Aldous Huxley’s Shakespearian Dystopia Riya Maniar 12th Grade

Shakespeare’s works revel as masterpieces centuries after their debut, influencing generations of writers including 20th century author Aldous Huxley. Huxley’s 1932 novel, Brave New World, stands as a distinct reincarnation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, fusing a disturbing reality of a dystopian future with the key aspects of a classical Shakespearian piece. Ira Grushow highlights the similarities of these two pieces to determine Huxley’s question between innovation and emotion. Grushow reveals astounding evidence that links Huxley’s Brave New World to Shakespeare’s The Tempest by acknowledging the characteristics of Shakespeare’s piece and how they overlay Huxley’s critique on society and human values.

Huxley’s novel, at its core, comes across as a reincarnation of The Tempest. Grushow exposes this by drawing comparisons between characters in both pieces. The article specifies how Bernard compares to Caliban as a “deformed monster and unwilling slave of Prospero,” (Grushow 43). Huxley intentionally made Bernard “eight centimetres short of the standard Alpha height,” and points it out continuously as a deformity (Huxley 64). Additionally, Huxley displays Mustapha Mond as “a father…to… all under his care” (Grushow 44). A direct...