How does Alex feel about himself in A Clockwork Orange?
Thus, in choosing violence, Alex ultimately affirms his sense of self. Alex’s vileness in A Clockwork Orange underlines the theme that human beings, no matter how depraved, shouldn’t be deprived of their freedom of self-determination.
Does the “Cure” work in A Clockwork Orange?
But the “cure” has worked; all Alex can do is stoop into the fetal position and wait for the nausea to pass. He is released from prison. While A Clockwork Orange is brilliant for a lot of reasons (the interesting cinematography, the excellent acting by Malcolm McDowell, etc.), it’s the psychology of the film that’s relevant to this blog.
How has A Clockwork Orange been adapted into other forms?
The best known adaptation of the novella to other forms is the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick, featuring Malcolm McDowell as Alex. In 1987, Burgess published a stage play titled A Clockwork Orange: A Play with Music. The play includes songs, written by Burgess, which are inspired by Beethoven and Nadsat slang.
Is there an extract of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess?
An extract is quoted on several web sites: Anthony Burgess from A Clockwork Orange: A Play With Music (Century Hutchinson Ltd, 1987), anthony burgess on A Clockwork Orange - page 2 at the Wayback Machine (archived 15 December 2005), A Clockwork Orange - From A Clockwork Orange: A Play With Music Burgess, Anthony (1978). "Clockwork Oranges".
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What drug did they give Alex in Clockwork Orange?
Serum 114The technique requires the subject to be strapped into a chair with their eyes held open while watching prepared films of violence under the influence of a purposely developed drug; in the film the drug given to Alex is named Serum 114, which is a reference to Kubrick's past film Dr.
How was Alex cured in A Clockwork Orange?
Though he begins as a violent psychopath, his abuse at the hands of society via the experimental Ludovico Treatment is equally horrific. The final shot of Alex, finally cured of the Ludovico's effects, draws up many conflicting feelings and even more questions.
What was the Ludovico technique?
The Ludovico Technique is a reference to Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation, where it was referred to as "Ludovico's Technique." The technique involved headgear which forced the patient's eyelids open (hence "Controlled Tears") while watching violent films under nausea- ...
Does the Ludovico technique work on Alex?
The experience renders Alex unable to perform any violent act, or engage in any sexual activity. He is also conditioned against Beethoven's 9th Symphony, used as the backdrop of the violent imagery, and formerly his favorite piece of music.
Is Alex DeLarge a psychopath or sociopath?
Alex DeLarge displays all the hallmarks of antisocial personality disorder, though being younger than 18 he would be diagnosed with conduct disorder. He also is far more of a psychopath than a sociopath.
How do you do the Kubrick stare?
Give the Kubrick stare a shot. Have your actor tilt their head down slightly and stare forward. This style of shot composition derives its name from director Stanley Kubrick who used the technique in a number of films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980).
What did they put in his eyes A Clockwork Orange?
A Clockwork Orange - The Aversion Therapy Scene The Terrifying Eye Scene: In a scene that will probably ruin your day, doctors strap Alex to a chair, fill him up with all sorts of drugs, install metal clamps on his eyelids to keep his eyes open, and force him to watch the worst humanity has to offer.
Is the Ludovico technique real?
Seniors in the Academy at Bixhorn Technical Center STEM High School read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and in response to an English assignment, created The Ludovico Technique — a fictional aversion therapy — that conditions a patient to experience severe nausea when experiencing or even thinking about violence ...
What is a modified Ludovico?
The Modified Ludovico is a reference to the Ludovico technique from A Clockwork Orange. In both, a series of disturbing images are shown to a patient who is forced to watch them in an attempt to make the patient less likely to engage in a specific behavior.
Is the Ludovico technique justified?
The Ludovico Technique is not justified, because it tramples over personal liberties, infringes on humanity's free will, and establishes a fatalistic view of the world.
What is the meaning of A Clockwork Orange?
If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with color and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State.
