Dystopia
TIMELINE
Thomas More’s Utopia: Unlike Plato's Republic, a largely abstract dialogue about justice, Utopia focuses on politics and social organization in stark
1516 detail. The book is presented as a fictional dialogue/travelogue + begins with a conversation between Thomas More and Raphael . It is narrated by a
character named Hythlodaeus, meaning “speaker of nonsense”, and utopia translates from Greek as “no place”. Sir Thomas More was the first person
to use the term “utopia,” describing an ideal, imaginary world. His book describes a complex community on an island, in which people share a common
culture and way of life (“16th Century Dreams: Thomas More”). At its heart, the book poses the question of whether there could ever be such a thing as
a “perfect” world and served as a platform to highlight the chaos of European politics at the time. Utopia is communal, allowing its people to easily mee
their needs, while European society is described as a place where, “Idle monarchs and nobles seek to increase their own wealth and power at the
expense of the people, who are left in poverty and misery” (“Utopia: Theme Analysis”). Clearly dissatisfied with the world he was living in, More sought to
1872 create a different place altogether on the page—a world free of the hierarchies that ultimately cost him his life, making many view it as a great work o
socio-political satire. To a modern reader, the book straddles the line between Utopia and Dystopia, as most good utopias do, but its age makes it
difficult to tell what aspects were intended as hopes and which were fears. More's intentions have never been adequately clarified. Ironically, More
possessed serious reservations about the existence of utopias. (His work plays on the wordplay of Utopia and Eutopia: The word itself could be a pun,
derived from the Greek word u-topos (“no place”) and also eu-topos (“good place”) Such a good place, More seemed to reason, was not anything we
Erewhon- Samuel Butler: Erewhon satirises various aspects of Victorian society, including criminal punishment, religion,
knew, and so it must not exist. Thomas More’s Utopia, in which he “combined a most penetrating criticism of his own society, its irrationality and its
and anthropocentrism. For example, according to Erewhonian law, offenders are treated as if they were ill, whereas ill injustice, with the picture of a society which…had solved most of the human problems which sounded insoluble to his own contemporaries” (Fromm 258).
people are looked upon as criminals. It is a satirical novel detailing the adventures of an unnamed narrator into the Although More gave the literary cannon the term “utopia” in 1516, the idea of a “utopia,” or paradise, is much older than that (Sargent). Society had bee
fictional country of Erewhon. Butler was known for his controversial views on religion and science, wavering between fantasizing about places in which humanity’s problems are obsolete since the beginning of time. The concept of the “utopia” is found in places like “the
biblical Eden, Greek and Roman stories of the earthly paradise and the idea of a golden race or age” (Sargent 12). Therefore, authors like More were
support of and condemnation of both the Church of England and the Darwinian scientists. As such, his own views
influenced by these early religious and philosophic texts to create a world where the hardships of the time were non-existent and where life could be
influence the satire of the novel, and Erewhon is essentially an exploration of the issues that Butler observed in Victorian lived happily and justly
England, such as flaws in the legal, educational, and scientific institutions of the time. In Erewhon (an anagram of 'Nowhere')
'normal' behaviour' consists of hospitalizing fraudsters and chastising the sick; of disregarding genius and praising the
insane. Erewhonians are described as "meek and long-suffering, easily led by the nose, and quick to offer up common
sense at the shrine of logic" - pointed criticism of both Victorian society and contemporary 'politically-correct' repression.
Butler's imaginative tale sparkles with wit and prescient insights: his discussion of the dangers posed by increasingly
intelligent machines has more relevance today than when it was first written over 130 years ago.
1895
The Time Machine- H.G Wells: A dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by HG Wells about a Victorian
Scientist, the Time Traveller, who travels to a distant future society where there evolves two extreme classes: the Eloi
(weak, passive aristocrats) and the Morlocks (brutal, labouring underclass). It acted as a critique of capitalism + social
1897
The War of the Worlds- H.G Wells: The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between
division and laid the groundwork for later dystopian novels that explore class conflict (e.g. Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Bra
New World). Well’s vision revolved around a decayed and divided future that, rather than being the result of a sudden
catastrophe, it was a slow evolution of existing inequalities. This idea of dystopia being an extended trajectory of presen
day issues became a key feature of the genre and is seen in THT + 1984. The ending of The Time Machine leaves a grim
humankind and an extra-terrestrial race. It is presented as a factual account of the Martial invasion with the narrator a
and unresolved vision of humanity’s fate, a sense of inevitability and despair; a hallmark of later dystopian works
middle-class writer of philosophical papers, reminiscent of author Wells at the time of writing. Characterisation is
(especially 1984)- the Time Traveller leaps many millennia in the future and concludes the Earth is slowly dying.
