Chapter IV
View
of Future World in Aldous Huxley’s in Brave New World
Aldous
Huxley has experienced both of the best of the parts of the world in
his life. Though he was born in U.K but he had worked and led a part
of his life in U.S. The novel Brave New World begins with the visit
of new students led by the Director to Central London hatchery and
Conditioning Centre with the motto of the modern world inscribed in
bold letters- Community, Identity, Stability. To begin with first of
all they visit the fertilising room. This batch of students were
fortunate and lucky as Director himself was showing them these things
and they were taking notes “ straight from horse’s mouth”.
Director points out towards incubators in which the numbered test
tubes, each containing an ova, were placed in the racks. These Ovas
were donated by the members of the society against six month’s
advance salary. Each Ova was immersed in a warm bouillon containing
millions of Spermatozoa. Then Director points towards a great
scientific achievement of the modern process by discovering a process
named Boanowsky. Earlier one ova, one egg and one adult was the norm
of the day where as a Bokanovkified egg can divide and give rise to
96 adults. Director calls it as a great tool that has helped in
bringing social stability in modern society as this process has
enabled them to produce 96 identical adults or rather machines who
will go on working mechanically like a robot without any emotion or
feeling. Entire labour to a factory could be supplied from a single
Bokanovsikfied egg. Thus the principle of mass production has been
applied to life sciences or Biology. Though a Bokanviskified egg can
produce 96 adults but this is upper limit but 72 individuals can be
produced easily. This shows the limit of humanity, even in the modern
age of science and technology that they cannot Bokanoskify an egg
indefinitely. Director shows another process known as Podsnap
technique that has accelerated the process of maturing and ripening.
By this process two hundred eggs can be fertilised and matured within
a period of two years that would take nearly a period of 30 years in
natural course of time. Through the process of fertilisation and
Bokanovskification nearly 11000 identical brothers and sisters can be
produced. Director calls a man named Foster and asks him to tell
about the record of a single ovary in the world. He replies that
16012 has been achieved in this centre the 189 batches of identical
beings, whereas Singapore has succeeded in achieving the level of
16500 and Mumbai Centre has even touched the mark of 17000
individuals per ovary. Change of weather is also a factor as warm
weather facilitates the process of fertilisation and the way a negro
responds to ptitutory. Foster then takes students into the bottling
room where all hormones bustle in an ordered activities.
After
liners came matriculators when one by one eggs were transferred from
their test tubes to one of the large containers, other details like
heredity, date of fertilisation, membership of Bokanovsky group were
put on the bottles. Now no longer they were anonymous as they had an
identity and these bottles moved towards Social Predestination Room.
Their identity card was 88 cubic metres of Card index containing all
the relevant information brought up to date every morning and
coordinated every afternoon. The work of Predestinators is to
calculate and inform the fertilisers the requirement of so many
individuals of such an quality. Then they supply the required number
of embryos- quantitatively as well as qualitatively. These bottles
moved on the escalators very like the cars on the production line or
conveyor line in a modern automobile factory. Here in social
predestination room each bottle was placed on one of the fifteen
racks- each rack though invisible was a conveyor belt travelling at
the rate of 33 1/3 centimetres an hour for two hundred sixty seven
days covering the distance of nearly 8 metres a day. Mr Foster
apprised the group that decreasing the revolution would reduce the
supply of oxygen to the embryo and thus the quality of the embryo can
be controlled effectively by monitoring the supply of oxygen to it
and he felt that there is nothing like Oxygen shortage to keep an
embryo below par. The lower the cast of embryo less the supply of
oxygen to it. Due to lack of oxygen first brain is affected and then
the skeleton. At 70% of the normal oxygen level only dwarfs could be
produced while at less than 70% would only beget eyeless monsters who
could be of great use to society as their maturity process can be
accelerated. Pilkington at Mombasa succeeded in producing individuals
who were sexually mature even at the age of 4 years and fully grown
at the age of six and half years thus saving a lot of wastage of time
and energy which was a scientific scoop. Embryos receiving heat
conditioning would love to go to tropics to work as miners, acetate
silk spinners and steel workers. Similarly embryos destined to become
workers were trained to tolerate the fumes of lead,caustic soda, tar
and chlorine and embryos destined to become rocket plane engineers
were conditioned by continuously rotating their embryo bottles so as
to improve their sense of balance and they consider topsy-turvy as
normal order of the day. The highest quality of embryos getting
adequate supply of everything including oxygen were Alphas or
Epislons who were considered as future controllers of the world or
the controller of hatcheries.
