Love and Other Drugs: Love and Eugenics in the Dystopian Worlds of What Not by Rose Macaulay and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Abstract

This thesis investigates themes of love and eugenics, and how they influence each other in What Not (1918) by Rose Macaulay and Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley. Creating a so-called perfect society through regulating procreation is at the base of the dystopian worlds in both books. The regulations concerning the creation and birth of new citizens in these dystopian novels, based heavily on eugenic ideas, influence the way romantic and sexual love are portrayed in the novels, which is visible in several storylines within the books. Based on the analysis of the interrelationship between love and eugenics in each book, a comparison is made to investigate how similar Brave New World is to What Not. The similarities between What Not and Brave New World suggest that the former must have been an important source of inspiration for Huxley as he wrote one of the most famous dystopias of the twentieth centuries, and that Macaulay should receive credit accordingly.