Hung


 * What:** In a last act of corruption by civilization, John is drawn into an orgy at the lighthouse. When he wakes up the next morning, he is horrified by what he has done, but the various other participants are charmed, and have spread it all over the papers. When the reporters and gawkers arrive at the lighthouse, they find that their dear Savage has hung himself in shame. The goal of the scene is to show what Huxley thought were the horrors of the dystopian World State.


 * Why:** Huxley finished the book with this grim act to show that this so called perfect world where everyone is happy, was actually a place so wretched that it could drive a person to suicide with one of its common traditions. John was horrified by what they called society and how it was so different from what he had imagined and what he had gathered from Shakespeare. He tried and he tried to accept it, but after his talk with Mufasta Mond where he figures out that the only way they have gained stability is by sacrificing deep emotions, he can no longer live with it. His suicide is his last attempt to get away from that and, as an act of shame and desperation, he manages to show his deep emotions one last time.


 * How:** The description of his body actually hanging there is slightly ambiguous and almost casual, perhaps to show how casual that society is about death and how little his death will affect them and their society. Instead of having John commit suicide immediately, Huxley has John first being observed first by one reporter, then a filmmaker, and eventually hundreds and hundreds of World State citizens. This gradual escalation shows the horrors of a dystopian World State effectively because the gradient of contrast between the Shakespearian model of morality and World State social norms is stretched out further, emphasizing the difference.