![]() ![]() Huxley seems to not have any faith in the empowerment of women or regard for the future of women’s rights, just simply that they exist to serve the male. John had allowed for some diversity within the World State, creating some controversy about the standards of the Alphas and their male dominated society.Ĭritics like David Leon Higdon note the misogynistic tendencies at play within the novel, concluding that it becomes a ‘thematic problem in Brave New World‘ (Higdon, 2002). He had not been conditioned to hate books, and had developed an interest in Shakespeare’s work. However, this construct is challenged in the development of John the Savage, who was born in the New Mexico Savage Reservation (opposite beliefs about love and relationships than the World State). Horan states that the sexual freedom available in the World State had ‘cheapened the currency of desire’, meaning that there was no lust that would threaten the establishment of this community that Alphas like The Director had constructed (Horan, p.318). This was due to The Director’s conditioning through electric shocks on infants so they learned not to want to develop a love, or interest for books or flowers, in order to fit into his vision for the future of his society. The characters in the World State are “conditioned” to simply have a deep interest in sexual intercourse fro pleasure, not reproduction. There are no relationships and therefore, children are no longer traditionally reproduced by a Mother and Father (“Bokanovsky’s Process”) within the World State because no two people can be together for a long period of time. In his utopian society, anybody can have sex with who ever they desire, while women wear a contraceptive belt (“Malthusian Belt”). Since this novel was written in the early 1900s, Huxley was living in the society where women were oppressed, therefore, it is not a challenge to understand why he made this a clear theme within his novel. Within Aldous Huxley’s prediction of the future, men are placed in the position of power and the women are to have no objection to their clear dominance. “Brave New World”, written in 1913 is a novel that explores ideas surrounding power in status and power in gender. Thomas Horan, “ Revolutions from the Waist Downwards: Desire as Rebellion in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. “‘ Brave New World’, Plato’s ‘Republic’, and Our Scientific Regime.” The New Atlantis. ![]() Not only does he administer the creation of life in his laboratory, but natural conception is forbidden. An example drenched in irony is when the director of the ‘Hatchery and Conditioning Centre’ is uncovered as being a father to a societal outcast. The further use of situational irony contrasts what audiences expect to occur with what, ironically, does happen. Brave New World, albeit dystopian, is a plausible future and as such, audiences are drawn in by simultaneous intrigue and skepticism. Huxley uses satire to over over-exaggerate aspects of his own society he believes ought to change. Prophetically, the novel preceded Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini’s totalitarian governments. Brave New World was published in the wake of communist Russian revolution and the starkly different opulent Roaring 20s. This gratifying domination is a softer take on a dystopian totalitarian state compared to thee likes of George Orwell’s harsh Nineteen Eighty-Four which pursued Huxley’s novel. In Huxley’s utopia, society lives in submissive contentment under a benevolent dictator. When Huxley wrote Brave New World he was in a state of disillusionment with politics and social attitudes within his society (Horan 318). Huxley’s novel subtly intertwines his fears of enforced social equality and self-imposed oppression. As Franck points out, though this world appears to function perfectly, its people are oppressed by their reliance on technology and blind faith in the world state. Within Huxley’s world state, any divisive material such as history, religion or literature are forbidden. In particular, consumerism, group-thinking and discrimination. These principles are a combination of all Huxley fears may deteriorate society. Further, infants are conditioned to live out the principles of this ‘New World’. This hierarchy is assured by the creation of all human life in a laboratory and during this process, each human is genetically designed to fit within a certain class. This peaceful world is driven by human satisfaction and reinforced by a rigid social hierarchy. Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World imagined a perfect utopia. ![]()
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