The Representations of the Main Characters in the Brave New World
... God, as it were in the eye.” [Milton, 1990] What Mustapha is doing is censoring people form discovering that they are unique and also learning the moral truths of what is right or wrong as according to God and what the preceding society thought to be morally correct. Through the society’s censoring of books, Mustapha is able to brainwash people into believing his beliefs in order to maintain power. This sets the stage for Mustapha to use hypnopaedia, which is the repetition of words and phrases in society’s sleep in order for them to follow the rules of Mustapha and not question his ideals similarly in the novel Tuesdays With Morrie, “Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that’s what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More prosperity is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it—and have it repeated to us—over and over until nobody bothers to think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this he has no perspective of what is important.” [p.124]. Mustapha is using these repetitions so much that the citizens of the society cannot think for themselves anymore and only follow what is repeated to them. Mustapha is a very technocratic human being, he uses technology in order to keep people’s brains boxed up. Through this censorship and hypnopaedia the whole society follows him blindly, and proves that Mustpaha represents totalitarianistic government. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson are best of friends. They both are similar because they stick out in society, but they stick out for different reasons. Bernard is a very good representation of a society’s outcast. Bernard is an outcast for several reasons. Initially he was different because, as Lenina’s friend, Fanny says “He’s so ugly!”[p.46]. In a society that judges people by appearances, he does not fit in and therefore tends to notice the flaws of their society. For example, he knows that all the people of the Brave New World are all brain-washed by means of hypnopaedia. Furthermore, rather than just having sex without love as everyone else in society does, he seeks to have an emotional connection with Lenina. However, Lenina because of her programming cannot see his inner character and rejects him based on appearance. Lenina’s rejection of Bernard highlights the society’s inability to respond to a real individual and shows how superficial society is and how inadequate society is in responding to this type of person. Right from the start, Helmholtz feels his creativity within but cannot express it. When John enters his world, Helmholtz finally realizes his creativity. Helmholtz Watson says to Bernard, “Did you ever feel as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you to give it a chance to come out? Some sort of extra power that you aren’t using—you know, like all the water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines?”[p.69] When he finally does try to express himself, Mustapha Mond tells him to conform or be sent to an island. Through Helmholtz, the reader finds out how horrible the society through its suppression of true creativity. Helmholtz symbolizes creativity being censored in the novel, and he stands in extreme contrast to the superficial wirtings of the Brave New World that he is forced to write. Lenina Crowne is another major character in the novel. She symbolizes sexuality within the novel; she is very interested in sexual activity. Lenina has slept with many of the men in the brave new world. She feels no love at all for anyone and just wants to feel physical gratification from sex. This is quite evident when John the Savage enters the novel and tries to express his love for her and treat her like a real human being. She does not understand this and falls to society’s programming and tries to seduce him only ending with her getting rejected. Lenina highlights society’s stifling inability to respond to real love because of their programming. She represents sex without love in the society, which can be said for most of the brave new wor...