The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

“Mexico was constantly buffeted by conquering forces and internal strife. Moreau was but another European man who’d arrived with a bit of capital and great ambition.”

This quotation provides context for Moreau’s experiences in Mexico, and for the novel’s historical and geo-political context. It’s significant that Moreau is European, and not Mexican; his cultural background reflects his sense of entitlement and belief that he should be able to pursue his research without any constraints. It also reflects the way that he views the hybrids and even Carlota as fundamentally lesser. Because Mexico is a colonized country, Moreau is able to obtain and wield significant power as a European man, a power he largely misuses, exerting that Power and Domination Over the Vulnerable.

“Elizabeth hadn’t killed herself. She’d been murdered. Women were butterflies pinned against a board.”

Montgomery’s feelings about his sister’s death reveal the guilt that torments him and drives him to self-medicate with alcohol. His perception of his sister’s fate influences how he sees other women. The metaphor of the pinned butterfly highlights the way Montgomery fixates on the fragility of women and sees them as helpless. It introduces a mindset that will strongly impact the way that Montgomery relates to Carlota.

“The hybrids might address our worker issues.”

Lizalde explains to Montgomery his plans for Moreau’s research. As a wealthy plantation owner, Lizalde desires to maintain a compliant workforce that he can exploit for his profit. He has traditionally relied on labor provided by the Indigenous Mayan people, but they are beginning to assert more independence and autonomy. Moreau and Lizalde’s collusion is driven by greed and colonialist exploitation; as a result, the hybrids’ oppression is similar to the oppression experienced by colonized peoples.

“Everywhere Montgomery had been he’d spied the same misery under a different guise. In England it was in the factories, in Latin America it was in the fields. There was always someone with a little more money, a little more power, and he owned you.”

Montgomery’s travels and life experiences have given him a more expansive perspective and empathy for others. While Montgomery is a white, European man, he has grown up working-class, and has also felt vulnerable due to his abusive childhood. As a result, he is able to relate to many people who are exploited, including hybrids and Indigenous people. This quotation connects the experiences of disenfranchised people in Mexico to a broader, global system of class-based exploitation under capitalism.

“The doctor’s daughter could do as she pleased because it was Yaxaktun.”

Carlota grows up with a significant amount of social freedom and autonomy within the boundaries of her estate, which is unusual given her gender and social class. This freedom gives context for the development of Carlota’s character, and why she is simultaneously naive and independent. The quotation also serves to position Yaxaktun as an ambiguous place: It is somewhat sinister because of the intense control that Moreau exerts, but because of its isolation, it is also relatively free from social constraints.

“Each month of the calendar was marked with tasks, from the cutting of the wood to the careful collection of honey. The land set their rhythm, like a metronome.”

Life at Yaxaktun aligns with the rhythms of nature. While Doctor Moreau’s experiments are unnatural, and reveal an arrogant belief that he can develop reproductive processes that are superior to nature, the hybrids live in a way guided by the wisdom of the local Indigenous people. While the European characters are largely a destructive force in the novel, the Mayan people and the hybrids are able to live in a collaborative and sustainable relationship with the natural world, which imbues Yaxaktun with a kind of Edenic ethos, where life is sheltered, calm, and peaceful.

“If one of them were to court her, we might be able to survive this dry spell. They won’t toss us out, and if she were to marry, everything is assured.”

Doctor Moreau’s cynical and pragmatic outlook as to why it would be beneficial for Carlota to marry Eduardo Lizalde points to the novel’s theme of Parental Abuse and Oppression. Moreau is not interested in whether Carlota would be happy with Eduardo, and he also ignores that his daughter’s secret hybrid identity makes her especially vulnerable to danger if discovered. Moreau treats his daughter like a commodity that can be exchanged, foreshadowing the subsequent reveal that Moreau sees his daughter as his creation, something he can manipulate, and not as truly human.

“Carlota loved everything about Yaxaktun, but most of all she loved her father. He was like the sun in the sky, lighting her days.”

Carlota adores her father and as a result of this intense emotional bond, she overlooks some of the ways in which he behaves suspiciously and exploitatively. The intensity of their bond is in part because he keeps her isolated from everyone else, making her dependent on him. The simile comparing Carlota’s father to the sun underscores this dependency and the degree to which her happiness is linked to his approval.

“After all, they had bodies that had been tempered in front of pianos and desks, bodies that knew the motions of carriages and the sounds of a city.”

Carlota compares Montgomery’s body to the bodies of Eduardo and his cousin, after she sees Montgomery swimming in the cenote. Carlota’s comment reveals that she is able to contextualize the different bodies based on different lifestyles and social positions—a signal she is becoming less sheltered, and more aware of the world around her. The quotation also reflects Carlota’s increasing maturity and sexual curiosity as she begins to be interested in men and their bodies.

“How do you intend to punish that hellish animal? […] It deserves a good lashing.”

Isidro (Eduardo’s cousin), furious after Cachito attacks and bites him, makes it clear that those outside Yaxaktun will view the hybrids merely as animals to be controlled and dominated. While Carlota thinks of Cachito as her brother, Isidro does not see any indications of humanity. Isidro’s anger and immediate desire for physical punishment indicates that the hybrids function as an allegory for servants or enslaved people; he views them as essentially Moreau’s property, and subject to physical punishment if they are disobedient.

“All fathers are tyrants, he thought.”

As Montgomery watches Doctor Moreau beat Cachito, the sight brings back memories of Montgomery’s own abusive childhood; he is able to empathize with Cachito because he can relate to being vulnerable and afraid. The quotation shows how power generally corrupts. Whenever individuals have control over others, they quickly begin to abuse those who are more vulnerable. Montgomery’s statement highlights how systems of colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism are all interlinked, and lead to the exploitation of those who lack power.

