The Island of Dr. Moreau Themes

The Island of Dr. Moreau Themes

Society and Class

Wells seems more interested in society rather than class, but you can't have one without the other. They're peanut butter and jelly, people. In The Island of Dr. Moreau, society is a sham, a fake,...

Morals and Ethics

Often when we discuss morals and ethics, the questions revolve around whether something is right or wrong. Not so with The Island of Dr. Moreau. Here, the questions revolve around whether morality...

Rules and Order

Some rules just seem natural. Don't scream fire in a crowded theater. Call 911 if you witness a crime. Tip your waiters. Pay a psychic top dollar for the more accurate predictions. Okay maybe not t...

Man & the Natural World

In most people's minds, there seems to be a divide between mankind and the natural world. The natural world is the stuff we put in state parks and pay five dollars to park near when we want to see...

Primitivity

Thanks to countless adventure stories in the vein of Indiana Jones, our view of primitivity can be a little skewed. When we think of the term, we imagine tribes of people still living in huts and t...

Identity

Identity is a slippery thing in The Island of Dr. Moreau, and at no point is it clear cut. From the outset, Prendick has a difficult time telling the Beast Folk apart from humans. Even when the phy...

Suffering

We all suffer, some of us more than others. For some, suffering is a painful existence of starving daily. For others, it's being without an Internet connection for a day—well, half a day, let's n...

Science

In The Island of Dr. Moreau, Wells tackles the relationship between science and ethics. In his day—as in ours—science had produced unprecedented technologies and revelations about the world. It...