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Dystopia can be seen in everyday life throughout society, as citizens are under constant surveillance and are in fear of the outside world. Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, was published in 1932. Inspired by the social and political changes from the Industrial Revolution, Huxley describes a future society controlled to seem perfect and pain-free but meaningless. 1984, by George Orwell, was released in 1984 and shows the way the government attains control over reality. The higher powers in both texts have destroyed the concept of human relationships to keep society stabilized. The higher powers believe that relationships would cause loyalty to be elsewhere, and take time away from the objectives of working while causing an imbalance in society due to the emotional connections.
In Brave New World, the presence of human relationships would detract from the promiscuity within society as the focus would be elsewhere. In a relationship, there is loyalty towards one person, contradicting what everyone is conditioned to believe. This belief is enforced into society during the process of hypnopaedia as the speakers repeat, “Everyone belongs to everyone else.” (page 35) The concept of long-term relationships was replaced with casual sexual relationships becoming the ‘norm’ as higher powers encouraged promiscuous behaviors through solidarity service. These ritual-like gatherings are a way to have casual sexual relationships under the influence of soma, a drug used to artificially control emotions to prevent lasting bonds. 1984 however, is driving away from the concept of promiscuity. This becomes evident when states, “A triumph of willpower over the orgasm.” This comes from the celebrations of marriage rates decreasing by fifty percent and 10,000 women taking a vow to celibacy. This clearly shows the attempt higher powers are trying to make to move away from promiscuity and relationships from within society.
Big Brother is a made-up figure to keeps order within society by using power to make loyalty towards him more important than bonds between family and friends. He can also be seen as a way to condition while belittling outer party members. Mr Charrington is an example of one who respects the higher power over friendships as he uses the antique store to draw in the individuals who don’t conform to society. Mr Parsons is also a clear example of an individual in society who chooses to focus on Big Brother rather than his own family. This great amount of loyalty is seen when his wife says to Winston, “Thank you, brother, I wouldn’t have had to bother you but my husband is out late. Committees. You know what us parsons are like.” (32 minutes) Winston needs to fix their family's sink as Mr Parsons chooses committee meetings with Big Brother over his family. While leaving, their son says to Winston, “You are a thought criminal.” (32 minutes) This implies that he knows about Winston and his sneaking around. Although Winston knew as soon as he bought the diary that he was a dead man walking, this statement foreshadows the ending, as Winston isn’t loyal to the higher power.
Human relationships in both 1984 and Brave New World distract people from the main focus of producing. In Brave New World, the world state destroyed human relationships to prevent time taken away from working. This was used as a way to gain control over society and stabilize the need to support consumerism. As consumerism is a big part of society in Brave New World, constant production is a necessity to keep the economy from becoming unstable. If people are distracted with relationships, less will be produced, meaning there will be an imbalance within society. Likewise, in 1984 relationships are frowned upon as everyone is needed to supply the ‘war machine’. This includes rewriting history while revising old newspapers as well as creating machines for war. In both texts, the higher power makes sure everyone has their job to maintain stability within society while preventing human relationships as there isn’t enough time.
Relationships cause instability within society as emotional connections are formed between family and loved ones. As everyone from the World State is conceived under the Bokanovsky process (the process of fertilizing eggs, which makes them split into genetic copies), John the savage is a clear example of an individual who doesn’t conform to society. Along with having a sense of family, John grieves the loss of his mother. In a society where death is conditioned to be a positive experience, John finds it hard to understand the situation of his mother’s death while standing in a room full of bright colors, music, TV playing, and children being conditioned. When one Bokanovsky twin approaches and asks John, “Is she dead?” John becomes angry and interferes with the conditioning process. This shows how relationships with emotional connections can’t function within the World State.
In two dystopian texts, the concepts of human relationships are seen to be destroyed by the higher power in attempts to maintain control and a stabilized society. This can be seen as human relationships detract promiscuity, create a distraction against the higher power as well as production, and also create instability because of emotional connections. The dystopian societies from these two texts are relevant to society nowadays in terms of government control, loss of individualism, and environmental destruction.
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