Bernard Brave New World Quote Analysis

How Bernard’s Pride Sets Him Apart in Brave New World Pride, the belief that one matters more than another, is not tolerated at the best of times. It leaves other members of society with anger at their supposed inferiority, among other negative emotions. When society is totally dedicated to destroying both emotions and individuality, pride is loathed; seen as morally wrong and subversive. That is exactly why in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Bernard Marx’s pride ostracizes him from everyone in how he talks, in his actions, and through the characterizations provided by other characters. Bernard makes his arrogance known in his speech, and in doing so pushes all of society away. Specifically, he ostracizes himself to Lenina Crowne by saying, …show more content…
Fanny discusses her biggest issue with Lenina, saying, “‘And they say he spends most of his time by himself-alone.’ There was horror in Fanny’s voice (Huxley 45).” There are two important words in that quote: alone and horror. Being alone to Fanny means time to think, it means time that is not being spent on an activity, and it means everything that her conditioning taught her is wrong. She is horrified and disturbed by that idea. Bernard’s pride causes him to trust his own ideas more than that of others, and to fight his conditioning and to be alone to think. He believes his ideas are right, and the world is wrong. Fanny, Lenina, and presumably all of society, as they have the same conditioning, finds this repulsive and wrong about Bernard, creating another barrier between him and the rest of society. In this society, all individuals are dead, as none except Bernard have the strength to disagree with the majority (Subasi). Bernard disagreeing with his conditioning and the majority is as far from his society as the living are from the dead. As the epitome of obeying the system, Lenina represents how the common person is ostracized by Bernard not stepping in line. While the common person, does not fraternize with Bernard, that does not lead to a friendship with the …show more content…
Bernard does not play sports because he is too good for them, his time is too valuable to be wasted. Bernard does not do the drug soma because his emotions are too important to be lost to some drug. His sex life is scandalous because he considers himself superior to other men, in that he believes he deserves more sex and in that he believes he treats women with more respect. He refuses to behave as a child because he believes he is better than a child. His pride causes the director to ostracize him from society, by claiming that Bernard hates society, order, stability, and even civilization as a whole. By officially declaring Bernard as an enemy of everything that conditioning stands for, every citizen will associate him with hating the benefits of civilization such as the drugs and sex that make their pitiful lives worth living. They are not willing to have their last morsel of happiness taken from them, and so will abandon him to the wind. The Director also uses the word “subverter” implying that Bernard is a small, unimportant man working in darkness against greatness, as sub means inferior. Even as this man describes what a danger Bernard is, the Director is crushing him and making the people see the animal in the pit. The Director sees Bernard’s pride as a threat, forcing him to separate Bernard from all other people. The powerful elite, thus represented by the Director can be said to further Bernard’s isolation as a reaction