Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Table of Contents
Chapter 10
Summary
The chapter opens at the Bloomsbury Center in London with the D.H.C. talking to Henry Foster in the fertilizing room. The D.H.C. has ordered Bernard to meet him there because it contains the highest number of high-caste workers of any room in the center, and he wishes to publicly banish and humiliate Bernard. He explains to Henry Foster that Bernard’s unorthodox behavior is all the more reprehensible because of Bernard’s intelligence.
Bernard arrives, and the Director announces that he is going to have him transferred to Iceland because his unorthodox views threaten social stability. When asked if he has anything to say in his defense, Bernard brings Linda into the room. The sight of the aging, overweight and unhealthy-looking woman is a complete shock to everyone in the room. She throws herself onto the Director, calling him “Tomakin” and crying that he made her have a baby. Then she calls for John, who enters the room and kneels at the Director’s feet, calling him “my father!” To the World State members, this is a comically naughty word, and they all burst into laughter.
In agony of humiliation, the Director runs out of the room with his hands over his ears.
Analysis
Bernard’s deft manipulative move effectively reverses his position with the Director. On the verge of becoming a complete social outcast, he introduces the Director’s own undeniable past into the situation. Suddenly, it is the Director who is obviously guilty of unorthodox behavior. At the same time, the Director no longer has any power over Bernard.
There is an element of tragedy in Linda’s presentation before the members of high-caste London, to whom she is now a physical horror. It is clear that she will never be able to return to her old life, for she has completely lost their social acceptance. As satisfying as it is for the reader to witness the fall of the hypocritical, shallow Director, it is also painful to witness Bernard’s shameless use...
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