Topic A
“'Well, does there?' questioned the Controller in his turn. 'You can indulge in any number of pleasant vices with a freemartin and run no risks of having your eyes put out by your son's mistress. The wheel has come full circle; I am here. But where would Edmund be nowadays? Sitting in a pneumatic chair, with his arm round a girl's waist, sucking away at his sex-hormone chewing -gum and looking at the feelies. The gods are just. No doubt. But their code of law is dictated, in the last resort, by the people who organize society; Providence takes its cue from men'” (Huxley 236).
This passage reveals one of the fundamental ideas in the novel, and it makes the novel take on major relevance as a warning to current society. The Controller references King Lear when he talks about Edmund sitting around enjoying himself, showing that society, not the spirit of mankind, shapes an individual. Even Edmund, a character from Shakespeare rich with suffering and pain and emotional depth, would be helpless to refuse the constant availability of happiness and emotional detachment. As a warning this is potent stuff, for if a Shakespeare character could be thus corrupted, how will current society be able to withstand the pull of happiness? The Controller believes that there may be a God, but that god adheres to the rules and desires and societal norms of mankind and society, and does not have his own agenda for the future of the soul. By this thinking, it is truly up to mankind to decide everything from laws to the difference between good and evil. When the Controller says “The wheel has come full circle,” he is using his current time frame to compare it with the beginning of mankind's history. The ape has come full circle, gaining morals, intelligence, and freedom, only to reject it in favor of constant pleasure.
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