First published in 1896, ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ is a science fiction novel by English writer H.G. Wells. The classic work focuses on a mad scientist’s experiments involving vivisection to address such issues as evolution and ethics.
‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ employs an old device, a bogus introduction to explain how the story that follows was found in the narrator’s papers at his death. The story itself exploits the well-known theme of the shipwrecked castaway, made famous by Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (1719). These are familiar materials, but H. G. Wells updates them by putting them in the context of the controversy over evolution that raged in his day. He presents Dr. Moreau as a cruel, white-haired Old Testament God.
Wells described his masterpiece as “an exercise in youthful blasphemy, ” referring to Moreau’s attempts to reshape God’s creatures as humans. In this respect the novel compares to Mary Shelley’s tale of Victor Frankenstein. Both novels are cautionary in warning of the consequences likely to follow when humans play God. The Greek understanding of hubris and Christian warnings against pride should have alerted Moreau to the danger of his game.
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