Brave New World Suffering Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"And do remember that a gramme is better than a damn." They went out, laughing. (3.232)

This platitude pretty much sums it up: soma is used to avoid anger.

Quote #5

"That horrible Benito Hoover!" And yet the man had meant well enough. Which only made it, in a way, much worse. Those who meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly. Even Lenina was making him suffer. He remembered those weeks of timid indecision, during which he had looked and longed and despaired of ever having the courage to ask her. Dared he face the risk of being humiliated by a contemptuous refusal? But if she were to say yes, what rapture! Well, now she had said it and he was still wretched. (4.2.1)

Bernard's feelings for Lenina inevitably will end in suffering, because his passion is at odds with such a controlled environment. He suffers from feeling unfulfilled if he doesn't ask, he suffers humiliation if she says no, and he suffers from her casual treatment of his advances if she says yes.

Quote #6

Then, in a resolutely cheerful voice, "Anyhow," he concluded, "there's one thing we can be certain of; whoever he may have been, he was happy when he was alive. Everybody's happy now."

"Yes, everybody's happy now," echoed Lenina. They had heard the words repeated a hundred and fifty times every night for twelve years. (5.1.14-5)

We would go on and on about genuine happiness as related to this sort of false, brainwashed happinessbut is there a real difference?