Comparison Between Brave New World and Freud's Future of an Illusion
Freud and the Brave New World:
Science can replace religion as a means of creating a stable civilization. This is what Sigmund Freud believes, and this is what Aldous Huxley tries to prove. Freud in his Future of an Illusion states that religion allows men to act according to reason, and not their instincts. People are taught with a religious background and are taught about a balance of crime and punishment. Punishment will be cast upon men if men are unable to control their instincts and commit a crime. However, those who are not taught in a religious way see no reason to act according to reason just for God. In fact, they fight their instincts for another morality that they are taught. Similarly, if science was taught as a moral education, it can replace science as a means of controlling men's instincts. Huxley adopts this idea and embeds it as a major background-idea in his novel. In Brave New World, Huxley presents a world that uses science to bring stability and happiness to its people. This world uses a series of technological methods to produce and alter infants so that they grow up to correctly serve the State, part of the controlling forces. The novel starts by introducing many of these technologies and science. As the novel progress, the readers meet the two main characters, Lenina Crown and Bernard Marx, who eventually go to the isolated Savage Reservation in New Mexico. At the Savage Reservation, they meet a young man named John the Savage, who, as they soon finds out, is the son of the Director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre and a woman called Linda. Since Huxley's society doesn't allow "birth" to happen and Linda has broken this "law," she is forced to stay at the Reservation. She cannot go back to London. With Bernard's help, however, John and Linda are able to return to London and see the DHC. The DHC, upon seeing the two, falls into shame and embarrassment and resigns immediately. Eventually, Linda dies
Science can replace religion as a means of creating a stable civilization. This is what Sigmund Freud believes, and this is what Aldous Huxley tries to prove. Freud in his Future of an Illusion states that religion allows men to act according to reason, and not their instincts. People are taught with a religious background and are taught about a balance of crime and punishment. Punishment will be cast upon men if men are unable to control their instincts and commit a crime. However, those who are not taught in a religious way see no reason to act according to reason just for God. In fact, they fight their instincts for another morality that they are taught. Similarly, if science was taught as a moral education, it can replace science as a means of controlling men's instincts. Huxley adopts this idea and embeds it as a major background-idea in his novel. In Brave New World, Huxley presents a world that uses science to bring stability and happiness to its people. This world uses a series of technological methods to produce and alter infants so that they grow up to correctly serve the State, part of the controlling forces. The novel starts by introducing many of these technologies and science. As the novel progress, the readers meet the two main characters, Lenina Crown and Bernard Marx, who eventually go to the isolated Savage Reservation in New Mexico. At the Savage Reservation, they meet a young man named John the Savage, who, as they soon finds out, is the son of the Director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre and a woman called Linda. Since Huxley's society doesn't allow "birth" to happen and Linda has broken this "law," she is forced to stay at the Reservation. She cannot go back to London. With Bernard's help, however, John and Linda are able to return to London and see the DHC. The DHC, upon seeing the two, falls into shame and embarrassment and resigns immediately. Eventually, Linda dies