The novel “Morel’s Invention” describes a completely enclosed space. Its central theme is escaping from reality and an attempt to perform the same action constantly. On the one hand, this is insanity, with a paranoid reference, since everything that happens around is not true, and the hero partly understands this. On the other hand, in the notes, he perceives what is happening around him as a person living in objective reality.
The theme of the novel revolves around the constant replay of recordings that come from the machine. The computer projects the same characters and similar actions at equal time intervals every day. The essence of this apparatus is to find a way to capture reality perfectly. The camera can capture the image, and the video camera can record and reproduce the movement of people. Morel’s invention surpassed these functions since it can apprehend all reality with the characteristics of feelings. In other words, it captures all sorts of sensations such as movement, vision, tactility, taste, smell, and color. The machine reproduces everything very realistically; hence it does not differ from the sensations of genuine people. The only difference is the repeatability; these projections can be reproduced forever.
The machine is hidden on an island in an impregnable chamber and has an eternal reserve of energy, which expresses the story’s symbolism. The hero tries to hide on the island all the time. He searches for premises on the island and hides in the corners of them. It means that he is trying to protect himself more morally than physically since his body is already safe. There he writes endless notes about his life. One of them is the idea that Moral, with the help of his invention, filmed his creation, and it exists endlessly on its own energy. These thoughts can be called a neurotic reaction of the protagonist. The hero denies the machine’s existence and does not want to admit the problems in his head. The eternal life of the device indicates the presence of madness in the hero’s head since it returns him to the same events from time to time. It can be attributed to the eternity of an unsolved problem. Machine acquired this property since the hero does not recognize the question’s existence; therefore, he cannot figure it out.
The concept of fiction and reality in the novel goes very far, as the neurosis of the protagonist leads to new fantasies and makes everything even more unreal. This technique is called “double reality,” and it is often used in matters of religion and philosophy. It is an illusory reality since, in fact, it is an escape from problems. The character in his notes writes about the split of his own role, sometimes he is an actor, and sometimes a spectator. Thus, he tries to escape from problems and pretend that these are not his problems at all.
The author of the novel, thanks to the footnotes, makes everything that happens more realistic. For example, the hero talks about his suffering while adapting to the island. He talks about how he had to form traps for birds, about what he learned from the pain, attacks of fever and seizures, and the poisonousness of plants. However, in a footnote, the author says that he lived under coconut trees. It is unclear how the hero could not notice them and not eat their fruits, which is definitely safe. Also, he says that the trees may have been sick, so the hero does not mention them. Although he talks about poisonous plants, it means he could clarify the most obvious things. Such moments make the reader think about the reality of what is happening and remember that this is all fiction.