Prendick uses imagery, especially sound imagery, to convey such horror and disgust that it becomes almost impossible not to look away. In Chapter 17, he uses imagery to invite the reader to be disgusted at how desensitized he has become to the horrors on the island:
Moreau presently came round the corner of the enclosure and greeted me. He passed by me, and I heard him behind me unlock and enter his laboratory. So indurated was I at that time to the abomination of the place, that I heard without a touch of emotion the puma victim begin another day of torture. It met its persecutor with a shriek almost exactly like that of an angry virago.
"Virago" refers disparagingly to a woman with masculine traits such as strength and defiance. In Wells's day, this was an unsettling concept. Society expected women to be demure, and a woman who behaved "like a man" was considered unnatural. The puma's shriek sounds "almost exactly like that of an angry virago." This image implies that there is something unnatural or out of place about the puma's situation and the fact that it needs to express such pain. Prendick trusts the reader to be moved by the shriek, and yet he writes that he heard it "without a touch of emotion." The emotional chasm between the disturbed reader and the wholly undisturbed Prendick invites the reader to be repulsed not only at the situation, but also at Prendick for failing to have the correct human response to the sound of the puma in such pain.
Prendick's failure to respond in this instance of imagery sets up the following paragraph to be even more intense in its imagery. The puma breaks free and attacks Moreau. The scene is chaotic, violent, and full of imagery. Now, Prendick is moved by what he sees, hears, smells, and feels. The puma's mangled face, the breaking of his own arm, Moreau's bloodstained face, and more bring Prendick back to his senses. He once more recognizes his surroundings as a landscape of horror.
The progressive desensitization and re-sensitization to imagery throughout the novel demonstrates how humans can learn to tolerate progressively more graphic horror. Prendick was initially disgusted by the mere sight of a dead rabbit, but he has reached the point where he knows an animal is being tortured, and he cannot be bothered. The novel thus invites the reader to be horrified not only by the violent images themselves, but also by the idea that they too might stop responding to these same images, given enough exposure to them. The novel stops just short of asking readers to look at their own surroundings with fresh eyes to rediscover the horrors all around them.
