Brave New World and 1984

Total Control

The idea of a ruling party attempting to maintain and gain control over its citizens is a common theme in literature. In George Orwell’s 1984ёthe protagonist, Winston, attempts to fight back against the ruling totalitarianism-inspired party, but is overcome by the Party’s power. Furthermore, the unique individuals created in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World who do not fit in with the utopian society created by the government, are forced to leave. Although in different ways, both of these works serve as warnings as to how governments might attempt to gain and maintain total control of their citizens.

One way that governments attempt to control their citizens is through the use of sex. Firstly, the government depicted in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, encourages sex when it explains that by delaying desire, instability may arise within its population. The government makes sex a normal part of life by encouraging erotic play between children when they are young, making every citizen more comfortable with sex as they grow into adults. The Controller states, “Stability, Stability. The primal and ultimate need. Stability. Hence this,” (43) while showing the children engaged in erotic play, illustrating that controlling sex also controls the individual. Also, the Controller alludes that, “A world in which the social obligation to be sexual defuses passion,” (Bromige 2) which, if not defused, would lead to individualism that threatens the government’s control. On the contrary, In George Orwell’s 1984, the government prohibits sex for its implications of individuality. “Its [the Party’s] real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy,” (58) meaning the government not only feels that sex is unnecessary from the perspective of pleasure, but also that the only reason for sex is to produce more loyal party members. Moreover, the Party sees sex as a way of citizens expressing individuality, which opposes one of the Party’s principal goals: the removal of all individualism from its citizens. Finally, through all its attempts to stop sex, ultimately, “The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort and dirty it.”(58) In conclusion, stifling or encouraging sex to