Then
they go to visit the nursery that was situated on the fifth floor of
the building by escalator. Here also conditioning was going on but
not of embryos but of infants and the signboard read INFANT
NURSERIES- NEO PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING ROOMS. Director commanded the
nurse to set out the books, and there appeared a number of bright
colourful flowers, grass, beast, bird and fish. Then he ordered to
bring in the children and in came a group of infants wearing Khakhi
clothes as they were eight months old Delta group. Toddlers were put
on floor and they crawled towards the bright colourful pictures of
nature like flowers, birds and beasts and they started playing with
these colourful objects without any inhibition. Then Director gave
another command to the Nurse and she pressed a lever to pass a
current through the floor that caused a deadening explosion and
children were startled and they started crying. Children gave sharp
spasmodic yelps instead of shouts of joy and their bodies were
twitching and stiffening. Director signalled them to release the
lever and show the pictures of objects of nature again to the
children but this time they shrank instead of giving shouts of joy as
they have now been conditioned to hate nature and its objects. Though
these children have been conditioned to hate nature and its objects
but at the same time they have been conditioned to like Rural sports
as it brought profit and revenue to the state and society. Every type
of infant had diverse uniform- Alphas wore grey uniform, Gammas wore
green, Delta Khaki and Epsilon wore much worse black as they were
destined to become sewage, miners and menial workers. Then Director
tells them about another tool of conditioning- Elementary Class
Consciousness through playing a few sentences repeatedly while the
children were sleeping so that these sentences seeped deep into the
subconscious and unconscious mind directly. It has been termed as
teaching and conditioning through hyponaedia which is much more
effective than other methods. Though initially this method had failed
as it was applied to secular knowledge. This system set in when Henry
Ford was still alive in 20th century. This system
originated from a boy named Reuben whose parents accidentally left
the radio open there was no power and they went to work while Reuben
was sleeping. Meanwhile power returned and Radio was broadcasting a
programme on River Nile and River Missouri. When the child woke up
and he was asked information about these rivers, he was unable to
answer it as he had not studied about them in his school yet. But the
moment the first sentence of this Radio programme was spoken before
him he repeated everything faultlessly and flawlessly down even to
the punctuation marks and pauses. This system was greatly successful
in the moral conditioning of the children. Director termed it as “
the greatest moralising and socialising force of all time” .(33)
Then the group came to Elementary Class Consciousness where a speaker
was playing in a clear voice to the sleeping children “ and Delta
wear Khaki Oh ! No I don’t want to play with Delta children. and
Epsilons are still worse. They are too stupid to be able to read and
write. Besides they wear black which is such a beastly colour. I’m
so glad I’m a Beta. Alpha children wear grey they work much harder
than we do, because they are so frightfully clever. I am really
awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then
we are much better than the Gammas or Deltas” (33).
Then
Director takes them to the garden where children are playing.
Director and students start watching ‘Centrifugal Bumble Puppy
Game’. Twenty children were standing in a circle around the chrome
steel tower. A ball was thrown so as to land on the platform at the
top of the order and as the ball rolled down into the interior and
fell on a rapidly moving disc and was hurled through one of the
apertures pierced in a cylindrical casing and the ball had to be
caught by one of the twenty boys.
This
modern society was controlled by Ten controllers and the God of this
society was Ford, not Lord and the governing principle of this world
was capitalism, business, trade and profit. Only those games were
allowed in this society that needed a lot of apparatuses and
equipments so as to keep the factories and labour working in it go
on. The world controller of this part of the world was His Fordship
Mustapha Mond. Both Director and students bow before the portrait of
the World Controller. The Cross of the Christianity was replaced by
by T after removing the top arm of the cross. This sign was adopted
by the world in the year Ford launched one of the popular models of
Car the T Model. Director tells the learners that in this world
children are allowed to play erotic games which were considered a
taboo in 20th century even for adolescents. There were
institutions like family, mother, child, religion, which were full of
disgusting sentimentality that was nothing but trash according to
this modern society. Mankind of the modern world have learnt to
overcome these silly emotions and feelings and learnt to move forward
and progress.
Here
novelist introduces some other characters like Bernard Marx, who is a
protagonist of the novel, Lenina, Fanny, Crome, and the like. Though
Bernard was an Alpha child but due to a human mistake by somebody
when he was still in a bottle somebody put alcohol in his blood
surrogate thinking him to be a Gamma. The result was that his growth
was stunted and he was reserve and introvert as he did not like to
mix with others. As Bernard was abnormal so sometimes he feels like
killing Ford and escape from this world. He is a specialist on
Hypnopaedia so he knows that sixty two thousand four hundred
repetitions makes a truth. This book also talks about the nine year
war between Russia and the rest of the world. Perhaps novelist has
predicted the imminent of third world war as the recent Russian-
Ukranian conflict may flare into full scale war. The time of the
novel is also AF ( After Ford) and not A.D, that starts from the year
when Ford introduced his world famous T- Model. The much talked about
nine years war began in 141 A.F. There is also mention of Great
British Museum Massacre.
The
guiding mantra of these people is “ ending is better than
mending”(49) and government is an affair of sitting not hitting.
You rule with the brains and buttocks never with the fists. It
describes the elaborate facility for washing and bathing. After
taking bath Lenina takes a nozzle and attaches to her breast and
presses a level that throws hot air on her body along with the
femish talcum powder of eight different aromas including
Eau-de-Cologne. Another character is introduced who is friend of the
protagonist Bernard named Mr. Helmholtz Watson, who is a lecturer at
the Department of Writing, College of Emotional Engineering. Bernard
goes to meet Watson in his chopper cab. Similarity between them was
that both of them were abnormal while Bernard was given excess of
alcohol that led to his stunted growth while Watson also received
something extra by human error that made him flamboyant and alluring
that made him popular among the girls with more brain and brush.
