The Island of Doctor Moreau

I bought a copy of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H G Wells several years ago from a bookstore in Dhaka New Market. 

The Island of Doctor Moreau sketches an eccentric scientist whose name is part of the book's title. Dr. Moreau, to view from a wider angle, tried to move into the shoes of God. He was obsessed with the macabre experiments of blending up the psycho-physical features of humans and beasts. He had been exiled to this island from England a few years earlier for this sort of anatomical activities known as vivisection.  We get introduced to Dr. Moreau through the details given by Edward Prendick, a survivor of a shipwreck who was picked up by a sea cargo which was on its way to the mysterious island of Dr. Moreau. During Prendick's stay inside the home of Dr. Moreau on that island, he saw strange and horrible things that Dr. Moreau used to do in the name of anatomical assignments. Dr. Moreau mutilated wild creatures in order to implant human organs and instincts into their bodies which he thought would transfigure these animals into better ones.  Prendick met some striking instances of Dr. Moreau's conversions: the Leopard Man, the Hyena-Swine, the Swine Folk, the Ape Man, Bull Men, Horse-Rhinoceros, Wolf-Bear, Ocelot Man, Dog Man and the Monkey Man. He learnt of the Law and the House of Pain that were used to keep the beast folk under a constant state of panic and thus held them subjugated to their master. Earlier I commented that Dr. Moreau in fact wanted to resemble God because he created a weird island of all those blended creatures over whom only his rule existed. He wanted to become the unanimous Lord of the converted animals on that island. And indeed he was. He was feared and held in awe by his creations. But he failed in the long run. All these animals were gradually turning back into their wild forms which Dr. Moreau had sought to eradicate from their nature. The story ends with the unfortunate death of Dr. Moreau at the hands of the beast folk. 

I found The Island of Doctor Moreau somewhat similar to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein which also tells us about the creation of a monster by a crackpot scientist.  Both the books end in the same tragic way with the murders of the focal figures at the hands of their own creations. These two books match from another thematic angle—impractical ambitions can hardly avoid severe consequences. One more aspect of the book is quite noteworthy. When Edward Prendick came back to England, he found everything around him different. As if all the civilized masses of London were moving, talking, behaving, even saying prayers like the beast folk he had seen on Dr. Moreau's island. H G Wells proves his fictional expertise with the portrayal of the savage island actually as an allegory to expose a bitter truth: human beings have made the world a far worse place than it was meant to be. The world around us today is so bleak and adverse with mistrust, vengeance and terror because of the derailment of human beings from the track God had shown them to follow. 

The reviewer is Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Metropolitan University, Sylhet.