60 pages • 2 hours read
Aldous HuxleyBrave New World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Shakespeare
Throughout the novel, references to Shakespeare serve as a symbol of the culture that came before and that has been displaced by the World State. Interestingly, Shakespeare is first alluded to and then directly referenced by World Controller Mustapha Mond, first through a passing mention of “King Lear” (35) and then directly: “There were some things called the pyramids, for example [...] And a man called Shakespeare. You’ve never heard of them of course” (51). In this context, Mond is revealing his status as one of the ten most powerful people on the planet. He is intelligent enough to appreciate Shakespeare, and yet not gullible enough to be corrupted by it.
The other major character to reference Shakespeare is John, the genetically-civilized man raised in the Savage Reservation, where Shakespeare is still available for consumption by the average person. Early on in his time living on the Reservation, Shakespeare’s words, “gave [John] a reason for hating Popé; and they made his hatred more real; they even made Popé himself more real” (132). John, as opposed to Mond, is clearly affected by the poetry of Shakespeare’s language, as he has no desire to blunt or ignore his emotions. This also is one of the reasons his friendship blossoms with Helmholtz but flounders with Bernard.
Soma
Described by Controller Mustapha Mond, when he first introduces the drug in the novel in Chapter 3, as having “[a]ll the advantages of Christianity and alcohol [and] none of their defects” (54), soma is a drug developed as the World State began to establish it. It was recognized that people, in order to be controlled, had to have some sort of escape: “Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology” (54).
Throughout the novel, the use of soma is used to indirectly measure a character’s alignment with the mores and values of the World State. After we first meet Bernard Marx, we soon find that he does not like taking soma, which marks him as something of a dissident or wild card, rather than a true citizen, like Henry Foster.
Whips
The first scene where a whip comes into play is almost halfway through the novel, once Lenina and Bernard Marx are in Malpais and they witness a savage ceremony in which a boy is whipped to death (or almost to death, it is unclear). Later, when they meet John, he tells them the purpose of the ritual is to call forth rain, and that he had wished he could have been the one sacrificed, but due to his being an outsider and shunned, he never could be. Here, the whip is a symbol of belonging for John, something that would mean his acceptance in the only world he has yet known.
A little later, in Chapter 8, the whip returns again as John relates his history, telling of the times the local women whipped his mother, Linda, for not fitting in. Here, the whip serves as a punishment or corrective, ultimately becoming a symbol of their outsider status, in a similar fashion to the first instance, although from a different angle.
The whip returns yet again under John’s own power near the end of the novel, as he begins to lash out at every intrusion into his space, including finally whipping himself and fulfilling his original desire to be a sacrifice.
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By Aldous Huxley
