Behind the Curtains of Civilization in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Book Analysis)

In H.G. Wells’ novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, Dr. Moreau, a scientist with a keen interest in vivisection (experimentation on live animals), attempts to enable the process of evolution by creating humans from animals, forming the Beast People. A closeness between humans and animals is unveiled as the curtains of civilization are drawn, revealing the primitive nature of humans and animals alike. And it is not until both species revert to their primitive nature, that civilization is lost and the revelations of an evolutionary connection between humans and animals are developed through the characters in the novel. 

As a closeness between humans and animals is perceived in the novel, “humans might also revert to the animal emotions from which civilized consciousness has been fashioned, and which it still retains beneath the façade of civilization” (Harris 24). This notion is developed in Wells’ writing of the animalistic characteristics of the humans in the novel. Prendick, the narrator, is cast away on the wreckage of the Lady Vain along with two other survivors, Helmar and the sailor. These men are stripped of their safety and resources and stranded at sea, to which there are no laws, no enforcement, and no judges. As time progresses, their natural urges encapsulate them as their hunger develops. The situation escalates into a struggle between Helmar and the sailor, as “they grappled together and almost stood up” to which Prendick “crawled along the boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor’s leg; but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat, and the two fell upon the gunwale and rolled overboard together” (74-75). Wells utilizes the shipwreck to promote the idea of a lost civilization. Hunger drives them to a motivation that no civilized being may dream of. Cannibalism. And this hunger drives them to kill each other as Wells utilizes the word “grappled” to describe the struggle between the sailor and Helmar until their ultimate demise. Additionally, Wells utilizes the word “crawled” to describe the primitive nature of Prendick as he attempts to help Helmar. This scene deconstructs the fragments of civilization to which there is no governance or status of wealth, only three hungry individuals. Hunger serves as their primal motivation, to which they will sacrifice each other to satiate. 

As Moreau attempts to create humans, he believes that “it is a possible thing to transplant tissue from one part of an animal to another, or from one animal to another; to alter its chemical reactions and methods of growth; to modify the articulations of its limbs’ and, indeed, to change it in its most intimate structure” (124). This implies the closeness of the anatomical structures between humans and animals which is physically representative of the Beast People. Prendick describes one as “an ugly-looking man, a hunch-backed human savage to all appearance, squatting in the aperture of one of the dens” that “would stretch his arms and yawn, showing with startling suddenness scissor-edged incisors and sabre-like canines, keen and brilliant as knives” (136). As Prendick describes, they appear to be human with animal-like features, although they were originally animals. This misconception of how Beast People appear versus what they are, further develops the closeness between humans and animals, although they maintain their primitive characteristics such as their cravings and their canines. 

Additionally, it is the civilization that Moreau forces them into that must determine the Beast People’s human status as “a series of propositions called the Law...battled in their minds with the deep-seated, ever-rebellious cravings of their animal natures” (132). Laws created by Moreau were implemented in the society of the Beast People, yet it is not enough to make them human due to their cravings as in their animal natures. And according to Harris, “as descendants of animals, civilized humans could be seen as still essentially animals, striving like the Best People to achieve civilized status but never quite succeeding” (24). 

The Beast People are threatened with pain into submission to civilization, although they respond primitively, as they “[become] oddly weakened about nightfall; that then the animal was at its strongest; that a spirit of adventure sprang up in them at the dusk, when they would dare things they never seemed to dream about by day” (133). As “the animal was at its strongest”, the struggle to maintain their civilized stature upon nightfall leads their primitive urges to overpower them. And as the Beast People “[stumble] in the shackles of humanity”, Prendick now describes them as a “mock-human existence”, that was unveiled when their efforts to become civilized faltered (145). And after Moreau’s death, the shackles of humanity amongst the Beast People eventually break as they revert into animals as “some of the others seemed altogether slipping their hold upon speech...and they walked erect with an increasing difficulty” (166). 

A primal nature is (something) for all species who reside behind the curtains of civilization. However, a curtain serves to be something that opens and closes. It closes to conceal the primitive nature of humans and opens to reveal that primitive nature that lies within them. Behind the curtain, lies the evolutionary connection between humans and animals. And is it not until the primitive nature of humans and animals opens the curtains, that civilization is rendered a facade amongst the Beast People. Perhaps the Beast People represent human beings. Although the Beast People attempt to become civilized, civilization proves to be a fragile construct that could easily break when the Beast People’s primal urges overrule them. And as humans are described in their civilization, this fragile construct proves to be what separates us from other animals. As other animals instinctively live by their primitiveness, humans are born into a veil of civilization that cloaks their primitiveness into the crevices of their nature, only to reveal themselves when their lives are threatened.