Literary Criticisms

The Island of Doctor Moreau

Postcolonial

In The Island of Doctor Moreau, Wells uses certain techniques to display gothic uncanny. Wells' creation of a cruel, amoral scientist conducting strange tests on living creatures on an isolated island contributes towards the uncanny. The Beast People combine the familiarity of humans and animals into strange, unsettling creatures blurring the line between human and non-human. The Law forces these creatures to mimic human behavior and remove their natural instincts, creating a tension between familiarity and strangeness. Wells utilizes a chilling atmosphere, unsettling creatures, and distorted human behavior to create gothic uncanny, highlighting blurred boundaries of humanity and nature.

Gothic Uncanny

In The Island of Doctor Moreau, Wells uses certain techniques to display gothic uncanny. Wells' creation of a cruel, amoral scientist conducting strange tests on living creatures on an isolated island contributes towards the uncanny. The Beast People combine the familiarity of humans and animals into strange, unsettling creatures blurring the line between human and non-human. The Law forces these creatures to mimic human behavior and remove their natural instincts, creating a tension between familiarity and strangeness. Wells utilizes a chilling atmosphere, unsettling creatures, and distorted human behavior to create gothic uncanny, highlighting blurred boundaries of humanity and nature.

The Time Machine

Darwinism

Wells’ science background is presented in The Time Machine when he utilizes basic foundations of Darwinism. The Eloi and Morlocks are both human groups that evolved differently throughout time to adapt to different lifestyles. This demonstrates a central point of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution: natural selection. Wells include evolutionary traits to both species that provide certain functions to their corresponding environment. He also includes the loss of some traits within the Eloi species. Without certain pressures and hardships, species lose abilities. Applying the laws of Darwinism to human society, H.G. Wells warns that comfort and leisure can lead to weaker, divided forms of humans.

Marxism

H.G. Wells includes Marxist themes in his novel The Time Machine. The Morlocks and Eloi are two distinct groups of people who are a part of different working classes. The Eloi own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the Morlocks spend their whole lives working under the Eloi (proletariat). There is a great split between these two classes: one has leisure time under a comfortable existence, whereas the other sells their life away to work. Wells demonstrates the growing separation of the economic state under a government failing to protect its people. He ultimately criticizes the bourgeoisie’s mental dullness from a life of security and comfort. Wells warns that unchecked socioeconomic inequality can degrade humanity and therefore limit progress of the human race.

The War of the Worlds

Posthumanism

H.G. Wells uses posthumanism ideas to demonstrate the vulnerability of the human race when threatened by a power source. Humans are cocky and are overconfident in the human race from years of superiority over other species. When the Martians arrive in The War of the Worlds, the humans dismiss their landing as not a threat due to overconfidence of the human’s ability. Wells challenges the idea of anthropocentrism (the belief that humans are the dominant or most important species). The Martian invasion shows how human arrogance can lead to a society dismissing a real threat. This shows survival is not guaranteed from past superiority.

Psychological

H.G. Wells reveals manny flaws in human psychology in his novel The War of the Worlds. Humans underestimate risk and danger instead accepting the severity of certain situations. In certain situations, humans attempt to ignore challenging situations and hide the truth. Even as the Martians sent down more pods, the human soldiers continued to mock their presence and abilities. After they acknowledged the power of the Martians, the soldiers wanted to return to normalcy. Humans are arrogant and dismiss difficult situations, then beg to return to comfort. This highlights the fragility of the human mind under stressful conditions.

The Time Machine / The Island of Doctor Moreau

Social

H.G. Wells criticizes social inequality and ethics of the human race. He warns that neglecting social standards will lead to an unequal society in terms of influence, power, and money. In The Time Machine two different species of humans live under separate social and economic opportunities creating a large separation between the two groups. Wells also argues that mistreatment of other beings leads to ethical decay. In The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Beast People are neglected revealing moral decay due to exploitation. Overall, human behavior and morality can shape the socioeconomic situation of a society.

Darwinism

Wells challenges the belief that human evolution is always progress showing evolution can lead to degeneration. In many novels, H.G. Wells criticizes the common Victorian belief that humans are the pinnacle of evolution. In The Time Machine species of humans degenerate from constant comfort and leisure. Wells utilizes his scientific knowledge influenced by T.H Huxley to explore evolutionary connections between humans and animals. In The Island of Doctor Moreau, humans and animals are artificially modified showing that evolution can be shaped by external forces.

Bibliography

Chambers, Mollie, et al. “Sample Literary Interpretation Essays.” Composition for Commodores, Lorain County Community College, 2 June 2025, pressbooks.pub/compositionforcommodores/chapter/sample-literary-interpretation-essays Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.
says:, Uldis Roze. “The Time Machine.” Reflections on Great Literature -, greatlit.commons.gc.cuny.edu/the-time-machine/ . Accessed 1 Dec. 2025.
(PDF) the Gothic Uncanny as Colonial Allegory in the Island of Doctor Moreau, www.researchgate.net/publication/345506133_The_Gothic_Uncanny_as_Colonial_Allegory_in_The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau . Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.
“The Beast Within: HG Wells, the Island of Doctor.” Docslib, 2020, docslib.org/doc/13410192/the-beast-within-hg-wells-the-island-of-doctor? Accessed 2 Dec. 2025.