Brave New World
Chapter 4: Four
by Huxley, AldousThe chapter opens with Lenina entering a crowded lift, greeted warmly by her Alpha colleagues, many of whom she has had casual relationships with. Despite their friendliness, she privately critiques their physical flaws, such as George Edzel’s large ears or Benito Hoover’s excessive body hair. Her attention shifts to Bernard Marx, whose melancholic demeanor stands out. Lenina approaches him enthusiastically about their planned trip to New Mexico, deliberately flaunting her independence from Henry. Bernard, however, reacts with awkwardness and discomfort, seemingly embarrassed by the public attention, which Lenina finds amusing yet puzzling.
As the lift reaches the roof, the contrast between the vibrant sunlight and the liftman’s dull existence highlights the societal divide. The Epsilon-Minus liftman, momentarily awed by the light, quickly reverts to his robotic routine when commanded by the loudspeaker. On the roof, Bernard is moved by the beauty of the skyline, but Lenina remains superficial, excited about Obstacle Golf. She departs to meet Henry, leaving Bernard to watch her with a pained expression. Benito Hoover, ever cheerful, notices Bernard’s gloom and offers him soma, but Bernard abruptly leaves, deepening Benito’s confusion about his odd behavior.
Meanwhile, Lenina joins Henry Foster in a helicopter, where his punctuality and efficiency underscore the regimented nature of their world. As they ascend, London transforms into a miniature landscape of geometric shapes and green spaces. Henry critiques the Red Rocket’s tardiness, emphasizing the society’s obsession with order. The helicopter’s controlled flight mirrors the precision of their lives, while Lenina observes the bustling activity below, including recreational games like Riemann-surface tennis, illustrating the pervasive conditioning of the populace.
The chapter juxtaposes the characters’ superficial interactions with the underlying tension in Bernard’s nonconformity. Lenina’s casual relationships and Henry’s mechanical demeanor reflect the societal norms of promiscuity and efficiency, while Bernard’s discomfort and emotional responses hint at his alienation. The liftman’s brief moment of wonder and Bernard’s appreciation of beauty contrast sharply with the others’ conditioned behaviors, subtly critiquing the dehumanizing aspects of this “brave new world.”
FAQs
1. How does Lenina’s attitude toward Bernard Marx contrast with her interactions with other Alpha males in the chapter?
Answer:
Lenina treats Bernard Marx with a mix of amusement and pity, unlike her warm, casual interactions with other Alpha males like Benito Hoover and George Edzel. While she openly flirts with Bernard and proposes a trip to New Mexico, she finds his discomfort and social awkwardness perplexing, noting how he reacts as if she’d “made a dirty joke.” This contrasts sharply with her easy familiarity with others, highlighting Bernard’s outsider status despite being an Alpha. Her genuine bafflement at his behavior (“What on earth for?”) underscores the societal expectation of promiscuity and emotional detachment, which Bernard struggles to meet.
2. Analyze the significance of the liftman’s reaction to the roof. How does this moment reflect the novel’s themes?
Answer:
The liftman, an Epsilon-Minus Semi-Moron, experiences a fleeting moment of awe upon reaching the roof, exclaiming “Roof!” with rapture as sunlight shocks him out of his habitual stupor. This brief awakening underscores the dehumanizing effects of the World State’s conditioning: lower castes are kept in a docile, unthinking state, and even minor sensory experiences (like sunlight) become extraordinary. The loud speaker’s abrupt command to return to his “droning twilight” reinforces the theme of control—happiness is manufactured, and deviation from assigned roles is swiftly corrected. The liftman’s relapse into stupor mirrors the society’s suppression of individuality and spontaneous emotion.
3. How does Bernard Marx’s behavior in this chapter illustrate his conflict with World State values?
Answer:
Bernard’s discomfort with Lenina’s public advances and his solitary brooding on the roof reveal his alienation from World State norms. While others like Benito Hoover embrace casual sex and soma, Bernard flushes with embarrassment and seeks privacy, rejecting the society’s emphasis on overt sexuality and emotional superficiality. His appreciation of the sky’s beauty (“Isn’t it beautiful!”) contrasts with Lenina’s pragmatic response about Obstacle Golf, highlighting his yearning for deeper meaning. His later abrupt departure when offered soma further signals his rejection of chemical escapism, marking him as a misfit in a society that pathologizes introspection.
4. What does the description of London’s aerial view reveal about the society’s structure and priorities?
Answer:
The bird’s-eye perspective of London—with its geometric buildings, Centrifugal Bumble-puppy towers, and Escalator Fives Courts—emphasizes the World State’s obsession with efficiency, order, and mass entertainment. The city resembles a machine, with humans reduced to “maggoty” specks engaged in regimented leisure activities like Riemann-surface tennis. The Charing-T Tower, likened to a “slenderer fungus,” symbolizes the society’s technological dominance. This imagery critiques a world where nature is subdued (parks are mere “green zones”), and human life is organized into predictable, controlled patterns, prioritizing productivity and superficial happiness over organic complexity.
5. Why might Benito Hoover’s assumption about Bernard’s “alcohol in blood-surrogate” be ironic?
Answer:
Benito assumes Bernard’s melancholy stems from a rumored prenatal error (alcohol in his blood-surrogate), reflecting the World State’s tendency to pathologize nonconformity as biological defect. This is ironic because Bernard’s sadness arises from his resistance to conditioning, not a flaw. Benito, embodying societal norms, cannot fathom genuine emotion outside soma or sex-hormone gum. His cheerful dismissal (“What you need is a gramme of soma”) underscores the society’s reliance on chemicals to suppress dissent. The irony lies in the truth being inverted: Bernard’s “defect” is his humanity, not a manufacturing error.
Quotes
1. “They were dear boys, she thought, as she returned their salutations. Charming boys! Still, she did wish that George Edzel’s ears weren’t quite so big (perhaps he’d been given just a spot too much parathyroid at Metre 328?).”
This quote exemplifies the superficial relationships and engineered perfection of Huxley’s dystopia, where Lenina casually critiques genetic modifications while maintaining the expected social pleasantries. It introduces the theme of biological conditioning and the characters’ conditioned acceptance of human flaws as manufacturing errors.
2. “He was as though suddenly and joyfully awakened from a dark annihilating stupor. ‘Roof!’ He smiled up with a kind of doggily expectant adoration into the faces of his passengers.”
The liftman’s ecstatic reaction to sunlight highlights the dehumanization of lower castes, whose brief moments of joy come from simple biological stimuli rather than meaningful experiences. This passage underscores the novel’s critique of class stratification and emotional manipulation.
3. “Reality for Benito was always sunny.”
This concise characterization of Benito Hoover encapsulates the novel’s central theme of enforced happiness through conditioning and soma. It demonstrates how citizens are engineered to perceive their world, making Benito a perfect product of the World State’s system.
4. “The huge table-topped buildings were no more, in a few seconds, than a bed of geometrical mushrooms sprouting from the green of park and garden.”
This vivid aerial description of London showcases Huxley’s dystopian urban vision, where human structures mimic unnatural, uniform growths. The imagery reflects the novel’s themes of artificiality and humanity’s subjugation to engineered environments.
5. “The green was maggoty with fore-shortened life.”
This striking metaphor describing parkland teeming with people reduces human activity to insect-like infestation, reinforcing the novel’s critique of overpopulation and the devaluation of individual life in this “brave new world.”