The New World is one free of religion, love, music, and other things that would typically speak the “soul” of a person. The New World came about after the Nine Years’ War, little of which is described in the novel, and the year was determines the start of AF, meaning After the first year Ford produced the Model T. In adopting AF as opposed to AD, meaning After the Death of Christ, they removed religion from everyday life. This allusion to the removal of religion equaling happiness as seen in John saying, “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,” allows Huxley to show the reader that the possession of knowledge is important, even if that knowledge results in unhappiness by showing the reader that his unhappiness is ultimately greater when he was deprived of those things.
Allusion to Shakespeare is seen throughout this novel as well, not just in the initial meeting with John when he says that he learned to read with “The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo” and “The Complete Works of Shakespeare,” but John even recites lines from Shakespeare while reprimanding Lenina, whose attraction to John is bothersome to him. In reciting these lines, and down to the title of the book, “Brave New World” which derives from one of Shakespeare’s works, which is repeated several times by John, originally in a reverent way, devolving into disgust at the New World and the lack of knowledge that have to sacrifice in order to be happy. In including these quotes from Shakespeare’s works throughout the novel, and titling the book based on the same work, Huxley shows the reader that John would have been happier in a world where he was allowed to have the knowledge that was missing in the New World, even if the knowledge was depressing in nature.
“Brave New World” provides commentary on the decreasing amount of knowledge in the world, despite the ever-growing and changing amount of knowledge available; Huxley opens the discussion for whether or not, as a society, we are happy despite all that is kept from us “for our safety” by the government and in doing so, ultimately encourages the reader to see that if they had the knowledge, they would be better for it.