unimportant + the reader learns little about the background of the narrator/any other characters. The novel is less about
1914
personal struggles and more about humanity as a whole facing an existential threat. The novel reverses the British imperial
experience, where the UK was the colonizer, and imagines the British as the colonized. The Martian invasion parallels how
European powers, particularly Britain, invaded and dominated less technologically advanced societies. Wells specifically
referenced the British conquest of Tasmania, where settlers nearly exterminated the indigenous population with superior WW1: Often regarded as a ‘political dystopia’. Prior to this period, people living in the 16th and 17th centuries, possessed
weaponry. He wanted readers to experience what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such conquest. The Martian “faith in human progress and in man’s capacity to create a world of justice and peace” (Fromm 257). This was one of the
invasion leads to the breakdown of society, law, and order. Wells explores how individuals react to catastrophe—some with “fundamental features” of what was referred to as “Western Thought” and can be traced back to the Greek and Roman
panic, others with pragmatism or religious fanaticism. The late 19th century saw rapid technological advancements thinkers as well as the Old Testament. However, with the breakout of the first World War, perspectives towards human
(steam engines, electricity, weapons). Wells speculated on what might happen if an even more advanced species nature began to change. It is suggested that the brutality and violence portrayed between the European nations in the
emerged. Though highly debated as to whether War of the Worlds is a true dystopian novel, several scholars agree that this First World War, managed to “destroy a two-thousand-year-old Western tradition of hope and to transform it into a
novel by Wells was one of the first to merge science fiction with dystopian aspects such as the presentation of a worst- mood of despair” (Fromm 258-259). The events following the First World War, such as the rise of Stalin and an economic
1917
case scenario for a less than idyllic society. crisis all over Europe, created a unanimous sense of doubt that the world could ever get any better.
Jack London’s 1908 novel Iron Heel
Russian Revolution: was said to be a remarkable
It makes sense that the modern dystopian prophecy of the impending
During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the international tensions that would give
novel emerged at the turn of the 20th
tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Initially driven by ideals of way to World War I. Yet we don’t see
century. It was a time of political unrest and dystopian fiction becoming a more
equality, the revolution led to the creation of a one-party dictatorship under Lenin and later Stalin's totalitarian rule. This global anxiety, with the emergence of WW1 defined genre until the publication of
inspired dystopian works that explored how revolutions can betray their original ideals and become oppressive e.g. 1984 and playing a significant role in shaping the genre. Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We” in 1921.
Animal Farm (see below): Before Zamyatin’s ‘We’, fiction about a
1945 dystopian societies (with the exception of H.G.
Wells and London) tended to end utopian.
AN ALLEGORY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: After We, the genre progressed significantly.
Animal Farm, is an anti-utopian satire by George Orwell, published in 1945. One of Orwell’s finest works, it is a political fable Many of the tropes that would come to
based on the events of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution and the betrayal of the cause by Joseph Stalin. The book concerns a dominate dystopian fiction were set up e.g.
troubled, unresolved endings and a totalitarian
group of barnyard animals who overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian society of
government in such extremes.
their own. Eventually the animals’ intelligent and power-loving leaders, the pigs, subvert the revolution. Concluding that “all
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (with its addendum to the animals’ seventh commandment: 1919 The Bauhaus school, that will influence art and desig
“All animals are equal”), the pigs form a dictatorship even more oppressive and heartless than that of their former human
masters.
in a futuristic direction, is founded in Germany.
1926 The first successful television transmission, that will introduce
the most effective mean of mass propaganda and mass marketing, is
1919-25 1923
conducted by John Baird. Premire of the first serious science fiction
and dystopian movie Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang.
