BRAVE NEW WORLD AND THE LITERARY MOVEMENTS
In Brave New World we could see the influence of literary movements. Reading it, we could think that some of the characteristics of the work adapt to the Romantic Movement.
Romantics had a big interest in folklore, uncultivated imagination could be as good or better than the imagination of court artists. The village represented the tradition. So we have the Savage in Brave New World. He represents the village’s people, the non-civilised people, the tradition. To "civilised" people he is how people was in the pass. But civilised people have interest on him, on knowing about his customs... as if he was a mysterious character who has run away from a tale. Civilised people look at him with curiosity. And his imagination is as good as the imagination of civilised artists. He can talk so well as Helmholtz, who works for the government.
The Romantic movement means also the rise of William Shakespeare. Romantics exalted him as the greatest of the classics. Shakespeare inspired the works of many romantics authors. So, we find in Brave New World that Shakespeare has influenced Huxley. The title is a sentence that a character of a Shakespeare’s work said. And John, the Savage, is always reading Shakespeare. It is one of the few works that seems to have survived to the destruction of classical works. It is as if it was still possible to rescue something from the past...
Shakespeare is practically the Savage’s teacher, John learns about life, about morality, about love, about how to talk reading Shakespeare. Shakespeare is his model and it is evident that Huxley admires him.
Shakespeare was not college-educated, like the Savage, like one of the fews with real common sense in the work. Shakespeare mixed comedy with tragedy and made things that they were not supposed to do. Also the Savage, after getting Shakespearean ideas, made things that were not supposed to do in that society. He did not want to take soma and he did not want to accept love in the way the rest of people did it, he rebelled against that society.
To the Romantics, Shakespeare was the essence of folk poetry, the ultimate vindication of their faith in spontaneous creativity. Shakespeare was the essence of people of the village’s works and in Brave New World we see that John represents the village’s people and Shakespeare is the essence of what he says. John also believes in spontaneous creativity, he has new ideas, not the ideas that powerful people put inside the brain of the rest of civilised people since they were babies. In Brave New World people do not think by themselves, they do not have spontaneous creativity, they say what it is supposed that they have to say.
In the Romantic period rise all the fantastic creatures of the medieval popular imagination as witches, angels... In Brave New World John is seen by civilised people as a fantastic creature, for the others he is almost unreal and unbelievable, they look at him as if he was a strange animal.
Romantics liked the exotic and they situated their works in distant places and distant past. In Brave New World Huxley situated the story not in distant past but in distant future, far away from the present in any case. And if we look about distant places we see that the mysterious reserve is situated far away from the city, from London.
In the same way, in the Romantic age, Europeans travelled more than ever to examine the far lands of which they had read. So Bernard travels to the far reserve.
Most "natives" were thought to be unable to govern themselves. That was also thought in Huxley’s work. Civilised people thought that people in the reserve were unable to govern themselves, they were the civilised, the perfect World, the perfect government and people in the reserves were just "savages".
In the Romantic age, "natives" who aspired to European sophistication were often derided as "spoiled". So we have Linda, the Savage’s mother, who wants to be part of the civilised World but she is seen different because she is old and fat. She tries to be part of the others but she is ridiculed.
In the Romantic age, Europe has become more civilised and safer. People want to travel for the pleasure of it. People want to enjoy the wonders of Nature. In previous ages, human and nature were seen as opposite poles. But Romantics cultivates sensibility to nature.
In that time industrial revolution was creating an artificial environment in Europe. Romantics who lived in cities see the difference between this World and the World of people who live in the country and they take nature as a characteristic of Romanticism.
In Brave New World we see that Nature also appears. John travels from the Reserve to the civilised World. There he finds the urban environment and somehow he feels disappointed. He does not want to stay there and finally he moves to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is in the middle of nature. From there he can enjoy nature, it is such a wonderful landscape that he even things that he does not deserve to look at it. For him, nature and human are not opposite poles. In nature he looks for peace.
In Romantic age nature appears in relation with religion in many works. In Brave New World we find this relation with the Savage. John admires nature and it is seen by him as part of God’s creation. He looks for Good in nature and in fact he tries to run away from artificial human things and create a self-sufficient economy to survive. He tries to cultivate the ground, he wants to prove God that he is not like that civilised people who have forgotten Him.
