Literary Elements in BRAVE NEW WORLD Brave New World Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye. Animal Imagery Animal imagery is rampant in Brave New World. Just look at the first hapter. !here"s the repetition of #straight from the horse"s mouth,# $oster"s impliit laim that #any ow# ould merely hath out em%ryos, the platitude that #&ams wrapped in theremogene %eget no lam%s.# Later, when John goes to the hospital, he sees the 'elta
hildren staring at Linda(twith #the stupid uriosity of animals.# hordes of idential %okanovskified twins seem to him #maggots.# looks like )u*ley"s message is lear+ !he the new world has so dehumanied its itiens that they now resem%le little more than animals. !he irony is that #iviliation# should seek to elevate man, to make him less primitive, to put some distane %etween him and the other reatures of the world. Animalisti traits really ome into play when it omes to se*, pro%a%ly %eause that"s one of the %asest, most universal instints. John even -uotes the #goats and monkeys# line from thello, delivered when the hero imagines his wife opulating with another man the way that animals do. Also, /ustapha"s response to John"s omment 0 #Nie tame animals, anyhow,# is %rilliant 1on the part of )u*ley, not on the part of /ustapha2. While John is disgusted %y the %estial nature of the new world"s promisuity, he misses the purpose %ehind it+ animals are tame. Animals an %e ontrolled. (n this way, the people of the World State are like pets 0 not like free people. But it getshimself really interesting 3hapter 4ighteen, when the rowds omeare swarming to see John standing around whipping for havingin dirty thoughts. !he desending heliopters desri%ed as #lousts# and then #grasshoppers# 0 fits with what we"ve seen so far. But it soon %eomes lear that, while John 1and, the tone seems to suggest, )u*ley as well2 ondemns the ivilied folk for %eing animals, they view him in muh the same way. !hey throw food at John as though he"s an animal in the oo. 1)u*ley makes this e*pliit for us with the phrase #as to an ape.#2 !his e*plains why they take pleasure in his suffering+ %eause they an"t see him as a person. !o them, he"s 5ust animalisti entertainment. !his raises an interesting -uestion for us+ of the savages and itiens, who is more human, and who more animalisti6 !he notion of suffering seems to have a lot to do with this. John tries to prove his humanity %y infliting pain on himself. 3learly, no animal would revere the soul over the %ody enough to do so. (t seems likely, then, that John"s suiide is the only definitive way to esta%lish his identity as a human %eing and not as a reature. Soma #4uphori, naroti, pleasantly halluinant# 0 that"s what /ustapha says of soma. (t"s argua%ly the %est tool the government has for ontrolling its population. (t sedates, alms, and most importantly distrats a person from realiing that there"s atually something very, very wrong 0 the itiens of the World State are enslaved. 1Just think a%out the name7 soma 8 #sleep# in Latin.2
John, of ourse, piks up on this in 3hapter $ifteen7 that"s why he huks the stuff out of the window in the name of freedom. !his /el9:i%son9in9!he ;atriot moment is not so effetive, and mostly %eause of the way that soma enslaves its users 0 happiness. 4veryone is trapped %y happiness. And those are some tough hains to %reak. Another thing to think a%out here is /ustapha"s famous laim that soma is #3hristianity without the tears.# We get the tears#Well, %it, sine a onse-uene9free seems speakitsfor itself, %utontrolled. what does Brave this drug havethe to#without do with religion6 as we"ve said, soma is anhigh opiate that to allows users to %e New
World seems to argue that 3hristianity funtions in muh the same way. (t ontrols through paifiation. (t offers omfort, %ut at the e*pense of individuality. What do you think6 !e Ele"tri" #en"e An eletri fene %orders the Savage &eservation and separates the primitive world from the ivilied world. !he -uestion, of ourse, is whih is whih6 (f you look at it in a ertain light 0 a world of people su%servient to their every desire and impulse, with no sense of restraint whatsoever vs. a world of ritualisti self9mutilation. Neither looks partiularly ivilied 1or partiularly appealing2. Also, did you notie that the eletri fene is surrounded %y dead animal arasses6 !he pilot delares that these reatures #never learn,# meaning seeing others die of eletroution doesn"t ondition the other animals out of leaping at the fene again. 3onditioning is one of the dehumaniing proesses in the World State, so it"s interesting that animals in fat annot %e onditioned. !e Bottle !at Will One Day Die o$ Slee%ing Si"ness !his is a really small passage in 3hapter !hirteen, and it"s easy to miss if you"re reading -uikly. !hat %eing said, it"s argua%ly the most skilled, artisti moment in Brave New World, partly %eause it"s so minute. )u*ley, for one, wasn"t flagrantly o%vious. )e didn"t %eat us over the head, he 5ust inserted a little anedote and let it stand on its own.
