The Island of Dr. Moreau

by

H. G. Wells

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Montgomery is Moreau’s assistant on the island and rescues Prendick and nurses him back to health after Prendick is shipwrecked and lost at sea. Montgomery, being a degenerate and an alcoholic, contrasts sharply against Prendick’s dignity and virtue. Though he trained as a biologist, Montgomery was cast out of human society due to a crime he drunkenly committed as a younger man, leading him to take up residence on the island with Moreau. Though he maintains some semblance of human dignity while Moreau is alive, Montgomery develops such a kinship with the Beast Folk that he prefers their company and simplicity to that of other human beings. Indeed, Prendick observes that Montgomery seems “unfitted for human kindred,” occasionally seeming more beastly than human. Removed from human society, Montgomery’s character indicates how thin the delineation between human and animal truly is, dependent more on social conditioning than any biological reality. This kinship with the Beast Folk becomes Montgomery’s demise, however. After Montgomery foolishly teaches M’ling how to skin and cook a rabbit, the Beast Folk redevelop their taste for blood, sending them into a frenzy and bringing them one step closer to throwing off their humanity altogether. When Moreau is killed, it becomes clear that his authority and the purpose he lent Montgomery was all that held the degenerate back from shamelessly regressing to his most basic urges. Within a day, Montgomery throws himself into a drunken fit, getting many of the Beast Folk drunk with him, and is killed in a brawl with the Sayer of the Law. It is fitting, then, that the degenerate, animalistic human is killed by the Beast Folk’s paragon of humanism and religious order.

Montgomery / The Young Man Quotes in The Island of Dr. Moreau

The The Island of Dr. Moreau quotes below are all either spoken by Montgomery / The Young Man or refer to Montgomery / The Young Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Scientific Knowledge and Ethics Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

But certainly when I told the captain to shut up I had forgotten I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources, and with my fare unpaid, a mere casual dependent on the bounty—or speculative enterprise—of the ship. He reminded me of it with considerable vigor. But at any rate I prevented a fight.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man, Captain Davis
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

I say I became habituated to the Beast People, that a thousand things that had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and ordinary to me. I suppose everything in existence takes its color from the average hue of our surroundings: Montgomery and Moreau were too peculiar to keep my general impression of humanity well defined.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“Hail,” said they, “to the Other with the whip!”

“There’s a third with a whip now,” said Montgomery, so you’d better mind!”

“Was he not made?” said the Ape Man. “He said—he said he was made.”

Related Characters: Montgomery / The Young Man (speaker), The Ape Man (speaker), Edward Prendick / The Narrator
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, Whips
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

[Montgomery] cracked his whip in some trepidation, and forthwith [the Beast Folk] rushed at him. Never before had a Beast Man dared to do that.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law, Whips
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“Children of the Law,” I said, “He is not dead…he has changed his shape—he has changed his body,” I went on. “For a time you will not see him. He is…there”—I pointed upward— “where he can watch you. You cannot see him. But he can see you. Fear the Law.”

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man, The Sayer of the Law
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:

We locked ourselves in, and then took Moreau’s mangled body into the yard, and laid it upon a pile of brushwood.

Then we went into the laboratory and put an end to all we found living there.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I felt that for Montgomery, there was no help; that he was in truth half akin to these Beast Folk, unfitted for human kindred.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself. Then I cried, “Salute! Bow down!”

[The Hyena-Swine’s] teeth flashed upon me in a snarl. “Who are you, that I should…”

Perhaps a little too spasmodically, I drew my revolver, aimed, and quickly fired…[and] knew I had missed.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), The Hyena-Swine (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
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Montgomery / The Young Man Quotes in The Island of Dr. Moreau

The The Island of Dr. Moreau quotes below are all either spoken by Montgomery / The Young Man or refer to Montgomery / The Young Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Scientific Knowledge and Ethics Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

But certainly when I told the captain to shut up I had forgotten I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources, and with my fare unpaid, a mere casual dependent on the bounty—or speculative enterprise—of the ship. He reminded me of it with considerable vigor. But at any rate I prevented a fight.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man, Captain Davis
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

I say I became habituated to the Beast People, that a thousand things that had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and ordinary to me. I suppose everything in existence takes its color from the average hue of our surroundings: Montgomery and Moreau were too peculiar to keep my general impression of humanity well defined.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“Hail,” said they, “to the Other with the whip!”

“There’s a third with a whip now,” said Montgomery, so you’d better mind!”

“Was he not made?” said the Ape Man. “He said—he said he was made.”

Related Characters: Montgomery / The Young Man (speaker), The Ape Man (speaker), Edward Prendick / The Narrator
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, Whips
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

[Montgomery] cracked his whip in some trepidation, and forthwith [the Beast Folk] rushed at him. Never before had a Beast Man dared to do that.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law, Whips
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

“Children of the Law,” I said, “He is not dead…he has changed his shape—he has changed his body,” I went on. “For a time you will not see him. He is…there”—I pointed upward— “where he can watch you. You cannot see him. But he can see you. Fear the Law.”

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man, The Sayer of the Law
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:

We locked ourselves in, and then took Moreau’s mangled body into the yard, and laid it upon a pile of brushwood.

Then we went into the laboratory and put an end to all we found living there.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Dr. Moreau / The White-Haired Man, Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 19 Quotes

I felt that for Montgomery, there was no help; that he was in truth half akin to these Beast Folk, unfitted for human kindred.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk
Page Number: 85
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself. Then I cried, “Salute! Bow down!”

[The Hyena-Swine’s] teeth flashed upon me in a snarl. “Who are you, that I should…”

Perhaps a little too spasmodically, I drew my revolver, aimed, and quickly fired…[and] knew I had missed.

Related Characters: Edward Prendick / The Narrator (speaker), The Hyena-Swine (speaker), Montgomery / The Young Man
Related Symbols: The Beast Folk, The Law
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis: