The island of dr essay

The animals rage from an Ape man, to a dog mixed with ox creature, all the way to a leopard man.

These creatures are to follow the “ code of conduct’ or they will suffer the consequences. My essay will distinguish the difference between human and animal characteristics according to the novel. Prentice is able to give us a broad picture of how the beast folk looked compared to humans. With their deformed hands, along with disproportionate legs, and an outward curative of the spine. These beast folk certainly do not seem to look anything like us, so we can assume that is tough o believe that they act anything like us as well. A few clear human characteristics are that of: humans stand on two feet, they use their hands to eat, as well as to drink water and the list can go on for a long time. So Mortar’s job is to teach these creatures how to behave like humans. So Mortar gives the beast folk some basic guide lines.

“ Not to suck your Drink; that is the Law. Much the brutes care for the Law, eh-? when Mortar’s not about? ‘ (16. 28) the beast people must not drink water how they were drinking it all their life, because Mortar says that it is not what humans do. Because our society thinks this out of place it is a negative in the island. Since us people think that drinking water like this is extremely unnecessary, we believe that anyone who does not drink water like us, has definite animal characteristics. “ Not to go on all fours…

Not to chase other men… Not to taste blood..

. ” (42) Mortar clearly sets the guide lines for the beast people to not follow their natural instincts or habits. Mortar creates the “ law’ and like everywhere, if one breaks the law there will be consequences. The “ House of Pain” is what Mortar calls it, where he tortures the animals in very creative says. Mortar seems to be really pushing his luck. He is trying to take an animal and completely change its way of life. He is trying to teach them that what they have been doing their whole life is innocent. What seemed to be completely normal for the puma man or ape man will cause a visit to the house of pain.

Wells seems to suggest that we are captives of our own inner nature. It is impossible for the Beast People to stop from reverting back to their feral ways. Mortar’s attempt to “ play God” does not work. Perhaps undermining our concept of control over our own bodies and minds. Despite Mortar’s efforts, he never perfects to make an animal to a human, before he brutally murdered by one of his own creations. Joe Batcher is an author who believes that H.

G. Wells’ theme of this novel has to do with confronting religion, specifically Christianity. The novel was written during the rise of Darwinism, so he believes that the novel shows how Darning’s theory challenges Christianity.

‘ The fable forces Christianity to confront the humiliating implications of the Darwinian revolution: that man is no more than a talking animal, that all moral systems are arbitrary and man- dad, and that the sanction traditionally endorsing the social order are illusions” (21 Here he states how all of our social law and our expectations of normality are all a false misconception. We just make these ideas up to separate the characteristics of peoples from what is normal and acceptable to what is weird and almost animal like. Batcher also identifies that Mortar creates his own type of universe with him as the center, like if he were God.

Even after he dies in the novel his presence is still felt throughout the island. “ You cannot see him [Mortar]. But he can see you.

Fear the law’ (18. 16). This quote gives us the common “ God is always watching” saying.

Even though we cannot see God he sees all of our actions and our fear is not entering heaven, rather than the “ House of Pain”. In Christianity it is believed that God created man and animal for their own special purpose and one is never supposed to oppose that. However Mortar tryst to completely ignore this and change the beast people, more supporting the theory of Darwin. The point is that Mortar was trying to be a God like figure himself and create something that is rebind. Christianity says that no one but God can create new life, and although Mortar was not creating Frankincense, he was trying to defy Gods law. The law that an animal’s characteristics cannot be changed, to the same height as that of a human beings.

Robert P. Weeks believes that Wells’ fictional world is “ enclosed by a network of limitations and dominated by the image of a man driven by a profound and, at times, an irrational desire to escape” (26). Wells illustrates many times during the novel how Prentice sees some faces in very different ways. The creatures I had seen were not men, had never been men. They were animals, humankind animals, and triumphs of vivisection. ” The word triumph is used with irony in the quote. No actual triumph at all was achieved but rather the complete disregard for the morality of the situation.

Weeks says that they desire to escape. In the novel, Prentice does want to escape from the island but at the end of the novel, Prentice needs to escape from England. He was not used to the “ normal” folk after being with the beast people for so long.

Being with the beasts, he beings to adapt to their heartsickness and he sees the beast people in the presence of the people in England, thus why he decides to fled the scene. This novel is in the science fiction category. So obviously science can be a theme in the novel. Robert M.

Philips believes that in “ The Island of Dry. Mortar”, Wells compares the relationship between science and ethics. As we are taught, one must not toy with humanity and its animals.

However, Mortar’s thirst for knowledge leads him to do unimaginable things. His obsession of science and creating a human from an animal is not a very ethical thing to do. Had Mortar had any intelligible object I could have sympathized at least a little with him.

I am not as squeamish about pain as that. I could have forgiven him a little even had his motive been hate. But he was so irresponsible, so utterly careless.

” In order for science to succeed, a goal is required. In many cases, this goal may not always show your morals. Science is the pursuit of reason, so there must be a reason to pursue. In the novel “ The Island of Dry. Mortar” H.

G Wells uses the characters of the novel to demonstrate the distinct difference between unman and animal characteristics.