The Price of Happiness and Stability

In the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the topic of price is brought up many times. I’m talking specifically about the price of happiness in the society of the future. Through most of the description of the society, readers can see what people have paid in order to be “happy.” In the first chapter readers are introduced to predestination, when students are given a tour of the hatchery, where it is explained that “‘We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers’” meaning that people no longer get to choose what they can be (Huxley 13). As more and more information is given to readers about the society, it is possible to see all the differences between their society and ours, and see everything they have given up. During John’s encounter with a World Controller, Mustapha Mond, they discuss all the things that are being given up. The Controller says that “You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high are. We’ve sacrificed high art” and also that “‘we can’t allow science to undo its own good work. That’s why we so carefully limit the scope of its researches” (Huxley 220, 227). Later, the Controller states that they have given up religion as well in order to be happy.

At the beginning of the book, the one person who is unsatisfied with all the concessions is Bernard Marx. He wants to be able to love, to have privacy, etc. When he talks to Lenina, “‘I want to know what passion is,’ she heard him saying. ‘I want to feel something strongly’” and later, he also asks Lenina “‘wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? in your own way’” (Huxley 94, 91). Bernard has a reputation for being unorthodox and for going against the flow. He doesn’t like society the way it is run, and believes that they are giving up too much in order to experience happiness “‘everybody else’s way’” (Huxley 91). However, once Bernard brings John to civilization, and he becomes popular, he sort of drops those ideas, and “Success went fizzily to Bernard’s head and in the process completely reconciled him... to a world which, up until then, he had found very unsatisfactory” (Huxley 157). Then, when threatened to be sent to an island, he drops all of his previous values and opinions, and says “‘You can’t send me. I haven’t done anything. It was the others... Oh, please don’t send me to Iceland. I promise I’ll do what I ought to do’” and in that moment, he abandons his previous beliefs about the price of happiness being too high, and obviously he would rather pay that price and be happy like everyone else than to go to Iceland and risk not being happy (Huxley 226).

The role that Bernard plays of criticizing the society is taken over by someone who has deeper morals, and adhered more strongly to their values. That person is John, the “savage.” Many time throughout the book, after he is introduced, John quotes from the Shakespearean line that goes “How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ‘t!” This quote has significance, because it symbolizes John’s opinion of the new world he is exposed to. He starts off saying it earnestly, and each time he says it there is more and more sarcasm, until the scene after Linda, his mother, dies, he says “‘How many goodly creatures are there here...How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world’” but this time, “the singing words mocked him derisively” (Huxley 209). He no longer believes that the world is good anymore. He believes that they have sacrificed too much for what he calls, “‘false, lying happiness’” (Huxley 179). When John and Mustapha Mond, the Controller, are discussing the pros and cons about the society they live in, Mond says that they have things that have “‘All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences’” to which John replies, “‘But I like the inconveniences’” (Huxley 240). Mond then asserts that “‘We prefer to do things comfortably’” and John responds with “‘But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin” (Huxley 240). Mond tells John that

“you’re claiming the right to be unhappy… Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind” (Huxley 240)

To which John replies, “‘I claim them all’” (Huxley 240). This conversation sums up everything about costs. John wants things that are human, he wants to have religion and art, he wants to feel, but Mustapha Mond would rather people be happy than to have all those things. Everything that he sees, all the sacrifices he has chosen to take, as a World Controller, to him are worth it. The price of happiness is lower than the reward. The same goes for Bernard. Though he may have started off thinking that he would rather feel and be happy in his own way, after tasting what happiness in their society is like, he realizes that he would rather be happy than risk not being happy but have the ability to feel. However, John thinks that the price is too high. Everything he sees, the absence of religion, of high art, makes him sad, and the presence of unnatural things, like the Bokanovsky group of Delta children at the hospital, appalls him. He believes that the happiness is too fake, and that the price paid is too high. All the characters have their take on whether or not the price is worth it. Lenina’s is shown when Bernard talks to her about being free and having your own kind of happiness. Helmholtz’s is shown when he says he would rather go to the island and meet people like him and risk not being so happy. The description of the society emphasizes the loss, the social predestination, the strict caste system, etc. and the gain, the happiness, the drug, soma, which doesn’t have side effects, the open sex life, etc. This trade-off the referred to throughout the book.

