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Fiction Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 20: Aldous Huxley—Brave New World:

Themes and Characterization

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
20.1 Character List
20.2 Analysis of Major Characters
20.3 Major Themes

20.4 Summary
20.5 Keywords
20.6 Review Questions
20.7 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Discuss the character list of Brave new world
• Explain the major themes of Brave new world.

Introduction

Huxley isn’t one for subtlety. It isn’t enough to show Bernard’s insecurity around the lower
castes; instead, we get this: The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider
he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt
and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien
and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where
his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.
Then we get to Helmholtz, whose physical appearance clues us in to his self-confidence. But
then Huxley goes into telling mode again: A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson
effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect. A
mental excess became in its turn a cause of wider separation. That which had made Helmholtz
so uncomfortably aware of being himself and all alone was too much ability. What the two
men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals. It was only quite recently that,
grown aware of his mental excess, Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of his difference
from the people who surrounded him.
This goes on and on, for much of the novel, again leading people to believe that Brave New
World was more of a forum for Huxley’s ideas than a true novel.

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