Brave New World And 1984 Essay, Research Paper
Sexual Behaviour as the Means Order
Sexual behaviour has been changed and moulded into a revolution over the last 100 years. The changes in our societies have allowed the freedom of public displays of affection. Woman have also played a large part of the sexual revolution. They have gone from doing all that men want to asking men on dates. With this sexual freedom problems have arrived. Rape and sexual harassment have increased leaving us to ask questions. Is sexual freedom much better than sexual repression? Both Aldous Huxley s novel Brave New World and George Orwell s 1984 present the issues of sexual repression and freedom. Both authors examine how sexual behaviour are the means of order in society. Brave New World s sexual freedom and 1984 s sexual repression are the means of order in their societies yet with this tragedies arise.
In Brave New World Aldous Huxley examines a futuristic anti-utopian society. This society is strong in sexual freedom. Natural reproduction is no longer used to reproduce. A process called Bokanovsky s Process (3) is used. This process is the fertilizing and conditioning of embryos and toddlers. This process is Brave New Worlds way of keeping social stability (5) .This world of laboratory babies occurs only because of the engineering of the embryos before they are born. Approximately 75% of female embryos are dosed with a male sex-hormone to render them sterile(10).These embryos are then given the name freemartins (10). The other 25% of embryos are given pregnancy substitutes and wear fertility belts(34). Brave New World s Controller for western Europe, Mustapha Mond believes, everyone belongs to everyone else (35). He believes family, monogamy, and romance lead to chaos in a society(35).The main female character in the novel Lenina, is looked down upon for having only one male partner in the last couple of weeks. Old world taboos are shot down in Brave New World and new ones are put in place. Children are watched and encouraged to have erotic play. Abnormal behaviour to the world controllers are those boys and girls who do not wish to play together. Early in chapter three the director is examining many young children in their erotic play and he tells his students, For a very long period of time before the time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children were regarded as abnormal…actually immoral (28). Today sex on the first date is considered to be morally wrong where in Brave New World sex on the first date is encouraged. Brave New World is a world controlled and programmed in a certain way. Natural
reproduction is wrong and can lead to problems in the order of beings in the society. Due to this processes occur to allow the freedom of sex for woman so they do not become pregnant. In conclusion world order in Brave New World only occurs with the sexual freedom of it s citizens.
While Brave New World looks upon sexual freedom, George Orwell s famous novel 1984 looks upon sexual repression in an anti-utopian society. This society is purely totalitarian. Run by the Big Brother; Oceania s motto is War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength (18). Citizens of Oceania are watched like inmates. Each person has a telescreen watching them. Pictures of the Big Brother are also on walls everywhere you turn. In this government controlled society citizens are not allowed to respond intellectually to their government. They must love the Big Brother or be annihilated. The first sign of the sexual repression in 1984 is when the lead character, Winston has a dream. In this dream Winston dreams of a woman who had thrown her cloth
aside (31). This sensual moment becomes terrifying when he then dreams that with that one moment of careless dreaming the thought police would annihilate him (31).This dream is significant to the development of the fear the citizens of the Big Brother feels for him. The aim of the Party was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act (60). Sexual intercourse as Winston sees it is looked on as a disgusting operation (61) by the Party members. The Party felt that they must control all emotions people feel, and lust and love are emotions they tried their hardest to control. Junior anti-sex Leagues (61) were created to complete celibacy for both sexes. All children were created through artificial insemination and brought up in public institutions (61) . Sex was thought of as so dirty that any sexual encounter Winston would have he would stiffen and tense up in fear (61). The leading party in Oceania is so powerful that citizens are deathly afraid to do anything that would go against the Big Brother. This is the way Oceania wants it to be and by avoiding sexual contact they are able to achieve their goal of complete totalitarian government.
With order being controlled by sexual behaviour problems arises. In both Brave New World and 1984 tragedies occur because of the sexual nature of the two different societies. The first example of this takes place in Brave New World. While Lenina and Berard Marx are on a trip to a savage reservation they meet a young man named John. This man s mother is from the new world yet she has been living in the reservation for years after being left there by another new world man. Lenina finds the young savage unappealing. John also has strange unknown feelings for Lenina. John, not aware of Lenina s sexual experiences believes she is a pure virgin. This is John s downfall. Finally back in the New World, John and Lenina begin to have a non-sexual relationship Lenina wants their relationship to go further but with this move the tragedy arises. In chapter 13 Lenina expresses her need for john to her friend Fanny. Fanny tells Lenina, Why don t you just go and take him. Whether he wants it or not (171). This
peal to Lenina is the turning point in the tragedy. After this Lenina decides to act on her feelings. John the savage is horrified by Lenina s sexual advances and he calls her a whore (176). John then goes into a frenzy disgusted by Lenina s sexuality. The end of this frenzy resulted in John s suicide. This tragedy only occurred because of the difference in morals and sexuality. John s values were, comfort, god, poetry, goodness and freedom (211), while Lenina s were too different. The next tragedy occurred in the sexual repressed society of 1984. Winston longing for a female companion meets a woman named Julia. Both characters share the feelings of hate towards the Big Brother. They become a lethal combination. They re betrayal against the Big Brother leads to them getting caught by the thought police. They wake up from a sexual encounter to here, Stand out in the middle of the room. Stand back to back. Clasp your hands behind your heads. Do not touch one another (189). After getting caught both l
ers are separated never seeing each other again. This tragedy could also have been avoided if the gove4rnment s order was not controlled by sex. Thus both these tragedies are due to the sexual repression and freedom that both societies present.
Both Brave New World and 1984 examine the themes of sexuality and how they relate to order in a society. With this order though, tragedies occur. Brave New World s sexual freedom causes doom to those who believed in the old world values. In 1984 the sexual repression caused havoc to those who rebelled against the government to find true love. In both novels the need for love was the real cause of the tragedies. Both novel s anti-utopian societies are proven through the tragedies that occur due to the utalitarian run governments. In conclusion the question of whether sexual freedom or sexual repression is better is now answered. Both are equal, neither is better. Both forms of order have their downfalls.