Lenina, distraught %y her unheked and unsatisfied desire for John, gets flustered at work and aidentally misses giving one %ottle its immuniation against sleeping sikness. !he story then halts for a minute while the narrative reveals this+ #!wenty9two years, eight months, and four days from that moment, a promising young Alpha9/inus administrator at /wana9/wana was to die of trypanosomiasis 0 the first ase for over half a entury.# Beautiful. Look at the speifiity on display here+ ##!wenty9two years, eight months, and four days.# !hen )u*ley uses #trypanosomiasis# instead of #sleeping sikness.# )e"s really driving home the notion of sientifi e*atitude. !his is the same sort of horrifying preision we saw in 3hapter ne, when the 'iretor and )enry $oster outlined with a sikening %arrage of num%ers the way in whih humans are reated and grown. !he differene is that here, the hain of ause and effet isn"t effetively ontrolled %y the human hand. After all, humans are falli%le, so as e*at and as rigid men like /ustapha might think their system is, there are always going to %e errors, mistakes, and other minor disasters. So while this passage is horrifying, it"s also hopeful, 0 Lenina, in making this error, has proven herself more human than mahine. But mostly, we"re impressed with the fat that )u*ley didn"t tell us this in the su%se-uent paragraph, so may%e that"s the real ahievement here, gorgeous literary artistry aside. " (n their
%lood9oloured and foetal darkness the daners ontinued for a while to irulate, to %eat and %eat out the indefatiga%le rhythm. "rgy9porgy>"#
!hen you"ve got John"s almost9se* sene with Lenina, when she throws her naked %ody at him and he says, #A), my virgin eyes=# and so forth. Notie what he says6 #(mpudent strumpet.# r, more aurately, he says, #(mpudent strumpet, impudent strumpet, impudent strumpet,# and very possi%ly, #impudent strumpet.# 'o you hear a rhythm here6 )u*ley even points it out+ #">impudent strumpet." !he ine*ora%le rhythm %eat itself out. "(mpudent>"# ne you start looking for it, you see #rhythm# everywhere in Brave New World. Look at the drums Lenina hears at the Savage &eservation 0 followed shortly %y the ritualisti, rhythmi whipping of one the Native Amerians. !hen you"ve got the #ip, ip, ip# of Lenina"s lothes oming off. Beause of this, we"re prepared for the %ig moment at the end of the te*t when everyone danes around, singing rgy9porgy, having se*, and #%eating one another in si*9eight time.# (t"s the most violent and the most e*pliitly se*ual moment in all of Brave New World 0 and it"s ouhed in musial rhythm. Weat!er !he World State seeks to ontrol everything a%out its itiens and environment. !he weather, of ourse, presents a %it of diffiulty. As far as we an tell, the World 3ontrollers haven"t figured out how to make the weather, so instead they try to ontrol the pereived environment, through soma and indotrination. %serve Lenina and )enry"s drug trip+ #!hey were inside, here and now 0 safely inside with the fine weather, the perennially %lue sky. ?>@ !he depressing stars had travelled -uite some way aross the heavens. But though the separating sreen of the sky 0 signs had now to a great e*tent dissolved, the two young people still retained their happy ignorane of the night.# !hen there"s that alming, ontrolling song that seems to %e forever playing in the %akground+ #Skies are %lue inside of you, !he weather"s always fine.#
f ourse, the weather is not always fine, and those that reognie as muh are those who are a%le, even for the %riefest of moments, to step outside the distorted reality of the World State and look the real world in the stormy fae. We"re thinking> Bernard and )elmholt. Look at Bernard"s date with Lenina 0 he takes her to the edge of the water to look at the weather, whih #ha?s@ taken a hange for the worse7 a south9westerly wind ha?s@ sprung up, the sky ?is@ loudy.# (nterestingly, it is this dreary image that makes Bernard feel #as though ?he@ were more ?himself@, ?>@ not 5ust a ell in a soial %ody.# f ourse Lenina 5ust swithes on the radio, whih -uite appropriately is playing the #skies are %lue inside of you# ditty. )elmholt piks up where Bernard left off as far this weather thing goes. !hroughout the novel, he"s %een wanting to write something with the passion of thello 0 it"s 5ust that all the passionate topis 1love, 5ealousy, hatred, family, age, death2 aren"t availa%le to him as su%5et matter. What is it that he an understand that makes him feel, perhaps, as though he, too, is more than #5ust a ell in a soial %ody#6 What"s the only intense, violent thing left in the World State6 m>peanuts6 No, the weather. Look at what )elmholt says at the end of his onversation with /ustapha+ #( should like a thoroughly %ad limate ?>@. ( %elieve one would write %etter if the limate were %ad. (f there were a lot of wind and storms, for e*ample># #ord !he hoie of )enry $ord as the deity9like figure in )u*ley"s dystopia reveals the new world"s value system. )enry $ord was famous for the perfetion of mass prodution and the assem%ly line. (n )u*ley"s world, even humans are mass9produed and grown with the help of, yes, that"s right, an assem%ly line. 4ffiieny,
prodution, and onsumerism are the most important values here7 not morality, ompassion, or piety 1as might %e the ase with a more traditional deity2.
Bottles Bottles are introdued in 3hapter ne as the new way in whih humans are reated and grown. &ight off the %at, this 5ust seems very, very wrong. But far more distur%ing than the notion of little ygotes inside %ottles is the notion of full9grown humans %eing similarly trapped. Now we"re in the realm of the metaphor. f ourse, )u*ley %eing )u*ley, we"re told diretly that this is what he"s going for in Brave New World. Look at /ustapha"s words in 3hapter Si*teen+ #4ven after deanting, ?man is@ still inside a %ottle 0 an invisi%le %ottle of infantile and em%ryoni fi*ations. 4ah one of us, of ourse, ?>@ goes through life inside a %ottle.#
Let"s go %ak to some earlier mentions of %ottles. !ake a look at Lenina and )enry"s date+ #Bottled, they rossed the street7 %ottled, they took the lift up to )enry"s room on the twenty9eighth floor. And yet, %ottled as she was ?>@, Lenina did not forget to take all the ontraeptive preautions.# C, great, Lenina and )enry are trapped inside a %ottle. But what is it that traps them6 Let"s look at some more te*t+ #Lenina and )enry had what they wanted ?>@ they might have %een twin em%ryos gently roking together on the waves of a %ottled oean of %lood9surrogate.# C, so when the te*t talks a%out them %eing %ottled, what it really means is that they"re infantile. /akes sense, right6 ;re9infants are grown inside %ottles, so infantile imagery should go hand in hand with %ottle imagery. Now look at one more passage, this time the rgy9porgy sene with Bernard+ #And as they sang, the lights %egan slowly to fade 0 to fade and at the same time to grow warmer, riher, redder. ?>@ (n their %lood9oloured and foetal darkness the daners ontinued ?>@ in the red twilight.# Wait a minute>red light>does that sound familiar6 (ndeed, yes. )op %ak to 3hapter ne and listen to )enry $oster+ #4m%ryos are like photograph film ?>@. !hey an only stand red light.# 4*lamation point= (f the twelve people at the solidarity servie are %athed in red light, it must have something to do with them %eing em%ryos, with them %eing %ottled, and with them %eing infantile 0 5ust like )enry and Lenina on their date. So what do these two senes have in ommon6 Se)* !he adults who are %athed in red light and trapped inside metaphorial %ottles are made infantile when they have se*. Why6 !hink a%out %a%ies. When they want something, they ry. When they"re hungry, they eat. !hey %asially have no restraint. !hey"re servants to their impulses. !here"s no length of time for them %etween a desire and the onsummation of their desire. (f this language also sounds familiar, it"s %eause we took it from /ustapha /ond in 3hapter !hree+ #$eeling lurks in that interval of time %etween desire and its onsummation. Shorten that interval, %reak down all those old unneessary %arriers.# Beause the adults of the World State have %een trained to give into their every desire, espeially se*ual impulses, they have also %een trained to %e infantile, to %e %ottled, to %e 5ust like those em%ryos %athed in the red light. And as proud as we would like to %e for oming up with this all on our own, we have to give redit to Bernard, who very famously said to Lenina in 3hapter Si*+ #?We"re@ infants where feeling and desire are onerned. ?>@ !hat"s why we went to %ed together yesterday 0 like infants 0 instead of %eing adults and waiting.#
!he tragedy lies in the results of suh infantile %ehavior. /ustapha laims that the indulgene of all impulses is freeing 0 the itiens of the World State are freed from the pain of waiting and wanting. (n fat, however, it is this sort of indulgene that imprisons the itiens and %ottles them up 5ust like infants. !hey aren"t free to at on impulses, they are instead slaves to their %asest desires.
