Brave New World: Why Lenina Crowne is my Favourite Character

If you haven’t read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I highly recommend that you do. It’s a well written dystopian tale of a future where the concepts of mothers, fathers, families, monogamy, childbirth, and many other things have all been abolished and seen as perverse by society. All human reproduction is down to a science, all new humans created and decanted (born) from a bottle in a Laboratory.

Anyways. This is my favorite book by far, and my favorite character in that book is Lenina Crowne.

"Awfully pneumatic" and proud of her sexual attractiveness, Lenina seems at first a conventional woman of a society in which comfort, pleasure, and materialism are the only values. As the novel progresses, however, Lenina emerges as a conflicted character, more complex than she seems initially.

Although she may not acknowledge it, Lenina rebels against her conditioning for sexual promiscuity, the belief that "every one belongs to every one else." At the onset, she is continuing an unconventionally long and exclusive sexual relationship with Henry Foster. Even in returning to normal sexual behavior, she again rebels, choosing the socially misfit Bernard Marx. Without completely understanding her motivations, Lenina explores the emotional territory outside recreational sex with far more daring than Bernard, the supposed rebel.

Lenina's relationship with John brings her to an emotional, physical, but not intellectual experience of love, while her unaccustomed vulnerability makes her the victim of John's violence twice. She represents the rare potential to see beyond conditioning, but cannot live freely.”

Random artist depictions of Lenina Crowne

I like Lenina because even though she’s brainwashed, she’s still a very gentle and sweet character. A person I would enjoy being around. Someone I would hope to ease out of their conditioning over time.

She reminds me of a woman I know IRL. Someone who indeed is brainwashed, much like the rest of society today. Yet she’s still a lovely creature however, is a taken woman and therefore unobtainable. A man can dream though, right?

I think that it’s also because I’m such a pessimistic person, I’m naturally attracted to the opposite. A woman who would balance me out as she would find the joy and positivity in everything. Things I wouldn’t see myself.

In the end though, I know this woman (my Lenina Crowne) is only a fantasy, an unreachable utopia. For I know that I am too dark a human to reach her paradise. Too stuck in my ways too share in her life, the things that make her happy. The things that would make me cringe. You cannot re-brainwash yourself after breaking free, never truly at least. You’ll always know in the back of your mind, how things really are.

It would be only a matter of time before I’d snap and go on a huge diatribe of acidic vitriol that would push her away, kill her spirit. That is the last thing I would want to do. To truly love and cherish her, it will be from a distance. It would stay a mere fantasy in my head. That is how I will love her.

Thanks for reading my stupid thoughts. Read the book if you haven’t. If you have read the book. Let me know who your favourite character is and why in the comments below.

P.S. I Originally wrote this article before the new TV series came out. It's nothing compared to the book. You are missing out if you have only watched the TV series. Mind you there are a couple movies that came out in the 80's and 90's, also bad, very very bad. Read the book!