In Romanticism the figure if the savage appears in relation with free nature and spontaneous impulse. In Brave New World, John is called the Savage and he is like this romantic savage of the 19th century. The Savage is who has a free mind in the novel and a not controlled one and he is who is closest to nature. Nature is idealised by the Savage as it was by romantics.
Imagination and subjectivity were very important for the movement. Huxley put a lot of imagination in his book. Reader is surprised as he/she reads. We find a strange civilisation where babies are born from bottles, a civilisation where there are no families with mother and father, where children are educated while they sleep, a so controlled society that when someone is born he/she has already a definite destiny, from the born it is controlled the social class that person will belong (they can create alphas, epsilons...as they want), they "condition" people so they like what the government want they to like, so commerce and professions are controlled.
We also find subjectivity, though Huxley show us the version of a future civilised society and the version of a more earlier and natural society it is clear that he defends the second one. When Huxley wrote Brave New World Huxley showed the extent to which his disillusionment with society and its values had influenced him. Many of the ideas presented during the discussion in the last chapter of this novel echo many of Huxley's own views and concerns about the effect scientific advancement and technology would have on the individual.
The idea of a definite destiny is also a romantic idea.
Brave New World is a science fiction work and therefore imagination is over reason. The romantic man searches for freedom and tries to escape from all the imposed ways that stop this freedom. The Savage in Brave New World tries to find freedom. He see how much civilised people is controlled. They do not have the power to chose anything, they work on what the government has told them to work, they like what the government has told them to like, they think how they have been told to think and they act how they have been told to act. But it is like a blind society, they do not really realise that they do not have freedom. They think that they are happy because they have been told to believe that.
But John comes from the reserve, from a different World and he can see that there is no freedom. He fights for that freedom, he tries to destroy the soma that also control society and he talks with his few friends about it.
However, very few of them can understand him. Who better seems to do it is Helmholtz. He writes propaganda for the government and he is very intelligence so he can see things that others cannot. He would like to write something different, not only what it is supposed that he has to write. He helps the Savage. Also other important people like Mustapha Mond are conscious of that but they prefer to ignore it because they think that World is easier so.
The Savage, Helmholtz and Bernard rebels against that society and Helmholtz and Bernard are sent to an island. The Savage runs away by himself from that controlled society. He goes to the freedom of nature.
In Romantic age, instinct and passions lead the human being to an exaggerated enthusiasm or to a deep pessimism. In this case we wee that instinct and passion lead the Savage to a deep pessimism. He cannot find the peace and freedom he is looking for and he feels despaired.
For romantics there are only two possible ways to escape from that deep pessimism: travels or suicide.
John tries to travel, he moves from the city to a lonely lighthouse but he is discovered and his plan has no success. So the only choice is the suicide.
Metaphysical subjects and philosophical and political worries are treated in Romantic works. Also in brave New World we find metaphysical subjects as God.
We also find political worries in Brave New World. The author wants to present how would be a totally controlled society. We discover important worries as:
The main objective in romantic works is to move the public. Huxley wants readers to think about the main subjects of his book, he wants us to think about the reality we live.
Romantics used the contrast, for example the beautiful and the ugly. In Brave New World we find a lot of contrast situations:
Romantic writers and artists felt free to draw on Biblical themes with the same freedom as their predecessors had drawn on classical mythology and with little relevance. They talked about it like something they did not believe on. In Brave New World citizens do not believe on God, He has been forgotten, he is part of the far past, they talk about it as if it was something not important any more. In its place it exists Ford. Only John believes on God and he always wants to show that he is able to make sacrifice for Him. John believes on medieval valours as truth love, loyalty, freedom... and that is also a Romantic characteristic.
One of the most important developments of 18th and 19th century is the rise in the importance of individualism. Before the 18th century people were what they had been born: nobles, pleasants or merchants and they were not interested on discovering their individual identities.
We find the parallelism in Brave New World. Here, civilised people are just what they have been born: alphas, epsilons... each one of them feels exactly as any other one of the same social class. Everybody inside classes is like everybody in that class. There is not individuality. Individuality is not important, only community is.
But individualism rises with Helmholz, Bernard and John. They three feel very much their own personality, Helmholz because he is very intelligence, Bernard because he is much shorter than the rest of alpha men and John because he comes from a different place and he has different ideas. They feel different, they are conscious of their own individuality. Huxley is aware of the conflicts within society, and within the individual, and he wants to make the reader aware of these conflicts. In his novels he often stresses the contrast and conflict by giving a two-angled vision of his characters and by considering an event in several aspects: emotional, religious, metaphysical, scientific.
