Chapter XIV - Overall Analysis

There is a very interesting quote spoken while Linda is slowly dying from the constant soma-holiday she so badly needed, "Linda was dying in company - in company with all the modern conveniences" (XIV, 174) thus meaning that since the taps and televisions are left on, she will never feel alone while she dies. It's almost sickening that the society feels that even through slow death, no one should be alone. What if their final wish was to be left alone? Besides, who would want the constant running of taps and television as they died? The society creates this fake atmosphere of happiness even as people lay dying, which is odd in itself as they are not old or wrinkled. They have smooth faces just as a young adult would have even though they're dying and have blank faces and no expression on their faces. It's almost satirically ironic - they are young and yet dying, they are youthful and yet they hold no expression.

What is highly disturbing is the fact the 'nightmare of Bokovansky twins' undergo 'death conditioning'. It's creepy that they would allow the children to go in and see one of the members of society dying and on the day that the person dies, they get a donut or some other treat. How morbid is that? John is right to see the twins as nightmares, "Their faces, their repeated face - for there was only one between the lot of them - puggishly stares, all nostrils and pale goggling eyes' (XIV, 177) which is an interesting description of the twins. I could see them being as hideous as John describes them. The fact they swarm around Linda as she lies dying is terrifying and sounds like something out of a horror movie. Perhaps Huxley wanted the twins to seem as terrifying as John describes them to further show how disturbed and messed up the society truly is. Perfection is a monster.