"As though I'd been saying something shocking,' though Lenina. 'He couldn't look more upset if I'd made a dirty joke- asked him who his mother was, or something like that." - pg 58
Something Huxley has been making a point to emphasize is how opposite this future and our world are. This section above uses dramatic irony to show how contrast the imagined society and our society are. By writing almost exactly the opposite of what the readers will suspect, Huxley surprises the readers with Lenina's comment about Bernard's behavior. Bernard is also being increasingly emphasized as an important character. Not only was he included seemingly without purpose in the rapid structure strobe light in the previous blog, but his thoughts are included beyond his distaste for Henry Foster.
Perhaps the rumors about accidental alcohol poisoning aren't true; however, there is definitely something off about Bernard. The things about the work that make me uncomfortable in the novel also weird me out. Just how the reproductive system of Huxley's imagined novel seems overly casual and strangely impersonal to me, Bernard is obviously shy of the sexual process in Brave New World. I don't know whether he has the guts to pull off a serious move against the system, but since Huxley has been continually focusing on him (I read ahead) he -and us readers- may no longer be the victim of dramatic irony.
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