Aldous Huxley presents a society in Brave New World wherein total happiness comes at a steep price: the loss of free will and individuality. For example, World State citizens like Lenina, Fanny, and Henry are seemingly happy in that they don’t experience emotional or physical pain. However, their happiness is shallow and has the same sources as everyone else: sexual flings, frequent vacations, high-tech and low-effort games, and constant sensory stimulation from shallow entertainment.

Since everyone is encouraged to enjoy the same things, dislike the same things, and adopt the same pastimes, there is little to distinguish people from each other. In some sense they may be happy, but that happiness is meaningless on an individual level; the primary function of the people’s happiness is to serve the government by keeping people under control.

Whenever characters do start to question their world, as Bernard and Helmholtz do, they’re faced with discontented and restless feelings. This suggests that in the World State, one cannot be both truly happy and an individual. On the opposite end of the spectrum is John the Savage, who takes it upon himself at the end of the novel to become a paramount of self-denial. Though he takes pride in his living as a hermit and renouncing all worldly pleasures, it ultimately doesn’t lead him toward happiness because he is ridiculed by others for his choices. In an effort to escape, John decides to take his own life.

Out of all the main characters, the only one who seems to achieve a relatively happy (at least, not miserable) ending is Helmholtz. Throughout the novel, Helmholtz questions his role in society and society itself but never goes to extremes like other characters do; he lives comfortably and passively in the World State. Though he does get sent away to an island by Mustapha, he gets to choose his new home. He picks the Falkland Islands, because he feels their moody climate will inspire him to be a better writer. While not achieving blissful joy, Helmholtz gains some free will back and chooses the path he wants for his life. This gives his life a purpose beyond shallow entertainment and pleasures. Though he is still shaped by the culture he was born into, his choice to pursue more meaningful writing suggests that he has the potential to live an autonomous life. Through Helmholtz’s character arc, the novel insinuates that the freest way to live isn’t in complete self-indulgence or complete self-denial, but somewhere in between.