Question

Why has the director called Bernard Marx into a public meeting?

Answer 1

In Chapter Ten, the Director passes through the Centre’s Fertilizing room, admiring the fertilizing and decanting technologies. He andHenry Foster plan to meet Bernard in the Fertilizing Room. The Director tells Henry that Bernard must receive punishment because no one should lead the general population astray with strange behavior or notions of individuality. With all the workers present, the Director publicly reproaches Bernard for his social misconduct and tells him that he must go to Iceland where he will not be able to influence others.Bernard and the Director represent two sides of the novel’s main conflict, and this chapter describes their confrontation. The chapter opens with descriptions of the scientific mechanisms used to create humans. The Director states that no one, including Bernard, can express individuality in any way. The Centre can simply make a new individual if anyone gets out of line, which indicates the society’s reliance on science rather than human life.The Director's predicament in the chapter is an example of irony. The Director enters the room with a high regard for social programming and belief in the good of science, state regulation, and conformity in all social practices. However, the Director becomes the chief example of non-conformity when the others learn that he himself exhibited the most embarrassing behavior in society by fathering a child. The Director, who is normally responsible for the creation of life and ordering of class, is also responsible for a sexual act that goes against this dystopian society.