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What does Helmholtz think is the source of Shakespeare's power?

Helmholtz says that Shakespeare was an excellent propaganda technician, but his society was more interesting so he had more to write about.


John, who grew up on a reservation and is referred to as the Savage, loves Shakespeare. It was his emotional lifeline as a child, and it is still the way he interprets the world. He expected to find a brave new world in the modern society, but what he finds is one that opposes everything he believes in and holds dear.



"Do they read Shakespeare?" asked the Savage as they walked, on their way to the Bio-chemical Laboratories, past the School Library.


"Certainly not," said the Head Mistress, blushing.



She is blushing because Shakespeare is considered inappropriate in the society in Brave New World, because the poems and plays’ content and themes are often about love, for one thing. There is no fiction in the school’s library. It is all practical and modern. Shakespeare is relegated to the heathen past when people procreated on their own.


John is still a little confused as to why Shakespeare would be banned, since he loves it so much. He asks the Controller, Mustapha Mond.



"But why is it prohibited?" asked the Savage. In the excitement of meeting a man who had read Shakespeare he had momentarily forgotten everything else.


The Controller shrugged his shoulders. "Because it's old; that's the chief reason. We haven't any use for old things here."



Mond calls Shakespeare and books on religion “pornographic.” John is completely confused. He doesn’t understand this society and why they have relegated seemingly normal aspects of human life like affection, romantic relationships, and childbirth to the dustbin of history and inappropriateness.


Unlike most, Helmholtz appreciates Shakespeare. He tells John, "That old fellow … he makes our best propaganda technicians look absolutely silly." Helmholtz is a little different than most of the others. He is intelligent and confident, and unlike the other members of his society, he actually cares about more than sex and drugs.


Helmholtz laughs at Romeo and Juliet's "obscene" elements like mothers and fathers and the absurd nature of a boy and girl caring so much about one another, but he also ponders why the play seems so meaningful to him.



Why was that old fellow such a marvelous propaganda technician? Because he had so many insane, excruciating things to get excited about. You've got to be hurt and upset; otherwise you can't think of the really good, penetrating, X-rayish phrases. (Ch. 12)



He thinks Romeo and Juliet is ridiculous, but admits that Shakespeare's plays were more interesting than his society's multi-sensory movies because Shakespeare's society was more interesting and gave him more to write about.

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