Rise of Fascism in Italy: Mussolini, through the creation of the Italian Combat Squads, engaged in violence against Socialists We- Yevgeny Zamyatin: Many dystopian novels were inspired by We by Zamyatin. It is a futuristic utopia that was
because they wanted to punish them for not supporting Italy during WW1. The Socialists were viewed as ‘cowardly traitors’ published in English in 1924. The plot is similar to Huxley’s novel: the individualistic hero (D-503) confronts a homogenised
and ‘internal enemies, who needed to be eradicated’. Italy’s King asked Mussolini after several years to form a new state (One State). A God-like, cruel dictator known as the Benefactor rules over the One State + believes that the
government. He became prime minister + interior minister so he had police control which was used to assassinate political freedom of individuals is secondary to the welfare of the State. As such, citizens (called “ciphers”) live under the
enemies. Over several years, Mussolini ruled as a dictator + fostered a cult of personality (projected as an omnipotent + oppressive, hyper-watchful eye of government-appointed police offers called Guardians. George Orwell noticed the
indispensable leader). His gov expelled all opposition (inc Socialist members) + arrested all communist MPs. He abolished local debt that Brave New World owes to We in his article about Zamyatin’s novel:
elections + reinstated the death penalty for political crimes. This model of concentrated authority seen in Mussolini’s Italy is a
central theme in many future dystopian works e.g. 1984 and the elimination of political plurality (i.e. systematic suppression of ‘Both books deal with the rebellion of the primitive human spirit against a rationalised, mechanised, painless world, and
opposition + eradication of dissent) offered a blueprint for dystopian narratives. both stories are supposed to take place about six hundred years hence. The atmosphere of the two books is similar,
1932
and it is roughly speaking the same kind of society that is being described, though Huxley’s book shows less political
awareness and is more influenced by recent biological and psychological theories.’
Yevgeny Zamyatin was a Soviet writer, whose writing often warned against the ruin of society. He wrote this book
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley: The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around
from 1920-21 but it was not permitted to be published in the USSR due to its controversial ideas. Living in the USSR,
science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are
Zamyatin was a known rebel considered the "devil of Soviet Literature". His dislike for the state of the USSR grew to the
no lasting relationships because “every one belongs to every one else” (a common World State dictum). Citizens are sorted as
point when (in 1937) he wrote a letter to Stalin requesting permission to enter voluntary exile- which was willingly
embryos to be of a certain class. The embryos, which exist within tubes and incubators, are provided with differing amounts
granted. Russian Civil War (1917-23) ended in a win for the Bolsheviks and Zamyatin didn't quite trust all of their
of chemicals and hormones in order to condition them into predetermined classes. Embryos destined for the higher classes
promises for an overall better livelihood for the Soviet citizens, and his writing directly critiques how revolutionary
get chemicals to perfect them both physically and mentally, whereas those of the lower classes are altered to be imperfect
ideals can be subverted into totalitarian control. We influenced the use of dystopian literature as political commentary
in those respects. These classes, in order from highest to lowest, are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are
by using it as a vessel for direct analogy for existing Russian political system under Lenin and Putin. We also expanded
bred to be leaders, and the Epsilons are bred to be menial labourers. In Huxley’s vision, children are artificially bred in test
on the theme of personal discovery and the importance of the arts in dystopian literature. The tropes that were
tubes, and are content to accept whatever the domineering State bestows on them. Scientific advances mean there is no
established in We have remained staples of the evolving dystopian genre. The dystopian genre remained a dark themed,
crime, and sex is a recreational activity without moral consequences. The hero, John, has been born in a natural way and
adult genre, highly reflective of the work of Zamyatin
brought up among ‘savages’ (as they are labelled), outside the dominant society. It is through this character that Huxley
1936
criticises the notion of the conditioned subject. The book proposes that a man ceases to be a man when he is incapable of The Spanish Civil War: The introduction of barbarian war methods by Fascists, such as air
squalor, shame, guilt and suffering. The utopian society appears to be a cage from John’s perspective. against civilian targets in Guernica, where more than one million people die. The beginning of S
It was written between WW1 and WW2, the height of an era of technological optimism in the West. Huxley picked up on such terror era in USSR, which lasts until 1953.
optimism and created the dystopian world of his novel so as to criticize it. Much of the anxiety that drives Brave New World
can be traced to a widespread belief in technology as a futuristic remedy for problems caused by disease and war. Unlike his
WW2- Fear of Totalitarianism & Oppressive Regimes:
1939
fellow citizens, Huxley felt that such a reliance was naive, and he decided to challenge these ideas by imagining them taken to
The rise of fascism and totalitarianism, particularly in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia,
their extremes.
demonstrated how governments could manipulate ideology to control populations.
