How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I lay across one of the thwarts for I know not how long, thinking that if I had the strength I would drink sea-water and madden myself to die quickly. (1.6)
It seems rather telling that a trip to Moreau's island begins with suffering. Almost like a foreshadowing kind of thing (psst, it's totally foreshadowing). Still, it beats flying coach on a red-eye.
Quote #2
Fastened by chains to the mainmast were a number of grisly staghounds, who now began leaping and barking at me, and by the mizzen a huge puma was cramped in a little iron cage, far too small even to give it turning-room. (3.8)
Poor puma, it has a pretty rough time in this book. Its entire purpose in the novel seems to be to suffer. Even here. All he wants to do is run around, and such a simple act becomes one of suffering.
Quote #3
Suddenly the puma howled again, this time more painfully, Montgomery swore under his breath. (8.19)
Suffering affects those around it. When the puma suffers, Montgomery suffers. It's contagious, like a disease.
Quote #4
And, as I had waded into the water, I remembered that if I were too hard pressed at least one path of escape from torment still lay open to me—they could not very well prevent my drowning myself. (11.7)
Every instinct a human has is aimed towards survival. Yet, presented with enough suffering, we will gladly choose death. Apparently there really is such a thing as intolerable suffering.
Quote #5
"See! I did a little thing, a wrong thing once. I jabbered, jabbered, stopped talking. None could understand. I am burnt, branded in the hand. He is great, he is good!" (12.37)
Sometimes people can be conditioned to enjoy suffering. No seriously, take the Ape here. When he could no longer talk, Moreau vivisected it back into him, and now he loves Moreau all the more for it. Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?
Quote #6
"It may be that save in this little planet, this speck of cosmic dust, invisible long before the nearest star could be attained—it may be, I say, that nowhere else does this thing called pain occur." (14.23)
Here's Moreau's cosmic (and shaky) defense for the suffering he causes. This suffering, really any suffering on the entire planet, is tiny on the cosmic scale. Completely insignificant. Of course, Moreau's grand ambition fails to recognize that what's tiny for the universe can be pretty huge to us.
Quote #7
"This store men and women set on pleasure and pain, Prendick, is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark of the beast from which they came." (14.26)
Suffering comes from the fact that we are animals. When we don't get life necessities or when we damage our bodies, nature uses pain and suffering to tell us, "Hey, stop doing that!" It's a shame then that empathy, the emotion that lets us know we are hurting others, is not natural.
Quote #8
"Each time I dip a living creature into the bath of burning pain, I say: this time I will burn out all the animal, this time I will make a rational creature of my own!" (14.41)
Meet Moreau in full-on mad scientist mode. He still recognizes pain for what it is, the nerves responding to bodily damage. But it's left him blind to the suffering of said pain. In the mad scientist cocktail, this type of ambition is a key ingredient.
Quote #9
When I heard that, I forgave the poor wretch all the fear he had inspired in me. (16.83)
Leopard Man has caused Prendick to suffer (more mentally than physically). However, seeing Leopard Man's own fear and suffering, Prendick has a moment of empathy and can forgive the creature. An empathy epiphany, if you will (sorry, but we're total word nerds here at Shmoop, and this kind of stuff makes us giggle).
Quote #10
The men in [the boat] were dead, had been dead so long that they fell to pieces when I tilted the boat on its side and dragged them out. (21.51)
Prendick's own suffering brought him to the island, and the suffering of others will allow him to leave. It's one of those "Circle of Life" deals, minus the Elton John pop musical number.