How does Aldous Huxley characterize Bernard Marx in Brave New World?
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley Bernard and Helmholtz Huxley’s explicit narrative style invites us to compare Bernard to Helmholtz. So here we go: While both Bernard and Helmholtz share a dissatisfaction with the state of things, Bernard merely whines about it while Helmholtz actually thinks about it intensely, working toward a solution instead of harping on the problem. The most revealing test of character comes when the chips are down. Look at Bernard’s reaction to the threat of Iceland. He’s cocky at first, but as soon as he realizes the threat is real, he freaks out. He doesn’t have the courage of his convictions. And as much fun as it would have been for us to figure this out, Huxley tells us: He [Bernard] had imagined himself courageously resisting, stoically accepting suffering without a word. […] Now that it looked as though the threats were really to be fulfilled, Bernard was appalled. Of that imagined stoicism, that theoretical courage, not a trace was left. Helmholtz, on the
