By Aldous Huxley

Brave New World as Dystopia

Dystopia=An imagined place or state in which everything is
unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally
degraded one. (oxforddictionaries.com)
 The novel was written in the 1930’s, a period of time marked
by the first World War, the outburst of many totalitarian
ideologies and by fast scientific and technological progress.

 The identity of a human being is anihilated as in this World

State people are designed in bottles and preconditioned in order
to fit the requirements of the society.

 Happiness is achieved only through the consumption of Soma,

a drug which cuts off people from reality.
 Spirituality is forgotten, God is replaced by Ford, the
inventor of mass production, the symbol of the cross
is replaced by the letter T.

 Love comes to be perceived as sexual pleasure and

having as many partners as one can.

 Family loses its sacred meaning. Marriage and

monogamy are considered to be infamous.
 Death loses its fundamental aspects. People no longer
suffer from diseases and no longer get old.

 This society is against any manifestation of identity, exiling

people like Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson on islands
and repressing others like John the Savage who ends up
committing suicide.

 Valuable art is excluded. Many important poets like

Shakespeare or books like the Bible are kept away from
people as they pose a threat to the stability of the society
Brave New World as a Novel of Ideas
 Brave New World has been called a "novel of ideas,"
because Huxley takes as his primary focus for the novel,
the clash of different assumptions and theories rather than
the conflict of personalities.
 The most important ideas which are illustrated in the
novel are explained from the very beginning or throughout
the novel;
The control of the population
 Human beings are conceived in bottles through a process
of decantation;
 Everyone belongs to one of five classes, from the Alphas,
the most intelligent, to the Epsilons;
 All the babies are conditioned, physically and chemically
in the bottle, and psychologically after birth, to make them
happy citizens of the society using hypnopaedia.
 Children are also encouraged to play erotic, sexual games
as sex and soma are the supreme source of happiness.
The political system
 The novel is settled in 632 A.F. (After Ford), after the
Nine Years War when the previous civilization was
destroyed;
 At the time of the novel, the entire planet is united as the
World State, governed by ten World Controllers,
headquartered in various key cities.
 Huxley combines two views on political systems in his
novel which reflect a dystopian society: the Soviet
communism and the American capitalism;
 Communism Capitalism
 “Community, Identity, Stability” the A pleasure seeking culture;
motto of the new World State;  The belief that progress rested in the
 The state exercises control over acquisition of material goods: this
every aspect of human life: politics, era brought cheap, high-tech goods
economy, individual thoughts = such as cars, radios, and record
socio-biological totalitarianism. players into the homes of millions.
 the independent minds, the ones Sophisticated mass-entertainment
who do not fit in the society are sent which offers the opportunity to
to isolated islands because they are escape reality:
dangerous to the stability of the The feelies (movies you can feel),
social machine; scent and colour organs, super-sonic
 subversive works, literature, even orchestras, promiscuous sex and
the previous type of human recreational drug use are all
civilization are regulated or banned; designed to obliterate thinking.
 “Everyone belongs to everyone
else”
Culture, technology, religion
 Culture has been The word State is a Religion has been
totally destroyed: technotopia, meaning expunged from
 Shakespeare and the that technology is World State society;
great literature are very advanced;  In a prosperous and
forbidden;  Technology is youthful society,
 The symbols of controlled; there is no need for
London have new It has to be kept religion;
names: Charing under rigorous Soma is “Christianity
Rocket Station , Big control for the without tears”
Henry, Westminster maintenance of a
Abbey Cabaret. happy and stable
society;
How does Huxley illustrate his ideas in
the novel?
London Pueblo Reservation
 The natural processes such as  old religious beliefs are
death, birth, ageing, pain, family preserved;
are totally removed;
 time passes naturally;
 Literature and art are forbidden;
 People have no emotional  People age and die, as it is
experiences such as unhappiness or natural;
sorrow - they are conditioned to  they experience different forms
believe that they are happy, but of pain;
they have no idea of what real
 the women get pregnant and
happiness means, because they do
not have a contrastive feeling.
breastfeed their children.
The argument between John The
Savage and Mustafa Mond
 The conversation between Mond and John is the intellectual
heart of Brave New World.
 As Mustafa Mond explains to John why Shakespeare is
forbidden, technology is controlled, religion is expunged from
World State society, the reaction of John is memorable:
 But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real
danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. […] Not
to mention the right to grow and ugly and impotent; the right to
have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the
right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of
what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the
right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." (pg.
256-267)
 Themes
o The development of science and its effect on people
 The descoveries in medicine:
- babies are not born, they are created by machines;
- hypnopaedia (sleep-teaching);
- women are not allowed to give birth and they were
taught how to use contraceptive methods;
- Soma- the drug that brings people happiness;
- Bokanovsky's Process;

