Chapters 13-18 Brave New World Analysis

The subject Aldous Huxley has chosen to write about is a world in which everything is “perfect” a world in which everyone feels fulfilled through false mechanics. Emotions of fear and anger are no longer stimulated through dangerous encounters with the outside world. Humans are treated through V.P.S (Violent Passion Surrogate) to feel these emotions with no harm being done to there bodies. This still gives them the adrenaline rush that they need monthly, allowing them to feel “alive”. The world Huxley creates tells us that the only way a perfect society can exist is to no longer allow humans to believe in supernatural forces such as God and jesus and to take away the fear of dying and getting old. Thus allowing humans no need for God.

The theme of sex is looked at as Lenina tries to seduce John where she only enrages him to strike her naked body. The act of sex been dehumanized and made devoid of passion and treated casually and publically instead of as a personal matter. The way Lenina treats sex is just the way his mother had sex, sleeping with every man she could and this angers John because he wants no part of the world his mother comes from. He wants to live by his own rules and by falling into the arms of Leninas naked body he believes he will have sinned. The theme of power and control is used not by physical force but by conditioning people to follow the rules, “it is a matter of sitting not hitting” states one character. Power is a key focus in the later chapters for it shows what must be done to create a Brave New World. Mustapha Mond is the resident world controller of Western Europe. Even though he is one of the seven people in control of the entire world there is a sense that he is a slave to his position in life just like everyone else. He must control all science that is given to the public for it can be quite subversive to the society that has been created. Mustapha Mond states that “science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled.” Life in the Brave New World is a very straight and narrow path and for it to work correctly everyone must follow the path. When people start going out of line and creating new inventions to help better mankind it is hindering the absolute perfection they have created. That is why science must be controlled and it only appears as if it is still useful but instead it has been used up to its potential. The literature of William Shakespeare is brought up various times by John. When he is in the office with Mustapha Mond they speak of Othello and how John believes the people should have access to such writings but John doesn’t fully understand that they will not get the story. Literature becomes a means of finding the self, of rebelling against conformity, and of seeking both truth and beauty, even at the cost of ignorant bliss. Mond shows John his collection of banned religious writings, and reads aloud-long passages from the nineteenth-century Catholic theologian, Cardinal Newman, and from the eighteenth-century French philosopher, Maine de Biran, to the effect that religious sentiment is essentially a response to the threat of loss, old age, and death. Mond argues that in a prosperous, youthful society, there are no losses and therefore no need for religion. . John believes that the theme of pain and suffering is an utmost for humans to feel alive. This is a society where when any sign of pain comes over you, you take a pill. They push all of their feelings deep down and after taking their soma are in a way less human. John does not wish to live amongst everyone else and moves himself to a deserted lighthouse to live off the land and suffer with the bare necessities. John inflicts pain upon himself to cleanse him of his sins. He tries not to have feelings for Lenina but when he visions her naked body he imagines his dead then soon after begins to whip his back to cleanse his lust for her.

The mood in the Brave New World for the most part is ironic and rather jaded. Both Lenina and John have feelings for each other but both do not know how to express and go about these feeling in a way that works for both of them. The two of them are almost a different species and they show how clear communication is key when speaking with someone of a different kind. It brings out anger in John when Lenina misinterprets his love for her and undresses herself leaving a feeling of angst in the air that makes you worried of what John is capable of. John later rushes to the hospital for the dying and bursts into tears when he learns of his mothers succumbing death. In the hospital the nurse gets quite angry at John and says"...of what fatal mischief he might do to these poor innocents? Undoing all their wholesome death-conditioning with this disgusting outcry-as though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that!" Through John and his words, the mood seemed somber and terrible. His mother was dying after all. He was horrified and just wanted to save her. He did not want his mother to die, which was understandable. On the other hand, the nurse inside the ward was more concerned about the society as a whole. She was worried about the children not being properly death conditioned. She could have cared less if Linda died or not. Her mood was worry, but not for the same reason as John. Surrounding Linda, the nurse set a mood of acceptance and inevitability. She did not even try to help her in her last few moments. Through these two characters, the author is able to convey a differing mood on the issue of death. John felt that all that mattered at the time was his mother while the only thing the nurse was concerned about was the 6 months of death conditioning the children might have to go through again. Mustapha Mond one of the 7 world leaders has an old collection of books and has read William Shakespeare. All of these writings are banned in the New World and it is quite ironic that this man has a collection of something that could destroy the world he governs. He keeps them locked in a safe just as he keeps his past locked away no longer in use.

Huxley, tells the story Brave New World in a third-person point of view. This means that the person who is narrating the story has no knowledge and has no access to the different emotions and thoughts of the other characters. He doesn't play a part in the story, maybe even a stranger to the events. He only describes the characters through dialogues and comprehensive descriptions or by their outer appearance but cannot look into their subconscious mind. He represents the speaker as an omniscient type of person. By writing in this style it allows the reader to make there own judgments of what is right and wrong. It allows you to look at the Brave New World and decide what works and doesn’t work in this future world.

The characterization of John and his connection with Lenina and how they both want to be with each other just in different worldly ideas shows that there love for each other is something out of Romeo and Juliet being from different families or in this case different worlds. Although, it is also something out of a Greek tragedy where John sees Lenina as his mother and wants to be with her solely on that basis. Linda and Lenina’s names are both phonetically similar; looking at Huxley’s importance of choice of names in his stories we can see the relation. As well certain signs point to Lenina and Linda both being of beta caste. There are also connections John makes between his mother and his desired lover. In chapter 18 when he keeps thinking about Lenina he quickly distracts himself by thinking of his mom. He is integrating thoughts of Lenina being naked with images of his dead mother. Huxley links the event of Lenina seducing John and Linda’s death at the hospital. Linda’s death is what takes him away from Lenina sitting naked in his bathroom. Lenina is an expression of his subconscious desire to sleep with his mother. A play by Sophocles [Sof-i-cleas] called Oedipus [Edipuss] the King somewhat demonstrates this Freudian theory John is demonstrating. In the play the son accidentally kills his father then sleeps with his mother. Afterwards he self mutilates himself by cutting out his eyes. John tries to kill his father figure Pope and because his mother is dead he cannot sleep with her but instead he very likely sleeps with Lenina in the orgy outside of the abandoned lighthouse. After the orgy he wakes up and covers his eyes yelling “Oh, my god, my god” remembering everything from the night before. John then takes the self-mutilation to the next level and hangs himself in the lighthouse.