The Monstrous Nature of
the The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Island of Doctor Moreau
creates horror, not by the chimaerical (Brown 1993, 387) humanoids
created by Moreau's experiments themselves; but by the savagery they
highlight about human nature. This is achieved by constructing the
Beast Folk as an allegory for the imposition of civilised over
natural animalistic behaviour. The
failure of the Beast Folk's civilised order, and the manner in which
Doctor Moreau has failed to adhere to civilised practice; underscores
the savagery shrouded by civilised behaviour.
Upon observing this ability of
civilised order to conceal savagery, Prendick fears that civilised
order will fail in larger human society as well. Upon his
return to London, a famed bastion of civilisation, regarded at the
time as the world's greatest city (Johnson and Lubin, 2013), Prendick
recounts that:
“I would go out into the streets to fight with my delusion, and
prowling women would mew after me; furtive, craving men glance
jealously at me; weary, pale workers go coughing by me with tired
eyes and eager paces, like wounded deer dripping blood...”
and:
“...unnatural as it seems, with my return to mankind came, instead
of that confidence and sympathy I had expected, a strange enhancement
of the uncertainty and dread I had experienced during my stay upon
the island.”
This socially constructed order is seen
as a mask concealing animal nature. Upon his return to London,
Prendick's fears are engendered by the animalistic traits he sees
lurking underneath the veneer of human civilisation: “When I lived
in London the horror was well-nigh insupportable.”
The confluence of
the natural order and civilised order disorients Prendick's
perception of the world:
“I may have caught something of the
natural wildness of my companions... such a restless fear as a
half-tamed lion cub may feel.”
Prendick is
comforted by relocating to the countryside, as it returns him to
nature, and away from the perceived charade of civilised behaviour.
References
Brown, L. ed. 1993. The New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Johnson, R., and G. Lubin. 2013. The
16 Greatest Cities In Human History.
http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-cities-throughout-history-2013-1?op=1
(accessed March 12, 2013).
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