Watson wants to avoid the girls while Marx wants to take Lenina on
the tour to Mexico to give her a view of the old world. Due to some
deficiency Bernard Marx feels that he has got something important to
say and even power to say it too but he does not know what it is and
why he is unable to use his power.
Readers
also come to know that each level of existence had different organs
of entertainment, journals and newspapers. Various Bureaux of
Propaganda and College of Emotional Engineering were housed in a
sixty multi-storey building in Fleet Street. On the lower floor were
stationed the offices of three great London Newspapers- The Hourly
Radio for Alphas, Gamma Gazette and The Delta Mirror on Khaki paper.
Then there was Bureaux of Propaganda by Television, by Feeling
Pictures, and by synthetic voice and music. Top eighteen floors were
occupied by College of Emotional Engineering. Mr Watson wrote
regularly for The Hourly Radio, composed feely scenarios and had the
happiest knack for slogans and hyponaedic rhymes. The forms of
entertainment of this society is shown when Lenina and Henry Frost go
for the dance at London’s Forest Scent and Colour Organ which was
playing the latest synthetic music.
In
this world even dead bodies are put to use as Phosphorous is
retrieved from the dead body before the funeral that is used in
growing plants and vegetations by providing healthy nutrients to the
soil. So a man even after his death is useful in the society as they
have learnt the technique to recover nearly 90% of it. Nearly a kilo
phosphorous is recovered from an adult corpse that makes four hundred
tons of phosphorous of England. Mostly plant growers are Gammas,
Delatas and Epsilons. Bernard Marx has to do solidarity community
service every alternate Thursday at Ford Community Singing. He
reaches the Singery just in time where twelve people collect for
group singing after taking a drug known as Soma that leaves behind
all the worries and problems and relaxes the body and mind. About
Soma the popular saying are
A gramme in time saves nine.
And
one cubic centimetre ( of Soma) cures ten gloomy
sentiments.
They sing a song while a cup of strawberry flavoured soma is rotated
around the table.
Ford, we are twelve; oh! Make us one
like drops in the social river
oh make us now together run
as swiftly as thy shining flower
came greater being, Social Friend
Annihilating twelve in one
we long to die, for when we end
Our large life has just begun.
Feel how the Greater Being comes
rejoice and in rejoicing die
melt in the music of the dreams.
For I am you, and you are I
orgy, porgy,Ford and far
Kiss the girl and make them one,
boys at one with girls at peace
Orgy-Porgy gives release.
As
Bernard is abnormal so he does not feel communion with the Greater
Being though he shows it so and his lie is detected by the girl
sitting beside him Drug taking is encouraged in this world so as to
ensure nobody rebels and everybody submits like a slave. Lenina
observes strange behaviour in Bernard that had gone to the edge of
heresy, a sign of revolt against the modern establishment. First of
all he refuses to take Soma to relieve his sadness and wants to
remain gloomy Secondly he is introverted as he like to do things in
private rather than in a communion in a society. Nothing is private
in the life of a modern human being except taking bath and going to
bed at night. Lenina prepares herself to go with Bernard on a holiday
to New Mexico to see Savage reservation. Bernard takes his visa to be
signed by Director. As controller of this part of the world Mustapha
Mond had already counter signed it so he merely put initials on it.
When he sees that it is a visa for New Mexico he shares with him a
memory of his journey to this place with a girl nearly twenty years
ago. During this visit there was a severe storm in which this girl
was lost and left behind. Then Director realises that he was getting
emotional before Bernard, which is a heresy in the modern world. So
he saves his face by rebuking Bernard that his behaviour outside the
working hours is being monitored closely and if his behaviour does
not change then he may be transferred to some distant place like
Iceland. However Bernard takes Visa and along with Lenina he reaches
the office of the warden of Savage Reservation in New Mexico who tell
them that in the world of New Mexico women still gave birth to
children which is very disgusting to watch for the modern humans.
Suddenly Bernard remembers that he has left his tap of Eau-de-Cologne
of his washroom open and by the time they will reach an enormous bill
will welcome them. So he phones Watson and tells him to go to his
house and turn it off. He also comes to learn that Director is
seriously thinking of transferring him to Iceland. They enter the
savage reservation but Lenina does not like the ritual dance of the
tribals and she laments that she had forgotten soma tablets in the
room of the guest house as she badly needed soma to get relief from
the disgust caused by the ritual dance and the violence associated
with it.
All
of a sudden a boy wearing the tribal mask starts speaking to them in
English- not the language of this tribal world but of the modern so
called civilised world. Lenina is disgusted further to see penury,
old age, disease, woes and miseries in this world. Though in the
modern world too Director is old but he does not appear to be so as
the people of this world have learnt to control the metabolism and
hence the process of ageing. They have learnt to keep their internal
secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium.
