George Orwell s Brave New World, 1984, And King Lear

Power and Control is presented in various ways in Brave New World, 1984, and King Lear. The ways in which the omnipresent governments in 1984 and Brave New World deploy power and control draw significant areas of comparison to each other, as well as contrasting to the presentation of power and control in King Lear. Various methods are utilised in order to exercise power and control in 1984, King Lear, and Brave New World. â€Å"Hypnopaedia† is employed in Brave New World as a method of mass control. Infants are conditioned through Hypnopaedia into their â€Å"social castes†. The Director tells a group of students in the hatcheries that â€Å"we also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialised human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future Directors of Hatcheries†. The use of ‘predestine’ here elicits a frightening paradox: in effect the hatcheries are manufacturing the destiny of its civilians. Destiny, by definition, is the predetermined future of a living organism, yet their use of negative reinforcement during hypnopaedia alters this, so that in effect, the world state is deciding the future of the humans. The professor â€Å"triumphantly† demonstrates this by revealing the Delta infants observing â€Å"Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks†. Their aim is to change their natural associations of flowers with calm, serene images and substitute them with pain and terror. Reaffirming their control over them as they now grow up with â€Å"what the