The word “utopia” comes from Greek and means “good-place/no-place”. A utopia is an imagined society with perfect qualities. There are no problems in a utopia and all desires are met. The opposite of utopia is dystopia, but dystopias can also be failed utopias. Dystopia basically means “not-good-place”. It is very scary and undesirable. The prime characteristics of dystopia are dehumanization, oppressive governments and collapsing societies set in the future. Even though dystopias are works of fiction, they are highly influenced by real totalitarian governments, and they act as a warning for the future. Common themes we can see in dystopias are violence, chaos, advanced science and technology (often used in a wrong way) and cruel authority figures, and we can see them in A Clockwork Orange. The state of the society and the way the government tries to handle it in A Clockwork Orange, and specifically the “Ludovico Technique” is a great example to explain a dystopia and its effects on people.
A Clockwork Orange is a satirical black comedy written by Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is a vision of future Britain growing towards totalitarianism. The government is trying to get people into a state of obedience through behavioural psychology and social order is broken down. In several ways, A Clockwork Orange is different from the standard dystopia. Firstly, the novel depicts the society right before becoming dystopia, its steps towards totalitarianism. Secondly, the world is seen through the eyes of a teenage criminal: Alex. He is the protagonist of the story. Alex narrates his violent adventures and the authority figures trying to reform him. Alex is different from a usual dystopia protagonist because he is not just a victim of the system, he is also the result of it.
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Alex is the protagonist, antihero and narrator of A Clockwork Orange. He is a teenager living in dystopian England. He assaults, rapes and steals from innocent people for fun. He is in a gang of other violent teenagers like him. All of them skip school. They drink milk spiked with drugs of their choice and go out at nights for “joyrides” in stolen cars. They pick fights with other groups, rape women and steal for their amusement. He speaks Nadsat, a argot used by teenagers created by the author Anthony Burgess. Nadsat is Russian-influenced English. Even though Alex is a sociopath with violent urges, he is an intellectual. He is aware of the fact that his actions are wrong, and if every individual in a society acted like him, there would be no order. However, he does not want to be reformed, he is content the way he is. He does not want to stop the things that give him joy just because they are wrong. Alex is the youngest member of his group, but he is the most intelligent one. So, he assignes himself as the leader of the group, which later causes some problems within the group.
Alex has a harsh approach towards the other gang members in order to keep them in line and remind them who is in charge, while showing some generosity from time to time. However, they are not happy with this. The second-in-command Georgie and the other gang members who are treated poorly by Alex start to plot against him. After breaking into a rich old woman’s house and assaulting her, his friends leave Alex to be arrested by the police. When the woman ends up dead, Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison. In prison, he behaves really well and acts like he really wants to be reformed. The fact that he often reads the Bible also helps the chaplain that he is changed - although he only reads the parts were there is torture and violence. Alex finds out that there is a way for him to be released early, which is to undergo an experimental treatment called the Ludovico Technique. The fact that he is well-behaved and liked by the chaplain helps him manipulate the authority into accepting his request to receive the treatment.
Ludovico Technique is a form of aversion therapy intended to cure violent tendencies. Aversion therapy is a form of therapy which is actually used in real life. It is especially used on alcoholics. They are injected drugs that would make them feel sick if they consumed alcohol. That way, they are supposed to avoid alcohol consumption even after they are not given drugs anymore, because it would remind them of feeling sick. In the story, Alex is injected drugs that make him nauseous. Then, he is strapped to a chair, his eyes clamped open, he is forced to watch horrifying images including rapes and Holocaust for an extended time. As he is watching the films, he starts to feel sick from the injections. The intent here is to make Alex associate violence with feeling sick. So, whenever he has violent urges, he would not act on it to avoid feeling sick. This is an example of classical conditioning. A lot of people know of conditioning technique from Pavlov. Pavlov would ring a bell every time before giving their dogs food. In time, the dogs associated the sound of ringing bell with food. Their mouths would water at the sound of the bell, because they are expecting food following the bell. Later, Pavlov stopped giving food after the bell, and the dogs’ mouths would still water because in their mind, ringing bell equals food. In the same manner, Alex now associates violence with feeling sick. After a while Alex starts to feel sick at the thought of violence even without the drugs. After several weeks of this treatment and being tested if it worked, he is released back to the society. He is now “cured”.
However, there is also a side effect to this treatment. When Alex was watching the violent films, Beethoven was playing in the background. So, Alex also associates his beloved Ludwig Van with feeling sick.
After being released back into society, Alex feels distressed by anything even remotely related to violence. He is also rejected by his parents. Now alone and homeless, he stumbles into the house of the man who he beat up and raped his wife in front of him. Though, the man does not remember him. The man is an author and he is a revolutionary. He is against the current totalitarian government. After hearing about the treatment Alex went through, he wants to prove the government is evil using him because he wants the stop the government from getting re-elected. He forces Alex to listen to 9th Symphony by Beethoven which he associates with feeling sick. Feeling extremely distressed and miserable, Alex tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. The cure caused him to become depressed. He became someone who is not able to defend himself. However, he does not die, he goes into a coma, and he is admitted to a hospital. The man achieves his goal and the government receives a lot bad publicity. So, they reverse the effect of the treatment. The authority tries to make a deal with Alex. Offering a job in exchange for him acting like he is cured and content. Once again, the government is controlling. However, this time Alex has free will since the treatment is reversed.
A Clockwork Orange shows us the main characteristics of a dystopia: dehumanization and cruelty. The treatment Alex undergoes stops him from acting on his violent urges using behavioural psychology. But after the treatment, Alex is not himself anymore. With his violent urges, the treatment also stripped him of his free will. One cannot act or feel without free will, and they cannot do the things that separate them from other living beings, that makes up human. Therefore, the treatment basically turned Alex into a robot, an entity incapable of forming an opinion or doing the what they want. In a way, taking away Alex’s free will is just as bad as cutting off one of his limbs, if not worse. This is done to him to get him to obey the rules. While the readers despise Alex in the beginning of the novel, they might feel pity for him towards the end. This means the treatment was just as bad as the problem, maybe worse. Because while the Alex in the beginning was horrible, he was still human, he was himself. After the treatment, he became an empty shell of a human. This novel and its film adaptation bring out the question whether it is better to be evil by choice or forced to be good.
References
- Wikipedia contributors. 'A Clockwork Orange (novel).' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Apr. 2019.
- Wind Goodfriend Ph.D. “Classical Conditioning in “A Clockwork Orange”” Psychology Today. May 08, 2012
- Angela Regidor. “Power, Humanity And Transformation In ‘A Clockwork Orange’” BleuMag. August 2, 2018
- Moya, Samantha. 'A Clockwork Orange: The Intersection Between a Dystopia and Human Nature.' 2011
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