A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel based on Anthony Burgess’ personal experiences with juvenile delinquency and youth gangs in 1960’s England. Protagonist Alex narrates his Ultra-Violent exploits committed as a teenager, before being betrayed to state authorities by his droogs (lackeys) and becoming the first victim of an experimental reclamation programme known as the ‘Ludovico Technique’. Burgess employs a wide array of literary devices including tone, biblical allusion and imagery to capture our protagonist’s progressive transformation from psychopathy to forced pacifism to adulthood.
Though Alex’s initial psychopathy is evident from his Ultra-Violent perpetrations, this characterisation is heightened by the irreverent, matter-of-fact …show more content…
In Part Two it serves as a reminder that Alex’s psychopathy is still wholly intact despite the penal system. After years in prison the audience has an underlying hope that the protagonist has been rehabilitated; one which is seemingly confirmed by his passive narration and interest in the ‘big book’. As we soon discover, however, this is simply a ploy to “sloshy (listen to) holy music by J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel” while reading the murder and molestation of the Old Testament. Alex even imagines himself as a Roman taking part in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: “helping in and taking charge of the tolchoking (hitting) and the nailing in”.3 By subverting reader expectations and suddenly utilising graphic sacrilegious imagery Burgess emphasises Alex’s instinctual evil. Christ also acts as an allegory for the three-part narrative structure of A Clockwork Orange. Alex is a martyr figure; “fruit of [his mother’s] womb” who is sacrificed to expose the repressiveness of the state. Just as Jesus dies, is buried and resurrected; Alex is caught by police, subjected to the Ludovico Technique which destroys his free will and finally reborn through attempted suicide. The ultimate irony of this parallel is that Jesus willingly sacrificed himself for humanity, whereas Alex’s selflessness is purely …show more content…
Alex continually demonstrates an interest in high fashion, art and philosophy; symbols of social enlightenment which juxtapose the bestial crimes he commits by night. Above all, however, there exists an inextricable link between classical music and Ultra-Violence. This is most apparent when Alex retires to his bedroom to sloshy (listen to) the work of Bach and Mozart. Poetic descriptions of the orchestra as “a bird of like the rarest spun heavenmetal” are found alongside fantasies of “vecks and ptitsas (men and women), both young and starry (old), lying on the ground screaming for mercy… and [me] grinding my boot in their litsos (faces)”. Contrast of serene and savage auditory imagery once again highlights Alex’s sadistic nature. It also suggests that high culture is not synonymous with an elevated level of social altruism, but rather the product of human flaws. Alex directly acknowledges this false belief that “Great Music and Great Poetry [can] quieten down the Modern youth and make the Modern Youth more civilised”, wryly quipping: “civilised my syphilised yarbles (testicles)”. This statement foreshadows the central role music plays in the Ludovico Technique. Doctor Brodsky is acutely aware that “the sweetest and most heavenly of activities [such as music] partake in some measure of violence” and uses orchestra to manipulate Alex’s behaviour. When our protagonist emerges he
Though Alex’s initial psychopathy is evident from his Ultra-Violent perpetrations, this characterisation is heightened by the irreverent, matter-of-fact …show more content…
In Part Two it serves as a reminder that Alex’s psychopathy is still wholly intact despite the penal system. After years in prison the audience has an underlying hope that the protagonist has been rehabilitated; one which is seemingly confirmed by his passive narration and interest in the ‘big book’. As we soon discover, however, this is simply a ploy to “sloshy (listen to) holy music by J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel” while reading the murder and molestation of the Old Testament. Alex even imagines himself as a Roman taking part in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: “helping in and taking charge of the tolchoking (hitting) and the nailing in”.3 By subverting reader expectations and suddenly utilising graphic sacrilegious imagery Burgess emphasises Alex’s instinctual evil. Christ also acts as an allegory for the three-part narrative structure of A Clockwork Orange. Alex is a martyr figure; “fruit of [his mother’s] womb” who is sacrificed to expose the repressiveness of the state. Just as Jesus dies, is buried and resurrected; Alex is caught by police, subjected to the Ludovico Technique which destroys his free will and finally reborn through attempted suicide. The ultimate irony of this parallel is that Jesus willingly sacrificed himself for humanity, whereas Alex’s selflessness is purely …show more content…
Alex continually demonstrates an interest in high fashion, art and philosophy; symbols of social enlightenment which juxtapose the bestial crimes he commits by night. Above all, however, there exists an inextricable link between classical music and Ultra-Violence. This is most apparent when Alex retires to his bedroom to sloshy (listen to) the work of Bach and Mozart. Poetic descriptions of the orchestra as “a bird of like the rarest spun heavenmetal” are found alongside fantasies of “vecks and ptitsas (men and women), both young and starry (old), lying on the ground screaming for mercy… and [me] grinding my boot in their litsos (faces)”. Contrast of serene and savage auditory imagery once again highlights Alex’s sadistic nature. It also suggests that high culture is not synonymous with an elevated level of social altruism, but rather the product of human flaws. Alex directly acknowledges this false belief that “Great Music and Great Poetry [can] quieten down the Modern youth and make the Modern Youth more civilised”, wryly quipping: “civilised my syphilised yarbles (testicles)”. This statement foreshadows the central role music plays in the Ludovico Technique. Doctor Brodsky is acutely aware that “the sweetest and most heavenly of activities [such as music] partake in some measure of violence” and uses orchestra to manipulate Alex’s behaviour. When our protagonist emerges he