Maisie :D ’s Reviews > The Island of Doctor Moreau > Status Update

Before they had been beasts. their instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living things may be. Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand ; their mock human existence began in an agony

Poor Brutes! I began to see the viler aspect of Moreau's cruelty. I had not thought before of the pain and trouble that came to these poor victims after they had passed from Moreau's hands. I had shivered only at the days of actual torment in the enclosure. But now that seemed the lesser part.

It seems a strange contradiction to me - I cannot explain the fact - but now, seeing the creature there in a perfectly animal attitude, with the light gleaming in its eyes, and its imperfectly human face distorted with terror, I realised again the fact of its humanity.

'Not to eat flesh or fish; that is the law."
"That law has been broken."
"Who is he?"
"Evil is he who breaks the law."
"Who breaks the Law goes back to the house of pain."

They may once have been animals. But I never before saw an animal trying to think.

It was not in me then to go out and drown myself yet.

Edward I would have done that days ago

A horrible fancy came into my head that Moreau, after animalising these men, had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deification of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting on that account.

“Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
“Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
“Not to eat Fish or Flesh; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
“Not to claw the Bark of Trees; that is the Law. Are we not Men?
“Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Are we not Men?”

Is this a way to help them retain their humanity?

I had half a mind to drown myself then; but an odd wish to see the whole adventure out, a queer, impersonal, spectacular interest in myself, restrained me.

Could it be possible, I thought, that such a thing as the vivisection of men was carried on here? The question shot like lightning across a tumultuous sky; and suddenly the clouded horror of my mind condensed into a vivid realisation of my own danger.

NOW HE THINKS HES IN DANGER??? HE WAS CHASED THROUGH A FOREST BY A HYBRID