From the incipience of his narrative, Aldous Huxley
exposes the irony of his title taken from Shakespeare's The
Tempest. For, there is nothing of the heart--nothing "brave"--at all in the
society of the New World. The most basic of human actions, that of physical
reproduction and all that it entails has been removed. Not only has this regenerative
act which makes men human been removed, the urge to do so has been negated and made vile
to the inhabitants of the New World. Through hypnopaedia, the "treatest moralizing and
socializing force of all time," the citizens are made to believe that giving birth
naturally is a repugnant act. In fact, there is nothing intimate or personal regarding
the act of intercourse; citizens are encouraged, in fact, to be promiscuous as, in this
way, "everyone belongs to everyone else," and, therefore, no one belongs to anyone; no
one person has any real value. The individual does not exist, for the individual in a
society--one who thinks for him/herself--is often
dangerous.
All thoughts, all actions are controlled in the
New World. In the Hatchery, a limited number of Alphas are manufactured as are
calculated numbers of other mental and physical denominations. The limited number of
Alphas ensures that there are not too many thinkers to disturb the order of the
society. And, so that there is no mixing of the more intelligent with the lesser,
hypnopaedia conditions Betas to hate Gammas, for
example.
Emotions, too, are controlled. Whenever one feels
a twinge of discontent, soma is taken. In fact,
soma is given to people regularly as a preventative against any
insurgency. There is no true religion, either, which could give rise to ideas and
feelings, nor any recordings of past history. All is in the present of the New World.
Consumption is the activity; the years are counted from the assembly line manufacture of
the Ford. B.C., standing for "before Christ," and A. D. "anno dominum, or year of our
Lord," have been eradicated. The inhabitants of the New World know no more than what
they have been conditioned to know.
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