My methods of close reading allowed me to see some things I would never have seen before, like how the Shakespeare quote is symbolic, or how John’s slut-shaming of Lenina and the rest of the society is the opposite of what happens in Daisy Miller: instead of everyone shaming one person, it is one person shaming everyone. I paid a lot more attention to detail, but mostly I looked at symbols and a little bit of intertextuality, but I was able to find quite a bit of. Besides the obvious direct references to Shakespeare, there is sort of a link to Romeo and Juliet between John and Lenina. They both want to be together, but they can’t because their society sets them apart. Then one of them dies and the other commits suicide. I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but there are others.

I really liked the book and would recommend the book to other people, because even though it was written the early 20th century, there are still many concepts that apply today. For example, instead of trading freedom for happiness, today we trade freedom for safety, in the form of laws such as the Patriot Act, which guards us from terrorists, but also opens up the possibility of our house being raided randomly. We also trade privacy for security, in the form of the NSA monitoring our communication. The book’s satire and sarcasm is also very humorous, and makes for an entertaining read. There are also probably many more deep messages that I didn’t catch, so I would like you to read it and tell me.

Shakespeare is everywhere

In the last part of Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, John, the “savage,” becomes very upset with the new, civilized world that he now lives in. He believes that their happiness is “‘false, lying happiness’” and he is frustrated because he in love with Lenina, and wants to do something noble for her, but she doesn’t understand love, nor does she understand why he wants to do something noble for her (Huxley 179). Eventually, Lenina makes a move on John, but John is shocked by her actions, and angrily refuses. He then goes to see his mother, Linda, who is on her deathbed. Just as Linda dies, a group of Delta “twins” come in to be conditioned to death. Their behavior offends John, because they do not seem to be sad that people are dying, and John believes that death is a sad thing. When he leaves the “Park Lane Hospital for the Dying,” he sees some Delta workers receiving soma, a drug, and decides that he needs to speak up against the society he deems indecent. He makes a speech and throws the soma away, but is arrested by some policemen and brought before the World Controller of western Europe, Mustapha Mond. There, they discuss the benefits and pitfalls of the new society, and John decides that he likes his ways better, stating that “‘I’m claiming the right to be unhappy’” as well as “‘the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy;’” etc. (Huxley 240). John then moves to the countryside where he resides in a lighthouse, and tries to live off of a garden the tries to make. But reporters find him and video his “weird” actions, and eventually Lenina comes to see him. John gets very mad, and whips Lenina, presumably to death, and, the next day, commits suicide.

Throughout the book, John often says a specific quote from Shakespeare, “How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ‘t!” He doesn’t always quote the entire section, but says bits and pieces of it a lot. In the beginning, the first time he says it is when he is invited by Bernard Marx to go to civilization with him. John is very excited because his mother has told him a lot of things about their world, like how everyone is happy. Once he arrives to “civilization,” John begins to realize that “civilization” was not what he was expecting. To him, it lacks essential values, like tears, or virtue. He believes that “civilization” is just “‘getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it… Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It’s too easy’” (Huxley 238). Eventually, when John exits the hospital for the dying, he states, “‘How many goodly creatures are there here...How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world’” except this time, “the singing words mocked him derisively” and he is quoting Shakespeare sarcastically (Huxley 209). The quote is a symbol not only for John’s opinion of the civilization in which the book is set, but also for the readers’ opinion of the civilization. The people in the civilization are no longer goodly, their happiness is fake, and their world, artificial. The people that inhabit the civilization may no longer be human, because they have lost everything that makes them human, their freedom, their independence, and their emotions. The World Controller states that “‘Happiness has got to be paid for’” and John is saying that the price is too high (Huxley 228). His sarcasm in quoting from Shakespeare indicates his loss of hope and confidence in the civilization, which I believe reflects of Huxley’s opinion of where the world was headed in his time.

Fame puts you there where things are hollow

In the middle of the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, Bernard Marx brings Lenina to a “savage reservation” where the “uncivilized” people are kept, namely Native Americans. There, they meet John and his mother, Linda, who is a “civilized” person who had went there to the reservation to see what it was like. Bernard Marx quickly and correctly determines that John’s father is the Director who wants to fire him, and arranges for John and Linda to be brought back. Once they get back, John and Linda humiliate the Director, who resigns. Lenina develops an attraction toward John, but John turns her down, believing her and the society to be too free about sexual relations. Meanwhile, Bernard is getting famous for having the “savage” around, because everyone wants to meet him.

