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| Huxley,Aldous: Brave new World
Huxley,Aldous: Brave new World
ALDOUS HUXLEY: Brave New
World
THE AUTHOR
Aldous Huxley was born in 1894, the third son
of Leonard Huxley and the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley (an important disciole
of Darwin). His mother, who died when Aldous was fourteen, was the niece of
niece of Matthew Arnold (a Victorian poet); the philosopher Sir Julian Huxley
was his brother.
In 1916 Aldous Huxley took a first in English
at Balliol College, Oxford, despite a condition of near-blindness which had
developed while he was at Eton. In 1919 he married Maria Nys, a Belgian and
joined "The Athanaeum". His first book of verse had been published in 1916 and
two more followed. Then, in 1920, "Limbo", a collec-tion of short stories, was
published. A year later, his first novel "Crome Yellow" appeared and his
reputation was firmly established.
In the 1930s he moved from Italy to Sanary
(near Toulon) where he wrote "Brave New World". Believing that the climate would
help his eyesight, he left for California, where he became convinced of the
value of mystical experience and described the effects of his experiments in
"The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven and Hell".
One year after his wife`s death in 1955, he
married Laura Archera, a concert violonist who had become a practising
psychotherapist. They continued to live in California, where Huxley died on 22
November 1963.
THE MAIN
CHARACTERS
- Bernard Marx - a highly
intelligent but introverted and ugly Alpha plus scientist. The popular theory is
that too much alcohol was accidentally put into his blood-surrogate when he was
a fetus.
- Lenina Crowne - a typical alpha
girl - very pretty, superficial and promiscous-, who works in the London
Hatchery and Conditioning Center.
- Fanny Crowne - Lenina`s
colleague, friend and confidante, a very sensible
girl
- Henry Foster - an enthusiastic
scientist who Lenina has an affair with.
- The DHC - the pomopus Director of
the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in
London.
- Mustapha Mond - formerly a
physicist, now one of the ten World
Controllers
- John - a young "savage"
discovered in an Indian reservation who quotes Shakespeare all the
time.
- Linda - John`s mother, a sloppy
and ugly middle-aged woman,brought to the reservation years ago by the
DHC
- Helmholtz Watson - an alpha
writer and Emotional Engineer and friend of Bernard and
John
OUTLINE OF
CONTENTS
In 632 A.F. (after Ford) proudly the Director
of the „Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” shows the
plant to a group of young students. As the he explains, there cannot be room for
individual differences, if the goals of society - COMMUNITY, IDENTITY AND
STABILITY - shall be achieved.
From the fetal phase on, people are pushed
into their predestined places in a ridigly hierarchic society that ranges from
Alpha Plus, the highly intelligent leaders, to Epsilon Minus, ape-like gnomes
who do the dirty work.
In the hatchery, men and women are
massproduced by artificial insemination and chemically conditioned, while in the
Conditioning Centre, the babies are taught to keep their places in society and
to repress their individualistic instincts.
But with Bernard Marx, a brilliant but shy and
embittered scientist something is wrong. Instead of being as handsome and
extroverted like all the other Alphas, he is small and ugly. Because he is so
special, he attracts the attention of Lenina.
Because of his high position, Bernard has
access to one of the few reservations left where people still live as savages.
Lenina accepts his offer to visit one of them with him.
Having arrived in New Mexico, Lenina is at
first horrified because of the absence of all comforts of the hypercivilization
in Europe. Worst of all, she has forgotten her supply of SOMA, a tranquillizer
that has taken the place of alcohol and drugs.
They meet John and his mother Linda, who was
brought here by the DHC. Having grown up in the Brave New World, she could not
get along with life in the reservation.
John who has taught himself with the help of
old Shakespeare books immediately falls in love with Lenina, but because of
his strict morality he fails to do something about it.
Bernard takes John and his mother back to
England to conduct an experiment with them and to get even with the DHC, who
dislikes him and wants him to exile. Because of the fact that he has a son, he
is exiled himself.
John becomes a great social success while his
mother must be kept happy with overdoses of soma which she later dies
of.
The Savage is terrified with the hedonism of
cicvilized society and wants to return to the stricter, more meaningful morality
of the primitive live. As Bernard wants to show him the Arch-Community-Songster
of Canterbury (a religious leader), he refuses and Bernard is again in
disgrace.
