Discussion Topic
Huxley's Use of Shakespeare in Brave New World and Its Impact
Summary:
Huxley uses Shakespeare in Brave New World to highlight the contrasts between the emotionally rich, complex world of Shakespeare's works and the emotionally shallow, controlled society of the novel. This juxtaposition underscores the loss of individuality and deep human connections in the dystopian world, emphasizing the consequences of sacrificing culture and emotion for stability and control.
How and why does Huxley use Shakespeare's works in Brave New World? What's their effect?
Shakespeare functions as a symbol of the past in Brave New World. John, the "Savage," has grown up in conditions apart from the Society, and his quoting of Shakespeare indicates that the values of the old, pre-dystopian world are John's values as well. Shakespeare, as the iconic writer of Western culture, is the central reference point for a superseded world.
Much is made in Brave New World of the sexual freedom that exists in the society. When Lenina tries to hook up with John, he is appalled at her behavior and begins quoting lines that Othello castigates Desdemona with, calling her a "strumpet." It's as if the archaic terminology available to him from the reading of Shakespeare suits his view of the situation better than any current words. Just as John has an antique view of life and of human relationships, he uses a poet from the distant past...
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as a means of expressing that view.
A recurring theme in early-twentieth-century intellectual life is that the "world has passed us by"—"us" being writers, artists, and intellectuals in general. Huxley himself once stated that he was prepared by his education for the past, not the present. Like other dystopian fiction, Brave New World is a projection into the future of trends the writer observes taking place in his own time. Huxley, like Eliot in The Waste-Land, sees the twentieth-century world as having discarded the values of the past, which have persisted into their own time only in the form of a kind of wreckage. John's quotations of Shakespeare are like the scraps of poetry of the previous ages that make up much of The Waste-Land, or are parodied in it (including Eliot's allusion to the "Shakespearean Rag"). Apart from drawing his ironic title from Shakespeare, Huxley also uses these random bits of Shakespeare spoken by the "Savage" as a means of demonstrating how out of place the quotations are. The effect is grimly comical and shows the unsustainability of the past, represented by Shakespeare, in this transformed world.
Much of what John has learned on the Reservation of the interplay of high emotions has been vicariously experienced in his readings of the plays of Shakespeare. While he loves his mother, Linda is able to return very little feeling to him since she has been programmed to have no real emotion and only the most instinctive motherly feeling emerges in her. In addition, because he is her child, John does not have friendships with younger people that would help him develop his expression of emotions. So, his knowledge of Shakespeare's plays provides John with the language and experience of emotion and thought.
Upon his arrival in the New World, John experiences certain feelings, but all he has to relate them to are his readings of Shakespeare's plays. For example, when he first looks around and sees all the clean, prosperous environment, he likens himself to Miranda of Shakespeare's tempest, who also has no knowledge of other beings outside of her father. John echoes the words of Miranda at her first sight of the men her father Prospero has brought to his island:
...O brave new world!
That has such people in't (5.1.119-120)
Upon seeing Lenina, John is immediately captivated, feeling the infatuation that compares to that of the love-struck Romeo:
The blood rushed up into the oung man's face...and was so much overcomethat he hadto turn away and pretend to be looking very hard at something on the other side of the square.
Lenina seems the perfect vision of womanhood to John at this point. But, he is later disappointed as she does not compare to the fair Juliet. When she takes him to the feelies, he watches the violence of emotion on the screen and can only liken it to Othello, in which many of Iago's speeches contain very explicit and degrading sexual language. Like Othello, John feels rage after his experience. John's experiences in the New World also parallel those of Othello as he shares with this character the violation of trust since Bernard betrays him. Like Othello, John commits suicide as a result. Unfortunately, having the emotions expressed only in the old, anachronistic world of Shakespeare, John cannot feel fulfilled in the emotionless New World. Like the plays he has read, John's life, too, is a tragedy.
In my opinion, Huxley uses Shakespeare because his works are the clearest examples of things that embody the difference between our society and that of the dystopia.
The dystopia does not value human emotion and the true human condition. It has tried to create a world in which people are pretty much no longer human. The people live their lives and do things humans do, but they do not feel the things humans feel.
Shakespeare is full of people feeling the range of human emotions. This makes his work a good contrast to the society of the dystopia.
Why does Huxley use Shakespeare as the medium for John's intellectual awakening in A Brave New World?
There are three plays that are alluded to in Brave New World: The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. These plays are the medium through which John the Savage has learned emotion and recognizes emotion and expresses emotion since his mother is handicapped in this area by her biogenetic engineering and the Indian who lives with her is rather unconcerned with him.
When John arrives in the New World, his first thoughts are comparative with those of Miranda from The Tempest who also has no knowledge of the world. When she first sees other people, the men brought to the island by the magic of her father, Miranda exclaims,
O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't (5.1.207-210)
Since these exclamations are identical to John's feelings, he echoes them. Likewise, when he initially perceives Linda, John finds her so beautiful and physically perfect that, like Romeo, he is starstruck:
...and his voice suddenly took on a new resonance, he truned with a proud squaring of the shoulders, a proud, defiant lifting of the chin "to show that I can bear pain without crying out"...he gave a gasp and was silent, gaping. He had seen, for the first time in his life, the face of a girl who cheeks were not the colour of chocolate or dogskin, whose hair was auburn and permanently waved, and whose expression (amazing novelty!) was one of the benevolent interest....The blood rushed up into the young man's face; he dropped his eyes, raised them again for a moment only to find her still smiling at him,...he dropped his eyes, raised them again for a moment only to find her still smiling at him, and was so much overcome that he had to turn away and pretend to be looking very hard at something on the other side of the square.
Like Romeo, he instantly falls in love with the vision of Lenina that he romanticizes. And, like Romeo and Juliet, the relationship between John and Lenina ends tragically as he realizes she is no ideal for him and gives of herself too freely.
When John attends the feelies with Lenina, he is apalled at the violence and animalistic brutality of the show. This action and later his mistreatment by the New World reminds him of the low envy of Iago and the cruelty against him. All that John has experienced and can relate his new feelings to is of Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's plays have given John the values he holds most dear. His knowledge of Shakespeare lets him express his emotions and reactions, giving him a framework in which to criticize the values of the World State. It also allows him to hold his own against Mustapha Mond's rhetorical language.
The State tries to destroy any of the human emotions involved in personal connection, and this is why Huxley chooses Shakespeare as the basis of John's system of beliefs. One play John is drawn to throughout the book is Romeo and Juliet. The intensity of the love and all of the emotions connected to the couple's love for each other are the best example of the emotions involved in any personal connection. When people read the play, they are strongly affected by the depth of the couple's feelings and the beauty of the language used by Shakespeare to describe their feelings. Othello is the other play that John is drawn to. This story of jealousy and betrayal provides the alternative to the human connection. John feels strongly that a person has the right to experience love, whether it's what Romeo and Juliet feel or the tragedy of Othello's and Desdemona's love.
Shakespeare's language is the greatest example of the power of language and how words can influence our thoughts and behavior. This is why his plays have endured for so long. Huxley shows what a great loss it is when we no longer have them.