Brave New World Setting Where (t All :oes 'own DEFG A.'.7 London, 4ngland and New /e*io, .S.
C, let"s start with the time. )u*ley esta%lishes in 3hapter ne that the year is A.$. HID. We are told in 3hapter !hree that the introdution of the first $ord /odel9! was year #ero# for this alendar, and our ar9fanati friends tell us that this monumental event happened in KG 1A.'.2. !hen we talked to some other friends who are good with num%ers, and they ame up with DEFG as the year in whih Brave New World takes plae. r, in layman"s terms, !)4 $!&4. But )u*ley isn"t one for layman"s terms. )e reates an inredi%ly ela%orate and nuaned setting for his novel. )e provides details a%out everything from tehnology 1vi%ro9vauum massage, sent organ2 to professions 1'iretor of )atheries and 3onditioning, World 3ontroller2 to down9time ativities 13entrifugal Bum%le9 ;uppy, anyone62, and from the itysape 1the seven skysrapers twinkling over :uildford2 down to individual %uildings 1!he (nternal and 4*ternal Seretions $atory, !he )ounslow $eely Studio2. Basially everything you see apitalied has something to do with )u*ley setting up an atmosphere for his tale. (n essene, the more distur%ing the setting and the more omplete the piture, the more effetive the novel. (f Brave New World reeps you out, )u*ley did his 5o% well. All this ela%orate detail, while sometimes outlandish, makes the idea of a #World State# that muh more plausi%le in our minds. We start to see how a soiety like this might funtion, down to the smallest detail. (t"s also the details that allow )u*ley to parody our own world so effetively. 3hristianity has rosses, they have !"s. We say, #!hank :od=#, they say #!hank $ord.# We play mini9golf, they play %stale :olf. See where this is going6 $inally, as far as a speifi setting goes, there"s a lear dihotomy %etween the Savage &eservation and the ivilied world. !he two landsapes at as a foil, whih we talk a%out more in #3harater &oles# 1whih is triky of us, sine settings aren"t haraters2.
Brave New World Narrator+ !ird erson -Omnis"ient. W!o is t!e narrator, "an s!e or !e read minds, and, more im%ortantly, "an we tr(st !er or !im/ !ird erson -Omnis"ient. (n Brave New World, Aldous )u*ley is a fan of giving his readers a ton of information. As suh, the point of view is inredi%ly omnisient. !hat is, we get to know everything a%out every harater 0 even the su%onsious stuff they don"t realie themselves. 3hek this out+ #)e knew that what he was saying was a%surd in its in5ustie ?>@. But in spite of this knowledge ?>@ Bernard ontinued perversely to nourish ?>@ a seret grievane against the Savage.# And we get this sort of psyhoanalysis for most of the ma5or haraters in the te*t. !hat"s omnisiene for you.
ne more thing. !ake another look at 3hapter ne. Mou start off with an o%5etive, detahed desription of the #s-uat, grey %uilding of ?>@ thirty9four stories.# 4asy enough. But %efore you know it, you"re getting the 'iretor"s words without any -uotations or #he said# tags. %serve+ #Bokanovsky"s ;roess,# repeated the 'iretor, and the students underlined the words in their little note%ooks. ne egg, one em%ryo, one adult9normality. But a %okanovskified egg will %ud, will proliferate, will divide. $rom eight to ninety9si* %uds, and every %ud will grow into a perfetly formed em%ryo, and every em%ryo into a full9sied adult. /aking ninety9si* human %eings grow where only one grew %efore. ;rogress.
#4ssentially,# the 'iretor onluded, #%okanovskifiation onsists># What"s going on with that paragraph in the middle6 Why doesn"t it have -uotes around it6 (t"s easy to think that the narrative voie reveals this information. But in fat, the paragraph is part of the 'iretor"s speeh, it"s 5ust that we"re not e*pliitly told as muh. !his is atually a nifty grammatial tehni-ue alled #(mplied (ndiret 'isourse,# though you usually only hear the term when you learn Latin or :reek. !he la%el is less ompliated than it sounds. Start with #disourse.# 'isourse 8 speeh. (f you"ve got a sentene that reads, #/arie said "hello,"# then #hello# is the disourse. (ndiret means no -uotations, so your sentene would say, #/arie said hello.# #)ello# is now your indiret disourse. (/;L(4' indiret disourse is indiret disourse without the little #/arie said# tag. !he tag is implied. No -uotes 8 indiret disourse. No -uotes and no tags 8 implied indiret disourse, whih is what you have going on in the early hapters of Brave New World.
Brave New World Writing Style re"ise, a(nting By #taunting# style, we"re atually referring to the way that )u*ley delays the dislosure of important information. $or e*ample, in Bernard"s orgy9porgy sene, we don"t really know it"s an orgy until two thirds of the way through. 4ven then, we"re never e*pliitly told what"s up 0 we"re 5ust given enough info to put two and two together ourselves. !he same goes with the orgy sene at the end, where we don"t know if John has se* with Lenina or not, %ut we"re left with enough lues to make a reasona%le assumption. And look how we find out a%out John"s death. !he whole time the visitors are alling his name, we think he"s dead, %ut we"re %eing taunted with the prospet of a ash9in moment when all will %e revealed. !he revelation itself is also telling. (nstead of saying that John is dead, the te*t 5ust shows us his dead hanging feet 1attahed presuma%ly to his dead, hanging %ody2.
