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Examples Of Allusions In Brave New World

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Within Brave New World, Adolus Huxley uses allusions to outside works of literature to enhance the message of the novel. Shakespeare’s Othello, The Tempest, and Macbeth are referenced directly by John, who relates to the play’s characters throughout the novel while trying to find his place in the new society. John continually quotes the naive character Miranda from The Tempest who, like him, ends up being gravely disappointed by the New World. Through Othello, John expresses his shock towards the sexual norms of the New World society and the lack of love and commitment, highlighting him as an outcast. Lastly, through Macbeth, John references the pointlessness of life as he comes to the realization that the Brave New World is hostile and miserable. …show more content…

John and Othello are both rejected from their societies, Othello is a black man in a predominantly white society while John fits in neither in the Savage nor the New World. Similarly, John is in love with Lenina like Othello is with Desdemona, though their own expectations of love end up destroying their relationships. Othello is a military general in Italy who is held below the others in his society because of the color of his skin. He falls in love with the beautiful Desdemona but fears that he is undeserving of her love because of how society had portrayed him all of his life. Though Othello had defied all odds to marry Desdemona, he begins to feed into his insecurities and, out of jealousy, he suspects his wife of being unfaithful and says, “Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, made to write 'whore' upon?” (IV. ii. 82-83). This is similar to John who at first sees himself as unworthy to love Lenina but, having been accustomed to the tradition of love and marriage, is shocked by the fact that she seems to only be interested in sex. Following his confession and proposal toward Lenina, which she interprets as him being open to having sex with her, John has a violent outburst and says “Get out of my sight or I’ll kill you” (Huxley 194). Because John was truly in love with Lenina, he is filled with rage as he realizes that she mindlessly follows the sexual norms of the New World society, making her incapable of commitment. This is like Othello's outburst of anger towards Desdemona who he kills towards the end of the play because he believed she was disloyal and could never love a man like him. Throughout Brave New World, John takes after Othello’s rigid views of adultery and applies them to Lenina, who epitomizes the sexual traditions of the Brave New World Society that he views so heavily with

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John grew up with that trauma, but after all, he loves his mother. When Bernard and Lenina invited them to go to London, john was happy because he thought he could save his mom. When they arrived to London, Mustaphan did not agree with Linda and john presence, Lenina went to john’s room and seduce him with the objective to sleep with him, but john was traumatized due to the problem that he had with her mom, so he acts weird with her. - What is wrong with you jhon? Asked lenina - This is wrong lenina, you cannot just have sex with

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Brave New World is full of many characters who will do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about the truly broken society that they live in. Where they are held captive and convinced that how they live is the only way to achieve happiness. In chapter 7 you meet a boy named John, Bernard and Lenina take him from the savage reservation back to the utopia. John chooses to use Shakespeare as his way to avoid facing his truth and his broken past. Shakespeare plays a big role throughout this book, representing first, the art and ideas that are rejected by the Brave New World in the interest of maintaining stability.

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However, John’s forced exposure to Linda’s sexual relationships placed him far away from that true home within himself, amounting to exile. This exposure was very central in formulating John’s rejection of sexual behavior outside of marriage, thus rejecting a major component of civilized society itself. John transformed this rejection into anger when he thought of the men who visited his mother: “He hated them all – all the men who came to see Linda” (Page 125). As a result, these experiences enriched John by giving his life more direction and leading him to place more value on personal connections with women. When tempted by Lenina’s aesthetic beauty, he erupted, “’Detestable thought!’

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Lenina on the other hand, doesn’t see the purpose of proving love and just wants John to have sex with her. This Brave New World society has conditioned Lenina to not care about love or even know what it means. This results in her not being able to truly develop a meaningful relationship with John. If you compare their relationship with the romantic relationships shown in Shakespeare's works than you can see a large difference. In Chapter 13, John quotes The Tempest and tells Lenina, "If thou dost break her virgin knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite," which in the original work ends, "be minister'd, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall," saying that he doesn’t believe in sex before marriage (191).