 Society:
- People were supposed to work in order to be happy
and to have a goal in life;
- Marriages were not allowed;
- Women could not be mothers;
- People could have as many parteners as they want;
- Children were given sweetswhen they heard other
people talking about death;
 ‘‘In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any
opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have
got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can
arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided
allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted,
objects of love to be fought for or defended-there,
obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But
there aren’t any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken
to prevent you from loving any one too much.’ (Chapter
16)
 ‘‘And that, put in the Director sententiously, that is the
secret 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.” ( Chapter 1)
The Avoidance of Feelings
- people were using drugs in order to maintain a specific estate and to
avoid dealing with problems;
- babies were taught that death is a event they should not be afraid of;
- the illusion of freedom;

‘‘All right then, said the Savage defiantly, I’m claiming the
nght to be unhappy. Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly
and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have
too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant
apprehension of what may happen to- morrow; the to catch typhoid;
the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.’’
(chapter 17)
The idea of happiness
The events that prove their unhappiness:
- Lenina takes Soma in order to ignore her feelings toward
John;
- Children are taught that death is a common fact;
- Bernard becomes promiscuous in order to feel
comfortable with himself in that society;
- Long-term relations are forbidden;
- Giving birth was not allowed;
The idea of happiness is reached in three ways: the
state use psychological and biological manipulation in
order to create people suitable for their jobs, marriages
are forbidden and people escape reality by using drugs.
 ‘‘ A gramme in time saves nime.” / ‘‘A gramme is better than a
damn.” (chapter 6, Lenina)
 ‘‘ The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they
want, and they never want what they can’t get…And if
anything should go wrong, there’s soma.” (chapter 16,
Mustapha Mond)
 ‘‘ Why was such a marvellous propaganda techician? Because
he had so many insane, excruciating things to get excited
about. You’ve got to be hurt and upset, otherwise you can’t
think of the really good, penetrating X-rayish phrases. But
fathers and mothers! You can’t expect me to keep a straight
face about fathers and mothers. And who’s going to get excited
about a boy having a girl or not having her? ” (chapter 12,
Helmholtz Watson)
Individuality
In Brave new world the society tends to eliminate the
individual and to emphasise the importance of the society.
It conditions people and, they, however, think that they
can take any decision. Nobody has the sense of being
unique and separate from the society.

‘‘The greater a man’s talents, the greater his power to

lead astray. It is better that one should suffer that many
should be corrupted. Consider the matter dipassionately,
Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offence is so heinous
as unorthodoxy of behaviour. Murder kills only the
individual- and after all, what is an individual? ” (chapter
10, the Director )
 Characters
Lenina Crowne
 She is a beautiful, young Beta woman, desired by
many men who cherished all the imposed values and
conforms to them.

 Her name may be associated to the Russian socialist

Lenin whose aim was to build a socialist world.

 Her views on love and family remained unaltered

although she nearly falls in love with John.
Bernard Marx
 He is an Alpha male who fails to fit in his social class
because of his inferior physical stature. He likes solitude
and tends to think more than other citizens.

 However, when he becomes famous for bringing savages

to the World State he likes being praised and included in
this society and takes pride in being admired by women.

 His name alludes to Karl Marx, an author who criticised

the capitalist society.
Mustafa Mond
 The Resident World Controller of Western Europe. He is
smart and flexible and open to new ideas due to the fact
that he has access to books which are forbidden for the
other members of the society.

 His dream was to become a scientist but he chose to

become a World Controller rather than being exiled.

 His name comes from the French „monde”(=world) which

may allude to his privileged position in the World State.
John The Savage
 He was born on the reservation by mistake: his mother is
Linda and his father is The Director;
 He grew up as a hybrid of three cultures: the Indian, the
World State and the Shakespeare culture;
 John the only character who is able to see the realities of
this new world, how monstrous it is and how
mechanically people behave;
 He filters and compares the values of the Brave new world
with those from Shakespeare's plays;
 John cannot integrate to this type of society and that`s
why he prefers to isolate himself.
Helmholtz Watson
 He belongs to the Alpha classes, but he is more intelligent
that it is supposed to be;
 He does not suit to the system and this why he is sent to
exile;
 He loves poetry, but he cannot accept the type of rhymes
that he has to use for producing literature. He knows that
the world is capable to do more than that;
 Although he and John are similar there is an enormous
cultural gap between them;
 In the end he proves that a World State member is defined
by the culture in which he has been raised.
 Intertextuality

The title of the novel is related to The Tempest, a

Shakespearean play. The line that makes a direct
connection with it is :

“Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there

here! How beauteous mankind is!” The flush suddenly
deepened; (…). O brave new world.” (chapter 8)

Also, these words can be related with Miranda’s

words from the play, because she uses these words in the
moment when she sees men for the first time in her life.
 John the Savage
 Savage
 Unattractive
 Rebel
 Uncivilized
 Controlled by the World
State
Caliban
 Savage
 Unattractive
 Rebellious in behaviour
 Uneducated, naïve
 Controlled by Prospero
Another references to Shakespeare’s work

 Romeo and Juliet

 Hamlet
 King Lear
 Macbeth
 Othello
 Anthony and Cleopatra
 Troilus and Cresida