How Does Shakespeare Shape John The Savage’S Worldview?

Reading 'Brave New World' for a class and can't figure out John's beliefs—did his Shakespearian reading really make him so moralistic about society?
2026-07-26 11:38:49
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3 Answers

HomeDesk
HomeDesk
Novel Fan Police Officer
It makes him an idealist in the worst way. Shakespeare's heroes, even the flawed ones, often strive for some ideal—justice, honor, love, revenge. John is constantly striving for an ideal world, an ideal love, an ideal purity. The real world, whether the reservation or London, is a compromise. He can't handle compromise. His idealism leads directly to his absolutism and his eventual breakdown. If he were shaped by, say, gritty modern realism, he might have learned to navigate the gray areas, to pick his battles. But Shakespearean idealism is all-or-nothing. It's why he can't find a place for himself. He'd rather die pure (or what he thinks is pure) than live in a compromised, messy reality. His suicide is the final idealistic act, a refusal to accept a world that falls so short of the worlds in his head.
2026-07-27 14:22:16
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RioCooper
RioCooper
Contributor Editor
His sense of honor is completely Shakespearean. It's personal, inflexible, and tied to reputation and oath. When he promises to marry Lenina in his old-fashioned way, he means it as an absolute bond. When he attacks the Deltas for taking soma, he's defending a personal code of honor against what he sees as their dishonorable cowardice. This is utterly alien in the World State, where 'everyone belongs to everyone else' and there are no permanent bonds or personal codes. His honor makes him rigid and, in their eyes, bizarre. It's what leads to his public outbursts and his final retreat. He can't live in a world where his sense of personal honor is considered a psychological disorder. In Shakespeare, honor is what makes a man; in the World State, it's what makes a malfunctioning unit.
2026-07-28 07:59:07
21
KyleReid
KyleReid
Contributor Student
Anyone else just think of the scene where he's desperately trying to cleanse himself after the orgy, quoting 'The tempest'? That's the moment it all crystallizes. He's using the language of magic and purification from the play to scrub away the stain of the World State's values. It's a ritual born entirely from his literary education. He believes in the power of words and symbolic action to change a spiritual state. The World State believes only in chemical actions (soma) to change a mental state. That clash is the entire novel in a microcosm. Shakespeare gives him the script for a ritual of penance. Without it, he'd just feel gross and confused. With it, he feels profoundly sinful and in need of violent atonement. It shapes not just his thoughts, but his physical actions, driving him to self-harm in a grotesque imitation of religious asceticism he's read about in the contexts of plays.
2026-08-01 10:03:03
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