;reision of language in Brave New World is a %eautiful e*ample of form mathing funtion. )u*ley desri%es a soiety in whih sientifi e*atitude is everything+ eighty9eight u%i meters of inde* ards, DH days for the %ottles to travel along the onveyor %elt at II entimeters per hour, et. Similarly, the language of the novel itself is almost as preise. 3hek this out+ #!hat whih had made )elmholt so unomforta%ly aware of %eing himself and all alone was too muh a%ility. What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals. But whereas the physially defetive Bernard had suffered all his life from the onsiousness of %eing separate, it was only -uite reently that, grown aware of his mental e*ess, )elmholt Watson had also %eome aware of his differene from the people who surrounded him.# 4*at enough for you6 !his language has as muh ontrol over displays of emotion, thoughts, and opinions as the World 3ontrollers have over entimeters, days, and grams.
Brave New World as Voyage and Ret(rn lot 3hristopher Booker is a sholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven %asi plot strutures+ veroming the /onster, &ags to &ihes, the Ouest, Poyage and &eturn, 3omedy, !ragedy, and &e%irth. lot y%e+ Voyage and Ret(rn Anti"i%ation Stage and 0#all0 into t!e Ot!er World John is %rought %ak to the ivilied world (n Brave New World we don"t really start this Booker plot until more than halfway into the novel7 things get triky when there"s a protagonist shift like you have here. 1!his is also one of the reasons Brave New World is ritiied as %eing a far9from9perfet novel.2 But one you get to 3hapter Nine9ish, it"s a shoo9in for a #Poyage
and &eturn# disussion. John literally goes from one world to another, and in ase you missed it, he e*pliitly says as muh. Also, there"s the title.
Initial #as"ination or Dream Stage John is awed with the prospet of visiting #the ther plae.# !he dream stage doesn"t last too long. (n fat, it really only lasts the duration of the flight or so. #r(stration Stage John realies that the new world isn"t so %rave and fa%ulous after all. John"s disillusionment sets in as soon as he sees the dehumaniation in the World State. 3learly, this is not the plae for him. !he #shadow of oppression# whih Booker disusses is partiularly lear in the ase of Linda, who is essentially enslaved %y her dependene on soma. Nig!tmare Stage Lenina throws herself at John, and Linda dies. Lenina revealing herself as a omplete #strumpet# really pushes John to the edge. But it"s Linda"s death, and more importantly, the allous reation of others to her death, that pushes him over it. John"s soma9destroying freak9out is the summation of his Nightmare Stage. !rilling Es"a%e and Ret(rn1 >r lak of thrilling esape and return> John tries to make an esape %y seluding himself at the lighthouse, %ut his self9mutilation there distorts what ought to %e a return to normaly, to his own world. )is death may %e thrilling, %ut it isn"t e*atly an esape and return. r is it6 (f John defined the differene %etween the two worlds as %eing that of suffering and the a%sene of suffering, then his death was either the ultimate form of self9punishment, or the ultimate esape from suffering. What do you think6
!ree2A"t lot Analysis
$or a three9at plot analysis, put on your sreenwriter’s hat. /oviemakers know the formula well+ at the end of At ne, the main harater is drawn in ompletely to a onflit. 'uring At !wo, she is farthest away from her goals. At the end of At !hree, the story is resolved. A"t I !he three ats of Brave New World an %e marked roughly %y the hanges in setting. !he first at, therefore, runs from 3hapter ne up though ;art !wo of 3hapter Si*, and it takes plae in the ivilied world of London. A"t II (t follows that At (( overs Bernard and Lenina"s time in the Savage &eservation+ 3hapters Seven, 4ight, and Nine. (t is during At (( that we have our protagonist swith from Bernard to John. A"t III !he last at %egins right around the time John is puking his guts out in response to the new world. !he transition from At (( is his shifting opinion of the nature of soiety, from admiration to disgust.
Brave New World All(sions & 3(lt(ral Re$eren"es
When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not aidental. ;ut on your super9sleuth hat and figure out why. Shakespeare &eferenes Q William Shakespeare is referened %y name 1I.KD, .IH, .HE, I.HI, H.F, H.ED, .I, .2 Q William Shakespeare, !he !empest #Brave New World# 1the title2 Mou an read all a%out this shout9out in Shmoop"s #What"s p with the !itle6# # wonder= ?>@ )ow many goodly reatures there are here= )ow %eauteous mankind is= ?>@ %rave new world ?>@. %rave new world. ?>@ %rave new world that has suh people in it=# 1.F9.KG, .FG, E.F, E.G2 Aside from the meaning of the -uote, whih we talk a%out in our disussion of the title, the repeated ourrenes of this line are a great way to trae John"s evolving opinion of the World State. When he first speaks the line it is with all the awe and amaement of /iranda"s srcinal utterane. John is psyhed to hek this plae out. f ourse, the seond time, he"s violently rething %ehind the %ushes with disgust. !he third time he is fully aware of the irony, and #the words ?mok@ him derisively# as he leaves the hospital after Linda"s death. $inally, though, John interprets the -uote as #a hallenge, a ommand.# (t is this line that spurs him to the at of throwing soma %o*es out of the window. #John thought it very nie. "Still," he said, "Ariel ould put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes."# 1.I2 Ariel is one of two #spirits# in !he !empest who at as servants to this powerful guy ;rospero 1/iranda"s father, if you"re following along2. )e %asially 5ust goes around performing tasks for his master. nfortunately, either John or )u*ley got his Shakespeare mi*ed9up, %eause Ariel is N! the triky little spirit who an put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes. (n fat, this isn"t even the right play. 3hek out #Shout9uts# for a disussion of A /idsummer Night"s 'ream. #But some kinds of %aseness are no%ly undergone.# 1D.F2 John tries to e*plain to Lenina that he wants to undergo something horri%le to prove himself worthy to her. )e gets this idea in part from the traditions of the &eservation, %ut he also gets it from Shakespeare. !his partiular line omes from $erdinand, who himself is undergoing #%aseness,# namely arrying lots of wood, to prove himself worthy of /iranda. )ere are the atual words from the play+ #!here %e some sports are painful, and their la%our 'elight in them sets off+ some kinds of %aseness Are no%ly undergone and most poor matters ;oint to rih ends.# #"h, you so perfet" 1she was leaning towards him with parted lips2, "so perfet and so peerless are reated" 1nearer and nearer2 "of every reature"s %est."# 1I.F2 John reites to Lenina the same words that $erdinand 1the young hunky man of !he !empest2 reites to /iranda. !his is some great role9reversal, sine until now John has %een e-uated with /iranda 1he keeps repeating her line a%out the #%rave new world,# and he"s the virginal one2. (n this dialogue, $erdinand tells /iranda that all the women he"s known until now have %een seriously flawed. But she 0 she is 5ust right. #(f thou dost %reak her virgin knot %efore all santimonious eremonies may with full and holy rite#1I.HI2 !hese are the lines of ;rospero, who tells $erdinand that he an marry /iranda %ut that he"d %etter not go untying her lothes or her virgin knot %efore they get married. John of ourse agrees, whih is why he ites these lines as the reason for not untying 1unipping62 anything of Lenina"s %efore marriage. #!he murkiest den, the most opportune plae, the strongest suggestion R our worser genius an, shall never melt mine honour into lust. Never, never=# 1I.2