Magnesium-Calcium ratio is not allowed to drop below the level of the
ratio that a man has at the age of thirty years. Transfusions of
young blood is constantly given to them so as to keep their
metabolism permanently stimulated to enjoy youth almost unimpaired
till the age of sixty. ‘ and then the crack- the end’ (94). This
boy with the tribal mask speaking English takes Bernard and Lenina to
his mother a white old lady named Linda who came here to this
reservation nearly twenty years ago with a young man and got lost in
a storm. As she was pregnant with the child of this young man so she
had no option to give birth to this child as there was no abortion
facility available in the Savage Reservation. This boy was the young
man who had talked to them in English though wearing a tribal mask.
She had named this child Tomakin after the first name of his father
Thomas who was now Director, Hatcheries. This lady was a Beta and she
missed the pleasures and comforts of the modern world, particularly
soma. She asks Lenina if there is still abortion centre at Chelsea,
still flood lighted on Tuesdays and Fridays and lovley pink glass
tower and the river at night and a hot bath and vibro- vaccum
massage. In the modern society she worked in a fertiliser room where
she had been taught ‘ ending is better than mending’. But here
she had to wear clothes by mending and repairing them while in the
modern society the dictum was to throw away the clothes as soon as
there were holes in it and buy new as it suited modern industry and
capitalism. But here everything is different, it was just like
leading life with lunatics. Here nobody belongs to more than one
person, as monogamy is still the rule of the day in this society. If
you have more than one person in your life you are considered to be
wicked and anti-social. They hate and despise you. Once a lot of
woman came and beat her and created a scene just because ‘their men
came to see her’. (102) Women here are disgusting ‘mad, mad and
cruel’(102).
Linda
so as to survive forges relationship with one of the powerful member
of the tribe living in Savage Reservation named Pepe though she has
to face the wrath of his women but Linda could not see the reason of
this violence as she was brought up in the modern world where the
ruling dictum was ‘everybody belongs to everyone’ but in this
society only one woman belonged only to one man as in this society
marriage was still considered indissoluble and they still had faith
in the doctrines of fidelity and loyalty. Modern world has learnt
techniques to use Magnesium salts and alcohol to keep Epsilons ‘small
and backward’ (109). After coming from Savage Reservation Bernard
Marx meets after, crossing a number of bureaucratic hurdles, first
the Fourth Personal Secretary, then First Personal Secretary and
finally to World Controller of that part of the world Mustapha Mond
and unfolds his plan to bring Linda and Joy, who are stuck up in the
Savage Reservation, into the modern world and society. Mustapha
approves it and assures Marx that necessary orders and instructions
would be issued soon to the Warder of the Savage Reservation that can
be collected from his office. Joy comes to the Guest House and enters
by breaking the window pane and sees Lenina sleeping,under the
influence of Soma drug that she had taken to relieve herself from the
stress of her visit to Savage Reservation. Suddenly he hears the
humming sound of the fan of the chopper and is glad to see and
receive Bernard Marx.
Next
day Bernard goes to meet Director Hatcheries and Conditioning in the
Nursery- which was eleven storey structure. In the basement of the
building spermatozoa were burrowing their heads towards eggs and
fertilising it. The eggs were expanding, dividing or if
bokanovskified budding and breaking into whole population of separate
embryos. In the basement factories were growing on getting poisoned
with too much alcohol and languished into stunted Epsilonhood. Then
in Decanting Room the newly bottled babes uttered their first’ yell
of horror and amazement’ (125). On all the eleven floors of this
building it was feeding time when eighteen hundred bottles, eighteen
hundred carefully labelled infants were simultaneously sucking down
their pint pasteurised external secretion. In other floors also
little boys and girls who needed afternoon nap were getting their
hyponaedic lessons in hygiene and sociality in class consciousness.
Above this storey were playrooms where, weather having turned to
rain, hundreds of older children were playing various games like
bricks and clay modelling, hunt the slipper and the erotic play.
Director
accuses Bernard Marx of unseemly behaviour outside his working hours
like refusing to take soma and not mixing up socially with others and
remaining aloof and lonely and for his heretical view on games like
magnetic golf and of course Soma and he even declares his decision to
transfer Bernard to Iceland so as
to contain the damage to the society done by him. He asks Bernard to
give reason for not punishing him. Moving his head in affirmation
Bernard brings in Linda
who at once recognises Director as Tomkin and embraces him as she has
met after a long period of twenty years. She also tells Director that
they have a son too named John,who also comes and bows before the
Director and calls him father. This causes a lot of embarrassment to
the Director as everybody watching him starts laughing and he leaves
the room in a hurry, frustration and anger. Bernard Marx becomes an
important figure in the modern world as guardian of John Tomakin,
while Linda goes on infinite
holiday of Soma. Although her form was distorted and ugly yet John
was very much attached to his mother that he used to visit her daily.
