ABSTRACT

The tendency to classify human beings according to types is almost as old as the history of man himself. Along with the tendency to classify people in accordance with their humors, one sees a corresponding penchant for classifying people into certain moral categories. Character-writing goes back to that ancient Greek, Theophrastus. Aldous Huxley's first ideal character is a fusion of Greek culture and the ideals of D. H. Lawrence. This individual integrates all the instincts into a harmonious combination. There are many character types in Huxley's novels. Charles J. Rolo writes that "Huxley's characters, though individualized by satiric detail, are essentially embodiments of an attitude, mouthpieces for a set of ideas." The ideal individual for Huxley in the 1920's was the person who lived instinctively, spontaneously, realistically, intuitively, fully. As he said in "Wordsworth in the Tropics," if this spontaneity occasionally resulted in inconsistency, no harm resulted. "