The Island Of Dr Moreau Essay

In The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, the narrator and main character Edward Prendick loses a Hegelian life and death struggle against the beast folk before he finds himself and escapes bondage. A Hegelian struggle is the search for self-awareness as it was put forth by Georg Friedrich Hegel. In Hegel’s theory, there must be a life and death battle while in the presence of fear. This battle ends in either death or surrender of one of the opponents. The supposed loser becomes the slave or bondsman of the alleged winner or master. However, this slave may regain his sense of self and truly become free by doing creative work while still in the presence of fear. Edward Prendick works through this exact scenario. Prendick experiences his struggle of life and death almost immediately

Once Montgomery and Moreau die, this becomes even more pronounced; Prendick goes to live with the beast folk as their equal and, therefore, not human. He has lost his sense of self and become more of a creature or object in the eyes of his masters, the beast folk. This is exactly as Hegel has described the relationship between master and slave. Prendick finally gets an opportunity to achieve true freedom through the fearful creativity Hegel describes. As Prendick remains a slave amongst his masters, he sees “clearly that unless [he leaves] the island [his] death was only a question of time” (Wells 99). Prendick sets out to create a raft to escape the island while feeling an awful terror at his approaching doom. As he is “an extremely unhandy man,” Prendick must use a great deal of creativity to create his raft (Wells 100). Eventually, he manages to create a raft in “some clumsy circuitous way or other” (Wells 100). Although this raft is never used, Prendick has finally achieved Hegelian self-awareness. He is able to escape the island and become physically and mentally free of his bestial