All the times that Lenina resorts to soma use, it is due to a recognition that her life and world are not perfect and in control, but rather full of people who have no grasp on real freedom and control. This again shows Lenina’s attempt to escape from the harsh reality of her brainwashed society. Again, in Santa Fe with Bernard, Lenina takes soma when the “Warden of the Reservation” starts talking and giving “irrelevant information and unasked for good advice” (101). Soma provides an escape from this reality. She sees that her reality is fake and everyone around her is fake as well. Also, that same night after they go to the Westminster Abbey Cabaret, Lenina consumes soma again in response to the “safety inside with the fine weather and the perennial blue sky” (77) in the sheltered society of the Brave New World. After her flight to Henry’s apartment, Lenina takes a soma in response to the conversation in the helicopter about the “Crematorium” and humans “finally and definitely disappearing” (75). However this act of consuming drugs to take “take a holiday” (54) from emotional pain shows an awareness that no other character demonstrates.
Brave new world characters how to#
When situations arise that Lenina does not know how to deal with, she resorts to a soma holiday to alleviate the stress.
However, as Lenina can recognize and accept difference, she also recognizes pain though not able to properly react to it. No other character in the book shows such openness, especially no male character. This attraction to a man who is an outcast demonstrates Lenina’s acceptance and curiosity in difference. Her friend, Fanny, tries to discourage her from liking Bernard, but Lenina doesn’t “care about his repuation” (45) and says that she “rather likes his looks” (46). While his attracted to Lenina because of her beauty and his need to fit into society, Lenina is attracted to Bernard for different reasons. Bernard Marx is an outcast of society due to his differences in thinking and appearance. However, she chooses one in particular, which exposes a deeper side of her personality. From the beginning of the novel, Lenina is a character that many men are drawn to. This strength of female character greatly influences Lenina’s choices and in turn gives her the ability to be decisive and in control of her own life. John himself is not even capable of true love due to his inferiority to Lenina. The final proof that Lenina is a person of intelligence and value is shown through her relations with John, with whom she falls in love. Lenina also recognizes pain, though not able to deal with it properly due to conditioning of the society. She is drawn to difference, something that is banned in her society. This is the first clue that Lenina is not all how she seems, but rather a much deeper woman with desires and intelligence greater than she is given credit for. However, when she enters the scene, Lenina is described as looking “like a pearl illuminated from within, pinkly glowing” (Huxley 38) which invokes as sense of innocence and value.
From this opening conversation, Lenina seems to be incredibly shallow. Though she has been with him for an astonishing “four months” (40), she agrees with her friend who suggests she “ought to be a little more promiscuous” (43). In her conversation with a friend, Lenina speaks of “having Henry” (40) as if he isn’t even a person. She comes across as very superficial, caring only about herself and the occasional men.
Our first impression of Lenina can be rather misleading in that she is presented as a typical woman in the Brave New World. However, when further examined, the female characters, Linda and Lenina, are in many ways emotionally and intellectually above their male counterpart, John, who is Linda’s son and Lenina’s love interest. From the surface, one may conclude that Huxley simply includes women in the plot to balance the story. These two woman are used to not only dispute the sexism demonstrated by men, but also in response to the women’s rights issues at the time the novel was written. Though the characters surrounding the central action are male, two very important women are also portrayed. However, in this attempt at a utopian society, glimmers of humanity are shown through several characters in the novel. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, a society is presented in which every aspect of life is tightly controlled and humans are more like lifeless machines.
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