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Fiction

Notes important. Helmholtz tells Bernard that he has “a feeling that I’ve got something important
to say and the power to say it - only I don’t know what it is, and I can’t make any use of the
power.” While he is talking, Bernard becomes afraid that someone is listening to them at the
door. He goes to check but finds no one there. Having betrayed his nervousness, Bernard
breaks down and tells Helmholtz, “When people are suspicious with you, you start being
suspicious with them.”

Analysis

Chapter 4 marks a departure from the first three chapters by introducing rational humans.
Both Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson have deep-seated suspicions of the society that
they live in, though they do not know how to put such suspicions into thought or words. This
impulse towards the rational comes from differences—physical for Bernard, mental for Helmholtz—
that disrupt their ability to accept the ordered world around them. Thus, Huxley makes a
statement about creativity, progress, and the ability of powerful authorities to stifle such
things.

Huxley shows society’s abhorrence of rational, independent thought in the mockery of Bernard
Marx by his coworkers. Helmholtz Watson also faces the same predicament in the sense that
his superiors think he is too good at what he does. This fear of individuality ensures the
stability of the society because its absence prevents creativity. Since creativity would lead to
attempts to reform the society, the World Controllers root out individual creativity whenever
possible.

A conflict emerges between the rational thinkers and the majority who merely follow orders.
By identifying in Bernard Marx many of the normal feelings and emotions people normally
have, the reader comes to support him as an underdog. Because of his deep emotions and
passions, Bernard often induces empathy from the reader. However, Marx is also insecure and
emotional, and he therefore has difficulty understanding his society. In this way, his pathos
is a flaw.
Helmholtz, on the other hand, embodies pure reason and intelligence devoid of emotional
complications. Huxley does not contrast reason against creativity in Helmholtz’s character in
the same way that he does with a character such as Mustapha Mond. Mond represents a
political system that uses only cold rationalism to order society, whereas Helmholtz’s reasoning
has a creative spark. Huxley thus suggests that society requires a balance between emotion
and reason to maximize human potential. Helmholtz provides a philosophical understanding
of society. He understands Bernard’s emotional conflicts rationally and without personal involvement.

Chapter 5
Summary

Lenina and Henry Foster finish their game and go to his apartment building. On the way, they
see a cremation factory, which leads them to discuss the physico-chemical equality of all caste
members, from Alpha to Epsilon. Lenina comments that all members of society are happy,
regardless of their caste. According to Foster, this happiness derives from their conditioning,
and “even Epsilons perform indispensable services.” This leads Lenina to recall a time in her
childhood in which she woke from sleep and become aware, for the first time, of the conditioning
and “the whispering that had haunted all her sleeps.”
At Foster’s apartment building, they eat before heading to the Westminster Abbey Cabaret.
After taking several doses of soma, an experience described as “the warm, the richly coloured,
the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday,” they dance to the synthetic music of “Calvin

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