How old is Alex in A Clockwork Orange?
15-year-oldBut when it comes to pure evil – evil as a force of nature – Alex, the 15-year-old narrator of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel, A Clockwork Orange, is in a league of his own.
What nationality is Alex Burgess?
Alex Burgess (birth name; film) Nationality. British. Alex is a fictional character in Anthony Burgess 's novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick 's film adaptation of the same name, in which he is played by Malcolm McDowell. In the film, his surname is DeLarge, a reference to Alex calling himself The Large in the novel.
What song did Alex sing in the rain?
However, the writer realises who Alex is upon hearing him singing " Singin' in the Rain ", the very song he had sung while raping his wife. He drugs Alex and forces him to listen to the Ninth Symphony, which causes Alex so much pain that he attempts suicide by jumping out of the window.
How long is Alex in prison?
Alex is found guilty of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Over the next two years, Alex is a model prisoner, endearing himself to the prison chaplain by studying the Bible. He is especially fond of the passages in the Old Testament portraying torture and murder.
Why does Alex not hear the Ninth Symphony?
The treatment conditions him to associate violent thoughts and feelings with sickness. Alex is particularly affected by watching footage of Nazi war crimes set to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, one of his favourite pieces of music; as a result, he can no longer hear it without feeling sick.
What language does the slanger Nadsat speak?
He speaks Nadsat, a teenage slang created by author Anthony Burgess. The language is based on largely English and Russian words, but also borrows from other sources such as Cockney rhyming slang, Romani speech, and schoolboy colloquialisms.
What is Alex's drink?
His beverage of choice is milk spiked with various drugs, which he and his fellow gang members ("droogs") drink to fortify themselves for "ultraviolence". Alex is very fond of classical music, particularly Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he habitually refers to as "Ludwig Van".
Where does Alex live?
Alex lives with his parents in a block of flats in a dystopian England in which his brand of "ultraviolence" is common. At the age of 15, he is already a veteran of state reform institutions; in the film, he is somewhat older.
What is Alex's slang called?
Like most teenagers in A Clockwork Orange , Alex speaks in a highly stylized slang called nadsat .
What is Alex unique about?
Alex is unique in his unyielding commitment to the ideals of violence, as well as the aesthetic pleasure he takes in his crimes. Alex elevates his evil behavior to the status of art. Alex loves art itself, particularly classical music. A devout enthusiast of Beethoven, Mozart, and other composers, Alex experiences something akin to religious joy ...
What does Alex feel when he listens to classical music?
A devout enthusiast of Beethoven, Mozart, and other composers, Alex experiences something akin to religious joy when he listens to classical music. To Alex, the delight he finds in classical music is closely related to the ecstasy he feels during acts of violence. When listening to one recording, for example, Alex imagines “carving the whole litso ...
How does Alex emphasize the connection between music and violence?
Throughout the novel, Alex further emphasizes the connection between music and violence by reserving his most musical language for the descriptions of his most brutal crimes. Alex experiences the pleasures of music and brutality in a direct and sensuous manner, without mediation or meditation.
What is Alex's role in the book?
He dresses in the “heighth of fashion,” frequents all of the popular hangouts, and is the undisputed leader of his gang.
Who is Alex in A Clockwork Orange?
Alex is the narrator and protagonist of A Clockwork Orange. Every word on the page is his, and we experience his world through the sensations he describes and the suffering he endures. He is at once generic and highly individual, mindless and substantive, knowingly evil and innocently likeable.
What does Alex do after lunch?
After lunch, Alex brings the girls back to his apartment. He gives them liquor and plays records, while... (full context)
Who transcribes Alex's testimony?
A stenographer appears to transcribe Alex ’s testimony. Alex decides to tell of his violent escapades in their entirety, and makes sure... (full context)
What happens after Alex meets the Governor?
After his meeting with the Governor, Alex is summoned to the prison chaplain’s office. The chaplain tells the guards to wait outside,... (full context)
What does Alex do before leaving his father?
