Summary Chp. 16

Chapter 16 is key to understanding the main ideology of Brave New World. A Gamma butler shows John, Bernard and Helmholtz into his fordship and World Controller Mustapha Mond's study. Helmholtz is laughing that "It's more like a caffeine-solution party than a trial". Bernard is cheerless and John wandering aimlessly about. Mond enters and starts a discussion with John, asking him directly "So you don't much like civilisation, Mr. Savage." "No" he replied. Bernard is terrified of his association now with John and what the Controller will think of him. Only Mond, the World Controller, can make or break laws. John remembers how Helmholtz had laughed at Romeo and Juliet and wonders if something like that play, but one that people could understand would be acceptable to the Controller. Helmholtz joins in the conversation also asking the Controller why it isn't possible and he explains. He says that beauty is not wanted in the world anymore, or anything old and that people don't understand it anyway. He says "Because our world is not the same as Othello’s world... you can’t make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now." The Controller also tells them of the failed experiment on the island of Cyprus in A.F. 473 to make everyone an Alpha-Double-Plus. Nineteen out of the twenty-two thousand Alphas were killed in Civil War. Being told he's to be sent to Iceland, Bernard accuses John and Helmholtz of guilt, that he didn't do anything wrong. Helmholtz asks to be sent to the Falkland Islands where he feels he could write better.