Taking Soma was shortening her life as continuous intake of soma
would damage her breathing system one day and she would die. Every
dignitary of the modern world like The Chief Butler, Director of
Predestination, three Deputy Assistant Fertiliser Generals, Professor
of Feelies at the College of Emotional Engineering, Dean of
Westminster Community Singery, Supervisor of Bokanovskification and
others wanted to meet John and even they ignored the queer behaviour
of Bernard for that. Every girl of the modern world starts liking
Bernard so as to get opportunity to get a glimpse of the savage john
Tomakin. He even boasts that
he had six girls last week. Now success like Fizz was rising in the
mind of Bernard.Even the Controller of this part of the world
Mustapha Mond noticed it and decided to reprimand him for it at
appropriate time. Bernard takes John to see a small factory of
lighting sets for choppers which was a branch of Electrical
Engineering Corporation (EEC). They were received warmly on the roof
by Chief Technician and Human Element Manager. The
Station Master tells John that these rockets like The Bombay Green
could travel at the speed of twelve hundred and fifty kilometres per
hour, John remembers words of Ariel from Shakespeare’s play The
Tempest that says “ Ariel could put a girdle around the Earth in
forty minutes.
Then
Bernard takes John to visit Eton school which is a high class boys
and girls school. Though it makes education difficult but as they
have to play the responsibilities in future so it can’t be helped.
Bernard takes a fancy towards Headmistress of the school Miss Keate.
Then John is taken to the Geography class where it is being taught in
which the Savage Reservation as the place that owing to unfavourable
climatic and geographical conditions, or poverty of natural resources
has not been ‘with the
expanse of civilising’. (132) Students laugh when people of the
reservation wail and prostrate before their local deities like Our
Lady. John is at loss to
comprehend why these people are laughing. Then they come to the room
of hyponaedic learning control room where there are magic boxes, each
for one dormitory, in which a magnetic roll is slipped that contains
the hyponaedic lessons are printed. As the roll unwinds the Selenium
cells Transform the light impulses into sound waves. When John Savage
asks Provost Dr Gaffrey Don’t they read Shakespeare. He replies
that if young people need destruction they can get it at feelies, ‘we
don’t encourage them to indulge in any solitary amusement’(133).
Then they come to Bio-chemical Labs and Library where five bus loads
of young children return back from death conditioning from the Slough
Crematorium.
Either they were singing or silently embracing. Provost
informs them that death conditioning begins at eighteen months and
everybody has to spend two mornings a week in The Hospital for the
Dying. All the best boys are kept there and they get chocolate cream
on death days. They learn to take death as normal and routine matter
like any other physiological process like eating or sleeping.
Meanwhile Bernard fixes his meeting with his mistress at Savoy. John
observes that at Television Corporation Factory every worker was
getting his daily ration of Soma. Four half gram tablets per day and
six tablets on Saturday. Lenina feels very excited as Bernard had
requested to accompany John to the feelies.
Fanny
considers Lenina as a lucky and fortunate girl as she was getting an
opportunity to be with John. They go to see a Feelie whose plot was
that a negro loses his conditioning due to a helicopter accident in
which he fell on his head an d lost his conditioning in a cocked hat
and develops an exclusive and ‘maniacal passion’ for a Beta
blonde. Though she rejects but this man takes her forcefully in his
wild and savage environment of the forests for three weeks. Finally
she is rescued by three Alpha young men and she ends up as their
mistress. John does not like this movie and also tells Lenina not to
watch such movies when he comes to leave her in taxicopter. She hopes
to have love relationship with him but he simply leaves after wishing
her good night.
John
realises his significance and one day he flatly refuses to meet the
visitors and dignitaries of the modern world who have come to meet
him despite the repeated requests from Bernard and others. So Bernard
had to cut a sorry figure before such dignitaries as Arch community
Songster of Cantetbury, Headmistress of Eton, Director of Crematorium
and Phosphorous Reclamation and the like. This event takes out ego
from Bernard like air from punctured balloon. He sinks into his chair
and starts crying and then takes four tablets of Soma to overcome his
stress. Again the rumours that Bernard had excess of alcohol as cause
of his stunted growth starts gathering momentum in the community.
The
scene shifts to the residence of One of the Controller of the World
Mustapha Mond, who had just finished reading an article named A New
Theory of Biology. Though the author’s mathematical treatment of
the conception is novel and ingenious yet it was heretical for the
current social order and stability. So considering it to be dangerous
and potentially subversive so he wrote the comment ‘ Not to be
published’ and underlined it twice. On one hand Bernard was getting
closer to Helmholtz who like him was also a victim of human error and
on the other hand he was planning to take revenge on John who became
a source of embarrassment for him before the dignitaries of the
modern world when he refused to meet them. Taking revenge from John
was easy, as he was accessible to him while dignitaries were beyond
his power. Bernard poured out his tales of woes and miseries before
and expected consolation before Helmholtz who had also run into
conflict with the authorities due to some rhymes. While teaching
third year students of Advanced Emotional Engineering during the
Seventh Lecture which was on rhymes with the title “ on the use of
rhymes in Moral Propaganda and Advertisement, Helmholtz gave one of
his rhyme which was about loneliness, which was a heresy in the
modern world and some body reported to the Principal. Though John and
Lenina meet but he is enraged due to clash of values of two diverse
culture in which they have been brought up. On one hand John wants to
win Lenina’s heart by doing something worth while. In his culture
normally a young man brought tiger or bear rug to win the heart of
his beloved but as it was not possible in the modern society so he
tells her that he is even read to sweep the room to impress her while
Lenina sees no need of it. Then John tells her about the marriage and
vows to remain with each other lifelong. Lenina is unable to
comprehend these things and when she feels she likes him then she
sees no barrier in their union so she comes out of her clothes while
John with the concepts of fidelity, virginity, loyalty considers
Lenina to be a whore for her actions. She takes shelter in the wash
room to avoid John’s anger. However John gets news of his mother
being critically ill, so he leaves for hospital and Lenina heaves a
sigh of relief as she gets opportunity to escape from the room.