Before leaving, Alex hands his father some money to buy liquor. He is surprised to find Dim, Pete,... (full context)
How long is Alex serving?
Alex resumes the story two years after Part 1 concluded. He is serving a fourteen-year sentence... (full context)
What does Dim ask Alex?
As the gang walks, Dim glances at the sky and asks Alex what might be found on other planets. Alex rudely shuts Dim’s question down, and the... (full context)
Does the Chaplain like Alex?
The chaplain has taken a liking to Alex, as Alex has devoted himself to studying the bible. This is a ruse to listen... (full context)
What is the main idea of the clockwork orange?
The main idea here that a clockwork orange is trying to put forward is that in a completely non-existing political constitution you have complete freedom. We learn that the purpose of the Ludovico treatment was not to improve and protect the society, but was of a more sinister plan.
How does Burgess make us attached to Alex?
Burgess has made us attached to Alex, by the tone of the novel. The tone up to this point was open, direct and friendly. And it makes us involved in the story as we feel Alex is a friend and relays one us as he is confiding in us. But I find this specific chapter to have a change in tone, almost if a detached tone.
Why did Burgess test Alex's loyalty?
Burgess is trying to show how so-called friends throughout the novel have let Alex down, and to empathises his weakness by choosing not to use archaism and childish language, that Alex is known to use, in this chapter. This foregrounds the greater power of the doctors and the discharge officer, which allow us to sympathise with Alex, as he is at mercy of these characters. This has influenced my views on the other characters and how I feel anger toward those who have put him in this position of weakness.
What does Dr Brodsky treat Alex?
He treats Alex as if he was like a robot or a machine, which wasn’t able to function without the dependency of those who are in charge. Dr Brodsky and Dr Branom, from Alex’s eye, are conniving, deceitful adults. Alex explains to us how it is just as bad to make the films about violence as it is to commit acts of violence.
Why did Burgess create this world?
Burgess created this world to represent our politically controlled world and how there is evil and corruption within it . Burgess displays two different aspects of political control in a clockwork orange, one where there is no sense of politics and another where there is politics.
What is the tone of Dr Brodsky's "A very promising start"?
A very promising start’” Dr Brodsky has a patronising tone in the way he talks to and treats Alex. He treats Alex as if he was like a robot or a machine, which wasn’t able to function without the dependency of those who are in charge. Dr Brodsky and Dr Branom, from Alex’s eye, are conniving, deceitful adults.
What is Dr Branom's explanation of goodness?
Dr Branom’s explanation on goodness is that one who is not righteous by the definition of society is an invalid. “What is happening to you now is what should happen to any normal healthy human organism contemplating the actions of the forces of evil, the workings of the principle of destruction.
When Alex is cured, he jumps out of the window?
Perhaps the only time when Alex is truly cured is when he jumps out of the window. Some critics have termed it a “leap of faithe”. While he was driven to this action, it is an action made by his own free will, and it succeeds in breaking the bonds of the conditioning. It is when he recovers from that fall that we believe him when he says he is cured, “When it came to the Scherzo I could viddy myself very clear running and running on like very light and mysterious nogas, carving the whole litso of the creeching world with my cutthroat britva. And there was the slow movement and the lovely last singing movement still to come. I was cured all right.” However, we know what he means, and it is not the original antisocial behavior and the compulsion to commit violence that he is cured of, but the imposed malady caused by the government’s conditioning.
How does Alex's recovery end?
In the American version of this book, the story ends with Alex’s recovery after jumping from the window. The resulting concussion has undone the conditioning. While this is less than believable, and perhaps the premise is no more so, it follows that he thinks he is cured. Of course, the reaction the author probably intended to this portion would be one of horrifying relief. Yes, Alex is no longer an automaton, and he can once more enjoy music, but his thoughts immediately turn again to violence. So this could be evidence of an underlying malady, after all, We rethink our initial thought that Alex is freer than the rest of society, since he seems to be compelled to violence.
