In this passage, Bernard has turned down the raspberry sundae with soma that Lenina wants him to eat. Bernard is in a bad mood because he wishes to be alone walking with Lenina in the Lake District of England. However, as she can't see any point in the two of them being by themselves, he has gone with her to a crowded woman's wrestling championship in Amsterdam.

In the quote, Bernard is explaining to Lenina why he doesn't want the soma. It will drug him into feeling happy, but it will mask who he really is. Therefore, he describes his reasoning to her:

"I'd rather be myself," he said. "Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly."

Huxley uses the technique of dialogue so that it is Bernard's own voice we hear making the explanation, not a narrator. This gives the scene a feeling of immediacy, as if we are dropped in suddenly to eavesdrop on Bernard and Lenina's conversation after a quick summary of their afternoon and his refusal of the sundae. This is the beginning of what will be a longer dialogue in which Lenina's conditioning in clichés makes Bernard angry because she is not understanding him.

This bit of dialogue also uses the literary device of antithesis. Bernard describes himself as someone "nasty" in sharp opposition to the fake "jolly" person his society would like him to be.

His utterance shows him trying to be real with Lenina. Bernard also uses the word "myself" twice, emphasizing his individuality, a subversive stance in a society in which everybody is supposed to belong to everybody else and act like everybody else.