Reading through The Longman Anthology, I was struck by a quote found under the section titled “The Age of Energy and Invention,” which illustrates Karl Marx’s view of the obsession with science and innovation which marked the Victorian era:
“[Marx] saw that through the hoopla of the marketplace, products had acquired a ‘mystical character’ and ‘theological niceties’ of their own. Yet Marx did not regard commodities as proof of God’s existence; instead, he argued that they functioned as deities in their own right. (…) Looking around at the wonders of British industry, Marx decided that people had become, finally, less important that things.” (1055)
I found this quote to be crucial when discussing The Island of Dr. Moreau, because the idea of humanity as something imperfect, something that should (and can be, through the eyes of Dr. Moreau) perfected through the modes of science and technology, acts as the foundation of Moreau’s ideology. One can trace this idea specifically to Moreau’s theory on the nature of pain and pleasure, which he reveals while talking to Prendick about his “praxis”: “The capacity for pain is not needed in the muscle, and it is not placed there (…). Pain is simply our intrinsic medical adviser to warn us and stimulate us. (…) I never yet heard of a useless thing that was not ground out of existence by evolution sooner or later. Did you? And pain gets needless.” (55)
Moreau views pain as an unnecessary trait, and something which he believes can, ultimately, be conquered. He continues, saying: “This store men and women set on pleasure and pain, Prendick, is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark of the beast from which they came. Pain! Pain and pleasure – they are for us, only so long as we wriggle in the dust…” (55)
Pain and pleasure are two characteristics that are unmistakably human, and without the capacity for those two things, there is little that distances humans from machines – and yet, it is exactly those two things that Moreau wants to eliminate. Moreau sees pain and pleasure as weakness, and he wishes to conquer that weakness just as one would fix a bug on a computer, or replace a rusty screw. In this regard, Moreau embodies Marx’s notion that people were becoming less important than things, and that humanity was becoming increasingly replaced by science. The obsession with invention and the endless striving towards an ever-greater perfection can be summed up in a quote towards the end of The Island of Dr. Moreau:
“A blind fate, a vast pitiless mechanism, seemed to cut and shape the fabric of existence, and I, Moreau by his passion for research, Montgomery by his passion for drink, the Beast People, with their instincts and mental restrictions, were torn and crushed, ruthlessly, inevitably, amid the infinite complexity of its incessant wheels.” (74)
To me, this “vast pitiless mechanism” is representative of the obsession with science and the attempt to shape and perfect nature, to “cut and shape the fabric of existence,” that I have been trying to outline in this blog post – it is the central conflict, and the engine that gives power to the novel as a whole.
This post points out that Moreau sees pain and pleasure as weaknesses to weed out of his Beast People, human weaknesses that can be removed using science – completely correctly. What is interesting about that point is in the inability to feel pain can be used against opponents – such as slowly chipping away at any leg support until the person/robot loses their lower support. What Moreau doesn’t understand is that pain is not always a weakness – sometimes it is a helpful indicator of your abilities and what your weaknesses truly are.
The argument that pain and pleasure are the only things separating humans from animals is an interesting viewpoint, particularly having read the Longman Anthology introduction which discusses the notions of the “quest for self-definitions” (1049) as well as the “incredible hodgepodge of inventions, gimmicks, and gadgets” making up modern life (1054), in addition to the anxiety about it all. With the adaptations to life and the way society functioned, it would make more sense that Moreau would feel anxious like much of the population, but your argument seems to state the opposite. It is fascinating that in attempting to perfect the beasts he experiments on, Moreau is leaning past the idea of biological science into a more mechanical way of thinking. I wonder if this was a warning from Wells about what would happen if humans succumbed to the technology of the age or if he was more of a proponent?
Great connection to Marx– I agree that Dr. Moreau’s emphasis on science and technology to create and perfect human beings is paradoxical because trying to eliminate pain would in fact be eliminating an important human quality. I also think that the last quotation that you cite suggests, in addition to representing an obsession with the power of science and technology to shape and perfect nature, that the beast that Prendick so fears and which Moreau is so determined to burn out of his victims in not wholly a “beast within.” This quotation seems to suggest that “the beast” is also partially created by external forces.
It is interesting how you relate the idea of human imperfection that permeates the story of Dr. Moreau, to an issue of technology. The idea that “Moreau sees pain and pleasure as weakness, and he wishes to conquer that weakness just as one would fix a bug on a computer, or replace a rusty screw,” really starts to connect with the idea of eugenics. The “vast pitiless mechanism” being representative of the obsession with science and the attempt to perfect nature ties in with the racist language and perceived notions that Kitson talks about in her eugenics post.