Religious Authority and Order Theme Analysis

Surprisingly, Moreau’s island, populated entirely by Beast Folk save for three humans, begins as a relatively civil place (aside from Moreau’s work). The Beast Folk live in a peaceful society, despite the constant animalistic urges they feel to let loose and hunt prey. This civility is due entirely to the Law, a system of rules and beliefs that Moreau has devised to govern their behavior. The Law effectively functions as a religious authority on the island; when this authority is removed, society breaks down and chaos ensues. This dependence on the Law suggests that the existence of some type of religious or moral authority is critical to maintaining order in human society as well.

In creating the Law, Moreau essentially establishes himself as the ultimately authority over the Beast Folks’ lives. Moreau encourages them to act “morally” and resist their animal instincts, further establishing the Law a clear symbolic parallel of organized religion. The Law teaches the Beast Folk to act “morally”—which in Moreau’s mind is to act like humans and not like animals—by demanding that the Beast Folk walk on two legs, not eat raw meat, not chase prey, speak English rather than make animal noises, and so on. When the Beast Folk all follow the law, the order of their society is maintained. The Law, taught by recitation and repetition, sounds much like the Ten Commandments and functions as a religious teaching. Moreau deifies himself through the law, effectively placing him in the role of God and giving him authority in the minds of the Beast Folk. Through the Law, the Beast Folk see Moreau as their creator and sustainer, as well as their ideal model for how to speak and behave. This motivates them to want to adhere to the Law to be more like Moreau (that is, more human). The deification and idealization of Moreau through the Law works much like the deification of Christ in Christianity, in that his followers are given both someone to please and someone to imitate. The Law also comes with the threat of punishment. Those who break the Law must go back to the House of Pain—what the Beast Folk call Moreau’s vivisection room—to face the anger of Moreau, ostensibly through the literal pain of undergoing more vivisection. The House of Pain bears an obvious similarity to the threat of Hell with its physical torment, which itself serves to motivate human beings not to follow through on their base urges. The Law, as the moral authority of the Beast Folk, thus clearly reflects the religious or moral authority in human society—it provides moral teaching, a positive ideal to aspire to, and the negative enforcement of punishment. With all of these combined, the presence of the Law ensures that order is maintained on the island. The Beast Folk respect Moreau’s authority, act like humans, and do not hunt or fight with each other just as, under organized religion—or a comparable moral authority—human beings do not steal, murder, or fight each other, acting on their own primal instincts.

When Moreau’s authority is questioned and the religion of the Law crumbles, the ordered society of the Beast Folk breaks down. This suggests that in human society, without the presence of religious or moral authority the maintained order would similarly fall into chaos. When Moreau is killed, the importance of the Law is immediately questioned by the Beast Folk. Since Moreau embodied the authority of the Law and its ideal, that authority now seems to be dead as well. This suggests that a religion or moral order can only be sustained as long as its symbol of authority is intact. As the Law fades in the minds of the Beast Folk, society breaks down. The Beast Folk reject Moreau’s “morality” and regress to their animal instincts once again, running on all fours, hunting each other, and losing their ability to speak. The Beast Folk cease to be a society and devolve into a group of feral animals. This argues that religion and its moral authority are necessary to maintain order in human society, for without it they will throw off morality and resort to their most basic urges, inviting chaos. A primary function of religious authority, then, seems to be to prevent human beings from following through on their most primal instincts.

When Moreau died, so did the authority of the Law. Without Moreau’s presence to sustain and enforce the religion of the Law, the moral order that held the Beast Folk’s society together ultimately falls and the Beast Folk act out their base primal urges. Through this, Wells argues that religion and its moral authority—involving teachings, an ideal to strive toward, and threat of punishment—are thus critical to maintaining order within human society and keeping people from regressing to their own most basic urges.