Nature and nurture in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, H. G. Wells's the island of doctor Moreau and William Golding's lord of the flies

Abstract

This dissertation looks at how the theme of 'nature vs. nurture' is treated in three English novels written in three different periods: Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. A comparison of these novels allows us to survey the move from an ardent belief in the ability of nurtured man to tame nature and thus establish a 'utopia'; to a skeptical vision that doubts the ability of nurture (science) to improve la condition humaine and tame nature, the result of which being 'anti-utopia'; finally to a pessimistic view that sees nurture as helpless in transforming man and his environment for the better, thus resulting in 'dystopia'. What caused writers to despair of the ability of a well-nurtured man to achieve supremacy over the natural world is the main question this dissertation addresses. This research stems from the conviction that, through the analysis of this theme, we bring out the interactions between the authors and their times, between texts and contexts. To this end, we shall rely essentially, but not exclusively, on the theory of Cultural Materialism. This dissertation contains six chapters. The Enlightenment, as I show in the first chapter, was characterized by civilized man's confidence in his ability to tame wild nature. The second chapter is devoted to the analysis of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe which reflects the spirit of progress that dominated the late-seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The third chapter is concerned with the atmosphere of the late-nineteenth century doubts as to man's ability to successfully tame nature. This mood of skepticism and uncertainty is enhanced by man's fear of the misuse of science. H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau which is the concern of the fourth chapter epitomizes this spirit of doubt. The fifth chapter is an investigation into the twentieth century sense of hopelessness caused mainly by the disastrous results of the First and Second World Wars; the latter witnessed the dropping of the first atom bomb. In the sixth chapter, we discuss William Golding's Lord of the Flies which exemplifies the spirit of despair of the mid-twentieth century. In the conclusion, we find that the answer to the question of whether nurture enables man to tame wild nature depends on the writer's viewpoint which is, for its part, shaped by both the historical and literary ideology/ies of his/her time