All Actions Bear Consequences

According to Dictionary.com, Karma is defined as “the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person’s deeds in the previous incarnation; fate; destiny;” hence, one person’s actions, whether positive or negative, will result in some reward or punishment in the future. Nonetheless, characters in both Voltaire’s and H.G. Wells’ novels undoubtedly believe that they are able to conduct an experiment that will alter the future, not knowing that something similar to what many call “karma” will come around to haunt their actions. In Candide, an “auto-da-fe,” or “act of faith,” is performed, where individuals who have committed some crime against the Roman Catholic Church are publicly punished. Hoping to prevent future earthquakes in Lisbon, the Portuguese put several individuals on public display to suffer, only for the earth to shake later that day. Similarly, in The Island of Doctor Moreau, Doctor Moreau, himself, experiments with vivisection, or the live dissection of an animal without medication. To his dismay, though, the newly configured “humans” rapidly deteriorate back to their animal state. Ultimately, as one can derive from the novels Candide and The Island of Doctor Moreau, the deformation of living bodies is used as a means to alter the future; however, the expectations of the actions prove to be counterproductive.

Whether one sees the decision as idiotic or logical, a Portugal University felt the best way to avert future environmental hazards was through the damaging of living bodies. Nowadays, scientists understand that the occurrence of earthquakes are natural and will happen regardless of human interference; however, this science is nearly a recent d...

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...e of living bodies and inflicting harm and destroying the body in order for a superior power to achieve a specific future goal. In Portugal, bodies were publicly harmed as a theoretical punishment to prevent any damage to the city in the future. Similarly, Doctor Moreau tampered with and deformed various species of animals through vivisection to create a permanent humanly figure and a new finding in the scientific world. In the end, however, both actions performed in each novel produced similar counterproductive results: an earthquake occurred later that same day in Portugal, and Moreau’s vivisected animal-human species reverted rapidly back to their animal being. Thus, as the famous saying goes, “what goes around comes around;” perhaps our best bet for a better outlook on the future should consider this abstract idea of karma and the consequences of our actions.