, 1994
• The Island of Lost Souls (1932) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) at the Internet Movie Database
• Jörg, Daniele (2003). "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly—Dr. Moreau Goes to Hollywood". Public Understanding of Science 12 (3): 297–305. doi:10.1177/0963662503123008.  Compares the three adaptations of the novel, focuses on the scientists and the science in the film, considering the year of the production and what was known about genes and cells at the time.
• Analysis of The Island of Dr. Moreau on Lit React