!hese lines 1e*ept for the #Never, never=# whih is John"s own em%ellishment2 are $erdinand"s response to ;rospero"s re-uest that his daughter /iranda remain a virgin until her wedding night. )e %asially says, #C, sure, even if we end up trapped on an island together, and we"re the last people in the universe alive, and it"s our duty to populate the earth again, ( won"t have se* with her until we"re hithed.# So John is saying roughly the same thing+ even if Lenina omes over to his house, delares her love for him, takes off her lothes and plasters her %ody against his, he won"t have se* with her. #!he strongest oaths are straw to the fire i" the %lood. Be more a%stemious, or else># 1I.2 !his is 5ust more of ;rospero insisting that $erdinand should not get it on with /iranda. !his time, he makes the point that when you get all hot9%looded, it"s -uite diffiult to keep your pants on. !he solution, with whih John wholeheartedly agrees, is to %e #more a%stemious,# whih essentially means more restrained and less self9 indulgent. John trails off, apparently too horrified to repeat the rest of the line, whih goes something like this+ #>or else goodnight your vow# 1 8 or else you will %reak your vow2. #Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum a%out my ears and sometimes voies.# 1H.G2 (n the play, two haraters who are plotting murder halt in their traks when they hear strange noises in the air. !he fo*y little spirit enouraging murder 13ali%an2 tells them not to worry, sine the island they"re on is always full of weird sounds. Q William Shakespeare, Cing Lear Cing Lear is referened %y name 1I..F, .IF2 #!he wren goes to"t and the small gilded fly does leher in my sight.# ?>@ #!he fithew nor the soiled horse goes to"t with a more ritous appetite. 'own from the waist they are 3entaurs, though women all a%ove. But to the girdle do the gods inherit. Beneath is all the fiend"s. !here"s hell, there"s darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, %urning salding, stenh, onsumption7 fie, fie, fie, pain, pain= :ive me an oune of ivet, good apotheary, to sweeten my imagination.# 1I.K2 John delivers these sathing lines while Lenina is in the %athroom naked, having 5ust %een turned down for se*. Basially, Lear ondemns the vagina as %eing the hot and sulphurous pit of hell. #"'o you remem%er that %it in Cing Lear6" said the Savage at last. "!he gods are 5ust and of our pleasant vies make instruments to plague us7 the dark and viious plae where thee he got ost him his eyes," and 4dmund answers 0 you remem%er, he"s wounded, he"s dying 0 "!hou hast spoken right7 "tis true. !he wheel has ome full irle7 ( am here."# 1.IF9E2 (n Cing Lear, a harater named :louester has his eyes pluked out %eause he hose to help the aging Cing instead of Lear"s power9hungry daughter and her hus%and. :louester had a %astard 1as in, illegitimate2 son who turned out to %e an evil person+ 4dmund. Beause 4dmund was in ahoots with the eye9pluking folks, these lines ondemn :louester for ommitting adultery in the first plae 1i.e., fathering 4dmund2, and laim that :louester is now %eing punished for his earlier indisretion. 4dmund, the %astard, who is now %eing punished himself for his poor deisions, agrees with this assessment. John uses this to make the point that, in the new world, man is %eing punished through partiipation in what seems to him to %e #pleasant vies#+ easy se*, drugs, and a omplete lak of suffering. #As flies to wanton %oys are we to the gods7 they kill us for their sport. !hunder again7 words that prolaimed themselves true 0 truer somehow than truth itself. And yet that same :louester had alled them ever9gentle gods.# 1.HK2 John takes note of two ontraditory statements made %y :louester a%out the gods, the first that the gods are areless and play with men like toys, and the seond that they are gentle. John himself is dealing with these very -uestions. Q William Shakespeare, /a%eth #'o you see that damned spot6# 1.FD2
John asks this in referene to the %lood on the ground of the hut after the ritualisti whipping at the Savage &eservation. (t"s a variation of Lady /a%eth"s line, #ut, damned spot= ut, ( say=# in referene to the %lood she imagines still stains her hands, remem%ering the time when she helped her hus%and murder the Cing. !his is the very first Shakespeare referene we hear from John, so it sets us up for what you see is a long list that follows. Lenina"s response to John"s -uote, #A gramme is %etter than a damn,# is a great 5u*taposition of moroni hypnopaedi sayings with the %eautiful poetry of Shakespeare. #!he multitudinous seas inarnadine.# 1.FF2 John is still talking a%out %lood. Big surprise from /r. Self9flagellation. !his line is from the harater of /a%eth himself, when he is wraked with guiltfear after having murdered the Cing. !he full line is, #Will all great Neptune"s oean wash this %lood 3lean from my hand6 No, this my hand will rather !he multitudinous seas inarnadine, making the green one red.# #(narnadine# is 5ust a se*y word for #turn red,# so /a%eth is %asially saying that even the oean ouldn"t wash the %lood off his hands7 rather, the %lood on his hands would turn the oean red, /oses9style. John twists the message around and instead says it proudly+ he would have given so muh %lood in self9sarifie that it would have made the oean red. #!o9morrow and to9morrow and to9morrow.# 1.H2 !his line omes up when John is talking a%out the isolation of growing up on the &eservation. Beause he was always alone, he had plenty of time to e*plore his spirituality. 1Notie that this -uote is followed %y the line, #)e had disovered !ime and 'eath and :od.#2 !he Shakespeare -uote itself omes from /a%eth"s speeh shortly after his wife"s death and shortly %efore his own. (n it, /a%eth onludes that life is pretty muh meaningless. !ime #reeps# #from day to day.# Basially, John is using /a%eth"s words to e*press the sort of refletions that oupied his time when he was alone. #But they"re> they"re told %y an idiot.