Utopia and Dystopia
Fictional text- Brave New World
Definition Utopia:
Utopia refers to human efforts to create a perfect society that does not exist. In
the 19th century the concept of a utopian society became closely connected
with socialist ideas such as an egalitarian distribution of goods. For example
the abolition of money, citizens only doing work which they enjoyed. Ideas
which would change pure world for the better but are very unrealistic are
labelled as utopia.
Utopia is also a term in religion; there it is described for example as a garden
full of delights.
Utopia in science and technology is the strong belief in utopian living
standards like the absence of death, illness and suffering, changes in human
nature.
After the two World Wars, there was a global utopia of world peace, which was
optimistically seen as the ending of history.
Definition Dystopia:
Dystopia is the antithesis of the utopian society. It is usually characterized by a
totalitarian form of government or some other oppressive control.
Dystopia in literature is created through echoes of the reader's own
experiences, so the writer is able to engage his reader.
Some typical traits are
 War, revolution, overpopulation, natural disaster -> dramatic changes to
society
 The standard of living among the bulk of the population is poorer than
in contemporary society. (For example BNW)
 A protagonist who questions this society because he/she feels
something is terribly wrong.
 Literature of the future. There new technological methods combined with
a way of caste system. There for example technology is controlled by the
ruling class.
Brave New World
Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. It is a
dystopian novel, which describes a (utopian?) world. In this world the society
is led through the motto: Community, stability, identity. They achieve stability
when everyone is happy. The New World tries hard to ensure this through
conditioning, genetic engineering, soma and entertainment. The distribution of
the people in the five castes Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon should
enforce the residents’ contentment. The upper classes Alpha and Beta are
persons who are more intelligent than Deltas and Epsilons.
The World State
and
political system:
institutions:
philosophy:
world controller
Hatchery and ConditioningCenter
The World State's motto
moral values:
their system is their moral
sexuality:
only a hobby or sport
family:
there aren't any
social class:
technology:
activities:
other features:
“caste system”
Bokanovsky Process
feelies, sports, sex
conditioned society that
doesn't revolt
the Reservation
no conditioning
priests, older people
belief in God,
Christianity
trust, loyalty,
family, friendship
one sexual partner
at a time->
monogamy
real families,
natural birth,
mother feelings
no classes
no technology
reading, hunting
no soma, people
become old and
ugly, different
languages
Summary
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the novel is set in the future in the year 2045
the story begins in the Hatchery, where the director gives a tour to a
group of students
embryos travel during the gestation period in bottles along a conveyer
belt
during this time they are also conditioned to belong to five classes
Lenina Crowne describes how to vaccinate the embryos destined for
tropical climates
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then the students observe a group of Delta infants being reprogrammed
to dislike books and flowers
◦ to make them docile and eager consumers
 then the director explains to them the method of “hypnopaedics”
◦ it's used to teach children the morals of the world state (= sleepteaching)
 Mustapha Mond introduces himself to the boys and begins to explain the
history of the World State, especially the State's successful efforts to
remove strong emotions, desires and human relationships
 Lenina and her friend Fanny talk about Lenina's relationship with Henry
Foster
 she is also attracted to the strange Bernard Marx
 Meanwhile Bernard is enraged when he eavesdrop on a conversation
between Henry and an assistant about “having” Lenina
 Bernard and his friend Helmholtz Watson discuss about their
dissatisfaction with the World State
◦ Bernard is too small and weak for his class
◦ Helmholtz too intelligent for his job
 Lenina and Bernard want to go on a trip to the Savage Reservation in
New Mexico
 they get the director's permission to visit the Reservation
 but because of his unsocial behaviour the director plans to exile Bernard
when he returns
 in the reservation Lenina and Bernard see its aged and ill residents and
are shocked (in BNW no one has signs of aging)
 they get to know John who is isolated from the rest of the village (the
Noble Savage)
 he tells Bernard about his mother Linda, who was banned because of her
willingness to sleep with all the other men in the village
 he also explains his passion for Shakespeare's work
 John wants to get to know the “other place” his mother told him about
 so Lenina and Bernard take John and Linda with them to the New World
 Bernard notices that Linda was the director's girlfriend 20 years ago
because he remembers a story in which the director had talked about her
 after returning to the World State the director wants to exile Bernard
 but when Bernard introduces John and Linda the director's position as a
“father” emerges
 because of his shame of being John’s father he lets Bernard remain in
London
 By experiencing the World State's society John becomes disturbed
 Bernard becomes popular as the discoverer of the Reservation
 John and Helmholtz quickly talk to each other
 John reads out parts of Romeo and Juliet and Helmholtz can't stop
laughing aboout serious passages about love and marriage
these are topics that don't exist in the New World
 Because of his strange behaviour Lenina becomes obsessed with John
 She takes soma and tries to seduce him
 but John gets a call that Linda, who has been on a permanent somaholiday, is about to die
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after her death John tries to convince a group of Delta boys to throw
their soma out of the window and a riot results
Bernard and Helmholtz come to help John
the riot is calmed down by police with soma
John, Helmholtz and Bernard are brought to Mustapha Mond
John and Mond debate the value of the world state's population and the
use of soma
John argues that the state's system dehumanizes the world state's
residents
but Mond answers that stability and happiness are more important than
humanity
Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled
John and Mond continue discussing the use of soma to control negative
emotions and social harmony
John refuses the option to follow Bernard and Helmholtz
overcome with anger and sadness at this submission to the World State
he hangs himself
Some words which are in need of explanation
Bokanovsky Process:
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is applied to fertilized human egg in vitro causing them to split into
identical genetic copies of the original
the maximum number of viable embryos possible is 96
Soma:
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The drug which creates a positive mood
it anticipates human changes of mood
Conditioning:
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divides the society into the five classes
every human being in the New World is conditioned to fit society's needs
- to like the work he will have to do
 biological or physiological conditioning of embryos consists of adding
chemicals (or reduce supply of oxygen)
 later people are psychologically conditioned, for example through
hypnopaedia (sleep teaching)
→ the citizens are brainwashed at every stage
Characters
John
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son of the director and Linda
grown up outside the World State
spent his lifetime alienated from his village
doesn't fit in the World State's society
his entire worldview is based on his knowledge of Shakespeare's plays
Bernard Marx
 an Alpha man
 fails to fit in because of his physical stature (he is very small)
 has unorthodox beliefs about sexual relationships, sports, community
events
 is frustrated because of his desire to fit in
 can be petty and cruel
Helmholtz Watson
 Alpha lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering
 prime example of his caste
 feels that his work is empty and meaningless
 would like to use his writing abilities for something more meaningful
 Bernard's friend
Lenina Crowne
 Gamma woman
 vaccination worker at the central London Hatchery and Conditioning
Centre
 Is attracted to Bernard
 develops a violent passion for John
 sometimes her behaviour is intriguingly unorthodox
 opines values of a conventional World State citizen
 her primary means of relating to other people is through sex
Mustapha Mond
 one of the ten world controllers of Western Europe
 was once an ambitious, young scientist
now he censors scientific discoveries and exiles people for unorthodox beliefs
 keeps a collection of forbidden literature in his safe
 also cf. characters’ “telling names”