ABSTRACT
This chapter first discusses E.M. Forster's definition of “flat” and “round” characters and shows how Huxley prefers to portray “flat” characters, both because his aim is satirical, and because such characters are ideally suited to illustrating the “philosophy of meaninglessness” that reigns in modern urban society. This takes us to the historical causes for which the philosophy of meaninglessness was established in the society – scientific developments, the rise of Marxism, the Great War of 1914-18, the decadence of the upper classes, and the rise of the working classes, etc. The chapter then goes on to the influences on Huxley's manner of character delineation – the various authors of the time who were either precursors to or were influencers of Huxley. Next we have the genre of satire and the novel of ideas that Huxley makes his own while painting his characters. It is to be noticed that in concentrating on drawing “flat” characters, Huxley builds people who have something grotesque about them – what he himself calls “monstrosities”. In this respect, we can find similarities with other existing genres like the beast fable or Ben Jonson's Comedy of Humours. There is a discussion on the development of satirical comedy in literature, and how Huxley's novels stand out in this respect. He is different from everyone else because of the use of his own methods of narration, motifs, imagery, and irony. The chapter ends with a discussion on authorial intervention and authorial objectivity, which questions automatically emerge in Huxley's delineation of character.
