The Island of Dr Moreau Flashcards
Some key themes of Novel
distinction between men / animals
science
morality
primtivity
What other island story could it be a parody of
The Tempest
Moreau, king of the island seems to be a perverted image of Prospero
drunken Montgomery- Ariel
Humanised Bear M’ling- Caliban
Who was Wells greatly inspired by
Thomas Huxley- a great advocate of Darwin
What are the three direct connection to Darwin in the novel
1) protagonist like Wells had been a student of Huxley
2) Placment of Moreau Island in actual vicinity of Galapagos
3) appropriation of the entangled bank
what did Elaine Showater say of The island of Dr Moreau
The psychological, literary, social and intellectual sources are enormously complex
How does Moreau appear non- darwinian
they are not precisely aimless : presses goal of creating life freed from physical limitations and learning as he goes along
uses choice and education - dif from Darwinian Randomness
What do Moreau’s experiments imply
That targeted inference with evolutionary processes causes pain since all living beings have evolved in conjunction with their environment.
did Well’s believe in natural selection
yes
What Victorian acts gave birth to legislation against animal cruelty
SPCA founded in 1824
Vegitarian society in 1847
antivivsetionalist movement in 1870’s
What did the Daily telegraph say of it upon publication
condemned it
“a morbid aberration of scientific curisoity’
What did Wells later call the book
‘an exercise in youthful blasphemy’
How does Moreau appear in chapter 14
appears as God
but not trad. God of Christian Theology but the sort of arbitary power that might be conceieved of as lying behind the evolutionary process
recalls Caliban upon Setebos
What was Wells background in science like
received a prestigious government scholarship to attend the Normal School of Science in south Kensington
How does the novel begin
begins with a typical Wellsian frame-narration
Prendick’s nephew introduces the story and introduces a note of caution:
Upon being rescued, Prendick gave ‘such a strange account of himself that he was supposed demented’
What is presumed by Moreau to be one of the key markers between human and beast
Language
at the end of the novel we see the ‘Beast-Men’ ‘revert’ back to ‘Beast Monsters’ (in Prendick’s words), without language
What is the narrator point of view
written in n a first-person central narrator voice
cannot inhabit view of Moreau,Montgomery or Beast folk
What can Moreau’s island be seen as an allegory for
society
What does the quote ‘The creatures I had seen were not men, had never been men. They were animals—humanised animals—triumphs of vivisection’ imply
a lack of morality
the noun triumph is used with some irony here. It’s not meant to suggest an actual triumph at all but rather the complete disregard for the morality of the situation.
What did darwin say about the origins of man
’ i view all beings not as special creations but as lineal descendants of some few beings’
