Page 222 - DENG404_FICTION

Fiction

Notes John can only turn to Shakespeare to explain his surroundings. Ironically, Shakespeare was a
genius at invoking passion and emotion, whereas society has virtually destroyed these feelings.
This disconnect creates a series of serious misunderstandings between John and the rest of
society, since John struggles to develop his emotions while everyone else struggles to stifle
their feelings.

Chapter 12

Summary
Bernard holds a party with many of society’s most important people in attendance. He goes
to get John and introduce him, but John will not leave his room. Furious, the guests immediately
begin disparaging Bernard, who feels humiliated. The Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury
leaves, taking Lenina with him. Meanwhile, John sits in his room and continues reading
Romeo and Juliet while the party falls apart, unaware that Lenina was even at the party. When
Lenina hears that John will not attend the party, she feels a new emotion: “a sense of dreadful
emptiness, a breathless apprehension, nausea.”

Task Why does John decide not to come to Bernard’s party?

Meanwhile, Mustapha Mond reads scientific reports and evaluates them for publication based on
the social impact of each report. Mustapha expresses regret that he cannot always publish brilliant
science because it might harm society. One particular report, “A New Theory of Biology,”
particularly disappoints him. It suggests that the purpose of life might not be “the maintenance
of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of
knowledge.” Though this might be true, Mond knows that such ideas would destabilize society.
Bernard takes a large dose of soma to escape the shame of the disastrous party. When he
recovers, John acts more sympathetically because Bernard is once again humble and reflective.
John explains that Bernard now acts more as he did when they first met. Bernard also returns
to Helmholtz who agrees to take him back as a friend. The sympathy and friendship of the two
men only serves to make Bernard want revenge on them for having caused his fame to disappear.
Helmholtz has gotten into trouble while Bernard entertained. He wrote a poem about being
alone, and he had foolishly decided to read it to his students during a lecture. They complained
to higher authorities, who told Helmholtz that if anything else happened, he would no longer
have his position.
When Helmholtz meets John the Savage, they quickly befriend each other. Bernard feels displaced
while with them, and he continually does things to annoy them. After Helmholtz reads his
poetry to the Savage, John pulls out his volume of Shakespeare and reads passages.

Notes The beauty of the writing stuns Helmholtz, but Bernard makes stupid jokes in
order to disrupt the reading.

Everything goes well until John reads Romeo and Juliet. Since John still loves Lenina, he
identifies with Romeo and puts a great deal of passion into the story. However, the idea of
forbidden love is so alien to society that Helmholtz finally bursts out laughing. At this point,
John angrily locks away his book. Helmholtz recognizes Shakespeare’s genius, but admits that
such foreign notions of romantic love could never cause his desire disruption of society.

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