#1H.ID2 !his refers to another line from that same speeh of /a%eth"s. !he full -uote from the Shakespeare is+ #(t is a tale !old %y an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. !he #it# in -uestion is identified in the previous line as #life.# (n other words>life is meaningless. !his is an interesting phrase in the onte*t that John uses it, whih is to desri%e the feelies. (n his mind, the reality reated 1may%e even simulated2 %y the World State is in fat meaningless. John imagines his world, on the other hand, or at least the world he seeks to inha%it, as %eing very different. Shakespeare isn"t meaningless, he insists. Shakespeare isn"t told %y an idiot. #And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.# 1.HK2 !his is the third time John refers to /a%eth"s %ig At P speeh. !his partiular line states that every day whih passes %rings us that muh loser to death. John ponders this uplifting moment when he"s digging in his garden and foring himself to think a%out Linda"s death. (n a %ig way, Linda"s death has a lot to do with John"s own impending death. ;art of the reason it"s so diffiult to see her die, aside from the fat that she was his mom, is that it really drives home the sense of his own mortality. Q William Shakespeare, )amlet #Nay, %ut to live (n the rank sweat of an enseamed %ed, Stew"s in orruption, honeying and making love ver the nasty sty.# 1.IK2 )amlet speaks these lines to his mother, Oueen :ertrude. )e"s %asially hastising her for ommitting inest 1sort of2 with her dead hus%and"s %rother. )amlet is a great first outlet for John %eause he reads it while in his $reudian, #( hate that my mother is having se* with all these 1other2 men# phase. Not that this #phase# ever goes away, ome to think of it. )amlet faes a similar #/y mother is a whore=# issue, and many sholars %elieve this has to do with the lassi edipus 3omple*, whih we disuss more in John"s harater analysis. So while these lines are )amlet"s take on his mother"s sleeping around, John appropriates them to desri%e his own feelings a%out Linda. #A man an smile and smile and %e a villain. &emorseless, treaherous, leherous, kindless villain.# 1.F2
John -uotes this line while he"s e*plaining his anger at ;op. !hese words refer to )amlet"s desription of his stepfather and unle, 3laudius, or the guy sleeping with his mom. 1!hey ome from two different speehes in the play, %ut they"re getting at pretty muh the same idea.2 See the onnetion6 #When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage r in the inestuous pleasure of his %ed.# 1.FF9E2 (n this -uote, )amlet wonders what would %e the %est way to kill his unle. Similarly, John ponders the same a%out ;op. What"s interesting here is that John atually gets the idea of murdering Linda"s lover from reading Shakespeare. Not only does he use these plays as an outlet for his emotions, %ut he atually allows them to ditate his ations. #?A philosopher is@ a man who dreams of fewer things than there are in heaven and earth.# 1.K2 !his is atually more a%out omi relief than anything weighty. John is referring to )amlet"s line, #!here are more things in heaven and earth, )oratio, !han are dreamt of in your philosophy.# (n this instane, the young men have left their niversity and ome home, so philosophy 8 the su%5ets that you might study in shool. When /ustapha asks John if he knows what a philosopher is, he replies with this somewhat out of onte*t phrase, using )amlet"s omment as a general definition of all philosophers. (t"s sort of ute, %ut it also makes some sholars think that John doesn"t really #get# Shakespeare 0 he 5ust knows it as one might know a hypnopaedi saying. #Whether "tis %etter in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of trou%les and %y opposing end them># 1.EG2 John -uotes 1roughly2 a line from )amlet"s famous #!o %e or not to %e# speeh in order to make the point that the World State has 5ust taken an easy way out. !hey have a%olished suffering altogether, so they never need to ponder the alamities of life the way )amlet does here. But there"s a darker undertone in this shout9out %eause the speeh that"s -uoted essentially de%ates suiide. $oreshadowing muh6 #A good kissing arrion.# 1.HK2 4w. 13arrion 8 deaying animal orpse.2 John is remem%ering Linda"s death and the image of her %ody in the hospital %ed. !hat"s when he refers to the following lines from )amlet+ #$or if the sun %reed maggots in a dead dog, %eing a good kissing arrion.# 1Mou will sometimes see this line as #god kissing 3arrion# instead.2 Now, if your first instint 1after #ew#2 is #What6=#, then that"s good. !his is from the sene in )amlet where )amlet generally ats like a rude ray person. We"re pretty sure the point of John"s referene is to on5ure the image of a gross, viseral deaying %ody. Also, %y using the word #arrion,# Linda gets ompared to a dead animal. !his is fitting in a perverse way, %eause she wasn"t really em%raing her human self while taking off on flights of soma fany. Also, as we disussed in #Sym%ols, (magery, and Allegory,# animal imagery is a huge deal in Brave New World. #Sleep. ;erhane to dream. ?>@ $or in that sleep of death, what dreams>6# 1.HK2 (n this passage, John om%ines a few different -uotes from a few different Shakespeare plays 1%esides )amlet, you"ve got a pinh of Cing Lear, a dash of /a%eth, and a sprinkling of /easure for /easure2. All of the -uotes have in ommon the themes of sleep, dreaming, and death. (n this partiular ase, John -uotes for the seond time from )amlet"s #!o %e or not to %e# speeh. 3hek out the atual )amlet lines, from whih John e*ises %its and piees+ #!o sleep+ perhane to dream+Tay, there"s the ru%7 $or in that sleep of death what dreams may ome, When we have shuffled off this mortal oil, /ust give us pause.# )amlet ompares death to a long sleep and wonders what one dreams of after death. Similarly, John is also onerned with the afterlife. After all, it is his %elief in the soul that auses him to inflit so muh suffering on his %ody. Q William Shakespeare, !roilus and 3ressida #)er eyes, her hair, her heek, her gait, her voie7 )andlest in thy disourse = that her hand, (n whose omparison all whites are ink Writing their own reproah7 to whose soft seiure !he ygnet"s down is harsh># 1K..DK2
