Citation

Bolton, Matthew J. "A Clockwork Orange and the Metaphysics of Slapstick." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Dark Humor, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTDH006&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 6, 2011).

Burgess, Anthony. A clockwork orange . New York: Norton, 1986. Print.

Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008.

Gaydosik, Victoria. "A Clockwork Orange." Facts On File Companion to the British Novel: 20th Century, vol. 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBNII102&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 6, 2011).

Greenfield, John R., ed. "Alex." Dictionary of British Literary Characters: 20th Century Novels. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1994. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DBLCXX00090&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 6, 2011).

Characters in the Scene

(From Listal.com)
 

Within the world of A Clockwork Orange, there are many characters that serve their purpose in affecting the theme and the storyline in general. 

Alex: He is a charismatic, well mannered boy, but also possesses an antithesis in that he is also a ruffian leader who beats and rapes for fun. He is intelligent, but doesn’t use the intelligence, in believing that only the stupid rely on intelligence. He is a round-dynamic character, in that he possesses a range of emotions, portrayals and personalities. In the beginning, he sees a notion of violence and hedonistic values. As the story progresses, he was then forced to become well mannered and self kept, though the values of which came unrewarded. And though he changed back into a mongrel of violence, he sees how unsatisfying violence was and how enticing the life of happy marriage looked.

F. Alexander: He is a scientist who opposes the government after Alex raped his wife, who died from shock afterwards. He blamed the government for such tragedy. He is flat - static, in that he is obsessed with revealing to the people what the government is in reality and that never changes.

Government of State: The oppressive government of the State that forces it’s citizens into a stupor towards the growing violence of their own society. They are not a character, per se, but they proved to be an antagonist in that they restrict Alex of his free will, whether that will be heinous or just. 

Pete: One of Alex’s droogs. He is round-dynamic in that he is mild-mannered and he changes from a droog to a family man. He inspires Alex to long for a different lifestyle.

Dim: A dim-witted droog. He is flat-static. Though he changes from a Droog to a policeman, he remains the same Dim that betrayed Alex. He blinds Alex and beats him up.

Georgie: A very ecstatic droog of Alex’s who leads the rebellion and wants violence for the sake of financial gain. He is flat-static. He leads the rebellion and demise of Alex.

Billy-boy: An opposing droog. He is flat-static. He beats up Alex when he is released.

Joe: A tenant of Alex’s parents. He is flat-static. He berates Alex for being a horrible son towards good parents.

Dr. Branon and Brodsky: Doctors that go through with the Ludovico’s Technique with Alex. Brodsky regards Alex as a “true Christian” though Alex lost the right to free will. Branon regards science as a religion. Flat-static. They change Alex to be defenceless and warped.

Priest: A prison priest who helps along with Alex’s “faith”. Flat-static. He gives Alex the Christian opportunity.

Rick, Len, and Bully: All of Alex’s new droogs after his endorsement to the government.  Flat-static. They serve no other purpose but being droogs.

 

Free Will

Even though the government itself tries to do good, they take away one aspect of life that is necessary for a thriving society, even if the society seems as if it would die with it: Free-Will. 

Alex kills an inmate, a year after his incarceration and is then volunteered for a government program: Ludovico’s Technique. During the commencement, Alex becomes injected with a special drug and then “watches” a movie. Being forced to watch acts of violence and rape to the sounds of Beethoven, the drugs causes Alex to feel deathly ill, associating the scenes depicted in the movie to the illness. After another year of treatment, the government deems him reformed. He is then released to the public, with publicity that whenever he tries to become violent, he becomes ill. The government sees this as a positive effect.

With the theme of the Imperative Right of Free Will,Burgess makes it a major point in the book that one of the basic human attributes associated with human rights is the choice of free will. He uses Alex as a device to show that Alex, though completely rational and well-mannered to an extent, chooses to life a life of wickedness and devious actions of malice. When making Alex the protagonist, Burgess strongly states that free will is important, despite of the personal choices one makes. This free will was hindered and taken as the government steals Alex from his life.

Though criminal punishment was forced upon those who were criminally liable, Alex had retained the free will of his person, though restricted due to laws. But through the Ludovico’s Technique, he completely loses the ability to make free choices, being forced to discipline himself towards goodness, whether he had to or not. Burgess also challenges the Christian belief in morality in that people are forced towards goodness, in that humans would indeed become good if they choose to be good, a theory that is challenged throughout the novel.

F. Alexander (the man whose house he raided and wife raped) also states that after the treatment, Alex has become someone that isn’t human, being that he has lost the will to choose goodness. This goes with the matter that a person who does good deeds should be deemed a good person if their intention and choice of good were deemed noble, as opposed to those who are good for the sake of self gain, i.e. monetary gain or avoiding Hell.

