The Law Symbol Analysis

The Law represents religious authority and its critical role in maintaining order in human society (in Wells’s view). Moreau’s Law maintains order on the island by requiring the Beast Folk to resist their animalistic urges, replacing them with human qualities. When the Law’s moral authority is challenged and ultimately breaks down, the Beast Folk resort to their animal instincts and the order of society falls apart. This argues that, similarly, if the religious or moral authority of a human society is lost, human beings will cease repressing their most basic desires and the structure of civilization will break down.

Structurally, the Law works very similarly to Christianity. Moreau establishes himself as the ultimate authority, the creator of all things, occupying the same role as God. The Law’s dictates teach the Beast Folk how to repress their basic urges and act with civility, sounding very similar to the biblical Ten Commandments in their recitation. The House of Pain serves as the threat of punishment, negatively enforcing obedience to the Law, much like the Christian idea of hell. With this similarity, the breakdown of Moreau’s Law makes a distinctive point in the way that religion may lose its moral authority within human society. When Moreau—being both the embodiment of the Law and its source of authority—is killed, it effectively represents the death of moral authority. The Beast Folk instantly begin to doubt the Law and the most rebellious among them throw it off entirely, becoming animals once more. Though some of the Beast Folk want to maintain the Law even though they no longer believe in Moreau’s authority, they are ultimately unable to maintain this; without the ideal to strive toward and the threat of punishment, everyone gives in to their repressed urges. Thus, in human society, if the authority that ties together a religious or moral system—in Christianity’s case, the existence of God—is removed, the entire system may persist for a time but will ultimately crumble. Unless that moral system can be quickly replaced, the ordering of society will fall apart as human beings fall prey to their most basic, antisocial urges. This suggests that without a religious or moral system governing individuals, it may be impossible for human society to be anything more than a group of feral animals.