D1    Character file 'Bernard'

by Stephanie

Physical appearance/function in society

-           He’s an Alpha-Plus, who has a “small thin body” (p. 51 l. 12-13) like a Gamma-Minus because somebody has “put alcohol into his blood-surrogate”(p.41 l.19), as they say. However, he is as intelligent as the other Alpha-Plus human beings since he….

-           ….works in the “Psychology Bureau”(p.29 l. 21). There he is a specialist on “hypnopaedia” (p. 42 l. 2-3). Because of his profession he has the permission to enter a Savage Reservation.

Behaviour/Views : Before finding the ‘Savage’

-          does not like “Obstacle Golf” (p.39 l. 33) probably because it’s not intellectual enough for him (p.79 l. 26-27).

-          He is an outsider because of his physical deficiencies and because of his more individual character: he often is melancholic (p. 51 l. 13), prefers being alone than being in a crowd (p. 79 l. 23-24), doesn’t like hypnopaedia and taking soma because he rather stays himself (p. 80) and sees through it (p. 42 l. 3-4). Being an individual person is very important to him (p. 88 l. 16-20)

-           He despises the other men for treating women like “meat” (p.40 l. 30). He feels a lot of aggression towards them, but at the same time he is too coward to attack them, fearing their physical superiority (p.48 l. 11-12).

-           He has serious problems with handling lower-caste creatures since he is afraid that they could attack him (p. 57 l. 18 ff). This can be explained with the fact that he has the same stature as they have.

-           All in all he suffers from being an outsider and from not being as successful with women as everyone else. He is extremely happy when Lenina wants him, whereas he is sad because of Lenina’s adjustment to society which stands in stark contrast to his individuality (p. 57 l. 1-13).

-           He seems to love Lenina (p. 80 l. 32-33).

-           He likes to show off (p. 89 l. 6-7), he’s not really brave (p. 23-25), and likes to pity  himself (p. 89 l. 7-8 / p. 156 l. 18)

Behaviour/Views: After finding the ‘Savage’ 

-           He ‘has’ many women just like the men he has envied and despised for this (p.140 l.30-32). That’s why he can’t really have feelings, similar to love, for Lenina.

-           He doesn’t feel ashamed of abusing other persons for his advantages. For he uses the savage to get recognition (which he has wanted his whole life) and all the girls he wants (p. 141 l. 33-34).

-           His success, of course, couldn’t heighten his self-confidence; only his surface creates this impression (p. 141 24-34). However, he definitely feels happier until the savage destroys all his plans on page 156ff.

-           Especially in this time his morally bad characteristics appear. He tends to be very egoistic, which you can see when he betrays his friends by blaming them for offending against the rules in their society (p. 206 l. 19-25). He is jealous of Helmholtz having a relation-ship with John(p. 165), wants revenge after John has spoiled his party(p.162 l. 17-22) and…

-           …finally loses his self-control when “his fordship” decides to send him to Iceland (p. 206 l. 16- p. 207 l.3).

Conclusions concerning his character

From my point of view, Bernard’s main characteristic is weakness, which causes him to be an outsider. This weakness leads him to abuse John for his own prospects : to finally be recognized by the other Alpha-Plus persons. Besides this, he seems to be a very egoistic person and that’s why he betrays his friends. At the beginning of this novel he seems to be a noble-minded individual that fights against the inhuman moral of his society, regards individuality to be very important and even has some real feelings for a woman. However, he turns out to be just like everybody else, who wants to be adjusted to society, and despises it only because he cannot achieve this.