Analisi (in inglese) del libro consigliato Brave New World, Aldous Huxley - Esame di letteratura inglese

Brave New World

Author

Aldous Huxley

Published

1932

Title

The book’s title results from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” (Act V, Scene I) where Miranda, fascinated by the sight of other human beings on her island, said:

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.

The exclamation is repeated by John at the sight of the “wonders” of the World State after spending all his life in the Savage Reservation in New Mexico. Shakespeare’s play and Huxley’s novel relate one to another in many ways.

Setting

England (London), New Mexico

Date

AF 632 (= AD 2540 Gregorian calendar)

Genre

Science fiction, dystopian fiction

• Followed by Brave New World Revisited (USA 1958/UK 1959) – a non-fictional essay about what had happened since 1932. It demonstrates that the process imagined by Huxley had been faster than expected: overpopulation, use of drugs and subliminal persuasion, political theory about the defence of democracy, to avoid the risk of totalitarianism.

Characters

• Bernard Marx – An Alpha-Plus specialized in sleep-learning at the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre”. He’s physically and mentally imperfect: he’s short and stunted because of alcohol mistakenly pumped in his embryo before decanting; he suffers from depression and inferiority complex (angry, grumbling, resentful, then jealous of John, hypocritical but coward). As a result, he’s not wholly conditioned and too hasty in expressing his criticism of the society; he’s solitary and he refuses common sports, entertainment, solidarity services, promiscuous sex and soma. He gets on well with Helmholtz because they both agree that the World State needs criticizing. He “loves” Lenina while she sees him as a break from her relationship with Henry Foster. After the holiday with her to the Savage Reservations and the discovery of John (the Savage), takes vengeance on the Director of Hatchery (who wanted to exile him) and becomes a kind of “star”. But his success/celebrity ends soon: he is exiled to Iceland.
• Helmholtz Watson – Another Alpha-Plus, friend of Bernard and professor at the College of Emotional Engineering and writer of propaganda slogans. Sharing Bernard’s view on the World State, he violates the law: he reads heretical poems to his class and helps John destroy some Delta’s ration of soma after his mother’s death. John and Helmholtz are very similar: they both are intelligent and love Shakespeare’s poetry, but they differ so much in culture; while John has always lived in the Savage Reservation, Helmholtz is still a product of World State conditioning, so when John reads Romeo and Juliet to him, he cannot help but laugh at the mention of family, mothers, fathers, marriage (notions that don’t exist in the World State). This shows that a person is always defined by the culture in which it has been raised. He is also exiled to the Falkland Island but, unlike Bernard, takes the exile as an opportunity for his writings.
• Lenina Crowne – Beta-Plus; she is a young and sexy fetus technician at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. She’s the perfect example of a citizen happy and fully conditioned: she loves promiscuous sex, enjoys having several partners at once, and takes soma. She’s only mentally attracted to Bernard, but uses him for her own social gain. Disgusted by the Savages and their habits but, once back to London, she tries to seduce John. They have a completely different view about love and cultures of courtship: Lenina wants everything now (because of what she’s been taught) while John cannot understand her sexual promiscuity, getting to the point that he attacks her.
• Fanny Crowne – Beta-Minus. Colleague and friend of Lenina, she is superficial and a perfectly conditioned citizen.
• Henry Foster – Alpha-Plus. One of Lenina’s many lovers which arouses Bernard’s jealousy, but unable to defend her from John’s rage, proving himself he’s the ideal World State citizen and perfectly conventional Alpha male.
• Benito Hoover – One of Lenina’s many lovers.
• John (the Savage) – He is the son of Linda and Thomas “Tomakin” (Director of the Hatcheries). He was born and raised by his mother in the Savage Reservation who taught him to read, but marginalized by the “savages” who consider Linda as a prostitute (she has lived in the World State once) but however sexually exploiting her. John is deeply influenced by Shakespeare’s works, which represent his only experience of life: they enable him to live his own version of emotions and reactions and provide him a language that he will use in everyday life. Eager to see the “brave new world” his mother always told him, he accepts the invitation to travel back to London with Bernard and Lenina. He is both attracted and repelled by Lenina, not understanding her ideals of romanticism, behavior, and feelings. After his mother’s death, he becomes depressed and violent; he cuts himself off from London’s society to purify himself, but eventually commits suicide.
• Linda – Beta-Minus. Mother of John, she used to live in the World State. She remained in the Reservation after visiting the place several years before, when she lost her group.