Guilt-ridden after his mother`s death, John
tries to destroy the soma ration doled out to Delta hospital workers and wants
them to realize how it destroys them. He is almost killed before a police squad
quells the riot with water pistols that shoot tranquillizers. Mustapha Mond
exiles Bernard and Helmholtz and has a long philosophical argument with John who
remains unconvinced and becomes a hermit in a lighthouse. A sensation-seeking
crowd descends on him and wants to make his eccentric behaviour (he ocasionally
whips himself when he thinks of Lenina) a spectacle. Enraged, John kills Lenina
with the whip and commits suicide.
THE MAIN
THEMES
A "perfect"
world
Like in Orwell`s 1984, the system is very
strict, but the big difference is that people don`t
have to be punished and kept under
surveillance all the time, they are conditioned to be
happy with what they are so that the danger of
a revolution by the lower classes is not given
though there is such a tight system of class
society.
*) There is no overpopulation and no
unemployment because the quantity of the decanted babies is adapted to the
number of free jobs.
*) There are no diseases (everybody is
automatically vaccinated against different illnesses so that epidemics have no
chance to break out) and no fear of dying: children are conditioned not to fear
it (like John sees it after his mother`s death).
*) There is no depression and tristesse: if
somebody does not feel good, he or she simply takes a small dose of soma. People
of the Brave New World are unable to face pain and grief.
*) There are many facilities for leisure such
as obstacle golf, Escalator squash and feelies(movies one can feel) to keep
people from thinking too much.
Malcontents in the Brave
New World
Bernard Marx
Through a little mistake during his pre-natal
phase (probably too much alcohol was put in his blood-surrogate), he is an
outsider. Being an alpha, he is supposed to be outgoing, tall and handsome, but
instead, he looks like a dwarf and is introverted and shy with women. Because of
this, he is scorned by women and bullied by the other alphas.
John, the
"Savage"
His thinking about life in the reservation is
ambiguous: Born to civilized parents, but grown up between savages, he is part
a primitive and part an intelligent (he taught himself with the help of
Shakespeare) being. He who believes in God is shocked about the loose morality
and about the strange rituals they do instead of praying. Such individual
passions as love and belief have given way to promiscuity and communal spirit.
He cannot get along with his love for Lenina and punishes himself with living as
a hermit and whipping himself each time he has to think of her. As this attracts
attention and a sensation-seeking crowd decsends on him, he finds no other way
out than suicide.
Both of those outsiders are victims of
accidents: neither the alcohol in Bernards blood-surrogate nor John`s birth
through a real mother was intentional. They do not fit into society anymore and
fail: Bernard exiles to the Falkland Islands and John commits
suicide.
It is impossible for individuals to find a
satifactory life: neither in the sterile and loveless Europe nor the dirty and
bestial life of the Indians in New Mexico.
QUOTES FROM THE
BOOK
- "And that", put in the director sententiously,
"that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you`ve got to do. All
conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.`
(p.31)
- "Till at last the child`s mind IS these
suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions IS the child`s mind. And not the
child`s mind only. The adult`s mind too - all his life long. The mind that
judges and desires and decides - made up of those suggestions. But all these
suggestions are OUR suggestions! Suggestions from the
State."(p.43)
- „...And I was so ashamed. Just think of
it: me, a Beta - having a baby: put yourself in my place."
(p.126)
- "Soma may make you lose a few years in time"
the doctor went on. "But think of the enourmous, immeasurable durations it can
give you out of time. Every soma holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to
call eternity." (p.157)
- "Not until...Listen, Lenina; in Malpais people
get married." "Get what?" The irritation had begun to creep back into her voice.
What was he talking about now?"For always. They make a promise to live together
for always." "What a horrible idea!" Lenina was genuinely shocked.
(p.191)
- "Oh, look, look!" They spoke in low, scared
voices. "Whatever is the matter with her? Why is she so fat?" They had never
seen a face like hers before - had never seen a face that was not youthful and
taut-skinned, a body that had ceased to be slim and
upright.(p.201)
- "Don`t you want to be free and men? Don`t you
even understand what manhood and freedom are?" (...) "I`ll make you free whether
you want or not." And pushing a window that looked on to the inner court of the
hospital, he began to throw the little pill-boxes of soma tablets in handfuls
out into the area. (p.212)
- From a safe distance and still rubbing his
buttocks, "Benighted fool!" shouted the man from THE FORDIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,
why don`t you take soma?" The other retreated a few steps, then turned round
again. "Evil`s an unreality if you take a couple of grammes." "Get away!" The
Savage shook his fist. (p.247)
PERSONAL
OPINION
I was very fascinated by Huxley`s idea of the
future though it is very shocking because it sounds so likely to come true in a
much closer future. I think that the feelings of the various characters are
shown in a brilliant way.
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