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Tragic characters in William Shakespeare’s plays often possess repeating traits or characteristics. From Othello to Hamlet, a Shakespearean tragic character has very particular criteria. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, John, a character molded by Shakespeare, finds himself joining the long list of Shakespeare-inspired tragic heroes. In the novel, John learns to read at a young age. He only has one book to read called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, so he develops a deep friendship with the book.
Shakespeare examines the extremes of human emotions and displays a high code of ethics in his works, and ultimately becomes the voice of reason for John. John’s beliefs, which are influenced by Shakespeare, differ from the views of society and leads to him being an outsider. John is indeed a tragic character through the influence of Shakespeare, evident by John’s high code of ethics and his displays of emotion.
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John is a tragic hero through the influence of Shakespeare as shown by his displays of emotion. One night in the Savage Reservation, John finds a man named Popé in his house. John instantly hates Popé and wants to get rid of him. John wants to kill Popé, but he has no way of expressing himself. After he reads The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, he is finally able to speak from his heart,
But now he had these words, these words like drums and singing and magic. These words and the strange, strange story out of which they were taken (he couldn't make head or tail of it, but it was wonderful, wonderful all the same)—they gave him a reason for hating Popé; and they made his hatred more real; they even made Popé himself more real.
Here, Shakespeare allows John to express himself in a way he never has before. The author uses a simile to compare the new words John learns from Shakespeare to “drums” and “singing” and “magic”. The new words provided by Shakespeare gives John energy and passion. They give him his own ideas and opinions. Shakespeare’s words give him confidence and make him want to confront Popé, something he would never have done if he had not read that book. The author continues “He opened the book at random. ‘Nay, but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sky’ The strange words rolled through his mind; rumbled, like talking thunder…” This passage that John finds in the book actually belongs to the play Hamlet. In the play, the main character Hamlet gets angry with another character named Claudius. John compares this to his situation with Popé. John thinks his life is a Shakespeare play and stabs Popé just like how Hamlet stabbed Claudius. Without the influence of Shakespeare, John would have never realized his hatred for Popé and he would have never tried to kill him. Huxley uses another simile to compare Shakespeare’s words to “talking thunder.” The influence of Shakespeare guides John to express his true feelings and fiery emotions, which causes him to not fit into society thus making him a tragic character.
Secondly, John is a tragic character through the influence of Shakespeare, as shown by his high code of ethics. One night, Lenina, John’s love interest, tells John that she wants to have sex with him. John refuses to have sex with her because he wants to wait till after marriage, similar to how it is in Shakespearean literature. John explains, “It’s like that in Shakespeare too. If thou cost break her virgin knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite” . John is so heavily influenced by Shakespeare that he refuses to have sex with Lenina, even though he badly wants to. People in the Central London Society start having sex from a very young age, but John is influenced by Shakespeare, so he has a sense of ethics and wants to hold off on sex until he is married. The author comments, “He was not worthy…not. Their eyes for a moment met. What treasures hers promised! A queen’s ransom of temperament. Hastily he looked away, disengaged his imprisoned arm. He was obscurely terrified lest she should cease to be something he could feel himself unworthy of.” John does not share the same views on romance as the rest of the World State characters. He grew up reading Shakespeare and in all of Shakespeare’s plays, romantic partners are idealized and love is meant by earned by the worthy. But in the World State, the concept of love does not exist and sex is very casual. John is unable to see this because of his high code of ethics and this is what makes him a tragic character.
In the end, John never really found his place in the Central London Society. Coming from the Savage Reservation, it was extremely difficult for him to adapt and get used to Central London. He has brought himself up on Shakespeare and now is faced with a world without any real poetry or art, without religion, without challenges, without any need for heroism or self-sacrifice. John commits suicide because it is the final act of choice that he can exert on a world that does not accept him or his Shakespearean ideals.
Shakespeare’s Influence On Our Society. (2024, Feb 05). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/shakespeare-s-influence-on-our-society-essay
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