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In the novel “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley creates a utopian society where religion is eradicated. Though Huxley himself has described the theme as “the advancement of science as it affects human individuals”, the grim portrait of it all is simply a world that has lost awareness of the transcendent and fled from the belief of a higher power. Huxley’s use of parodies and biblical allusions to compare Solidarity Services in London and the fertility rite in Malpais impose the necessity of faith in even the most disturbed societies. In this futuristic world, God is replaced with the pioneer of your needed “happy pill” and technology, Henry Ford. As opposed to the beliefs of Christianity, the world controller agrees that this

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Ford is one of the critical allusions in A Brave New World. “All crosses had their tops cut and became T's.” (Chapter 3). The people practically worshipped the letter T because of the Model T Ford designed. “Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently followed suit” (Chapter 2).

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Huxley’s References to the Modern World Through Brave New World Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, published in 1932, depicts a futuristic dystopian society unlike the date it was published. However, despite this futuristic setting, plenty of historical allusions are seen throughout the novel, ranging from Shakespeare to the Bible, which seem to confuse whether the novel could be considered historical, contemporary, or futuristic. Despite the futuristic setting and numerous historical allusions featured in Brave New World, the novel is truly contemporary due to the references of today’s society that it contains, whether it’s people’s heavy reliance on technology, or the desire that people with authority have to control certain aspects of the

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Likewise, Huxley also attempts to show how society becomes inhumane without the presence of rectitude: ‘“It was base,’ he said indignantly, ‘it was ignoble’” (Golding 170). John, the uncorrupted Jesus archetype, sees the corruption that permeates his society and renders the people inhumane. In the advanced society of Brave New World, no one possesses a moral compass to guide them or help guide others.

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Why does John push Lenina away even though he loves her? This essay will compare Lenina and John the Savage and discuss the reasons why their relationship is a failure. Lenina is described as “pneumatic” which means “filled with air”. This expression is a metaphor for being curvy and attractive. In the new world people are encouraged to have sex, including Lenina.

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After a long conversation with Mustapha Mond, John even forces himself to throw up in order to purge himself of civilization, explaining that “It poisoned me.” John does not see himself as a part of society like Lenina does; in fact, because he has always been treated and considered as an outsider, John is the very embodiment of individualism and natural instinct. John is all the more dangerous because of his refusal to accept the World State’s society and conform to their societal

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For instance, when John goes to the hospital to see his mother, Linda, he sees the children staring at her with, “…the stupid curiosity of animals… (Huxley 295).” This shows the that individuals in the new world act more like animals than civilized humans. Another example is, "Alpha children wear grey… They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki.… (Huxley 39).

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Since he grew up reading a lot of Shakespeare and learning about love in a more dramatic way, he sees Lenina as someone who can’t understand what true romance is. When she takes him to a “feely”, trying to figure out if he is attracted to her like she is to him, it reinvigorates his love for her, although he suppresses his physical desire due to his own shame. This is an example of how different the two characters have been raised, with John focusing on true love and trying to see Lenina as a wholesome, pure virgin (similar to Juliet in the story Romeo and Juliet), and Lenina becoming infatuated with him because of his resistance to her sexual

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In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 151 he writes, “Love is too young to know what conscience is;” (CITE). This quote describes the character, Mrs. Popov, in Anton Chekhov’s play, “The Brute”, because her moral standards changed in the name of love. This play is about how a woman stayed dedicated to her deceased husband, but ironically falls for the first man, Mr. Smirnov, she sees after seven months of being cooped up in her house. The theme of this drama is that love fades because by the end of the play she’s moved on with Mr. Smirnov. Chekhov uses symbolism, his title, and the character’s sudden epiphany to prove this theme throughout the story.

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1680 Words | 7 Pages

The Tempest is wasted upon Bernard as he questions, puzzled, “Who’s Miranda?”, but the Savage continues eagerly in direct quotation, “O brave new world that has such people in it. Let’s start at once” (Huxley 141). Huxley manipulates this significant encounter to establish John’s peculiar nature and foreshadow his incompatibility with society, as seen by his incoherence to Bernard. John’s Shakespearean values shine later in the novel when Lenina desires him, but John resists, dutifully quoting, ‘If thou dost break her virgin knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite…” (Huxley 195).

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The main point of Ernest Jones’ article “ Tragedy and the Mind of the Infant” is that Hamlet is in love with his mother. He roots Hamlet 's misogyny in Gertrude and Ophelia rejecting him sexually. “When sexual repression is highly pronounced,

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