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Summary Revision notes for Huxley's 'Brave New World'
Revision notes for Huxley's 'Brave New World' - includes character summaries, chapter summaries, quotes, relevant context and critics quotes
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Brave New WorldCharacters
THE DIRECTOR
Introduces the reader to the facility and the fundamentals of Huxley’s futuristic society
It is the director’s accident while visiting the Savage Reservation years earlier that
provides the impetus for the second half of the novel.
HENRY FOSTER
One of Lenina’s boyfriends
Accompanies the director on the student tour of the Central Hatchery and
Conditioning Centre in the first section of the novel
He serves as a counterpoint to Bernard Marx—where Bernard is antisocial, eccentric,
and individual, Henry is the model conditioned citizen
LENINA CROWNE
Works in the Central Hatchery and Conditioning Centre
Accompanies Bernard to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico
Her beauty attracts John, and she becomes the object of his romantic and possessive
love
She serves as the liaison between civilized and savage society, as she feels a strong
connection for John but is confused by what seems to be a growing preference for
monogamy and love
John’s attraction to her, and her inability to abandon the promiscuous principals of
her conditioning, serves as a major conflict during John’s visit to London
MUSTAPHA MOND
One of 10 World Controllers
His position as one of the major upholders of conditioned society is complicated by
his understanding of the sacrifice necessary for such a strict society; his secret stash
of forbidden religious and literary texts, as well as his personal history as a young
man faced with exile or the renunciation of his pursuit of knowledge, demonstrate
that individual awareness has not been eradicated in the “civilized” world but merely
suppressed.
BERNARD MARX
An example of unsuccessful, or incomplete, conditioning
Physically imperfect, melancholy, and dissatisfied with life in London
, Rather than regularly taking soma and engaging in state-supervised entertainment,
he complains about London’s lack of individuality and feels an outsider in a society
that aims to abolish self-consciousness
He is responsible for bringing John and Linda to London and is finally exiled as a
result of his tendency of criticising the state.
FANNY CROWNE
Works in the Conditioning Centre
Lenina’s friend
Serves as a warning voice when Lenina exhibits a desire for monogamy, first with
Henry Foster and later with John
When Lenina considers the strange passion she feels for John, Fanny counsels her to
date and sleep with him and explains Lenina’s surprising depression as evidence that
she needs a Violent Passion Surrogate
Like Henry, Fanny is a model citizen and cannot contemplate behaving against her
conditioning
HELMHOLTZ WATSON
Feels like an outsider in conditioned society
Writes propaganda for several state-sanctioned publications but longs to write
something more meaningful and passionate
He immediately befriends John and is enthralled by the forbidden writings of
Shakespeare (which John reveals to him)
Like Bernard, he is ultimately exiled by Mond to the Falkland Islands, where he can
pose no threat to the stability of conditioned society
Unlike Bernard, Helmholtz anticipates his exile as an opportunity to escape the
limited society of London and looks forward to having the freedom to explore his
individuality in writing
LINDA
Beta Minus who accompanies the Director to the Savage Reservation decades before
the novel’s time frame
She is lost during a storm and is left in New Mexico, where she is rescued by an
Indian tribe
She is pregnant at the time of her accident, and without the availability of London’s
abortion centres, is forced to viviparously give birth to the son of the Director
She never fully adjusts to uncivilized life and struggles to adapt her conditioned mind
to unconditioned society
JOHN
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