Huxley was accused of plagiarising the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Huxley denied having read the book, and the similarities
TIMELINE
Thomas More’s Utopia: Unlike Plato's Republic, a largely abstract dialogue about justice, Utopia focuses on politics and social organization in stark
1516 detail. The book is presented as a fictional dialogue/travelogue + begins with a conversation between Thomas More and Raphael . It is narrated by a
character named Hythlodaeus, meaning “speaker of nonsense”, and utopia translates from Greek as “no place”. Sir Thomas More was the first person
to use the term “utopia,” describing an ideal, imaginary world. His book describes a complex community on an island, in which people share a common
culture and way of life (“16th Century Dreams: Thomas More”). At its heart, the book poses the question of whether there could ever be such a thing as
a “perfect” world and served as a platform to highlight the chaos of European politics at the time. Utopia is communal, allowing its people to easily mee
their needs, while European society is described as a place where, “Idle monarchs and nobles seek to increase their own wealth and power at the
expense of the people, who are left in poverty and misery” (“Utopia: Theme Analysis”). Clearly dissatisfied with the world he was living in, More sought to
1872 create a different place altogether on the page—a world free of the hierarchies that ultimately cost him his life, making many view it as a great work o
socio-political satire. To a modern reader, the book straddles the line between Utopia and Dystopia, as most good utopias do, but its age makes it
difficult to tell what aspects were intended as hopes and which were fears. More's intentions have never been adequately clarified. Ironically, More
possessed serious reservations about the existence of utopias. (His work plays on the wordplay of Utopia and Eutopia: The word itself could be a pun,
derived from the Greek word u-topos (“no place”) and also eu-topos (“good place”) Such a good place, More seemed to reason, was not anything we
Erewhon- Samuel Butler: Erewhon satirises various aspects of Victorian society, including criminal punishment, religion,
knew, and so it must not exist. Thomas More’s Utopia, in which he “combined a most penetrating criticism of his own society, its irrationality and its
and anthropocentrism. For example, according to Erewhonian law, offenders are treated as if they were ill, whereas ill injustice, with the picture of a society which…had solved most of the human problems which sounded insoluble to his own contemporaries” (Fromm 258).
people are looked upon as criminals. It is a satirical novel detailing the adventures of an unnamed narrator into the Although More gave the literary cannon the term “utopia” in 1516, the idea of a “utopia,” or paradise, is much older than that (Sargent). Society had bee
fictional country of Erewhon. Butler was known for his controversial views on religion and science, wavering between fantasizing about places in which humanity’s problems are obsolete since the beginning of time. The concept of the “utopia” is found in places like “the
biblical Eden, Greek and Roman stories of the earthly paradise and the idea of a golden race or age” (Sargent 12). Therefore, authors like More were
support of and condemnation of both the Church of England and the Darwinian scientists. As such, his own views
influenced by these early religious and philosophic texts to create a world where the hardships of the time were non-existent and where life could be
influence the satire of the novel, and Erewhon is essentially an exploration of the issues that Butler observed in Victorian lived happily and justly
England, such as flaws in the legal, educational, and scientific institutions of the time. In Erewhon (an anagram of 'Nowhere')
'normal' behaviour' consists of hospitalizing fraudsters and chastising the sick; of disregarding genius and praising the
insane. Erewhonians are described as "meek and long-suffering, easily led by the nose, and quick to offer up common
sense at the shrine of logic" - pointed criticism of both Victorian society and contemporary 'politically-correct' repression.
Butler's imaginative tale sparkles with wit and prescient insights: his discussion of the dangers posed by increasingly
intelligent machines has more relevance today than when it was first written over 130 years ago.
1895
The Time Machine- H.G Wells: A dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by HG Wells about a Victorian
Scientist, the Time Traveller, who travels to a distant future society where there evolves two extreme classes: the Eloi
(weak, passive aristocrats) and the Morlocks (brutal, labouring underclass). It acted as a critique of capitalism + social
1897
The War of the Worlds- H.G Wells: The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between
division and laid the groundwork for later dystopian novels that explore class conflict (e.g. Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Bra
New World). Well’s vision revolved around a decayed and divided future that, rather than being the result of a sudden
catastrophe, it was a slow evolution of existing inequalities. This idea of dystopia being an extended trajectory of presen
day issues became a key feature of the genre and is seen in THT + 1984. The ending of The Time Machine leaves a grim
humankind and an extra-terrestrial race. It is presented as a factual account of the Martial invasion with the narrator a
and unresolved vision of humanity’s fate, a sense of inevitability and despair; a hallmark of later dystopian works
middle-class writer of philosophical papers, reminiscent of author Wells at the time of writing. Characterisation is
(especially 1984)- the Time Traveller leaps many millennia in the future and concludes the Earth is slowly dying.
