In the book The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells, we see a microcosm in which Evolution, God and the society are all represented by something strange. First, Dr. Moreau is playing the role of God. Dr. Moreau is an educated man trying to prove that he can turn an animal into a human form, so that the animal will forget all of its animal instincts and become more and more human. After Moreau created these beast men, he then controlled them through fear. The fear was of pain.
The house of pain was were the creatures were created and they all remember the pain and therefore associate Dr. Moreau with pain so they do not have to go back. Montgomery played the part of an ignorant assistant. Montgomery was not a stupid man, but he was torn between good and bad, right and wrong, and friendships. I think he tried to play the part of the massager or the son, but he did not agree with what Moreau was doing to the animals. The Creatures did not respect him the same as Moreau because he had not caused them any physical pain. Montgomery fit in and got along with the beast people more than Moreau did.
If he would have stood up to Moreau and made the experiments stop, he then could have been an angle, or a godlier figure. The only thing that kept Montgomery from going crazy was all the alcohol that made his mental pain go num. Then we have Prendick, the voice of reason. Poor Prendick came to the island after being stranded out at see on his little boat. He thought he was going to die, and his friends and family back at home probably thought he was also dead. But, he was saved by a large boat that Montgomery and normal animals were using to get back to the island.
When Prendick steps off the boat onto the island, he can not even begin to understand what creatures are lurking around, some even helping to unload the boat and speaking like humans. Within the first week of being on the island, he knew something was wrong and needed to be done. Prendick thought that Dr. Moreau was turning humans into animals. This in his eyes was wrong and he was ready to do something about it. Then he found out it was animals into human forms. This was not as bad but, was still not right.
Prendick did not save the day, but he just witnessed Dr. Moreau’s Island crash. I understand that our world would not be were it is today without science and experiments that try to make things better. There is a fine line between controlled experiments were things can be recorded, learned and made better, or torture. Maybe the first animal that was worked on was the experiment, but after sixty transformed animals I feel that Moreau was doing it all for himself. It really had no point anymore. The experiments and the controls were out of his hands. He was nothing more than a mad man on a power trip.
He had no more morals or feeling of guilt for what he did to these animals. He is like Victor Frankenstein not wanting to accept responsibility for his creature. They both made creatures and then just tossed them aside. All he creatures needed a father figure. Montgomery tried to be that person, but was overcome by all the booze which clouded his mine. I think he was also a little afraid of Moreau. In the end the puma, one of Moreau’s finest creatures ended it all and killed Dr. Moreau. I think it was only a matter of time before the creatures outsmarted the humans on the Island.
