Finish reading The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells and respond to the discussion question on the class bulletin board: Make a comparison between an aspect of The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Time Machine.

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2005

Answers

Aside from the obvious ones listed in class (author, starting word, etc.), I find one similarity is the absolute idiocy of the main character in the most trivial of matters and his complete inability to accept basic facts about the new world in which he finds himself. In "The Time Machine", the Time Traveler spends several days among the Eloi with the knowledge of the Morlocks, and it takes him actually seeing the bones and people getting stolen to realize, "Hey, these Morlocks EAT these Eloi! Oh no!" And even when he does realize this, he is rather ridiculously stupid in dealing with them. (Matches. MATCHES, for heaven's sake. Make a forest fire earlier on, idiot!) The idiocy of Prendwick is comparable to the Traveler-- he keeps making these conclusions that he finds brilliant and logical, and which the reader knows from practically the first moment he steps foot on the island. The man spends several chapters merely marvelling at the oddness of the people on the island, and about halfway through he finally realizes, "Hey, these guys are wrong in the head. I shouldn't trust them!" Then he gets the staggeringly genius plan to run away into the wild where all the creatures are in hopes of somehow evading his captors. I found both men alarmingly stupid and rather ridiculous for supposed men of science. H.G. Wells should have found better heroes.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2005

I too I see a similarity in the characters. Both Prendrick and the Time Traveller go to a land where they learn about the nature of humanity. What they learn is so out of the ordinary for the time that nobody believes them and because of this they are isolated from their normal land. Prendrick never again is at ease being around humanity always seeing the degeneration and moves away from the cities and its masses, the time traveller at the end of his story uses the time machine to seperate himself from his society.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2005

I found the plots of and to be quite similar. They are both, obviously, adventure stories and involve some deal of discovery. In both of the books, the main character/narrator goes to a strange land, sees some weird stuff and makes bad hypotheses about those things, finds out the real truth, and makes a somewhat desperate escape. I also agree with what Angie said, about the Prendick and the Time Traveler both seeming very nitwitted. This may be because the ideas of time travel and humans grafted into beasts were new to Victorian readers, whereas they are old news for us. We have heard these ideas used over and over again.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2005

I too, following in Angie and Will's form, found similarity between the main characters of the two stories, Prendick and the Time Traveler. The scientific background of each character lent a sort of analytical tone to the goings on around them in both cases, really.

This sort of relates to Will's post in that without this scientific background, the two wouldn't be able to learn these things about humanity.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2005

The most striking similarity of the stories is the creatures involved. The Eloi and the morlocks and the beast-men all share a striking similarity, they are human/animals. That is to say, they have both the characteristics of humans and the characteristics of animals. The Eloi are like sheep or cows, the morlocks are like something that I cannot find a simile for. The beast-men are like...do I even have to say? The idea of a twisted human form is what makes, these creatures so disturbing, even the Eloi. After all, what true human would let itself be slaughtered like cattle.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2005

I'm just going to rip off my post for the Time Machine and take this story as a bit of a social commentary. In the posts for the Time Machine, I brought up individuality and living for the moment, as opposed to the degenerative complacency of the Eloi. We can see the same message in Wells' treatment of the Beast People, particularly in Prendick's attitudes upon his return to civilization. He sees, in the masses of workers going through the drudgery of their lives the same inhumanity as the Beast People - an Urban Jungle of sorts. He only finds his own humanity in solitude, indicating that humanity is sacrificed when one is trapped by social constrictions.

Sorry for the repetitive interpretations. We're doing Emerson and Whitman and Thoreau in AP Lit, so they've got me in that crazy mindset.

Fascinating. Spock out.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2005

In both of these stories the narrator discovers what it means to be human through seeing things which are only partially human. In both cases he goes about this by repeatedly drawing conlusions and altering those conclusions as the story progresses. Very scientific.

Also I would like to point out that I for once have posted neither last nor very close to last. The rest of you after me should be in shame.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005

I alreaduy typed this once, but the "server was busy..." so I have to do it again. ugh.

I found that the Time Traveler and Pendrick both have these periods of agnst as they ponder moral quandries presented by the dehumanization (or I guess humanization?) of the human race into dull brutes. They decide they hate the world and desire an end to their isolation. It is a little ironic that, if the stories are indeed social commentaries, that Pendrick and the TT hold themselves above the "brutes" that are satirizing their own society.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005

Alas, most of the salient points have already been used. Anyway, perhaps a similarity between the stories is in the fact that a traveler is stranded in a far-off land without any experience in such things. The circumstances are extremely wierd and, as a consequence, lends an unwordlyness that allows for social commentary. Yes, I know I am starting to sound repetitious. Also, by presenting these different creatures, Wells is able to define humanity by the differences, which also happen to some of the similarities. The Morlocks represent, in a way, humanity without moral restraints. Prendrick notices vestiges of human nature in the Beast-people which fades as authority fades. Also, I agree with Angie. These protagonists are idiots. All they do is run around, observe strange and horrible things, report them to people who do not beleive them, and let events go as they will while trying to figure out the first piece of the puzzle.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005

A lot of you other fellow posters are finding the similarities. I'm going to go for the differences. The Time Traveller seeks out the new world in his story; he builds the machine with the purpose of travelling to new settings. Prendick is carried to his new world through someone else's creation. Better yet, not even the captain of the ship knows where the vessel came from. As someone else pointed out, the inhabitants of Prendick's new world resemble creatures far less human than those of the Time Traveller's, which I thought was rather cool.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005

Well I think something similar is that both these characters are placed, or almost thrown into this new and strange place that they know nothing about. But what strikes me is how these both seam to be these island paradises. These heavens on earth where the protagonist finds a darker secret which is rather disagreeable. Plus, I found that both stroies ar told in the past tense and this intrigued me, I won't say this story is a story in a story but in a way it is, like The Time Machine.

Ror

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2005

I too found it interesting that in both cases technology ultimately degrades humanity, and that "progress" produces an undesirable society. The beast people are results of advanced genetic manipulations, but are portrayed as less than human. Similarly, the Morlocks who supposedly spawned from a class of people who mastered machinery lack normal human inhibitions. Wells doesn't portray a very good future for humans it seems.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2005