Comment on the significance of the title Brave New World.
Introduction: Brave New World is a dystopian science fiction novel by Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). The novel is originally published in 1932. The story takes place in a society where humans are grown in artificial wombs and then sorted into social classes based on their intelligence.
The significance of the title Brave New World
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Origination of the title
Huxley takes the title Brave New World has been derived from Miranda’s speech in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. The title is apt because John the Savage knows Shakespeare by heart and quotes him often. When John says “oh brave new world that has such people in it” to describe the World State, he is being ironic. He exposes that the people of the world state are cruel and inhumane. So Huxley criticizes their inhumane qualities in Brave New World.
Brutal caste system
In a world state, the classification of human beings is traceable. From the production of human beings, they are classified into several groups. There are five castes- Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Here various processes are applied for this grouping. Specific consumer goods are produced for specific groups. Five classes of people are found in the world state. Here we find Tomakin saying;
“Bokanovsky’s process is one of the major instruments of social stability”
Among them, Alpha and Beta are higher classes. For them, high-quality goods are produced. The rest of the classes are the lower classes. For them, the lower quality of goods is produced.
Scarcity of privacy
In the world state everyone used to emotionless sex and instant gratification. From the background of the novel, the accidental conception of Linda is found. Again, We find Lelina while is excited to have John to gratify her sexual pleasure. She relates;
”Hug me till you drug me, Honey”
This causes Lenina a good amount of distress. And it raises an important question: does Lenina really love John, no, not at all. It’s the attraction of John’s body. Actually, it’s all about his body. When she first meets him, her thoughts are as follows:
“…such a nice-looking boy, and a really beautiful body.”
She can only think of sex and can’t understand emotion.
Materialistic World
People of the world state are materialistic. They are devoid of emotion. Humans are being produced in test tubes in the Hatchery. For this production enriched scientific method and technology are maintained in the Hatchery. Various kinds of chemical treatments are applied. Through various kinds of chemical treatments, human embryos are conditioned. For the contribution of Ford, everyone worships him as God.
Dystopian fiction
In this novel, Huxley generously presents us to ourselves in all our obscurity. In this society, words like” mother”, “father”, “family”, “love”, do not mean anything and they are considered very insulting. The last chapter of the book aims to propose action which could be taken to prevent a democracy from turning into the omnivorous world described in Brave New World. In Huxley’s last novel, Island, he again expounds similar ideas to describe a utopian nation, which is generally viewed as a counterpart to Brave New World.
Conclusion
In the novel Brave New World the process of social control is explained by Aldous Huxley. People are living as slaves in the New World. So the title Brave New World is well justified and appropriate with the context of the novel.