Is Alex cured in a clockwork orange?
Whether or not one believes Alex, the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is cured at the end of the book depends upon how we define sick, insane, and cured. By some definitions, Alex is only sane before the treatment and only cured when he jumps from the window. He is a product of his environment and is only dubbed insane because he is different. By some measures, he is no more insane than the rest of his society. By others, he is not sane after the aversion treatment. More than this, it depends upon how we define his disease when and whether he is cured.
Is Alex cured?
Alex says he is “cured” after the conditioning had completely removed any shred of independence he had. He is now incapable of violence of any kind, even in self-defense. F Alexander, previously his victim, considers Alex not to be “cured”, but rather to be dehumanized and he states that this is a terrible thing to have been done to him and that the crime did not warrant such extreme. “You’ve sinned, I suppose, but your punishment has been out of all proportion. They have turned you into something other than a human being. You have no power of choice any longer. You are committed to socially acceptable acts, a little machine capable only of good&. But the essential intention is the real sin. A man who cannot choose ceases to be a man.” So it would seem that Alex is rather imprisoned or destroyed rather than being cured.
Is Alex sane after conditioning?
If we define sanity as being out of step with society, outside the norms, then maybe Alex is saner at the beginning than after the conditioning treatment. Sanity is often defined legally as being aware of the difference between right and wrong and having free will to choose one or the other. If we use this definition, then Alex is sane in the beginning, though criminal and amoral. Furthermore, his contemporaries among the other portions of society are less in control, than Alex, being conditioned to conform. After he is subjected to brutal conditioning, Alex loses his free will to choose. So he is, by legal definition not responsible for his actions, or not competent and insane. So is he “cured” at this point? Hardly, since he was never sick by these definitions. The conditioning can be seen as having imposed an “illness” upon Alex since it has removed his ability to make choices.
Is Alex amoral?
Alex is amoral. He does things that please him, and novelty is what he seeks to alleviate the boredom of life in a repressive conformist dystopia. He is not all that different from his contemporaries, good or bad, and he is only punished because he is different. What he craves is excitement and power After all, he is betrayed by his friends, who are different because they do not share his bond with music. Even in his society, he is an anomaly, a violent, uneducated criminal who loves classical music.
Who wrote Peter Pan?
Children Literature. "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie "Empire of the Sun" by J. G. Ballard
What is the clockwork orange?
0. Comment. In Stanley Kubrick's dystopian 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, the title refers to the methods by which the prison system denies free will to Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), the film's hyperviolent protagonist. Set in a futuristic, culturally impoverished version of London, the film tracks Alex and his gang ...
What is the meaning of the title of the movie A Clockwork Orange?
The title of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange hints at the harmful effects of imposing rigid social conditioning on an individual's free will. In Stanley Kubrick's dystopian 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, the title refers to the methods by which the prison system denies free will to Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), ...
What does "queer as a clockwork orange" mean?
As many critics have mentioned, Burgess's title is inspired by the Cockney expression "queer as a clockwork orange" ("queer" meaning "strange" or "unusual"). Both the novel and the film seem to imply that wild oranges, like Alex himself, are living things that should be allowed to grow in natural and unpredictable ways.
What technique does Malcolm McDowell use to assault Alex?
This is best shown when the practitioners of the Ludovico technique hold a public demonstration to showcase their success with Alex. First, they bring a bare-breasted woman into Alex's company. Even though Malcolm McDowell 's character wants desperately to assault the woman, his conditioning prevents him from doing so.
What is the movie "Alex" based on?
Kubrick's film is based on a 1962 novel by British author Anthony Burgess, and despite all the violence, both the novel and Kubrick's film remain surprisingly popular. At the height of his violent escapades, Kubrick's Alex commits a home invasion and injures one woman so horribly that she dies.
Where is Nickalus Rupert?
