Chapter 18

In this chapter, John, Bernard and Helmholtz leave the civilised world. Bernard and Helmholtz decide to go to the islands, while John makes plans to spend some time in a lighthouse outside London, as he is not permitted to travel with John and Helmholtz so that the state’s “experiment” can continue. This allows John to have some time alone. Here, we can see John's inner feelings and strong emotions over his religious beliefs. He moved away from the civilised world in order to be alone and purify himself. He cannot forget his mother's death and his sexual experience with Lenina which he had considered to be sinful. He takes extreme measures here to cleanse himself from what he sees as the filth of the civilised society. He punishes himself by beating himself with a pointed whip, as well as committing many other harsh actions on himself, such as vomiting and fasting. However, despite the fact that he wanted to be alone, his strange behaviour of punishing himself attracts a lot of civilised citizens and reporters. One of these citizens is a heartbroken Lenina, who approaches John only for her to be beat by John with a whip. In the eyes of all these other citizens, John is intriguing to them and the only one who is not civilised. John then awakens the next day filled with self-hatred, and suddenly realises what has happened, and what he has done. Because of this, he hangs himself.

 John sees Shakespeare's works as a Bible and believes in it very much. However, he does not correctly understand these works. Thus, he goes to extreme measures to punish and torture himself to gain what he understands as the forgiveness of God.  Here, there is some evidence that John has been somehow conditioned too. When he was young, he saw his mother having sex with all the men in the reservation which caused here to get beaten up by all the women. Because of this, he relates sex to something violent and bad which later explains why he becomes so furious that he had sexual contact with Lenina. In this chapter, from time to time he would remember when Lenina tried to have sex with him and instantly, he has to whip and stab himself to get rid of this memory. After a while, he has illusions that he was whipping Lenina rather than himself, allowing him to whip even harder.  John's behaviour and punishment for himself was not really a Christianity act. From the chapter, we can see that he is comforted by the fact that he punishes himself for having sex with Lenina and thinking about his mother. In fact, it is essentially his guilt which causes him to purify himself, though he sees it as if he is doing it for the forgiveness of God.  Though John went to this place for the purpose of being secluded in the civilized society, it is ironic that his 'purification' draws the society to intrude in his life once again. John has somewhat became the animal in the cage which is provided for the society's interest.  John had always been against sex, and this society. Therefore, it is quite ironic that John ended up having sex with Lenina. Because of this, he hangs himself. His suicide emphasises that all hope for a humane and truly civilised society has been lost.

He is very extreme in his actions and punishment of himself. In this chapter, it is clearly reflected that he is very easily tempered and that he is quite willing to suffer his own whippings for the forgiveness of God. He is also a very unique character in this story for the fact that he was born naturally. Shakespeare's work had affected John greatly in his later life, even though he has no understanding of its true meaning. He takes Shakespeare's work as if it were a Bible and he always refers to it and speaks of it. However, his understanding of the book has caused him to commit harsh punishments onto himself. By punishing himself, he thinks that he can be purified for doing something sinful. As mentioned before, John had also been conditioned in a different way. He had watched his mother being beaten up numerous times in Malpais after having sex with the men there. Thus, he is unable to bring himself to have sex with Lenina as shown later and instead, he becomes very angry. Though John is a very determined and strong character, under the influence of soma, he cannot resist having sex with Lenina in the end. This shows how John's disapproval of the civilised society does not really matter anymore. As Mond stated earlier, the society's power is too great. Thus, John has lost his sanity which leads to his death in this chapter.

Throughout the story, Lenina is shown to be a standard civilised citizen of the society. However, as the story develops, she gains a sense of understanding or feeling which is seen as forbidden in this civilised society. In this chapter, she longs for John only. When she met John near the very end of the chapter, her tears came down hard, emphasising that she now has some form of emotional linkage to John which she really is not supposed to have.

Like with the rest of the novel, throughout the chapter, Huxley goes to great lengths to make sure every detail is described perfectly. Huxley spends a couple of pages describing the lighthouse and its surroundings, as well as a couple of pages describing John’s self-punishment. More than anything, this style of writing helps the reader to better envisage the events in the chapter for greater understanding and connection to the brave new world. It also helps to show the sheer hatred John has for himself.

 “‘Oh my God, my God’ He covered his eyes with his hand.”  "...South-south-west, south, south-east, east..." The ellipses leave the reader thinking about this scene.  “‘Strumpet!’ Savage had rushed at her like a madman. ‘Fitchew!’ Like a madman, he was slashing at her with this whip of small cords.” Another reference to Shakespeare.  “In a voice of despair, ‘Oh, Linda, forgive me. Forgive me, God. I'm bad. I’m wicked. I’m... No, no you strumpet, you strumpet!’”

 The importance of religion and what it can drive people to do.  The strength of a person’s moral values and what the person will do if these are broken.  The idea of conditioning yourself to believe certain things and to assign connotations to these things.