BRAVE NEW WORLD-Character Anaylysis

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Character Analysis

Review by Shelby

Ha. Since Sasha beat me to it, I'll do a character analysis:


Bernard Marx: At first I liked Bernard because I thought he was going to be the rebel, the guy who changes everything. WRONG. He is, in the first part of the novel, the main character. Bernard is insecure, and he knows he is different and always feels alone. He is a specialist of hypnopaedia, sleep-teaching, so he knows how people are conditioned to think certain things, like their caste pride, and "a gramme is better than a damn" etc. But even though Bernard sees these things, he does not see the big picture. He likes the society and even though he's different, and doesn't really want to be his own person. He wants to blend in, be a somebody. In the end of the novel, Marx proves to be a coward...

Lenina Crowne: Ah! The Impudent Strumpet. Lenina is so funny. She's like... She's the femme fatale of Brave New World... Well maybe... she doesn't die... I guess she's the token hot babe or whatever. In the book they think she's pretty (pneumatic, is the word characters use, but chairs are also described as pneumatic.) So i guess "comfortable" or "pneumatic" is the new "hot" in A.F. whatever year they're in. She's the quintessential Brave New English girl. She takes her contraceptives, has had many of the local guys, and enjoys flying, soma, feelies, and Electromagnetic golf. She is horrified by the 'Savages' when she visits their reservation with Bernard. But, Lenina also has her share of aberrations. Sometimes, she is not promiscuous enough. *rolls eyes* She, according to her friend Fanny, goes out with Henry Foster too much. Also, she pursues both Marx and John a bit zealously. Lenina's Ok i guess. This is a very sad analysis...

Hemholtz Watson: Not as important as other characters, but Hemholtz Watson is a real thinker. He was an Alpha Plus, or Alpha double Plus, or something... People thought he was way too smart. He's a writer, he writes slogans for the society. He teaches his students to write "piercingly". He himself wants to write "piercingly," but he knows that he can't when he's just writing about soma, and new scientific breakthroughs, and crap like that. He doesn't even know what he can write about... When he writes about loneliess there is an uproar. But, even Hemholtz Watson is well-conditioned. When John shows him Romeo and Juliet, Watson laughs at them, not believing that they can feel so strongly. But, even though he disappoints in this respect, Hemholtz proves to be a stand-up guy in the end.

Mustapha Mond: The world controller. He's a great villain. He disputes freedom and... well he's not boring but I don't really wanna write about him.

John (The Savage): AH! My favorite. Even though I was totally pissed at him in the end. Ahhh. John, the disgrace of the society. He's someone's SON. (No one has families in BNW. NO ONE. They're like... a family!!?!??! *shudder*) John grew up with the Native Americans in the reserve, but he was shunned there because he was not Native American. He is like Bernard Marx, He wanted to fit in. John knows about Shakespeare, families, and God. He even knows about love; he falls in love with Lenina (and then he is QUITE disappointed with her... but still can't let her go). Like Lenina, when he is taken out of his niche, he is dismayed by what he finds. He hates the Brave New World, and HE actually tries to change it... tries to start something new.

But even John, for how much I love him, is not flawless. John shows that the Old World, supposedly the opposite of the BNW, is not really the opposite. Just like people are in BNW, John is conditioned. It might not be with hypnopaedia, or shock therapy, but John grew up being taught morals, and what is right, and even by his mother, that the civilisation in London was a great one. John, at the end (Sorry, but a spoiler) is always punishing himself, because he believes he is behaving immorally. He just gives up on the BNW.

BUT! John is very instrumental in the message of Brave New World. Aldous Huxley lived through World War Two, when people were very scared of totalitarian societies, (like Hitler's, Stalin's, and kinda Mussolini's). Brave New World is an anti-utopian novel. Since John doesn't defeat the society (it defeats him) it scares people more away from utopias. The people of "Brave New" London become like animals... it really was scary!