Brave New World Analysis

Aldous Huxley uses his novel Brave New World, to over exaggerate the sexual relationships between people in the 1930s, whilst portraying how this promiscuity was harmful to women. The 1930s were a time in history when women were beginning to work and provide for themselves. They had gained employment during wartime, continuing their labor even as men returned home. Huxley’s society portrayed in the novel strips women of their new independence and status and instead tries to take away their sense of importance. His voice concerning the sexual relationships men had resorted to, is heard through the actions of specific characters. The failure of males to show emotional connections to the women they interact with, and the violence brought about by sleeping around, show how promiscuity was demeaning to women in the period of new female independence.

Bernard Marx was a member of the Alpha community that never quite fit in. Since he followed different ideals than everyone else, Huxley used him to show the concern towards the rapidly changing way of life. Bernard often chooses to listen on the sidelines, rather than partake in the conversation as higher class men speak poorly of women. In the elevator one day, in particular, he overhears one man say, “‘Oh, she’s a splendid girl...I’m surprised you haven’t had her’” followed by the response, “‘I certainly will. At the first opportunity’” (Huxley 44). Huxley was trying to show how men were frequently dehumanizing females. Bernard is