Unnatural Vs. Natural, revisited in The Island of Dr. Moreau

"I say I becme habituated to the Beast People, that a thousand things that had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and ordinary to me. I suppose everything in existence takes its coulour from the average hue of our surroundings: Montgomery and Moreau were too peculiar and individual to keep my general impressions of humanity well defined."
-page 87

Define natural. Something natural is something existing in or produced by nautre, not artifical, and not an imitation. Now define unnatural. The opposite of natural. Not occuring in nature on its own. Something that must be artifically created. Some definitions of unnatural include grotesque, distorted, abnormal, and hideous. I would argue that nature is full of some grotesque looking things. Not everything that occurs naturally or by natural means is beautiful.

This paragraph from The Island of Dr. Moreau is very profound. HG Wells is essentially making a mandate about the societal and humanized concepts of natural and unnatural. Webster's put aside, he states that everything in existence takes its colour from the average hue of its surroundings. Here in our world, things seem natural. Prendick is ultimately transfered to this little island, this "other world." Everything on this island is different from anything he has ever previously dealt with. The human beings on the island, Moreau and Montgomery, have human natures that seem completely dysfunctional to Prendick. Their ethics, morals, and general way of life is completely different from anything he has ever encountered elsewhere. Thus, initially this seems unnatural. He has never seen these strange beast creatures before, thus they are unnatural. As he grows accustomed to living on this island with a drastically different way of life, it becomes natural to him.