\u201cI held out my hands. The grey creature in the corner leant forward\u2026 He put out a strangely distorted talon, and gripped my fingers. The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face came forward and peered at my nails, came forward into the light of the opening of the hut, and I saw with a quivering disgust that it was like the face of neither man nor beast\u2026\u201d (44).<\/p>\n
This passage is taken from the scene in The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em> by H. G. Wells in which Prendick is getting his first introduction to the \u201cLaw.\u201d Prendick is brought to the cave where all of these creatures live and offered food before they recite to him this set of rules all of the creatures live by. This initial hospitality shown by the creatures makes Prendick comfortable enough to \u201chold out [his] hands.\u201d In doing so, Prendick accepts the hospitality so kindly offered by the creatures. Because the act is voluntary on Prendick\u2019s part, he is able to begin to connect with the beasts on his terms in a nonviolent manner. Additionally, the grey creature \u201cgripped\u201d Prendick\u2019s fingers. The act of \u00a0\u201cgripping\u201d rather than simply holding his hand attaches a desperate quality to the action. The creature needed<\/em> to hold Prendick\u2019s hand, and maintained a strong enough grip so that Prendick couldn\u2019t easily break the connection. It is important to note here that this is one of the first times Prendick uses person-specific pronouns rather than neutral pronouns in regards to these creatures, signaling first signs of Prendick accepting the creatures as some form of human. This new use of pronouns coupled with his offer to touch the beast and the beast\u2019s enthusiastic response makes for a fantastically human moment between Prendick and beast. It was as if the beast had been waiting to touch someone for so long, and Prendick, despite his disgust and preconceived assumptions, gave the beast that moment. This openness toward the beasts only grows within Prendick as the story progresses.<\/p>\n It cannot go unnoticed, however, that Prendick still harbors more hate towards the beasts in this passage than anything else. He remains open to the idea of the beast in the beginning of the passage, but the beast is still shrouded by the darkness of the cave. It isn\u2019t until the beast \u201ccome[s] forward into the light of the opening of the hut\u201d that Prendick becomes openly hateful in his account of this scene. Prendick \u201cquivers\u201d with disgust, suggesting he is so shocked by what he sees he has a physical reaction. \u201cDisgust\u201d is so severe in nature it signals the idea that Prendick isn\u2019t simply uncomfortable with these creatures, but rather physically repulsed. He can\u2019t even be in the same room as them, let alone touch them. Moreover, the introduction of light to the space is also the same instance in which Prendick stops using person-specific pronouns, reverting back to the use of \u201cit\u201d when referring to the beast. It is also the moment in which Prendick makes the clear distinction that the creatures are not \u201cman.\u201d In the same passage, Prendick recognizes the human qualities of the creatures, but also yanks those human qualities away in an instant.<\/p>\n Damrosch and Dettmar note in their section titled \u201cThe Age of Energy and Invention\u201d the speed with which science advanced in the late Victorian era. As quoted by W.R. Greg, speed was the \u201cmost salient characteristic of life\u201d during this later section of the Victorian era. The way in which the beast\u2019s appendage is described, as a mixture of hand, claw, talon, and hoof, conjure images of science moving so fast that the appendage did not have enough time to decide what it was going to develop into. This, coupled with the speed with which Prendick gives human qualities to the beast only to take them away in a matter of seconds, allows this passage to act as a warning. It influences readers to reflect on themselves and what humanity and science looked like during that time. It begs so many important questions to be asked: How far will we let science interfere with humanity? Where is the line between animal and human? Is all science good science? This passage warns against taking science too far, but suggests that perhaps no matter the speed of advancement, some form of humanity will prevail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI held out my hands. The grey creature in the corner leant forward\u2026 He put out a strangely distorted talon, and gripped my fingers. The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face came forward and peered at my nails, came … Continue reading Is Humanity In Danger When Science Advances?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3605,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}