Dehumanisation in Dystopian Literature

2202 Words9 Pages
‘The twentieth century has seen a rise in the appearance of a distinctive literary sub-genre, the dystopian or anti-utopian novel with dehumanisation as its dominant theme.” To what extent do ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ depict a dehumanised society?

Both Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ certainly deny humanness to the characters in their novels. Kelman defines humanness as having two key attributes, identity and community. Dehumanisation occurs when these are removed from society. It is true that individuality is denied to citizens and although the community remains, it is subverted in order to fit the government ideal. It can therefore be said that dehumanisation occurs as people are denied and identity and the true…show more content…
Eddie Marcus states “dystopias impose authoritarian control over language in order to prevent formulation of heterodox thought” and this is very apparent in ‘1984’.
Although characters’ use of language in ‘Brave New World’ is also restricted, whereby the traditional meaning of language is debased, it is not to the same extent as the language restriction in ‘1984.’ The World state, just like The Party, uses language in order to restrain its people. One of the ways it does this is through hypnopedia, which invades the thoughts of people in their sleep during infancy, conditioning them to think and behave in a certain way. For example “I’m glad I’m not an Epsilon.” These statements are dehumanising in the sense that they force people to identify with a collective group, for example “an Epsilon” rather than an individual. The use of hypnopedia causes the loss of individuality and is, therefore, a means of dehumanisation. These slogans are repeated by Lenina, showing how The World state has invaded the thought processes of the people. Language is associated with powerful human emotion and the World State has sacrificed these emotions in the name of social stability. This has lead to a change in the meaning of many words. For example, ‘Love’ is now equated with sexual activity and “milk” has become “pasteurised external secretion.” Huxley’s use of language in ‘Brave New
Show More
Related

  • `` The Handmaid 's Tale `` By Margaret Atwood And Gary Ross

    1542 Words  | 7 Pages

    Atwood and Gary Ross’ 2012 film ‘The Hunger Games’ are dystopian texts that reflect the genre of dystopian literature and the context in which they were composed. The conventional themes through which they do this are uniformity, technology and removal from present time as well as how these concepts are manipulated to create new meanings. In Atwood’s 1986 novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ the theme of uniformity, conventional to dystopian literature arises from the consideration of America’s fundamentalist

    Read More

  • Analysis Of ' Amaryllis ' By Carrie Vaughn And Jordon 's Water Hammer '

    868 Words  | 4 Pages

    classification of the dystopian genre. Intro:  Brief background about dystopia genre  Short stories discussed- “ Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn and “Jordon’s Waterhammer” by Joe Mastroianni  Brief summary of the two short stories  Essay covers setting, plot development and character development. It analyses the dystopian genre  Both short stories retrieved from “Brave New worlds” by John Joseph Adams. (Dystopian shot story collection). Setting Most stories set in the dystopian genre follow a similar

    Read More

  • The Handmaid 's Tale By Margaret Atwood

    1249 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dystopian Research Essay: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood In the words of Erika Gottlieb "With control of the past comes domination of the future." A dystopia reflects and discusses major tendencies in contemporary society. The Handmaid 's Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. The novel follows its protagonist Offred as she lives in a society focused on physical and spiritual oppression of the female identity. Within The Handmaid 's Tale it is evident that through the

    Read More

  • Representation of Different Social and Cultural Forces in The Handmaid's Tale by Atweeon and Hard Times by Dickens

    2490 Words  | 10 Pages

    Representation of Different Social and Cultural Forces in The Handmaid's Tale by Atweeon and Hard Times by Dickens “Masses of labourers, organised like soldiers, are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker and above all by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself”, Karl Marx in his Manifesto of the Communist Party 1848 here highlights the state portrayed through Charles Dickens’s ‘Hard Times’. Margaret Atwood highlights the similarity with her book

    Read More

More about Dehumanisation in Dystopian Literature

Open Document