Nickalus Rupert is a Pushcart Prize-winning writer located near the Gulf Coast of Florida. In 2019, he completed a PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is author of Bosses of Light and Sound, a forthcoming short story collection from Willow Springs Books.
Does Ludovico help Alex?
After all, the Ludovico technique doesn't help Alex become a better person; even after treatment, Alex still wants to perform violent acts. Rather, the treatment instills Alex with a mechanized response to violence that renders him incapable of choosing to act on his impulses.
Plot summary
Alex is a 15-year-old gang leader living in a near-future dystopian city.
Omission of the final chapter
The book has three parts, each with seven chapters. Burgess has stated that the total of 21 chapters was an intentional nod to the age of 21 being recognised as a milestone in human maturation. The 21st chapter was omitted from the editions published in the United States prior to 1986.
Characters
Alex: The novel's protagonist and leader among his droogs. He often refers to himself as "Your Humble Narrator". Having coaxed two ten-year-old girls into his bedroom, Alex refers to himself as "Alexander the Large" while raping them; this was later the basis for Alex's claimed surname DeLarge in the 1971 film.
Analysis
A Clockwork Orange was written in Hove, then a senescent seaside town. Burgess had arrived back in Britain after his stint abroad to see that much had changed. A youth culture had developed, based around coffee bars, pop music and teenage gangs. England was gripped by fears over juvenile delinquency.
Reception
The Sunday Telegraph review was positive, and described the book as "entertaining ... even profound". Kingsley Amis in The Observer acclaimed the novel as "cheerful horror", writing "Mr Burgess has written a fine farrago of outrageousness, one which incidentally suggests a view of juvenile violence I can’t remember having met before".
Adaptations
A 1965 film by Andy Warhol entitled Vinyl was an adaptation of Burgess's novel.
External links
Look up Appendix:A Clockwork Orange in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Why did Alex become sick in A Clockwork Orange?
We see this side effect in A Clockwork Orange in that the prison experimenters chose the series of violent movies that were silent, except for the soundtrack of Beethoven music in the background. Each film played Beethoven. So inevitably, and to his personal horror, Alex also became violently ill every time he heard Beethoven. Both thinking about violence and hearing Ludwig Van became cues for him to be sick. Classic movie, classical music, classical conditioning.
What is the main character in A Clockwork Orange?
The main character in the movie is Alex , an adolescent who is prone to the extreme violence of assault, murder, and rape.
Why did Pavlov's dogs drool when they heard the bell ring?
Pavlov caught on to the fact that the dogs did, indeed, drool when they heard the bell ring, but they also drooled in response to anything else that had been an accidental cue that food was coming, such as Pavlov’s footsteps coming into the room, or the white lab coats that he and his assistants wore.
What is classical conditioning?
As anyone who’s taken Psych 101 will recall, classical conditioning is all about transferring an automatic response (such as drooling when you see or smell food) to a new, formerly neutral stimulus (such as hearing a bell ring).
How does the man get revenge on Alex?
So the man decides to get revenge by torturing Alex: Alex is captured into a locked room and forced to listen to Beethoven for hours and hours. The man wants Alex to feel the pain and nausea caused by the experiments, which he initially does. But after a while, this torture has the unintended effect of actually curing him of the nausea, due to extinction. Without the drug in his system, Alex’s body eventually realizes that Beethoven is safe. And so is violence.
Why is aversion therapy so complicated?
Due to the unpleasant nature of Aversion Therapy, ethics get complicated. Most of the time, the clients/patients must voluntarily agree to the negative experiences, as a temporarily unpleasant path to being “cured.”
What happens to the Cartman in South Park?
In the South Park movie, Cartman is exposed to this when an electronic chip is inserted into his brain, such that if he swears he’s punished by an electric shock. In one treatment for alcoholism, alcoholics consume a pill that has no effect unless they also consume alcohol; the combined drugs cause intense projectile vomiting designed to make the alcoholics want to avoid alcohol in the future.