I believe a pivotal in the book is when Bernard Marx brings back the savage. Before that point, Marx had felt alone and alienated from the rest of the world, because “too little bone and brawn had isolated Bernard form his fellow men” (Huxley 67). The only other person like Bernard was Helmholtz Watson, whose only claim to being different is that he is too smart. Even in Helmholtz’s presence, Bernard feels alone, because he wishes that “he could have as many girls as Helmholtz did, and with as little trouble” and during their meetings, “it was Helmholtz who did all the talking” (Huxley 68). However, when Bernard bring the “savage,” John, back to civilization, everyone wants to meet him. People disregard the fact that he is controversial, and the fact that he is physically different from them, and for once, Bernard is getting all the attention he wants. “Success went fizzily to Bernard’s head and in the process completely reconciled him... to a world which, up until then, he had found very unsatisfactory” (Huxley 157). Becoming such a success changes Bernard’s opinion of the world he lives in. He is treated well, and he begins to think that it can’t be that bad. After all, “he genuinely liked being a success and having all the girls he wanted” (Huxley 157). He is much happier and no longer feels alone, but the success also shapes his opinion of things. In previous chapters, as discussed in the last post, he believes that in the culture of romance of his society, women are treated like pieces of meat, and so he refrains from doing anything he thinks is remotely degrading of women. When he is in an elevator with Henry Foster, he says, “‘Have her here, have her there. Like mutton’” referring to Lenina, and yet he now that he is rich, he is having many girls (Huxley 45). So now, Bernard Marx, the character who is supposed to represent the more conservative view, the view that is closer to ours, is being corrupted. I believe this is pivotal, because it shifts the focus away from there still being hope that there are people like Marx out there who we consider morally correct, to being mostly disgusted by what we consider morally incorrect actions. There is no longer a character to connect to, in terms of viewpoint, in the book. I think this point in the book signifies a loss of hope.

Who is Marx?

The novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is about life in the future. The book is set in the year A.F. 632, the "A.F." stands for "After Ford," which corresponds to AD 2540. In this future,  everybody is grown in a lab, nobody is born naturally, and people put into certain castes, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, which are also divided into plus and minus, before they are “born.” In order to populate the world, scientists in the future use a technique they call “Bokanovsky’s Process” which subjects the cell to extreme conditions to make it bud and divide, “by which time the original egg was in a fair way to becoming anything from eight to ninety-six embryos” (Huxley 7). After being determined which caste they belong in, the lower caste embryos are subjects to stunting, both physical and mental. All embryos are also subject to conditioning, for example, “a special machine kept [rocket-plane engineers’] containers in constant rotation. ‘To improve their sense of balance’” (Huxley 17). Along with conditioning in the embryo stage, children are also conditioned to do other things, like hate the countryside, and are taught morals through a process called hypnopaedia, in which subjects are told information in their sleep. In the adult society, everyone in each caste is treated equally, and they are taught that everyone is important to the society. They have abolished religion and other non-scientific practices as well. For recreation, they take a drug they call "soma" which makes you happy and has no side effects like hangovers or anything. They also have a saying that “Everyone belongs to every one else” is present multiple time throughout the book, and is representative of the fact that everyone in this society is free to have sexual relations with anyone else; there is no monogamy and no marriage. In fact, marriage, monogamy, father, and mother are all concepts and words that are taboo. Everyone conforms to the norm, and nobody questions it.

One of the characters, Bernard Marx, who is an Alpha Plus, which means he is in the second highest caste, who disagrees with all the principles and policies instituted by the “World State.” His values conform more to those which are present in today’s society. They manifest themselves most when he is with Lenina, a very orthodox woman whom Bernard has a crush on. For example, privacy is not really valued in the future, people talk about everything from business to intimate discussions in public, but Bernard Marx would rather discuss his plans with Lenina in private. He disagrees with the “Everyone belongs to every one else” belief. He is in an elevator with two other men when he overhears them talking about Lenina, “‘Talking about her as though she were a bit of meat.’ Bernard ground his teeth. ‘Have her here, have her there. Like mutton’” (Huxley 45). His also doesn't like to take soma, preferring to feel emotion, being mad or sad than to be in a durg-induced happiness.He is also not afraid to share his disagreements with society, and people believe he is weird, and he has a bad reputation. I think that Bernard Marx is supposed to represent how we would feel if we had just woken up in this future world. He represents a bunch of values and beliefs that we have today, and his views conform to our society’s view. Aldous Huxley wrote the book to criticize the path he believed the world to be on, with an emphasis on blaming Henry Ford for these problems. I believe that he set out to create a character that could critique the society in the book, as well as a character we can relate to. I think Bernard Marx is supposed to be the person with whom we agree and through which Huxley is making a point about the direction our civilization is going, one that he doesn’t like.