Ultraviolence and the Young

 (Image taken from the movie)

Within the society of  "A Clockwork Orange", there are certain elements that contribute to the dystopia. The main factor is the people and the government's reaction to these people. There are the ones who are the young people within the society, who are mostly vicious and unrelenting. In fact, one scene had Alex attack a couple's home, after they tried to act so hospitable to him:

     ""It's a book," I said. "It's a book what you are writing." I

made the old goloss very coarse. "I have always had the strongest

admiration for them as can write books." Then I looked

at its top sheet, and there was the name - A C L O C K W O R K

O R A N G E - and I said: "That's a fair gloopy title. Who ever

heard of a clockwork orange?" Then I read a malenky bit out

loud in a sort of very high type preaching goloss: " - The

attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and

capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the

bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I say, laws and

conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this

I raise my sword-pen - " Dim made the old lip-music at that and

I had to smeck myself. Then I started to tear up the sheets and

scatter the bits over the floor, and this writer moodge went

sort of bezoomny and made for me with his zoobies clenched

and showing yellow and his nails ready for me like claws" (Burgess 30).

Alex, after raiding the house, ties up and beats the old man. He finds a book “A Clockwork Orange” And rips it up promptly. He then precedes beating up the man and raping his wife. 

     “We yeckated back townwards, my brothers, but just outside,

not far from what they called the Industrial Canal, we viddied

the fuel needle had like collapsed, like our own ha ha ha

needles had, and the auto was coughing kashl kashl kashl. Not

to worry overmuch, though, because a rail station kept

flashing blue - on off on off - just near. The point was

whether to leave the auto to be sobiratted by the rozzes or,

us feeling like in a hate and murder mood, to give it a fair

tolchock into the starry watersfor a nice heavy loud plesk

before the death of the evening.” (Burgess 33).

After the raid and rape, they take the car, ditch it, and proceed to the trains, where it would take them to the center of the city, where they generally reside in. They pay the fare as they should but vandalize the train.

     “Dim put on a hound-and-horny look of evil, saying: "I

don't like you should do what you done then. And I'm not

your brother no more and wouldn't want to be." He'd taken a

big snotty tashtook from his pocket and was mopping the red

flow puzzled, keeping on looking at it frowning as if he

thought that blood was for other vecks and not for him. It

was like he was singing blood to make up for his vulgarity

when that devotchka was singing music. But that devotchka

was smecking away ha ha ha now with her droogs at the bar,

her red rot working and her zoobies ashine, not having noticed

Dim's filthy vulgarity. It was me really Dim had done

wrong to” (Burgess 37).

At the Korova Milkbar, there were people who were new there. A woman started to sing a few bars of opera that was familiar to Alex, but Dim made a rude gesture to the woman. Though she didn’t notice, Alex didn’t leave it unpunished, for he fully enjoyed the opera. After punching Dim, they were about to have-with each other, but Pete assuages the situation. Alex justifies that he did it to put Dim in his place.

Perception: Should We Trust Alex?

(taken from www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com)

Within the novel as well as the movie, we are told of the events of his life through his eyes and words. This makes him the protagonist, showing the "evils" that has been done unto him. Even though we take upon ourselves to see that Alex is as evil or more evil than he leaves us to believe, his use of language to demoralize those who take revenge upon him forces us to sympathize with him. We take pity upon this person as he endures being tortured, being beaten, and abused.

But why is it that we tend to take more pity upon him than to give him the sense of karma? Because overall, he describes himself as a teenager only wanting to have fun. He tries to uphold his innocence. It all comes at him, not as a length of time, but literally as a series of "unfortunate" events. After being incarcerated, tortured to the point where he simply gets sick from classical music and the thought of violence, he was replaced, he was beaten and ridiculed, he was abused, he was forced to attempt suicide, and if anything, he was force to have utter disgust with the classical musings of Beethoven.

There is sympathy, but there could be a catch. This IS though his eyes. So the reader has to infer: can he be trusted? The novel was written in a way where we are to be deceived by him. With this in mind, he becomes as crafty and nefarious as he was before he changed.Even when he wanted to spend time to make a family, the notion becomes a bit diluted as he tells that he wants a child to be such as him.

The Interest of Dystopia

(Taken from hotmovienow.com)

Though there are many novels and films that cover the realm of a Dystopia, I believe one truly shows the degradation of society. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess shows the colourful aspect of heinous acts within the youth and the government in a bleak and dismal future.But the way it is written gives the reader a sense of sympathy that would otherwise be unnerving had it been written otherwise.

In general, I enjoy the interpretation of a dystopia due to the government innaction or incapability to control the masses. It gives us a view of what anarchy without leadership can result, since there would be nothing to serve as an arbiter. However, there is also when government controls to much. This also goes into the depths of what government would impede in human society, crossing the line of invading the human psychology and causing almost complete control and damage with their mere whim.

These ideas are but the scant topics that this book covers, for there are many elements that both the book and the movie have, content that is rich with discussion and analysis.