Romanticism and sentimentalism goes together. A great example of sentimentalism is Rousseau, who explored the agonies of frustrated love. The image of sentimentalism is John. He falls in love with Lenina and he idealise her, he sees her as an angel, as the perfect girl, but this love is frustrated when he realised that Lenina’s ideas about love and his ideas do not fit.
Romantics were who most exalted the sentiment of love, they were the first ones who celebrated romantic love as the natural birthright of all human being, the most exalted of human sentiments and the necessary foundation of a successful marriage. These ideas where also shared by John. He believes on a loyal and truth love, a pure love, he thinks sex cannot be possible without love and that love is joined to marriage.
The young lover is tortured by an irreconcilable conflict between romantic love and physical sexuality. Since love is both spiritual and physical, involving both the mind and body, a dualism exists and persists.
Huxley wanted his reader to see that man is both body and spirit. He makes reference to the influence of the physical on the mental, the influence of the physiological condition of man on the psychological
"I try to get a stereoscopic vision, to show my characters from two angles simultaneously. Either I try to show them both as they feel themselves to be; or else I try to give two rather similar characters who throw light on each other. . . ." Huxley was not especially successful in using this technique with two different characters because too often his characters can be labelled as "good guys" or "bad guys." Huxley's characters are too often "black" or "white", only a few are "grey." Huxley is most successful when he uses the "two-angled" vision to show an individual in conflict with himself. Several good examples of the individual in conflict with himself occur in Brave New World.
It could also be possible to see a little influence of New Criticism in Brave New World. New Criticism says that language is used to incorporate within the work the impersonal feelings and emotions common to all mankind. The work is about the experiences of the author but these experiences are similar to all of out experiences. So in Brave New World we see that it is a novel of dystopia or, a savage criticism of the scientific future. In dystopias an agency or authority (often the government) is frequently shown to be in total control. The consent of citizens is irrelevant. Chaos and total social breakdown with no form of social control or human security is another form of dystopia.
Utopian Literature is literature based in a fictitious World or nation whose political, economic and/or social systems represent the author's ideal vision of political, economic and/or social systems. Examples of this include Looking Backward, Walden Two, and Woman on the Edge of Time.
Dystopian Literature is just the opposite: the systems in dystopian literature are the nightmares of the author. Usually, dystopian literature points to the ideal of the author by contrast. Examples of dystopian literature include 1984, Brave New World, and Anthem.
Satirical Utopian Literature is literature describing a World or nation which is supposed to be perfect, but is debunked in the process of the book. The most well-known example of this is (at least parts of) Gulliver's Travels. Erewhon is another prime example.
In this genre there's an imaginary situation in which everything is as bad as possible. This work is also said to be a novel-of-ideas, because the ideas of dystopia are more important than the development of the characters. Huxley states its theme as "the advancement of science as it affects human individuals." Aldous Huxley's writings express the disillusionment of the 1920s, the cynicism of the 1930s, and the questioning of the 1940s. Huxley was the product of the times, and his novels and essays are the expressions of his beliefs and concerns.
In New Criticism all parts of the work are interrelated to support the work’s central idea. In Brave New World all the parts are interconnected to make the reader think about the future society that it is presented. There are many themes that give us an idea about that society.
In New Criticism the text is spoken by a narrator who expresses an attitude which must be defined and who speaks in atone which helps to define the attitude: ironic, ambiguous... Huxley talks the reader in a ironic tone and he is talking about a society that he thinks it is not the best one. His strengths are his use of wit and satire, the acuteness of his observations of mankind and its foibles and his juxtaposition of fact and fiction.
New Criticism says that reader must look for the meaning and subject of the text. Brave New World is logically developed. Huxley begins with a detailed account of life in the new World State. But before we realise that Huxley is not content simply to present he satires a future life and let the reader draw his own moral from the story. Huxley allows his readers to think about the fantasy he has created and his characters soon become important only as spokesmen for particular ideas and beliefs.
New Critics usually define their themes as oppositions as life and death, good and evil, love and hate... In Brave New World we find these oppositions from the different points of view of the characters.
Brave New World is a science fiction novel about a future society that we hope it will not really be ours someday.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxley/ThemesInHuxley.html
http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxley/BNW_Monarch.html
http://mason.gmu.edu/~tburgio/huxley.html
http://home.concepts.nl/~corn_856/bravereview.html