Very Short Summary
London, approximately 2540 AD (632 A.F. - After Ford). In a society based on genetic engineering and psychological conditioning, a group of students toured the Central London Hatchery, where humans were artificially created and conditioned for predetermined social roles.
Bernard took Lenina Crowne to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico, where they discovered Linda, a woman from their civilization who had been left behind years ago, and her son. They brought them back to London.
Linda quickly retreated into a permanent soma-induced stupor while her son John became a sensation in London society. Bernard briefly enjoyed popularity as John's guardian but soon returned to his former outcast status. John fell in love with Lenina but was disgusted by her sexual advances, considering them immoral.
But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin... I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.
After Linda's death, John became increasingly hostile toward civilization. He retreated to an abandoned lighthouse where he attempted to purify himself through self-flagellation and isolation. However, crowds of curious onlookers gathered to watch him, eventually provoking him into a violent orgy of passion. The next morning, overcome with shame and despair, John hanged himself.
Detailed Summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The World State and Its Methods of Control
In the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning led a group of students through the facility, explaining the process of human reproduction and conditioning in the World State. The building's entrance displayed the World State's motto: 'COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.' Inside, workers in white overalls managed the artificial reproduction of humans through careful scientific processes.
The facility utilized the Bokanovsky Process, which allowed a single egg to produce up to ninety-six identical embryos. This process was crucial for creating the standardized workforce needed by the World State. Lower castes - Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons - were produced in batches of identical twins, while higher castes - Alphas and Betas - remained more individual. The embryos underwent careful conditioning, including exposure to chemicals, hormones, and various environmental factors to predetermine their physical and mental characteristics according to their designated caste.
Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered.
The World State maintained control through various methods of conditioning, including hypnopaedia (sleep-teaching) and psychological manipulation. Children were conditioned to accept their social status and to consume products to keep the economy running. The society was kept stable through the use of soma, a powerful drug that provided instant happiness and escape from any unpleasant emotions. Sexual promiscuity was encouraged, while monogamy and emotional attachment were discouraged.
Bernard Marx and Lenina's Relationship
Bernard Marx, an Alpha-Plus psychologist, struggled with his position in society due to his physical shortcomings and unorthodox thoughts. He began dating Lenina Crowne, a popular Beta who had previously dated Henry Foster. Their relationship revealed the stark contrast between Bernard's questioning nature and Lenina's conventional mindset. While Lenina embraced the World State's values of promiscuity and superficial pleasure, Bernard yearned for deeper emotional connections and questioned societal norms.
One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer in a milder and symbolic form the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.
The New Mexico Savage Reservation
Bernard invited Lenina to visit the New Mexico Savage Reservation. Before their trip, Bernard had to obtain permission from the World Controller, Mustapha Mond. The Reservation was a place where ancient human practices, including natural birth, religion, and marriage, were still preserved. Upon arriving, they encountered a society that sharply contrasted with the World State's civilization.
In the Reservation, they witnessed religious ceremonies, aging people, and traditional family structures that both fascinated and repulsed them. There they met Linda, a Beta woman who had been accidentally left behind on the Reservation years ago while pregnant. She had given birth to her son John and lived in exile, unable to readjust to the primitive lifestyle of the savages but also unable to return to civilization.
John the Savage's Origins
John, known as 'the Savage,' grew up on the Reservation as an outsider. His mother Linda had been abandoned there while pregnant by the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. John learned to read using a book of Shakespeare's works, which profoundly influenced his worldview and language. He was rejected by both the indigenous people of the Reservation, due to his and his mother's different behavior, and found solace in Shakespeare's works and the traditional religious practices of the pueblo.
O brave new world that has such people in it... The words mocked him derisively. Fiendishly laughing, they had insisted on the low squalor, the nauseous ugliness of the nightmare.
Return to London with John
Bernard brought John and Linda back to London, where they became instant celebrities. Linda retreated into a permanent soma holiday, while John became an object of fascination for World State society. Bernard initially enjoyed the reflected fame of being John's guardian but soon found himself overshadowed by the Savage's popularity. Meanwhile, John became increasingly disturbed by the superficiality and moral emptiness of civilization.
Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly - they'll go through anything. You read and you're pierced. That's one of the things I try to teach my students - how to write piercingly.
John's Conflict with Civilization
John's relationship with Lenina became increasingly complicated as their different values clashed. While Lenina was physically attracted to him and attempted to seduce him, John's traditional moral values and romantic ideals led him to reject her advances. The situation came to a head when Lenina made a direct sexual advance, causing John to react with violent disgust, calling her a 'strumpet' and driving her away.
When Linda died in the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying, John was horrified by the casual attitude toward death in the World State, where children were conditioned to view death as a natural and unremarkable event. His grief and rage led to a dramatic incident where he tried to disrupt the conditioning of Delta children, throwing away their soma rations and causing a riot. This led to his arrest along with Bernard and Helmholtz.
Philosophical Debate with Mustapha Mond
The three dissidents were brought before Mustapha Mond, who engaged them in a long philosophical discussion about the nature of happiness, stability, and freedom. Mond revealed that he understood and even appreciated the high art and culture that the World State had sacrificed for stability. He explained that the World State had chosen comfort and happiness over truth and beauty, maintaining control through conditioning, soma, and the suppression of individual thought.
Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune.
During this discussion, Mond revealed that he had chosen to give up his own scientific pursuits to become a Controller, showing that he understood the price of stability. He explained how the World State had eliminated religion, high art, and science in favor of universal happiness. Bernard and Helmholtz were sentenced to exile in remote locations, while John was allowed to continue his experiment in self-reliance.
For the good reason that they were made to meet. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift.
John's Final Fate
John retreated to an abandoned lighthouse outside London, where he attempted to purify himself through self-denial and self-flagellation. He grew his own food and tried to live a simple, natural life away from the corrupting influences of civilization. However, his solitude was interrupted when he was discovered by Darwin Bonaparte, a feely-maker who secretly filmed John's self-flagellation rituals.
The resulting film made John an even greater sensation, and crowds of people began to visit the lighthouse to watch him. The situation culminated in a massive crowd gathering to watch him whip himself. The scene devolved into a soma-fueled orgy in which John participated, overcome by the hysteria and the drug. The next morning, overcome with shame and despair at his participation in the very degradation he had tried to escape, John hanged himself.