CHAPTER 4

CHARACTERS IN THE CHAPTER :

Bernard marx

a sleep-learning specialist at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. He is unusually short for an Alpha; an accident with alcohol in Bernard's blood-surrogate before his decanting has left him slightly stunted. Bernard's independence of mind stems more from his inferiority-complex and depressive nature than any depth of philosophical conviction.

Lenina Crowne

a young, beautiful Alpha. Lenina is basically happy and well-conditioned. Lenina has a date with Bernard, to whom she feels attracted.

Helmholtz Watson

handsome and successful Alpha-plus, lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering. Helmholtz is a friend of Bernard. He is restive at the stifling conformism and philistinism of the World State.

Henry Foster

a young Alpha male. Henry is a scientist, a statistician, and assistant to the Director at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. He is one of Lenina's ex-lovers.

Benito Hoover

happy, hairy, sex-hormone gum-chewing, ex-lover of Lenina, a conventional Alpha male.

SHORT REPORT :

This chapter begins with Lenina asking Bernard if he will take her to New Mexico with him on his trip to the Reservation. Bernard is embarrassed and tries to avoid the question. Later, we get to know that Bernard really does like her but he is too afraid of asking her to go out with him. For his short stature, it’s difficult for others to respect Bernard, since sleep-teaching hypnosis makes them automatically associate height with caste level.

Soon Bernard meets Helmholtz. Helmholtz tries to explain to Bernard that he feels like having something powerful inside himself that is only waiting to come out and this “something” is surely out of the ordinary thoughts of that society

Bernard isn’t sure what he means exactly, but Helmholtz seems to be on the brink of something big. The two seem to be fighting the same war on different fronts. They are two outsiders. Bernard can’t completely adapt himself to the common lifestyle of his

Society, Helmholtz is too intelligent and clever to build “normal” social relationships with the others.

THEMES PRESENTED :

The society organization in the Brave New World:

The caste division as the basis of social stability. Each caste as a proper status that is immediately visible in the physical appearance of the person.

SOME RELEVANT QUOTATION :

“What a hideous colour khaki is,’ remarked Lenina, voicing the hypnopaedic prejudices of her caste. (Lenina to the Gamma’s caste)

"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?"

(Helmholtz Watson to Bernard Marx)

STYLE :

In this chapter predominate the use of large descriptive style. For example the descriptions of the physical characteristic allow us to  understand also the inner state of the characters. Helmholtz is described as a big lover, sexually gifted, “hairy”, handsome, a sort of masculinity symbol. This physical superiority is mirrored in his superior intelligence.

WHAT THE CHAPTER REPRESENTS IN THE WHOLE STORY

This chapter is important because in this moment Lenina and Henry Foster fly away to the Reservation where they meet the Savage.

PERSONAL COMMENTS

It’s incredible how hypnopaedia conditions people’s mind and how, for example Lenina, in front of a group of Gammas she thinks that their colour is hideous and in the end of the chapter she says “I'm glad I'm not a Gamma." I think that the life must be accepted like it really is  in its various aspects and forms.

                                                        BY VALERIO & ESTHER