Utopia? More Like Dystopia
Is there a place where perfection exists? A man named Thomas Moore wrote of such a place and called it Utopia. Utopia comes from the Greek meaning no place. He appropriately titled his piece with the notion that no such place exists. Another author, Aldous Huxley, wrote of a future Utopia as well in his Brave New World; however, Huxleys point of view of a Utopia is different. One critic noted on Huxleys point of view: Brave New World describes what Huxley fears may be mans future. He seeks to warn readers that utopia must be avoided (Matter 65). In fact, Huxleys story is an ironic tragedy in a Utopia with parallels to Shakespeares works. The story is based around the protagonist, John the Savage, a man who was considered primitive and lived on a reservation. John was given two alternatives: to go on living in the Brave New World whose God is Ford (Henry), or to retreat to a primitive Indian village more human in some ways, but just as lunatic in others (Bloom 1). Johns reading of Shakespeare influences the way he sees the world of the savage and the New World in different viewpoints; these viewpoints are in regards to his relationships with his mother, Lenina, and the world itself. One critic writes, it is by the standards of Shakespearian tragedy and romance that [John] judgessociety (Thody 89).
The predominant Shakespeare work in Brave New World is the play Othello. John the Savage most certainly relates to Othello, a soldier who married a Venetian woman, Desdemona, despite the disapproval of society. In Othellos case, his assistant, Iago, becomes jealous and turns Othello on his new wife and makes Othello kill her. In Johns case, the woman is Lenina and the villain is society. His situation relates to Othello in a sense that he is an outsider who loves a girl, but whose mind is poisoned against her not by an individual villain, but by the entire society which has produced her (Jones 4). Just as Iago uses basest words to describe Desdemona to degrade her, in Johns perspective the seemingly perfect society degrades Lenina by conditioning her to be promiscuous. There is an influence of Shakespeare in John in this situation as Jones writes: Shakespeare kept John Savage from a satisfactory relationship with the girl he loved, just as Iago kept Othello from Desdemona (5).
Another play incorporated in Brave New World is Shakespeares Hamlet. The parallel to Hamlet is shown in the relationship between John the Savage and his mother, Linda. This relationship develops through Lindas promiscuity and Johns hate of her relations with Pope (Yunker 58). Baker writes, John the Savage isdeeply scarred by his memories of what he regards as his mothers promiscuity (99). Johns feelings parallel to Hamlets hate of his mothers relations with another man besides his father. Lindas relations with Pope caused John to have a different perspective of his mother. A critic writes, Singled out by the savage community as sexually profligate, [Linda] is enshrined in [Johns] consciousness as a woman who surrendered herself to hostile masculine interloper who literally shuts the young John out of his mothers life (Baker 99).
Johns feelings of the New World also worsen with his feelings for Lenina. Even though he loves her, he becomes upset when Lenina relates to him in a sexual manner so soon. After the feely, Johns disapproval of Leninas sexual behavior is shown as he is humiliated after watching the feely and leaves Lenina to go read Othello (Yunker 67). Leninas sexual desires are clearly shown through her conditioning. Since John likes Lenina, she doesnt see why she hasnt had sex with him. The effort to seduce John with the feely failed because of Johns Savage roots (Huxley 166-70). The seduction also fails because John doesnt feel he has proved himself to Lenina in order to become more intimate through sexual intercourse. These thoughts cause John to think of her as a whore (Yunker 78).
When John first enters the New World, he is extremely excited and hungers to experience. This is evident from the text: John also laughed, but for another reasonlaughed for pure joy. O brave new world, he repeated. O brave new world that has such people in it. Lets start at once. At this point, John is nave just as Miranda is in Shakespeares The Tempest. This nave nature continues to the point to where he is too nave to see the real side of Lenina, just as Miranda is to see the real side of the people she comes across (Yunker 58).
Johns excitement for the New World, however, is completely changed by the end of the book. At first John was teaming with curiosity and ambition, the immoral lifestyle of the New World quickly changed his perspective on the way he viewed himself and others. An event that dramatically reversed his view of the New World was the death of his mother. John is angered by the treatment of his mother at the hospital during her period before her death. Also, he is disgusted with the behavior of the children around there (Huxley 200-16). John begins to see the negative aspects of the New world. He sees people hooked on Soma and thinks again O brave new world. He thinks of how his mother died from soma addiction (Yunker 89). At this point, Johns negative view of the New World has affected him emotionally. A critic writes, We are clearly meant to identify with the Savage, as he grasps for the experiences required (so he believes) for deep emotion and the sense of tragedy. Those exchanges highlight what has been lost in the Brave New World (Blackford). It is clear that at this point, John has lost all hope in his visions of the New World.
When John first sees Lenina step off the plane, lustful feelings come to his mind as he thinks of lines from Shakespeare to describe her (Yunker 105). His first impression of Lenina is shown in the text: [John] gave a gasp and was silent, gaping. He had seenthe face of a girl whose cheeks were not the colour of chocolate or dogskin (Huxley 117). This impulsive image of Lenina shows Johns extremely human side. However, this impulsive image also shows Johns ignorance towards people in the New World.
As John learns who Lenina truly is, he begins to develop the person he wishes her to be using Juliette as the ideal example. In the text John even uses direct quotes from Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet while she is sleeping:
Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice;
Handlest in thy discourse O! that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink
Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure
The cygnets down in harsh. (qtd. in Huxley 144)
John is trying to form the image he wants Lenina to be, whether it be only in the image of Juliet or his own. A critic writes, [John] insists on [Lenina] fitting in not only with Romeo and Juliet but with the even more extraordinary concepts he has absorbed from the fertility rites and initiation ceremonies of the Pueblo Indians (Thody 90). Even though John wishes Lenina to fit his image, they can never understand each other because they are from different worlds (Yunker 78-80).
Nonetheless, John the Savage is not emotionally able to deal with the problems of the New World. Since he was raised in the savage reservation, John thinks and sees things differently from the rest of the people. His reading of Shakespeare and his exclusion from the Indian pueblo societyforced him to turn inward upon his own psychological resources (Firchow 27). Johns psychological resources brings him to the dilemma of choosing between two alternatives: the comfort of his primitive lifestyle or the New World where he fell in love. Even though Johns knowledge and love for Shakespeare influences the way he looks at the world, it does not help him in choosing to make a decision in his dilemma (Bloom 2). In fact, the relations to Shakespeare cause John to do the worst, appropriately ending the book as a tragedy. The Savages tragedy, like Othellos, is that of a man deceived by both himself and a villain.Both Othello and the Savage have been forced to [commit] murder and suicide by a villain, one a soulless Iago, one an honest Shakespeare (Jones 5-6). Is this what a perfect society or so called utopia is: A man driven to suicide because he is deemed as a social outcast due to his morally just conscience and knowledge of Shakespeare? Its ironic how John, who ends up hating the New World, falls victim to their phrase, ending is better than mending. For John, it is better and nobler to try to be more than human and fail, than to try to be less than human and succeed (Firchow 28). Even though John tries to rise above the controversy, this utopia in which all things are to be perfect pressures him into taking his own life. A critic comments on Johns suicide: It is an individual death, one brought on by an intense desire to be more and greater than he is, and by his savage disappointment at realizing that it cannot be. (Firchow 28). By the end of the novel, the reader has an image of the New World as a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding, a type of society that could be defined by only one term: dystopia.
Works Cited
Baker, Robert S. Brave New World: Huxleys Dystopian Dilemma. Ed. Harold Bloom.
Broomall, PA: Chelsea, 2003.
Blackford, Russel. Whos Afraid of the Brave New World? Institute for Ethics and Emerging
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