Name: ____________________________________
Worth: 20 points
John the Savage’s Use of
Shakespeare
in Brave New World
Each of the following are Shakespeare quotes that John uses throughout Brave New World.
Some of the quotes he uses properly/in-context; others, not so much. With your partner,
please research the following quotes. For each one, identify and discuss the following:
A. Which Shakespeare play is this quote from? Which character speaks
this line? What is the general context of this quotation in the
Shakespeare play?
B. How/why does the Savage use the quote in Brave New World? Does
he take the quote out of context? Explain whether or not John is using
the quote properly in his given situation.
Be prepared to present and share your findings with the class next time we meet.
Quote #1, Chapter 8
“Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty…”
Quote #2, Chapter 8
“When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed…”
Quote #3, Chapter 9
“Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice; Handlest in thy discourse O! that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure
The cygnet’s down is harsh…”
Quote #4, Chapter 12
“Oh! She doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear…”
Quote #5, Chapter 12
“Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be…”
Quote #6, Chapter 12
“Is there no pity sitting in the clouds, That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away: Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies…”
Quote #7, Chapter 12
“Property was thus appall’d, That the self was not the same;
Single nature’s double name Neither two nor one was call’d.”
Quote #8, Chapter 13
“The murkiest den, the most opportune place, the strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall
never melt mine honour into lust.”
Quote # 9, Chapter 13
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall”
Quote #10, Chapter 13
“O thou weed, who are so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet that the sense aches at thee. Was this
most goodly book made to write ‘whore’ upon? Heaven stops the nose at it…”
Quote #11, Chapter 15
“How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is!
O, brave new world, that has such people in’t!”