!his omes from a speeh of !roilus"s in the play, when he talks a%out how generally fantasti 3ressida is. John appropriates the words to desri%e Lenina. #utliving %eauty"s outward with a mind that doth renew swifter than %lood deays.# 1I.H2 Again, John repeats !roilus"s words, %ut this time to make a ase for marriage. When two people really love eah other, they an %e together for all of life, even old age, %eause the love in their minds outlives the deay of physial %eauty. f ourse, this is meaningless in the new world, where there"s no suh thing as old age anyway. #!he devil Lu*ury with his fat rump and potato finger# 1I.G9K2 #$ry, lehery, fry=# 1.KE2 C, we"ll give this to you as -uikly as possi%le+ !roilus loves 3ressida, 3ressida loves !roilus, and everything is great until someone tips !roilus off that, perhaps, 3ressida isn"t as loyal as he thinks. )e goes to spy on her and indeed sees her flirting with another man, promising to see him later that night. !roilus is devastated, and the guy who is spying with him, !hersites, delares that 3ressida is a %ig slut, essentially. )e wails on and on a%out lehery, whih is where this line here omes in. John %asially feels the same way a%out Lenina, whih is why he throws at her these lines a%out %ase lust. While John speaks these lines at two separate oasions, they are delivered together in !roilus and 3ressida. #But value dwells not in partiular will. (t holds his estimate and dignity as well wherein "tis preious of itself as in the prier.# 1.I2 h, this is triky. Let"s start with the Shakespeare. !his line omes from a onversation %etween )etor and !roilus, as everyone de%ates what to a%out this whole !ro5an War mess. )etor argues that )elen isn"t valua%le enough to %e worth this trou%le. !roilus ounters that value is su%5etive, and that )elen is worth as muh as we think she"s worth. )etor then ounters with the line you see -uoted here+ value isn"t su%5etive, he says, it"s intrinsi. (n Brave New World, John uses the same sort of argument after /ustapha says that you an pik any set of values you want %y whih to 5udge the World State. John insists this isn"t true. Q William Shakespeare, &omeo and Juliet #n the white wonder of dear Juliet"s hand, may seie And steal immortal %lessing from her lips, Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, Still %lush, as thinking their own kisses sin.# 1K..I2 !hese are &omeo"s lines, spoken when he had 5ust heard the news of his %anishment from Perona. )e laments the fat that he has to leave his lovely Juliet to go into e*ile and wa*es poeti a%out her lovely virginal -ualities. She"s so modest, he laims here, that her lips %lush when they touh eah other %eause they think they"re kissing someone, whih would %e immodest. (n Brave New World, John is reminded of these lines when he sees flies %uing around7 that"s %eause this -uote is preeded in &omeo and Juliet %y &omeo saying something like, #woe is me, ( won"t get to see Juliet anymore, and even all the flies %uing around Perona get to spend more time with her than ( do.# !he onnetion to John"s situation is rather ironi, sine he"s speaking a%out the sleeping Lenina, who is very non9virginal indeed. 4*ile is also an interesting onnetion, sine Lenina has essentially 1if aidentally2 %een %anished from her home 1the World State 8 Perona2 to a more primitive plae 1the &eservation 8 /antua2. John will end up e*iled in the World State, whih reverses these roles. #'id he dare6 'are to profane with his unworthiest hand that> No, he didn"t.# 1K..ID2 !hese lines refer to &omeo"s words to Juliet when he first meets her. Just like &omeo, John wonders whether he should kiss the hands of his love, whih might disrespet their virginal holiness. Again, ironi, sine Lenina is nothing lose to virginal. #pstairs in his room the Savage was reading &omeo and Juliet.# 1D.I2 When John refuses to leave his room for Bernard"s dinner party with the Arh93ommunity9Songster, he ends up reading this play. !he image is ontrasted with that of Lenina leaving for the night with the Songster.
#h= she doth teah the torhes to %urn %right. (t seems she hangs upon the heek of night, Like a rih 5ewel in an 4thiop"s ear7 Beauty too rih for use, for earth too dear># 1D.F2 &omeo speaks these lines when he first sees Juliet, %efore he knows that she"s a 3apulet. (n Brave New World, John is reading this part of the play while Lenina is getting ready to go to %ed with the Songster. While &omeo doesn"t know the true identity of Juliet, neither does John grasp that Lenina is inaessi%le to him %eause she omes from a different world. #!he Savage was reading &omeo and Juliet aloud0reading 1for all the time he was seeing himself as &omeo and Lenina as Juliet2 with an intense and -uivering passion.# 1D.2 )u*ley gives this referene to us diretly. #(s there no pity sitting in the louds, !hat sees into the %ottom of my grief6 sweet my mother, ast me not away+ 'elay this marriage for a month, a week7 r, if you do not, make the %ridal %ed (n that dim monument where !y%alt lies># 1D.D2 (n this -uote, Juliet is in a tiy. )er new seret hus%and &omeo has 5ust murdered her ousin, !y%alt, and now her parents, who don"t know a%out her seret marriage 1hene it %eing seret in the first plae2, want her to marry this guy named ;aris. She tells her mom that she"s still grieving for her ousin, so if they insist that she marry, they"d %etter have her #onsummate# her marriage 1i.e., have se*2 in !y%alt"s sepulher. As you an imagine, this is pretty intense, so )elmholt guffawing at it is hurtful to John, espeially sine John identifies with the haraters. &omeo and Juliet 1H.DI2 !he title of the play is referened when John remem%ers how )elmholt laughed at it. Q William Shakespeare, Antony and 3leopatra #4ternity was in our lips and eyes.# 1.H, .HD2 !his line %elongs to 3leopatra, who hurls it angrily at Antony when he delivers the news that he"s leaving 4gypt to go %ak to &ome. She reminds him that they always thought they would have eternity together 0 eternity lay in eah other"s lips and eyes. John -uotes this line twie, first in referene to soma, whih the 'otor laims is a little piee of eternity, and seond when he an"t stop thinking a%out Lenina. Q William Shakespeare, A /idsummer Night"s 'ream #John thought it very nie. "Still," he said, "Ariel ould put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes."# 1.I2 John onnets the #girdle# line to !he !empest, %ut it atually %elongs to ;uk from A /idsummer Night"s 'ream, who is redited with this talent. We know this %eause ;uk says, #("ll put a girdle round a%out the earth (n forty minutes.# Q William Shakespeare, !he /erhant of Penie #"What"s in those" 1remem%ering !he /erhant of Penie2 "those askets6" the Savage en-uired when Bernard had re5oined him.# 1.E2 (n !he /erhant of Penie, leading lady ;ortia omes with a prie tag+ suitors who want to marry her must partiipate in a game where they pik one of three askets. ;iking the right one means they get the girl, and the wrong hoie means the suitor has to %e a %ahelor forever. (t"s adora%le that John thinks of Shakespeare when he sees the %o*es. (t"s less adora%le that what"s atually in the %o* is drugs. Q William Shakespeare, thello thello is referened %y name 1.F, H.D, H.DI, H.DE, H.D, H.D, .F2 John first starts reading thello right after he sees the feely !hree Weeks in a )eliopter with Lenina. !he %lak man in the feely is e*ploited for his rae, and the harater of thello is similarly defined %y the olor of his skin. John identifies with thello %eause he, too, grew up in a soiety of people of a different rae7 John was the only white guy on the Savage &eservation.
