How does Brave New World Illustrate the Point of Happiness
Fantasies
In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World the actions of the conditioned characters in the novel serve to prove that the Brave New World itself would never attain it's goal of happiness. Within the first introduced “Utopian” society, there were various forms of conditioning (and lack there of). This caused a disturbance within the society itself, albeit it was a minor disturbance initially, later it grew into a bigger problem that caused a riff in the mechanical order of the civilization. Outside of the society stood another much different society where a young “savage” conditioned to follow Shakespearian ideals left an even bigger hole in the Brave New World. The various degrees of conditioning, the differences between the seemingly Utopian society and the savage society, and the issues raised from the characters interactions, presents the idea that without perfection, there cannot be happiness, without happiness, there cannot be stability, and without stability, there cannot be a Utopia. Conditioning individuals is only a proper form of control if the conditioned party are the same (in other words, no longer individuals) and no other ideas that contradict the conditioning are brought forth. If those conditions are not met, the “Utopia” will cease to exist as a Utopia, and will crumble as a society. Happiness cannot be obtained in a crumbling society.
The biggest issue with conditioning is making sure everyone thinks exactly the same way. There mustn’t be any other ideas to change the course of how society thinks. If clashing ideas exist problems arise and those problems will break the “utopian” society apart and cause disarray. The characters Lenina Crowne, Mustapha Mond, Berwald Marx, and Helmholtz Watson, all members of the mechanical civilization clashed with the other members (Such as Henry Ford and Fanny Crowne) of the fully-conditioned society. Bernard Marx's conditioning was flawed, “a physical shortcoming [produced] a mental excess” (Huxley, 73).
In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World the actions of the conditioned characters in the novel serve to prove that the Brave New World itself would never attain it's goal of happiness. Within the first introduced “Utopian” society, there were various forms of conditioning (and lack there of). This caused a disturbance within the society itself, albeit it was a minor disturbance initially, later it grew into a bigger problem that caused a riff in the mechanical order of the civilization. Outside of the society stood another much different society where a young “savage” conditioned to follow Shakespearian ideals left an even bigger hole in the Brave New World. The various degrees of conditioning, the differences between the seemingly Utopian society and the savage society, and the issues raised from the characters interactions, presents the idea that without perfection, there cannot be happiness, without happiness, there cannot be stability, and without stability, there cannot be a Utopia. Conditioning individuals is only a proper form of control if the conditioned party are the same (in other words, no longer individuals) and no other ideas that contradict the conditioning are brought forth. If those conditions are not met, the “Utopia” will cease to exist as a Utopia, and will crumble as a society. Happiness cannot be obtained in a crumbling society.
The biggest issue with conditioning is making sure everyone thinks exactly the same way. There mustn’t be any other ideas to change the course of how society thinks. If clashing ideas exist problems arise and those problems will break the “utopian” society apart and cause disarray. The characters Lenina Crowne, Mustapha Mond, Berwald Marx, and Helmholtz Watson, all members of the mechanical civilization clashed with the other members (Such as Henry Ford and Fanny Crowne) of the fully-conditioned society. Bernard Marx's conditioning was flawed, “a physical shortcoming [produced] a mental excess” (Huxley, 73).