“You should not have an attack if you follow the rules I’ve set down. To go to bed at the same time each night and sleep soundly, to pray and read your Bible for comfort, to be gentle and serene and avoid exerting yourself physically.”

When Carlota asks for access to the “formula” that supposedly keeps her symptoms under control, and also controls pain in the hybrids, her father makes it clear that he wants to maintain his control and authority. Carlota wants greater independence and autonomy, and accessing the formula would give her this. When Moreau describes what he thinks would be best for his daughter, he articulates the norms that would typically be expected for a young woman from this class and era. He seeks to control Carlota by encouraging her to view herself as fragile and delicate, another example of Parental Abuse and Oppression.

“She knew she’d be happy forever.”

Carlota’s reaction after she and Eduardo make love for the first time and he agrees to marry her proves to be ironic. Far from lasting forever, Carlota’s relationship with Eduardo ends abruptly, causing much suffering and violence. Her reaction reflects her dreamy and romantic nature, as well as her naivety and the sheltered nature of her life when she first begins her relationship with Eduardo, setting the stage for Eduardo and Moreau’s attempts to exploit and taken advantage of her.

“But now she was beginning to understand there was such a thing as choice and that there were ways to nudge her fiancé in the direction she wanted, like one guides a horse.”

Carlota’s perspective as she negotiates with Eduardo about being given control of Yaxaktun after their marriage demonstrates the progression of her arc from innocence to experience. Carlota displays her increasing maturity and psychological sophistication—in clear contrast to her childhood in which she was completely subservient to her father, and never challenged him. With the man whom she thinks will become her husband, Carlota realizes that she can exercise agency to get what she wants. The metaphor comparing Eduardo to a horse reflects that Carlota cannot assert her will using physical force, but she has other means of maintaining control.

“I did not expect him to tell me the doctor’s daughter was the literal child of a wildcat.”

As Hernando Lizalde explains that Carlota is a hybrid, his evident revulsion reveals that he sees Carlota as inferior and subhuman. The specific comment about Carlota being the daughter of a wildcat also makes it clear why Lizalde is so appalled by this discovery: The qualities associated with a predatory cat (fierceness, cunning, and hunting instincts) contrast specifically with the qualities Lizalde seeks in a docile and submissive daughter-in-law.

“The shadows cradled her: she slipped in and out of them in the darkness of the courtyard, in the greenery of the jungle. Fluid, like water, like a ghost, like the jaguar when it hunts.”

As Montgomery processes the news that Carlota is a hybrid, he thinks back to the unusual qualities he has observed in her, and realizes he has always had a sense of something uncanny, indicating that Carlota exhibited animalistic traits that previously went unnoticed.

“I sought to rectify that. To perfect God’s creation. To eliminate the ills of man.”

Doctor Moreau attempts to justify why he pursued the creation of hybrids, including Carlota. Frustrated and traumatized by the death of his wife, Moreau believed he could create a new race of beings who would be less fallible and vulnerable. Moreau develops a God-complex by usurping the role of a divine creator. Because of the role he plays in creating new organisms, he becomes convinced of his own superiority and assumes that his creations owe him complete obedience.

“You are an impossibility, practically a creature from myth. A sphynx, my love.”

Doctor Moreau sees Carlota as more of an object than a human being, and he expects her to be completely obedient to him. However, he also takes pride and pleasure in her as the best and most extraordinary of his creation, feeding his own ego. Moreau urges Carlota to take pride in herself, but also emphasizes that she is not a human being.

“If she’d been a siren luring him to the bottom of the sea, he would have followed. If she’d been a gorgon he’d have let himself be turned into stone.”

When Carlota comes to Montgomery’s room and tries to seduce him. he compares Carlota to mythological figures, sirens and gorgons, who were known to be dangerous to men—comparisons that indicate he knows she is different from an ordinary human woman, but also that he does not care. The revelation of Carlota’s hybrid identity does not abate his desire for and attraction to her.

“We are friends, Carlota. That won’t change.”

The morning after Carlota tries to seduce him, Montgomery reassures her that he still respects and cares for her, demonstrating his empathy and emotional maturity; he doesn’t punish Carlota for failing to reciprocate the desire he feels for her. It also implies that friendship can be a motivation as powerful as romantic love. Montgomery remains fiercely loyal to Carlota even though it is clear they likely won’t pursue a romantic relationship.

“I don’t know how to help you, but you can’t start by hating yourself.”

Montgomery sees Carlota showing frustration with her hybrid identity, struggling with her new strength, and the way that her emotions can cause her to lash out violently. Montgomery wants Carlota to find peace and self-acceptance; he is in a good position to offer this advice, because he himself has suffered by blaming and judging himself for most of his life.

“She pictured not lonesome misery in her future, but a warm island of safety.”

In a moment when it briefly seems like Eduardo and Carlota will reconcile; she cannot resist the temptation of believing he might change, and the two of them could be happy together. The quotation shows that Carlota has not yet completed her narrative arc between Innocence and Experience; it also shows that her fear of being alone is part of what drives her to cling to the fantasy of being with Eduardo. The idea of a relationship with him being like an island also reveals how Carlota longs for safety and seclusion, the cornerstones of her early life growing up with her father.

“He was my father. But that is not my family.”

Carlota doesn’t hesitate to sign paperwork that legally requires her to stop using the Moreau family name, acknowledging that she feels deeper bonds with the hybrids, and with Montgomery, because they have been loyal and caring to her. Having transitioned fully from the innocence of her childhood to her life as an independent woman, Carlota wants to build a new identity for herself. She also uses the past tense to refer to Doctor Moreau, showing that she has started to accept his death.