#(mpudent strumpet=# 1I.F, .HD9HF, .KD, I.GG92 (n ase you don"t speak anti-uated 4nglish, #impudent strumpet# means #disrespetful whore.# John first alls Lenina %y this name in the sene when she gets naked. As we disuss in John"s harater analysis, muh of his anger at Lenina is misdireted anger at himself for wanting her so muh. !his shout9out gets us into the guts of thello, where the play"s hero is a%out to kill his wife 1'esdemona2 %eause he has %een onvined %y the villainous (ago that she"s heating on him. John auses Lenina of %eing a whore in the same language thello uses. 1f ourse, Lenina, having %een onditioned to sleep around, isn"t really at fault here, and neither was 'esdemona, who in reality was faithful to her hus%and.2 # thou weed, who are so lovely fair and smell"st so sweet that the sense ahes at thee. ?>@ Was this most goodly %ook made to write "whore" upon6 )eaven stops the nose at it.# 1I.KK2 Both of these lines ome from the same sene in thello as the #impudent strumpet# %it we e*plained a%ove. !he first one is thello telling his wife that she"s a weed who appears to %e a flower. !he seond one ompares the woman to a #goodly %ook# 1a %eautiful %ook2 that has the word #whore# written inside it. Both lines fous on the om%ination of two traits that thello thinks he sees in 'esdemona+ sleainess and %eauty. John is onvined he finds these -ualities also in Lenina. (t is this om%ination that so hurts John, sine he is simultaneously attrated to and repelled %y Lenina. #:oats and /onkeys# 1H.K2 (n thello, the %ad guy (ago is the one to onvine thello that his wife is heating on him. )e does so with the help of some animal images that serve as visual aids 0 namely, goat and monkey se*. (ago paints a piture of the supposedly adulterous 'esdemona and her alleged lover to goats and monkeys having se*. When John ites this image, he"s atually talking a%out the gratuitous se* in the feely, %ut the imagery fits right in with what we"ve seen so far in Brave New World+ people are redued to animals in part %eause of their promisuity. #(f after every tempest ame suh alms, may the winds %low till they have wakened death.# 1.F2 C, this one doesn"t re-uire too muh srutiny. John is always talking a%out how suffering is a neessary part of the human ondition. !his -uote supports that argument, %ut for a slightly different reason7 it"s the old #the sweet ain"t as sweet without the %itter# argument. We weather the storms %eause enduring is worth the alm that omes after. #All the toni effets of murdering 'esdemona and %eing murdered %y thello, without any of the inonvenienes.# 1.EK2 /ustapha says this to John in desri%ing the P.;.S., or Piolent ;assion Surrogate. !here"s not muh to e*plain here, /ustapha is 5ust putting it in terms John an understand. As we"ve already mentioned, thello murders his wife %eause he 1wrongly2 thinks she"s heating on him7 this is violent passion to the e*treme 0 lust, 5ealousy, love, and %etrayal. Q William Shakespeare, #!he ;hoeni* and the !urtle# #;roperty was thus appall"d, !hat the self was not the same7 Single nature"s dou%le name Neither two nor one was all"d &eason in itself onfounded Saw division grow together># 1D.H2 John reads this poem to )elmholt as an e*ample of Shakespeare"s powerful language. !he poem overs the love affair of a phoeni* and a turtle dove, two %irds who %eome one and then die. !his got us thinking a%out Lenina and John %eing %irds of a different feather. Q William Shakespeare, !welfth Night #(f ( do not usurp myself, ( am.# 1I.2 !his -uote from !welfth Night has a lot to do with false identities and assumed roles. John %asially 5ust takes the same line when someone on the phone asks him if he"s the savage. (t"s a ute %ut not partiularly important referene. Q William Shakespeare, !imon of Athens
#$or those milk9paps that through the window %ars %ore at men"s eyes.# 1I.2 John is -uoting a line where !imon auses a woman with a nie hest of %eing a vile temptress. Q William Shakespeare, Julius 3aesar #Lend me your ears# 1E.DG2 When John tries to get the attention of all the 'eltas, he uses this line, spoken %y Brutus to address the &omans after 3aesar"s death. 1!he full line is, #$riends, &omans, ountrymen, lend me your ears.#2 John imagines himself not 5ust galvaniing the drones to want freedom and humanity, %ut as taking part in the great oral tradition of pu%li speaking. )e even hesitates when he first %egins, lamenting that he has no e*periene in suh arts. Q William Shakespeare, !he Life and 'eath of Cing John #( ;andulph, of fair /ilan, ardinal.# 1.2 When /ustapha asks if John knows what a ardinal is, John responds with this line from !he Life and 'eath of Cing John. 3ardinal ;andulph is one of the haraters in the play, so this is why John knows what /ustapha is talking a%out. Q William Shakespeare, /easure for /easure #!hy %est of rest is sleep and that thou oft provok"st7 yet grossly fear"st thy death whih is no more.# 1.HK2 !his line fits into that great, referene9filled paragraph in 3hapter 4ighteen when John ontemplates sleep, dreams, and death. !his partiular line from the play, spoken %y the harater of the 'uke, poses this -uestion to 3laudio+ you often enter sleep willingly, and death is really 5ust sleep, so how an you fear death6 !hat John is so preoupied with thoughts of death is no surprise given how this final hapter plays out.
