Brave New World

Introduced early in Chapter 3, Bernard Marx is almost instantly set apart from the other characters through the vehemence of his emotional state. The first real adjective associated with Marx is “contemptuous” (35), and he has a substantial inferiority complex due to his small stature and the rumors that he accidentally had alcohol added to his bottle as an embryo. Marx’s anger at Henry Foster in particular seems to stem from his own resistance to and antipathy toward conformity: he dislikes taking soma and refuses it several times throughout the novel.

However, as the novel progresses, despite his hatred of and resistance to some of the central tenets of the World State, once he finds an opportunity to exploit John for his own gain, he rushes at the chance, proving himself not as much of an individualist as he would like to come across. His frustration lies in his inability to conform, not necessarily in the idea of conformity itself, although this is what he would like to believe. In the end, this need to belong is what undoes him.