unimportant + the reader learns little about the background of the narrator/any other characters. The novel is less about
1914
personal struggles and more about humanity as a whole facing an existential threat. The novel reverses the British imperial
experience, where the UK was the colonizer, and imagines the British as the colonized. The Martian invasion parallels how
European powers, particularly Britain, invaded and dominated less technologically advanced societies. Wells specifically
referenced the British conquest of Tasmania, where settlers nearly exterminated the indigenous population with superior WW1: Often regarded as a ‘political dystopia’. Prior to this period, people living in the 16th and 17th centuries, possessed
weaponry. He wanted readers to experience what it felt like to be on the receiving end of such conquest. The Martian “faith in human progress and in man’s capacity to create a world of justice and peace” (Fromm 257). This was one of the
invasion leads to the breakdown of society, law, and order. Wells explores how individuals react to catastrophe—some with “fundamental features” of what was referred to as “Western Thought” and can be traced back to the Greek and Roman
panic, others with pragmatism or religious fanaticism. The late 19th century saw rapid technological advancements thinkers as well as the Old Testament. However, with the breakout of the first World War, perspectives towards human
(steam engines, electricity, weapons). Wells speculated on what might happen if an even more advanced species nature began to change. It is suggested that the brutality and violence portrayed between the European nations in the
emerged. Though highly debated as to whether War of the Worlds is a true dystopian novel, several scholars agree that this First World War, managed to “destroy a two-thousand-year-old Western tradition of hope and to transform it into a
novel by Wells was one of the first to merge science fiction with dystopian aspects such as the presentation of a worst- mood of despair” (Fromm 258-259). The events following the First World War, such as the rise of Stalin and an economic
1917
case scenario for a less than idyllic society. crisis all over Europe, created a unanimous sense of doubt that the world could ever get any better.
Jack London’s 1908 novel Iron Heel
Russian Revolution: was said to be a remarkable
It makes sense that the modern dystopian prophecy of the impending
During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the international tensions that would give
novel emerged at the turn of the 20th
tradition of czarist rule. The Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Initially driven by ideals of way to World War I. Yet we don’t see
century. It was a time of political unrest and dystopian fiction becoming a more
equality, the revolution led to the creation of a one-party dictatorship under Lenin and later Stalin's totalitarian rule. This global anxiety, with the emergence of WW1 defined genre until the publication of
inspired dystopian works that explored how revolutions can betray their original ideals and become oppressive e.g. 1984 and playing a significant role in shaping the genre. Yevgeny Zamyatin’s “We” in 1921.
Animal Farm (see below): Before Zamyatin’s ‘We’, fiction about a
1945 dystopian societies (with the exception of H.G.
Wells and London) tended to end utopian.
AN ALLEGORY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: After We, the genre progressed significantly.
Animal Farm, is an anti-utopian satire by George Orwell, published in 1945. One of Orwell’s finest works, it is a political fable Many of the tropes that would come to
based on the events of Russia’s Bolshevik revolution and the betrayal of the cause by Joseph Stalin. The book concerns a dominate dystopian fiction were set up e.g.
troubled, unresolved endings and a totalitarian
group of barnyard animals who overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian society of
government in such extremes.
their own. Eventually the animals’ intelligent and power-loving leaders, the pigs, subvert the revolution. Concluding that “all
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (with its addendum to the animals’ seventh commandment: 1919 The Bauhaus school, that will influence art and desig
“All animals are equal”), the pigs form a dictatorship even more oppressive and heartless than that of their former human
masters.
in a futuristic direction, is founded in Germany.
1926 The first successful television transmission, that will introduce
the most effective mean of mass propaganda and mass marketing, is
1919-25 1923
conducted by John Baird. Premire of the first serious science fiction
and dystopian movie Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang.
