The Island of Dr. Moreau :: essays research papers

The Island of Dr Moreau, by H.G. Wells, is not an ordinary science fiction novel. It doesn't deal with aliens or anything from outer space, but with biological science that exists on earth. The novel was about a character, Edmund Prendick that gets involved with an island of experimentation. At first glance, this tropical paradise seems idyllic. But deep in the jungles lies a terrifying secret. Moreau and Montgomery have been performing scientific research on human beings and the experiment goes terribly wrong. They have ignored the most fundamental law of the jungle: survival of the fittest. The doctor is seeking to make animals half human by means of vivisectional surgery; the transplantation of organs, and the pain involved is very vividly described. Doctor Moreau succeeds in making some of his man-animals talk and even read, but they tend to revert to the beast. So Moreau continues to try to get the entire animal out, and make a creature of his own. His creatures, which continue to come to their demise, then kill Moreau and finally all die off. When the H.M.S. Scorpion visits the island, there is nothing alive there except for a few "white moths, some hogs and rabbits and some rather peculiar rats." The theme of this novel is that science experiments can go too far, because the creatures made from the experimentation go against their creators. These creatures, known as Beast Men, were combinations of animals, like a wolf combined with a human being, and these scientists spent their entire life devoted to these "experiments." However, at one point in the novel, a conflict arises from the creatures and chaos begins. When the conflict finally comes to a halt, there is only one true human standing. H.G. Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent a suburb of London. His father, Joseph Wells, and his mother, Sarah, were married in 1853 and they had four children. An elder sister, Fanny, died at the age of 9 two years before H.G. was born. After he was born, his family was worried that he may also die like his sister Fanny, being that he was sort of a â€Å"weakling† and struggled to be healthy most of his life. Wells was apprenticed like his brothers to a draper, spending the years between 1880 and 1883 in Windsor and Southsea as a drapeist. In 1883 Wells became a teacher/pupil at Midhurst Grammar School.