Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Table of Contents
Cast of Characters
The D.H.C./The Director—The initials stand for Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. The D.H.C. has obtained a very high position in this world, but he suffers a complete fall from grace when Linda reveals that he is the father of John (“the Savage”). The D.H.C. is never referred to by his full name, although Linda calls him “Tomakin.”
Henry Foster—An Alpha engineer who regularly dates Lenina Crowne. He is the epitome of a satisfied and conventional high-caste male in this brave new world.
Mustapha Mond—The most politically influential and intellectually powerful character in the novel. He is one of ten World Controllers, occupying the top of the hierarchy in the world of Central London. Mond lectures on the historical context of the brave new world at the beginning of the novel. Later, he is responsible for Bernard and Helmholtz being banished to the Falkland Islands. He also engages in a lively debate on the values of his society with John and Helmholtz.
Lenina Crowne—A high-caste technician in the Hatchery, Lenina at first glance appears as conventional as Henry Foster. However, her attraction to Bernard and, later, John, reveal a buried dissatisfaction with the status quo. She becomes the object of John’s idealized and antiquated concept of love, as well as the object of his violence.
Bernard Marx—An unusually small Alpha Plus psychologist, Bernard is viewed with suspicion and dislike by his colleagues and peers. They often whisper to one another that the reason for his short stature is that he was accidentally given alcohol in his blood surrogate as an embryo. Identifying himself somewhat self-righteously as an individualist, Bernard resists the intense social pressure to conform insofar as he is capable. For the first half of the novel, he serves as a not wholly likeable protagonist, always just a little too weak of spirit to truly rebel. Still, he gains the reader’s sympathy by...
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