In the far future, London had become the center of a carefully engineered society, where children were no longer born naturally but created and conditioned in laboratories. From the moment of conception, each human was destined to belong to a caste—Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, or Epsilons—each with a predetermined intelligence and role. Alphas were tall, intelligent, and leaders; Betas slightly less; Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons progressively less intelligent, trained for menial tasks. In this world, individuality was sacrificed for stability, and emotions, families, and free will were carefully suppressed. Conditioning began even in infancy, with hypnopaedic lessons whispered during sleep, repeating slogans that molded minds to accept their social roles without question. Happiness was maintained with soma, a drug that banished sadness and provided instant pleasure, ensuring no one ever suffered too deeply.
The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning took a group of new students on a tour, explaining the process of creating people in artificial wombs, slowing or stunting growth for lower castes, and training them for their future lives. For example, some babies were conditioned to hate books or flowers if those loves would interfere with their designated work. This system ensured order and predictability. Among those who lived in this world was Bernard Marx, an Alpha psychologist, but unlike his peers, he felt uncomfortable. Though he belonged to a higher caste, he was physically smaller and weaker than other Alphas, which made him insecure and resentful. He disliked the shallow pleasures of constant sex, parties, and soma, and longed for deeper connections. His colleague, Helmholtz Watson, another Alpha, was the opposite—handsome, strong, admired by all—yet he too felt dissatisfied. Helmholtz was a writer and found the shallow slogans he was expected to create unfulfilling. Both men secretly felt out of place in a society where happiness was mandatory.
Bernard was attracted to Lenina Crowne, a Beta woman, who was cheerful, conventional, and enjoyed the pleasures of their world without questioning them. She accepted Bernard’s invitation to travel to the Savage Reservation, a place in New Mexico where people still lived in the old way—without conditioning, without soma, in families, with religion and suffering. It was a place that most civilized citizens regarded with disgust but also curiosity. When Bernard and Lenina visited, they were shocked by the dirt, disease, aging, and rituals. Yet they also encountered something extraordinary: a young man named John, known as the Savage, who was the son of Linda, a woman originally from the World State who had been left behind years ago. Linda had given birth naturally, something unheard of in their world, and raised John in the Reservation among the rituals and suffering of the native people. John grew up reading an old copy of Shakespeare’s plays, and his worldview was shaped by poetry, religion, and the struggles of human passion and pain.
Bernard saw an opportunity in John’s existence. He brought John and Linda back to London as curiosities. The civilized citizens were fascinated by John, who quoted Shakespeare and expressed deep emotions they no longer understood. Linda, however, was treated with ridicule for being fat, old, and addicted to soma. She soon consumed so much of it that she fell into a permanent trance, eventually dying, while John mourned deeply, unlike the emotionless citizens around him. Bernard, at first an outcast, suddenly gained popularity by showing off John as the “Savage,” and he enjoyed his new status. But John himself was horrified by what he saw in the World State. He was disgusted by the casual sex, the lack of family, the artificial happiness bought with soma, and the absence of meaning. He longed for truth, beauty, and suffering—things denied in this world.
John became close with Helmholtz Watson, who appreciated John’s passion and love of Shakespeare. Together, they dreamed of creating something deeper than propaganda slogans. Yet John’s ideals clashed sharply with Lenina’s affection. Lenina was attracted to John and expected him to treat sex as casually as everyone else, but John, influenced by Shakespeare, believed in love, marriage, and purity. When Lenina tried to seduce him, he grew furious, calling her names from Shakespeare and driving her away. The clash between their values symbolized the divide between the natural human spirit and the controlled artificial world.
When John’s mother Linda finally died from her soma overdose, John was overwhelmed with grief. In the hospital, he saw children being conditioned to see death as ordinary, mocking the solemnity of loss. His anger exploded, and he tried to stop the distribution of soma, urging workers to be free, to throw away the drug, to live without illusions. This sparked chaos, and he and Bernard were arrested. Brought before Mustapha Mond, one of the World Controllers, John, Bernard, and Helmholtz engaged in a deep debate with him. Mond explained the philosophy of the World State: stability and happiness were more important than truth, art, or freedom. Pain, love, passion, and suffering were dangerous, leading to instability. People had been given comfort instead of meaning. Mond admitted he himself had once been tempted by forbidden scientific research but chose to preserve society’s stability. Helmholtz accepted his fate and chose to be exiled to a distant island where he could live more freely. Bernard, terrified, begged for mercy but was also sent away.
John, however, could not reconcile himself with the world he had been brought into. Rejecting its artificial pleasures, he fled to the countryside, determined to live in solitude, discipline, and repentance. He built a small shelter, grew his own food, and punished himself with harsh rituals, hoping to cleanse himself of the corruption of civilization. At first, he found peace, but soon crowds discovered his presence. Curious citizens and reporters flocked to see the “Savage” in his strange practices. His attempt at solitude turned into another spectacle. Lenina appeared before him one day, and his unresolved desires and fury clashed. Overcome by guilt and despair, torn between his ideals and the society that refused to let him live authentically, John could not endure. The next day, when the crowd came again, they found him hanging, his body swinging lifelessly—a tragic end to the man who could not belong to either world.