"She smiled at him with an expression of the most sympathetic understanding. 'Simply perfect for Obstacle Golf,' she answered rapturously" (Brave New World, 59).
Most of the characters in Brave New World are indirectly characterized, and their appearances and speech reveal who they are. The only exception so far is Benito Hoover who is characterized directly as "notoriously good-natured" (60), probably because he's minor.
I think there are two groups we can assign to these characters.
One group would contain people with "a mental excess" (67) like Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson. According to Huxley, these two share the "knowledge that they are individuals" -- they're outsiders. For this reason, I think that they're going to be dynamic in moving the plot forward.
The other group would contain everyone else -- the Director, the students, Henry Foster, Lenina, Fanny, and Benito. These people conform to the customs of their world because they have no other choice. Hypnopaedia gives the vast majority of characters ideas and prejudices they cannot escape on their own. Maybe the people in Group One will help them out, but I don't think these characters can make an interesting story on their own.
The quote I chose for this post shows the fascinating and almost comical boundary between these two groups. As Bernard finds true beauty in the sky, Lenina "understands" him and agrees that it's good weather to play golf. I think this is dramatic irony because Lenina thinks she's sympathizing with Bernard when the reader knows that the kinds of beauty the two characters see are completely different.
I was going to talk about their differing views on beauty in my blog post, but I got lazy, and also I started second-guessing Lenina's tone, but I'm pretty sure you're right about the irony, so good work.
ReplyDelete