Rise of Fascism in Italy: Mussolini, through the creation of the Italian Combat Squads, engaged in violence against Socialists We- Yevgeny Zamyatin: Many dystopian novels were inspired by We by Zamyatin. It is a futuristic utopia that was
because they wanted to punish them for not supporting Italy during WW1. The Socialists were viewed as ‘cowardly traitors’ published in English in 1924. The plot is similar to Huxley’s novel: the individualistic hero (D-503) confronts a homogenised
and ‘internal enemies, who needed to be eradicated’. Italy’s King asked Mussolini after several years to form a new state (One State). A God-like, cruel dictator known as the Benefactor rules over the One State + believes that the
government. He became prime minister + interior minister so he had police control which was used to assassinate political freedom of individuals is secondary to the welfare of the State. As such, citizens (called “ciphers”) live under the
enemies. Over several years, Mussolini ruled as a dictator + fostered a cult of personality (projected as an omnipotent + oppressive, hyper-watchful eye of government-appointed police offers called Guardians. George Orwell noticed the
indispensable leader). His gov expelled all opposition (inc Socialist members) + arrested all communist MPs. He abolished local debt that Brave New World owes to We in his article about Zamyatin’s novel:
elections + reinstated the death penalty for political crimes. This model of concentrated authority seen in Mussolini’s Italy is a
central theme in many future dystopian works e.g. 1984 and the elimination of political plurality (i.e. systematic suppression of ‘Both books deal with the rebellion of the primitive human spirit against a rationalised, mechanised, painless world, and
opposition + eradication of dissent) offered a blueprint for dystopian narratives. both stories are supposed to take place about six hundred years hence. The atmosphere of the two books is similar,
1932
and it is roughly speaking the same kind of society that is being described, though Huxley’s book shows less political
awareness and is more influenced by recent biological and psychological theories.’
Yevgeny Zamyatin was a Soviet writer, whose writing often warned against the ruin of society. He wrote this book
Brave New World- Aldous Huxley: The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around
from 1920-21 but it was not permitted to be published in the USSR due to its controversial ideas. Living in the USSR,
science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are
Zamyatin was a known rebel considered the "devil of Soviet Literature". His dislike for the state of the USSR grew to the
no lasting relationships because “every one belongs to every one else” (a common World State dictum). Citizens are sorted as
point when (in 1937) he wrote a letter to Stalin requesting permission to enter voluntary exile- which was willingly
embryos to be of a certain class. The embryos, which exist within tubes and incubators, are provided with differing amounts
granted. Russian Civil War (1917-23) ended in a win for the Bolsheviks and Zamyatin didn't quite trust all of their
of chemicals and hormones in order to condition them into predetermined classes. Embryos destined for the higher classes
promises for an overall better livelihood for the Soviet citizens, and his writing directly critiques how revolutionary
get chemicals to perfect them both physically and mentally, whereas those of the lower classes are altered to be imperfect
ideals can be subverted into totalitarian control. We influenced the use of dystopian literature as political commentary
in those respects. These classes, in order from highest to lowest, are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are
by using it as a vessel for direct analogy for existing Russian political system under Lenin and Putin. We also expanded
bred to be leaders, and the Epsilons are bred to be menial labourers. In Huxley’s vision, children are artificially bred in test
on the theme of personal discovery and the importance of the arts in dystopian literature. The tropes that were
tubes, and are content to accept whatever the domineering State bestows on them. Scientific advances mean there is no
established in We have remained staples of the evolving dystopian genre. The dystopian genre remained a dark themed,
crime, and sex is a recreational activity without moral consequences. The hero, John, has been born in a natural way and
adult genre, highly reflective of the work of Zamyatin
brought up among ‘savages’ (as they are labelled), outside the dominant society. It is through this character that Huxley
1936
criticises the notion of the conditioned subject. The book proposes that a man ceases to be a man when he is incapable of The Spanish Civil War: The introduction of barbarian war methods by Fascists, such as air
squalor, shame, guilt and suffering. The utopian society appears to be a cage from John’s perspective. against civilian targets in Guernica, where more than one million people die. The beginning of S
It was written between WW1 and WW2, the height of an era of technological optimism in the West. Huxley picked up on such terror era in USSR, which lasts until 1953.
optimism and created the dystopian world of his novel so as to criticize it. Much of the anxiety that drives Brave New World
can be traced to a widespread belief in technology as a futuristic remedy for problems caused by disease and war. Unlike his
WW2- Fear of Totalitarianism & Oppressive Regimes:
1939
fellow citizens, Huxley felt that such a reliance was naive, and he decided to challenge these ideas by imagining them taken to
The rise of fascism and totalitarianism, particularly in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia,
their extremes.
demonstrated how governments could manipulate ideology to control populations.
Huxley was accused of plagiarising the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Huxley denied having read the book, and the similarities
