Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Describe Bernard's relationship with Lenina in Brave New World

Since both Bernard and Lenina are somewhat unorthodox in
their behaviors for their castes, they are attracted to each other.  For instance, in
her conversation with her friend Fanny, Lenina tells
her,


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"somehow...I hadn't been feeling very keen on
promiscuity lately."



But, her
friend scolds her, saying that it is not good to be so: "But one's got to make the
effort.  Unlike others, Lenina does not wish to go with many men, and she suffers from
some emotional feelings.  Likewise, when Bernard wants a meaningful relationship; so,
when he overhears Henry Foster speak of Lenina's pneumatic qualities to the Assistant
Predestinator, who says he will have to have her at his first opportunity, he turns pale
with emotion.


With these emotional urgings, Bernard and
Lenina get together; however, Bernard is disappointed that Lenina does not wish to enjoy
the beauty of nature and solitude with him on their first evening together.  Instead,
she views the night as perfect for Obstacle Golf, a consumer game. And, when Lenina
behaves in this way typical of those in the New World, Bernard becomes melancholy, for
in Lenina he seeks someone who is also different since he, short and emotional, is not
typical for his caste.


On the next date, Bernard childishly
wishes to express his individuality by being "Myself and nasty.  Not somebody else,
however jolly" when Lenina offers him a glass with soma, reciting "
A gramme in time saves nine." So, while he has hoped in stopping to look at the
moon that they would be "more together...with nothing but the sea and moon," Lenina is
horrified by nature, instead reciting verses of hypnopoedic nonsense  while Bernard
bemoans his enslavement by his conditioning.


Disappointed
in Lenina's responses to his acts of individualism, Bernard, nevertheless, invites her
to travel to the New Mexican Reservation.  But, bewildered by all that she confronts,
Lenina retreats into a soma dream; in fact, even Bernard takes
soma when he learns that he has been ordered to Iceland.  Once they
return to the New World with John the Savage, Bernard becomes a hypocrite, participating
in all that he formerly criticized.  He uses John to advance his position with the
Director and others while Lenina is more perplexed by his behavior and begins to focus
on John, someone new and different, since Bernard, whom she has found somewhat
intriguing, has  been more a diversion for her from Henry Foster than anything else. 
Clearly, Lenina is bound by her conditioning while Bernard lacks the courage to be truly
authentic.

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