The Island of Dr. Moreau

Historical background
Theory of evolution - Darwin
Victorian Society
Analysis of the story:
Elements, style, tone, symbolism

1. The Theory of Evolution

2. Historical context
Before  Darwin’s theory  After

3. Historical context
Victorian time
- Powerful empire
- People used to live as
their parents(rural areas)
- Extreme connection with
the Anglican Church
- Creationism

4. Historical context
Species were not linked in a “single family tree”
Humans superior to animals
Earth: young, unchanged, eternal, timeless
Natural order of things
Since the creation, nothing has changed.

5. Important events
On the Origin of the Species. 24 November, 1859. Charles
Darwin
Foundation of evolutionary biology
Controversial book
Darwin did not want to publish the book
Fear of devolution
Confusion in people’s mind
Science vs Religion

6. Important events
Several opinions around the book the two
years after the publication.
In favor vs Against
Louis Agassiz: Professor in Harvard University,
Geologist, and Anatomist. He made fun of the book

7. •Francois Jules Pictet:
Paleontologist. He considered the book as one
of the most wonderful and complete science book.

•Samuel Wilberforce: Bishop in Oxford.
The main anti-darwinist of the time.

8. Charles Darwin

9. Who was Charles Darwin?

English naturalist in 19
th
Century.

Wrote the book ‘
On the Origin of Species', pub. 1859.

10. Voyage - Compare patterns between living things
-Argentina: fossils of extinct creatures – ancestors
- Galapagos Islands – unusual creatures – isolated land.
(iguanas, birds, turtles)
Turtle’s shell and birds peaks
Embryos and fossils




Research

11. A common ancestor – all species are
connected
Step by step - slowly and gradually:
Natural Selection:
-Competition to survive - savagery
-Variations help to either adapt or
not
-Performance


The Theory of Evolution

12. Environmental conditions:
Earth conditions had not been
the same.
Selective breeding



“The logic of natural selection ensures that the better-adapted types
slowly but surely displace the less well adapted” C. Darwin, The Origin of
Species.

13. Lamarck Jean-Baptiste
French scientist - alternative theory
At the beginning of 19
th
century.

-Law of use and disuse

-Law of inheritance of acquired
characteristic

14. Darwin vs Lamark
Lamarck Darwin
A giraffe stretches its neck to reach
food high up
A giraffe with a longer neck can
reach food high up
The giraffe's neck gets longer
because it is used a lot
The giraffe is more likely to get
enough food to survive and to
reproduce
The giraffe's offspring inherit its long
neck
The giraffe's offspring inherit its long
neck

16. Implications in the Victorian Society

17. Literature: Authors: Alfred Tennyson, George Bernard, and Jack
London.
Books:
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert L. Stevenson
“The Island of the Dr. Moreau” by H.G Wells.

Education: John Dewy. Human being is an ‘evolved’ creature who
improve physical and mentally

18. –Theology: 1869. The Metaphysical Society was created.

–Psychology: Evolutionary thinking in psychology and psychiatry.

–Philosophy: Evolutionary thought about the classification of systems.

–Science: Revolutionary order in the status quo. “Connection between
humans and monkeys.” Experiments related to animals, plants,
genetics grew exponentially.

–Society: Controversy and fear. A changed in the perception of the
world. Darwin was discriminated.

–Social Darwinism.

19. -Looking for the missing link.
-Archeologists – investigators
-Traveled to America and Africa
-Imperialism .

20. How Darwin crash with Religion
Evolution and Religion
The biological ideas of the moment (150 years before) stood in conflict with
Darwin.

The acceptance of the ideas required an ideological revolution.

Religion was deeply immersed in the society of those times.

Some religions were not affected by evolution. Others (especially christianity)
were were reluctant

21. Evolution did not was a problem for them


Buddhists believe in a universe in constant
evolution


“Natural history and spiritual history are two
sides of the same coin”.

22. The Origin of Species and The Descent of Men contradicts the interpretation of
the beginning of the world in the bible (theistic evolution)

The creation of humanity: Genesis 1:26-27

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon
the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them” (King James Version).


Christianity

23. The creation of Animals: Genesis 1: 21; 1: 25
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that
moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind,
and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good”
(King James Version).
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his
kind: and God saw that it was good” (King James Version).

24. The creation of nature (Vegetation):
Genesis 1:11

“And God said, Let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after
his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon
the earth: and it was so” (King James
Version)

25. Roman Catholic Position
The catholic position has changed several times

Slowly changes have been happening since the theory of evolution

Biological evolution: Acceptance of the theories arguing that the process was guided
by God

Emphasis on the creation of a soul in a human being

26. Protestant Position
The views of evolution in Mainline protestant
denominations are very complex


“Forty-four percent of mainline ministers say
that evolution is the best explanation for the
origins of life on earth, and a similar number
disagrees (43%)”
Protestant Position
The views of evolution in Mainline protestant denominations are very complex

“Forty-four percent of mainline ministers say that evolution is the best
explanation for the origins of life on earth, and a similar number disagrees
(43%)”

27. Evolution and Literature


A Secular View of Life

Darwin founded a new branch of life science, evolutionary biology

The discovery of natural selection

28. 1860: Exploration the spiritual, psychological, ethical and social
implications of Darwin’s thinking
Writers: Herbert Spencer, T. H. Huxley, Samuel Butler

Skeptical writers – non-Darwinian models of evolution.
Alfred Tennyson and Bernard Shaw

Since 1970: a resurgence of a religious fundamentalism
Heated debates over sociobiology evolutionary psychology and
ecological crisis of pollution .


