One of the most obvious overarching themes of The Island of Dr. Moreau is the colonialism story, reflecting the relationship that England had with one fourth of the world’s population by the 1890s. Colonizing nations took over “less civilized” territories to take advantage of the resources of the land, but under the guise of bettering the lives of the colonized peoples. The Victorians applied Darwin’s ideas about evolution to society to place their culture above those of the peoples they were invading, validating their right to attempt to civilize the people brought into Victoria’s empire by educating them in English language, culture and history. They would “uplift” these peoples’ lives while simultaneously destroying that which connected them to their heritage. This uplift and destruction took place around the world, and Richard Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, sums up the sentiment best when speaking about the point of educating Native Americans in 1892: “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/).
Schools meant to stamp out non-western European cultures were set up in all colonized lands, and we see a mirror of this school in the Law that the beast-men live by after Moreau turns them out because he “[began] to feel the beast in them” instead of them retaining a human mentality (Wells 59). The beast-men repeat their law when a new creature arrives, and mistaking the protagonist Prendick for another of Moreau’s vivisected animals, “the Sayer of the Law” begins the process of teaching him (Wells 44). The Law serves two main purposes – to define the place of the beast-men in the island’s society and to prescribe their actions so that they stay ‘men.’
The Law begins by prohibiting certain beast-like behaviors – “not to go on all-Fours…. not to suck up Drink…. not to eat Flesh or Fish…. not to claw Bark of Trees…. not to chase other Men” (Wells 43). By avoiding these actions, the beast-men act more like men, as they desire to do. And if they do any of these things, “evil are the punishments of those who break the Law;” fear tactics and negative-reinforcement training is in place in their society to keep them in order (Wells 44).
The other part of the Law is ascribing characteristics of power and ownership to some male figure – “His is the House of Pain. His is the hand that Makes…. His is the lightning-flash…. His are the starts in the sky,” (Wells 43). The beast-men are worshipping this figure, assigning to him the powers of creation and healing, as well as pain and destruction, basically saying that he is the master of all things, but the figure is never specified. It is likely Dr. Moreau because he is the one that causes these being unimaginable pain, but he is also the one that enables them to have this ability to think and understand, even if in a limited capacity, but it is still never explicitly stated who is being worshipped, or where this Law originated.
Someone had to give the Sayer of the Law these rules and instill this hero-worship, but it is presented to new creatures by one of their own as if this Law is, was, and always will be the natural order of things, even though that is not remotely true. Moreau has only been doing this kind of vivisection for a little over a decade, and there was no way for this Law of the beast-men to be in place before this. But this presentation of a set of constructed societal principles as the natural order of things is exactly how colonized peoples were educated. They were forced into a new way of life, told how to act and punished severely if they showed disobedient behavior, and this forced assimilation was often done at the hands of previous generations of their own people. An example of this is Wallace Denny, who went through the Carlisle Indian School system, a system intent on killing his heritage, and then returned to work for that system as a disciplinarian for other native children. This is how the cycle of colonization is able to continue for generations, often with little input from the colonizer once the system is in place. The only flaw in this scheme, however, is what happens when the colonized begin to take their new knowledge and use it for their own aims, a terrifying possibility which was just beginning to fully set in for the Victorians.
Thorough examination and equation of the Law and the assimilation of Native American’s within the United States. The creation of constructed societal principles that were engraved within the people of the island as well as the Carlisle Indian School were conducted through the matter of reinforcement and pattern that I found most interesting. It seems that through constant repetition and enforcement one can be ideologically consumed, yet these ideologies that were imposed upon these people were something in which they could never fully achieve in the eyes of those who were prescribing these Laws or ways of living. The societal constructions applied to individuals “learning” to become more civilized only ends up highlighting them as other. I believe it is a comfort in which the imperialistic conquers used for really only themselves, to be able to witness a group of people fail to become like them which ulitmately alleviated their own fears of their counterparts becoming more successful than themselves. However, because the colonizers are the ones making up their own rules or societal constructions those learning them aren’t ever able to succeed or overthrow their conquer. I believe the colonized people can only succeed through knowledge that is entirely unassociated from their colonizer but rather from themselves.
Very interesting how you connected it to the Carlisle Indian School. The idea of colonization and the Christian mission ties into an idea I called “improving while dehumanizing.” While Prenidick’s fear that the beast exists within each of the humans in Victorian England, it is the social awakening of Britain that they are not the apex of the human species. While the idea of supremacy still exists today, this is the start of the downfall of the British Empire and the rise of the colonized areas from subjugation and exploitation. You are absolutely correct that there is the fear of “reverse invasion” but there is also another British fear: They are the same as those they colonized and mistreated. They are not superior but are just as much beasts (and they are definitely worse) as those they harmed and abused.