John
reaches Park Lane Hospital for Dying that was a sixty storey building
made of primrose tiles where his mother Linda was undergoing
treatment. As he steeped out of taxicopter he saw gaily decorated
aerial hearses darting towards the Slough Crematorium. He got
necessary information from Presiding Porter and went straight away to
Ward no. 81 on 17th floor to see his mother. He saw her
dying slowly accompanied by all the modern pleasures and comforts in
a well lit large room. The air was continuously alive with gay
synthetic melodies. At the foot of each bed there was a television
box which was left on like a running tap from morning till night.
Nurse informs John that they try to create congenial and thoroughly
pleasant environment- something like a first class hotel and a feely
palace. He inquired from her whether there was any chance of his
mother’s survival and she replied in negation. Nurse was horrified
to see John coming to see his mother where as as far as she remembers
nobody has come in years to see a dying relative or parent. Linda was
lying in the last long row of the beds next to the wall. Popped on
the pillows she was watching Semi-finals of South American Riemana
Surface Tennis Championships. Linda looks n vaguely uncomprehendingly
smile and her bloated face ‘wore an expression of imbecile
happiness’(181).
Nurse
left John with Linda and when John calls her by her name, she turns
around at the sound of her name and her vague eyes brightened as she
recognised him and she squeezed his hand but John was dismayed to
find the name of Pope, whom he detested, on her lips even in her last
breaths. As it was the day of death conditioning of delta male
children so a number of identical twins entered the ward. All of them
were clad in Khaki clothes. They swarmed between the beds, clambered
over, crawled under, peeped into the television boxes and made faces
making fun of the patients. They wondered at seeing Linda as to why
she was so fat, ugly as they had never seen anybody in their life who
was not youthful and taut skinned. She seemed to them a body that had
ceased to be slim and upright. Suddenly a child popped between John’s
chair and the wall and peeped into the sleeping face of Linda. John
caught hold of him by the collar and gave a smarting punch on his
ears that made the boy howling. Nurse bluntly tells John that she
cannot tolerate the beating of a child as it was a session of death
conditioning of these children and his unusual behaviour with them
might decondition them requiring them to be sent back to a
conditioning centre for another six to seven months. Meanwhile Linda
passes away while John had gone to call the nurse, who was at loss to
understand that why John was reacting so abnormally, unnaturally and
disgracefully by sitting on knees and crying bitterly before Linda’s
dead body that might hamper the conditioning of these children.
When
John comes out of the hospital after leaving the body of his mother,
it was the time of shift change and nearly hundreds of deltas wearing
Khaki clothes were standing in a queue to get their daily ration of
Soma tablets. Deputy Sub- Bursar even threatens them to behave in a
disciplined manner otherwise he will stop distributing the drug.
These people have become so much addicted to it they have become
merely its slave. The issue of protest for these people is not
poverty, exploitation and lack of facilities but unavailability of
Soma. But John decides to protest and shoves his way to vestibule
where it was being distributed and asks people not to take it as it
was poison not only for their bodies but even for their souls also.
But these people are unable to comprehend what John is saying. They
threaten to mob and assault him as he throws the whole lot of Soma
tablets out of the window and shows them the empty box. With one hand
he punches his assaulters that causes nearly a stampede and riot and
with other he throws out this drug out of the window. Meanwhile
Bernard and Helmholtz are unable to find John at his usual place,
suddenly Helmholtz gets a call that John is creating trouble at the
Hospital for the dying,so both of them rush at once and Helmhotz even
helps John in throwing out Soma tablets. Somebody informs the police
and pig masked cops arrive and spread Soma fumes and spray an
anaesthetic liquid that disables everybody including John, Helmholtz
and Bernard. So they are arrested and taken before the controller of
that part of the world Mustapha While waiting for the Controller to
come John Savage takes a look at the books on the shelves, at the
sound track rolls and the reading machine bobbin in the numbered
pigeon holes. On the table was lying a black leather bound work My
Life and Work by Ford, published by Society of Fordian Knowledge. He
turned the pages reading a sentence here and there and a few
paragraph too and came to inference that it did not interest him.
Meanwhile Mustapha Mond enters and shakes hand with them and asks
John whether he likes or not the modern civilisation. When John
replies in negation Bernard is horrified at the though of being
branded as friend of a heretical who did not like this civilisation.
John moderates his reply by saying ‘ there are some nice things.
All that music in the air’. ( 176). Mustapha quotes from
Shakespeare “ sometimes a thousand twanging instruments will hum
about my ears, and sometimes voices’. John’s face is lit with
happiness and pleasure at knowing that atleast there is somebody even
in this civilisation who can read Shakespeare. Mustapha tells him
that he can read Shakespeare while others can’t as it has been
banned in the modern world because he makes laws so he can break them
too. They have banned Shakespeare because it is old. People are
encouraged to like new things and discard the old even if they are
beautiful in a sense. He tells John that even if he allowed them to
read Shakespeare they won’t comprehend it as they have been
conditioned in such a manner that they do not understand anything
that is serious beautiful and creative full of love like Othello by
Shakespeare. Watson says that is what they have been seeking to
write as the new entertainment is stupid, horrible and fickle.
Mustapha gives the reason that tragedies cannot be allowed in the
modern world because Shakespeare’s world is very much different
from the modern world. Tragedies can only be written in the times of
crisis and social instability while modern society is a stable now.
People are happy and contented as they get what they want and they
never want what they can’t get as they have been conditioned such.
They are well off, safe, secure, never ill, not afraid of death,
blissfully ignorant of passion and old age. They are plagued with no
parents or relatives, no wives, beloveds or children to whom to think
strongly about. They are so conditioned that they practically cant
help behaving as they ought to behave and if anything goes wrong
there is always ‘Soma’. (177) But John Savage strongly feels that
Othello is much better than modern feelies. Though Controller agrees
with him but says that this is the price that they had to pay for
social stability. “ You’ve got to choose between happiness and
what people call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have
feelies and scent organs instead” (177). Even Watson agrees with
John that modern forms of entertainment are fickle and shallow
because it is idiotic to write under compulsion when you have nothing
to say. John asks World Controller why everybody in the modern world
is not Alpha Plus. Laughingly Controller replies because they have no
wish to have their throats cut. An Alpha conditioned man would go mad
if he had to do Epsilon’s semi moron work, he will start smashing
up things. Alphas can be completely socialised but only on condition
that they are made to do only Alphas’s work. Controller Mustapha
tells them an incident of 473 A.F ( After Ford) when the Island of
Cyprus was handed over to twenty two thousand Alphas, all
agricultural and industrial equipment was handed over to them to
manage their affairs on their own. The result was that land was not
worked properly, there were strikes in the factory, and within six
years they were waging a civil war in which nearly nineteen thousand
alphas were killed and they finally requested World Controller to
take back the control of the Island.
Then
Mustapha tells them about improving the working conditions of lower
strata of workers. He felt that nothing made people happier than the
reduced working hours that provided more leisure to them. He tells
them about another experiment that was taken up in Ireland when the
working hours were reduced to four days a week. The result was
increase in the consumption of Soma. As every change is menace to
stability so new inventions are not applied as every discovery in
pure science is potentially subversive, even science is also treated
as potential foe. That’s another item in the cost of stability. It
is not only art but even science too is incompatible with happiness
and social stability. Science is dangerous “we have to keep it most
carefully chained and muzzled” (180). When Bernard and Watson tell
him about their hyponaedic learning in the childhood that taught them
that ‘Science is Everything’, Mustapha Mond replies that not this
type of science that they have learnt is dangerous but science that
endorses independent, rational, unconventional and unorthodox
thinking. Mustapha also tells them that he was a Physicist in his
young age when he was fond of rational, innovative and unorthodox
thinking and he nearly came on the verge of being deported to a
remote island to spend the rest of his life. And as Bernard, Watson
and John have behaved in an unconventional manner so they too will be
deported to some remote island so that they do not pose any danger to
the modern society. Bernard panics at the thought of being deported
of being deported to Iceland and he faints. Controller orders Fourth
Secretary to put Bernard in bed and give vaporisation of Soma.
Controller tells them that deportation to Iceland is not punishment
rather it is a reward where they can come across some of the most
interesting people of the world- the people who for one or another
reason have got too self consciously individual to fit into community
life. All those people who are not satisfied with orthodoxy, who have
independent ideas of their own find themselves on some remote island
like Iceland. When Watson asks Mond why he is not on any island. He
replies “ I was given a choice, to be sent on island, where I could
have got on with my pure science, or to be taken into Controller’s
Council with the prospect of succeeding in due course to an actual
Controllership and I preferred this, I chose this and let science go
“ (182). Controller appreciates Watson’s willingness to go to
some remote island with roughest weather as he said “I believe one
would write better if the climate were bad, if there were a lot of
wind and storms” (184).
Controller
also tells them that besides arts and sciences they have sacrificed
religion too at the altar of modern civilisation to ensure social
stability. God existed in world before nine years war. Mustapha tells
them that the religion interested him a lot and with that he brought
out a black leather bound volume of The Bible- both The Old Testament
and the New Testament but religion has been banned in the modern
world for the same reason as Shakespeare that it is old and hence has
no place in the new and modern society. He also brings out similar
books on religion like The Imitation of Christ and The Varieties of
Religious Experiences and tells them humorously ‘ God in the safe,
Ford on the shelves’. God is needed in societies where there is
sickness, poverty, old age, disease, deformity and as these things
are not in the modern world hence there is no need of God to the
modern world. God manifests himself in this society as an absence as
if He did not exist. Simply God is not compatible with machinery and
scientific medicines and universal happiness. Modern civilisation has
made the choice of machinery, medicine and happiness over God and
religion. When John Savage says that it is natural for man to
remember God in loneliness and solitude but Controller replies by
saying that people are never alone,“we make them hate solitude and
we arrange their lives so that it is almost impossible for them ever
to have it” ( 188). John raises the issue of self denial as
emotional need of a man. To it Controller replies “ industrial
revolution is only possible when there is no self denial, self
indulgence up to the very limits imposed by hygiene and economics
otherwise the wheels would stop running” ( 190). The greatest care
is taken to prevent you from loving anyone too much but still if by
chance this thing happens then there is always Soma to give you
holiday from the facts. In the past it could be achieved only by
making a great effort and after years of consistent moral training,
now it is achievable just by swallowing a two or three gram of Soma
tablet. Anybody can be virtuous, “Christianity without tears is
what Soma is”( 188). Watson and Bernard found John coming from the
wash room and his face was pale , Watson asks if he was ill and ate
something that did not agree with this digestion. Savage replies “
I ate civilisation. It poisoned me, I was defiled, and then in a
lower tone added “I ate my own wickedness. Now I am purified as I
have taken mustard oil with warm water. That’s how Indians purify
themselves” (193). Watson and Bernard bid farewell to John Savage
as they will go to different destinations from tomorrow. John had
come to seek permission from the Controller to accompany Bernard and
Watson to the islands but he does not get it as he told his intention
to do some experiments there. Next day John disappears and takes
shelter in an old abandoned Light house situated on the hill between
Pottenham and Elsteed as he wanted to repent for his sins of the
flesh that has led to his mother’s death. This repentance was to be
by imposing harder discipline on himself as it ensured a complete
and thorough purification of his conscience and soul. He prayed on
his knees for long time till his knees ached and stood with
outstretched arms like Jesus Christ to punish his body for succumbing
to the sins of the flesh. He had chosen this spot for the reason that
it provided a beautiful view and secondly it was a vantage point from
which he seemed to be looking out on to the incarnation of a divine
being. He started working by felling an Ash tree cut out six feet of
unbranched stem to build a stave of his own height. The work after a
long time of lethargic life in London gave him intense pleasure. It
was a pure delight to do something that demanded skill and patience
and hard physical work. He discovered an old age adage of singing
while working and working while singing as he found himself humming a
song while working to make the stave. First of all he was spotted by
Delta Minus land mine workers who saw him stripped to the waist
whipping himself with a knotted and corded whip that caused pink
streak of blood on his back. Three days later a number of reporters
came to ask some questions to him. He requested them to leave him
alone but when they showed no sign of retreat he caught hold one of
the reporter and spun him around and gave a stout kick on his back.
Thus reporters departed in an embarrassing manner but within eight
minutes it became a braking headlines in The Hourly Radio. After
this incident John lived in peace for a few days. One day a chopper
hovered over his tower and he threw a steel arrow that hit it and
pierced its steel layer. So as to purify himself John was cursing
Lenina, asking for forgiveness from his mother Linda, and whipping
himself with chorded and knotted whip and embracing the thorny plants
that resulted in piercing of nettles in his flesh. One day a
courageous film maker Darwin Bonaparte came to film him with the help
of a hidden camera. He sat in a bush patiently for three days to
film the scenes in which John whipped his back. Earlier he had made
successful documentaries on the life of Guerila and Spermwhales. He
wanted to make a sensational feely with the title The Savage of
Surrey that would be a great success.
That
broke John’s solitude as it brought a number of visitors after
seeing the feely. At last a chopper came to spray soma fumes to
disperse the crowds gathered at the lighthouse. John was stupefied
and exhausted by the soma fumes and became unconscious. Next day when
he came to know that he has again resorted back to the evil ways of
so called modern society he has no way but to commit suicide by
hanging himself from the ceiling of the lighthouse. This work though
it projects future life of the world as pleasant and full of comforts
but it has rightly been termed as Dystopia because the comforts and
pleasures are not inner and from soul but they are external and
imposed by drowning the rational, scientific, objective and
unconventional thinking in the fumes of the drug Soma as a result of
which the people of this society have become slaves to it. They are
not disturbed at the thought that rational thinking is discouraged
and rational thinkers are exiled to strange remote islands but when
the supply of Soma is disrupted even for a short period it causes
protest and riots that police had to be called in. It projects the
negative sides of the scientific and industrial revolution more than
its positive sides. They have sacrificed art, religion and even
science for this world ruled by profit as only activities are
encouraged in this world that would require a lot of equipment and
thus ensure the wheels of factories going on accruing a lot of profit
to the World Controllers. Even Mustapha Mond had two options for his
rational and scientific thinking- either to lead he rest of his life
on a remote island and carry on his scientific research work or to
join the Council of The Controllers of the World and like a pragmatic
man he chose the later option.
End of Chapter IV