Impact on Literature: Famous works and writers

29. Novels and Science Fiction

Charles Kingsley: The Water Babies (1862-63) - evolutionary theories and pokes
fun at scientific authority
Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) - Darwin’s insistence
that mankind evolved from ape-like ancestors
H.G Wells: The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) - beast-people as products of
modern science
Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men (1930) - tracing humanity’s evolution in two
billion years

30. Poetry and drama

Robert Browning : “Caliban upon Setebos” (1864) - a Darwinian natural theology
into the mouth of a half-evolved savage
James Thomson: “The City of Dreadful Night” (1874) - accepted Darwin’s own
account of evolution
Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts (1881) - dark probing of heredity
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee: In Inherit the Wind (1955) - dramatize key
moments in the history of the debate

32. English writer and teacher

Studies:
Biology - Thomas Henry Huxley in the
Normal School of Science in London

Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (Darwin’s
Bulldog) - advocacy to the Theory of Evolution

In 1890 earned a Bachelor of Science degree in
zoology the University of London External
Programme

Author: Herbert George Wells

33. Beliefs and influences
Socialist - Fabian Society - British socialist organization (principles of
democratic socialism)
Degeneration of humanity – humanity not prepared – no respect for
individuality
Nature and nurture (innate qualities vs personal experiences)

Doubted on eugenics (positive eugenics and negative eugenics)

In 1904 said to Francis Galcon, co-founder of eugenics:
"I believe that now and always the conscious selection of the best for
reproduction will be impossible; that to propose it is to display a
fundamental misunderstanding of what individuality implies ...

34. The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting
For? (1940)
Human rights should be universal
"a prohibition on mutilation, sterilization, torture,
and any bodily punishment".


Social class theme in The Time Machine
Better way to organize society A Modern Utopia
(1905)

35. Race
The Future in America(1906)
"The Tragedy of Colour“ chap. - the problems facing black
Americans.
Religion: critized all world religions and philosophies.
Considered that they did not worked for him
•The Fate of Homo Sapiens(1939)
•God the Invisible King (1917) that his idea of God did not
draw upon the traditional religions of the world:

36. Un enthusiasthic support to Territorialism but was openly Against Zionist
movement.
Exclusive and separatist movement
Reputation declined – advocated to social causes not supported by his
contemporaries.

“Too sane to understand the modern world“ George Orwell

Died in London on 13 August 1946, aged 79
Unspecified causes.

37. James Gunn believed:
In the science fiction genre was - "new system of ideas".


Made story as credible as possible today –known as "the
plausible impossible" and “suspension of disbelief”


Contributions in Literature

38. Genre - Science Fiction Year – 1896

Plot: Main character trapepd on an island of vivisected
animals

Setting: Island (Pacific Ocean) – isolated, laboratory
Theme – Animals as victims of he degeneration of
humanity.

Sub themes
-Savage practices of the vivisection.
-Cruelty against the animals - bioethics
-The dystopia of science and it’s consequences

The Story

39. Major Characters : Prendrick (protagonist) – Montgomery oposition – Dr. Moreau
(foil) (knowledge in biology)
Conflict
External– Dr. Moreau vs animals (human vs nature)
Prendrick vs Moreau and Montgomery
and hiena
Internal – Prendrick vs believes (human vs human)

40. Elements: Foreshadowing
to build suspence – make narrative believable – prepare the reader
Mood – cruel - gloomy
Tone – Ironic and pesimistic (reinforced by symbols, themes and
characters)
Humans barely civilized beasts, slowly reverting to their animal
natures.

41. Symbols:
The law The island Breeds – species
Names Combination of species
(ape, hyena, dog)
Purpose:
To denounce cruelty against animals

42. The island of Dr. Moreau and The
Evolution Theory
-Breeding selection
-Natural selection
-Nature and nurture contradicions
-Eugenics - sterilization (no females)
-The law of regular use (Landmark) = The Law
-De-evolution

43. -Vivisection in order to alter evolution
-Analogy humans and animals (violence, instincts, physically)
- Characters
- ExperimentationThe type of experiments
- Main characters reflection – Well’s believes on eugenics

The island of Dr. Moreau and The
Evolution Theory

44. “Particularly nauseous were the blank, expressionless faces of
people in trains and omnibuses; they seemed no more my fellow-
creatures than dead bodies would be, so that I did not dare to travel
unless I was assured of being alone. And even it seemed that I too
was not a reasonable creature, but only an animal tormented with
some strange disorder in its brain which sent it to wander alone,
like a sheep stricken with gid” (82)

45. •Works-cited

•Handwerk, B. Evolution Webcast: Explore “The World Before Darwin.” Retrieved
from:
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2009/09/16/everett_mendelsohn_lecture_on
_darwin/
•American Museum of Natural History staff. The World Before Darwin. Retrieved
from: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/the-world-before-darwin/
•Perez, V. WHEN CHARLES DARWIN PUBLISHED ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859).
Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-
686X2009000200006
•Moore, J. The Impact of Evolution on the Humanities and Sciences. Retrieved from:
https://www.icr.org/article/135/316
•Laszáková, J. Degeneration Theory in Victorian Literature. Retrieved from:
http://is.muni.cz/th/327363/ff_m/MA_Thesis.pdf
•Aras, G. Social Impact of the Theory of Evolution. Retrieved from:
http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/Social-Impacts-of-the-Theory-of-
Evolution