The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a historical novel set in the 19th century, fusing events from the historical record with fictional events and fantastical elements. Moreno-Garcia adapts several features of the 19th century novel The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells including character names and plot points, but makes one key alteration: setting the novel in Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. This shift allows for an allegorical exploration of European colonization in Mexico in the 19th century and, thematically, a nuanced commentary on Power and Dominance Over the Vulnerable. A peninsula is an area of land that juts out, surrounded on three sides by water; Moreno-Garcia includes a quotation prior to the main text of the novel that states: “the Maya vocabulary […] employs the word ‘peten’ promiscuously for both island and peninsula” (n.p). As a somewhat isolated and rugged area, the Yucatan region mirrors the island setting of Wells’s novel. The isolated and self-contained nature of the Yaxaktun estate further mirrors the idea of an island; in both novels, the Moreau character holds sway and authority over a self-contained world unto itself.

Moreno-Garcia incorporates historical and socio-political context into a plot that also features science fiction elements. In the 19th century, Yucatan landowners like Hernando Lizalde could own lucrative plantations dedicated to the cultivation of crops such as sugarcane. However, the cultivation of these crops involved intensive labor, often in difficult and exploitative conditions—labor that could be provided by Mayans, an Indigenous people whose ancestral home was the Yucatan region, as well as Black and Asian laborers. Beginning in 1847, armed conflict began between the Mayans and Mexicans (who were sometimes of European and Indigenous ancestry), and this conflict (known as the Caste War of the Yucatan) lasted for decades. Lizalde’s eagerness to use hybrids as a workforce reflects this historical context and his fears about a Mayan population increasingly mobilizing against oppressive practices, demanding rights and autonomy.

Moreno-Garcia employs a dual-perspective in the narrative with chapters alternating between Montgomery and Carlota’s points of view. This structure allows for the same events to be presented from two different perspectives, revealing new information, and creating narrative tension and suspense with the different timelines operating simultaneously; for example, readers only learn about how Carlota snuck into the lab after Montgomery has woken up to the sound of a scream. The dual-perspective allows for significant insight into the psychology of both primary characters who serve as foils for each other.

The juxtaposition between the two points of view is important because Montgomery is initially the only character who can bring the perspective of an outsider to the isolated and insular estate of Yaxaktun. The rising action of the plot begins with Montgomery’s arrival, which disrupts the otherwise static nature of the estate, where everything is rigidly controlled, and rarely changes. Preparing for Montgomery’s arrival, Carlota recognizes that he is “an entirely new element that [will] soon be introduced into her world […] like when Father spoke of foreign bodies” (9). Montgomery’s arrival symbolizes the inevitability of change. Just as the natural world will change with the seasons and Carlota will mature from a child into an adult, Moreau can’t keep the estate entirely isolated forever. Montgomery’s arrival also foreshadows the subsequent arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, which will cause much greater conflict and disruption. The rising action of the plot beginning with Montgomery’s arrival at the isolated estate reinforces the parallels between Moreno-Garcia’s novel and The Island of Doctor Moreau, where the plot begins with a shipwrecked man arriving on an isolated island.

The contrast between Carlota and Montgomery as characters introduces the theme of Innocence and Experience into the novel, with Carlota representing innocence and Montgomery embodying experience, or even cynicism. Carlota is significantly younger and much more sheltered than Montgomery; her entire worldview has been shaped and controlled by her father, whereas Montgomery has been forced to be independent from a young age, and has also traveled extensively. Montgomery’s life experiences have convinced him that the world is a cruel place and he’s “lost any faith he’d ever had long before he ever touched the shore of the Americas” (15). The tension between Carlota’s innocence and Montgomery’s experience is perpetuated because it is not clear which of the two states is preferable. Carlota might be vulnerable and, at times, ignorant, but she is also often happier, and has a greater capacity for hope.

While Montgomery is worldlier and more autonomous than Carlota, he has also encountered many more obstacles and challenges. Carlota has been quite sheltered and privileged, whereas Montgomery is haunted by tragic events from his past. Montgomery’s abusive childhood introduces the theme of Parental Abuse and Oppression into the novel, and also foreshadows that Doctor Moreau will eventually prove to be a more insidiously abusive and exploitative parent. However, the backstory of Montgomery’s abusive childhood and his subsequent decision to flee from his family home and country at first implies that Carlota is lucky to have grown up in such a nurturing environment, where she is well-protected and given everything she could want.

Because Carlota grows up in such isolation and is given a significant amount of independence, she initially appears liberated from some of the period's prescribed expectations of traditionally feminine behavior. The arrival of Montgomery and, eventually, Eduardo Lizalde symbolizes the intrusion of the wider world into Yaxaktun. Upon the arrival of outsiders, Doctor Moreau immediately requires Carlota to perform according to the expected gender norms of a respectable young woman. As she prepares for the visit from Lizalde and Montgomery, Carlota dons an elaborate, fashionable dress that makes her look “like a large cake” (5), symbolizing the norms of femininity that she is expected to embody.

The imagery evoked by Montgomery as he observes Carlota reflects his own experience with his sister and foreshadows Carlota’s own struggle to achieve independence and autonomy. Montgomery reflects that “women [are] butterflies pinned against a board” (23), reflecting a cynical and somewhat binary view of how much power a woman can hold. While Carlota’s privileged life initially seems much freer and more empowered than that of Montgomery’s sister, Elizabeth, who suffered patriarchal oppression and abuse at the hands of her father and husband. In the early chapters of the novel, Carlota appears to occupy a very different position—a notion shattered by the eventual reveal that nearly everything she believed to be true about herself and her home is a lie. Significantly, Montgomery’s hyper-sensitivity to what his sister experienced shapes his ability to notice and empathize with Carlota in a time when women had few legal rights and freedoms.