The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Montgomery Laughton is one of the novel’s two protagonists, and approximately half of the novel is narrated from his point of view. He functions as a counterpoint to Carlota’s perspective, representing worldly experience to contrast Carlota’s innocence. He also brings the perspective of someone who comes to Yaxaktun as an outsider. Montgomery’s name functions as an allusion to the novel The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells in which a character named Montgomery works closely with the Doctor Moreau character in his experiments. Montgomery contributes strongly to the rising action of the plot by unsettling the placid dynamics at Yaxaktun, and making choices that drive the plot forward, such as alerting Eduardo’s father to the burgeoning relationship between Eduardo and Carlota.

Montgomery’s traumatic past—growing up in England, experiencing abuse from his father, and grieving the death of his sister and the dissolution of his marriage—gives him a cynical and even nihilistic perspective on the world and the people in it. Montgomery has “heard and seen a veritable litany of horrors […] he simply thought that [the world] was the work of a cruel and wicked god” (144). He drinks heavily as both a form of self-punishment and anesthetization against the trauma of his past: “[W]henever the world [is] bitter the alcohol muffle[s] the pain” (243). However, Montgomery balances his cynicism with a natural empathy. He can see that Carlota feels the oppression of gendered expectations, and he feels protective toward her. When it comes to the hybrids, Montgomery immediately recognizes that Doctor Moreau is exploiting them for his own ends.

While Montgomery has a strong sense of empathy and integrity, he is also highly motivated by his desire and love for Carlota. He meddles in her relationship with Eduardo and chooses to stay behind with her at Yaxaktun because he loves her. His feelings for Carlota blur the lines between his empathy and his desire. He’s self-aware enough to recognize that Carlota does not return his feelings, and he eventually sets boundaries that allow him to be respectful of her, striving to maintain a friendship even if she cannot offer him more. Over the course of the novel, Montgomery remains relatively stable and consistent as a character. He does not overcome his sense of self-loathing, or his sadness and dependence on alcohol. However, Montgomery shows a deep capacity for loyalty and care—characteristics that Carlota hopes will ultimately lead him back to her.

A complex and morally ambiguous character, Doctor Moreau functions as a nuanced antagonist—holding Carlota back both physically and emotionally from becoming her true self. Moreau is highly intelligent and an innovative thinker, unafraid to take on new challenges, and able to achieve astonishing results—as evidenced by his work with the hybrids. Moreau is also vain and prideful about his achievements, and even when others critique his decisions, he defends his choices by explaining that “I sought to rectify [Nature]. To perfect God’s creation. To eliminate the ills of man” (203). Moreau’s God-complex leads him to believe that he deserves complete obedience and deference from his creations, including Carlota. He makes all of his decisions in service to that compliance even if they require coldness and cruelty, such as when he brutally beats Cachito.

Moreau dies proclaiming his love for his daughter—affection he believes is genuine—despite his actions toward her, which reinforces his sense of entitlement and provides a picture of Parental Abuse and Oppression. Like Montgomery, Moreau’s character has been shaped by grief, and he is profoundly traumatized by the loss of his wife. Moreau’s ability to provide care for his daughter and his other hybrids makes him partially sympathetic as a character, as does his physical fragility as an elderly man. As a white, highly-educated, European man, Moreau believes he is superior to the other characters around him, which is rooted in an internalized racist, classist, and misogynistic paradigm. Despite his claims to love Carlota, Moreau will willingly sacrifice anything, including his daughter’s happiness, to continue his intellectual pursuits.

Eduardo Lizalde is a handsome young son of a wealthy planter in the city of Mérida. Eduardo’s father owns Yaxaktun, which is how he first encounters Carlota. Because of his social and economic privilege, Eduardo is arrogant and entitled. He genuinely desires Carlota, and looks at her with “blatant joy and feverish yearning” (171). However, even at the height of his infatuation, Eduardo sees Carlota as an object—something he wants to possess her. He is obsessed with her beauty, but is much less interested in learning about her own opinions and desires.

Eduardo embodies the social conventions of class and gender privilege that Carlota rebels against. Eduardo’s infatuation with Carlota quickly dissipates when he finds out that she is a hybrid, reinforcing the prescribed social mores of the period regarding gendered respectability. Once he learns that Carlota is a hybrid, Eduardo no longer sees her as a suitable wife, instead taking for granted that she will become his mistress. Like Moreau, he insists on control and subservience, promising that “life with him [will] be […] simple and good as long as she agree[s] with everything he [says]” (281). Eduardo’s character does not change or evolve over the course of the novel, pointing to the rigidity of the social conventions he embodies—conventions structured to reify his own Power and Dominance Over the Vulnerable. When Carlota brutally kills him, his death resonates on a broader thematic level as well—the act of the marginalized throwing off their oppressor.