Who is Helmholtz Watson? What do he and Bernard have in common?

• A. They are literal brothers
• B. They are intelligent men who are discontent with the New World
• C. They are the moral police
• D. They are athletes selected for public display

Answer: (B)

Both Helmholtz Watson and Bernard Marx are highly intelligent men who feel alienated from the New World’s values. Helmholtz, an Alpha lecturer and gifted writer, finds the state’s propaganda and shallow entertainment unsatisfying and longs for a form of expression that truly moves people. Bernard, also an Alpha, is clever but physically smaller and socially anxious, resentful of the caste’s empty norms and the way success is measured. Their shared sense of discontent with a society built on stability and superficial happiness links them together and drives their actions, foreshadowing future challenges to the World State. They are not related, not enforcers of law, and not athletes selected for display.