Dystopia
Dystopia is defined as a society characterized by a focus on mass poverty, squalor, suffering, or oppression. Most authors of dystopian fiction explore at least one reason why things are that way, often as an analogy for similar issues in the real world.
Dystopias usually extrapolate elements of contemporary society and are read by many as political warnings. Many purported utopias reveal a dystopian character by suppressing justice, freedom and happiness. Samuel Butler's Erewhon can be seen as a dystopia because of the way sick people are punished as criminals while thieves are cured in hospitals, which the inhabitants of Erewhon see as natural and right, i.e. utopian (as mocked in Voltaire's Candide). Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World is a more subtle and more threatening dystopia because he projected into the year 2540 and the industrial and social changes he perceived in 1931, leading to a fascist hierarchy of society, industrially successful by exploiting a slave class conditioned and drugged to obey and enjoy their servitude. George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel about a coercive and impoverished totalitarian society, conditioning its population through propaganda rather than drugs. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale describes a future North America governed by strict religious rules which only the privileged dare defy.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• The natural world is banished and distrusted.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
Dystopias usually extrapolate elements of contemporary society and are read by many as political warnings. Many purported utopias reveal a dystopian character by suppressing justice, freedom and happiness. Samuel Butler's Erewhon can be seen as a dystopia because of the way sick people are punished as criminals while thieves are cured in hospitals, which the inhabitants of Erewhon see as natural and right, i.e. utopian (as mocked in Voltaire's Candide). Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World is a more subtle and more threatening dystopia because he projected into the year 2540 and the industrial and social changes he perceived in 1931, leading to a fascist hierarchy of society, industrially successful by exploiting a slave class conditioned and drugged to obey and enjoy their servitude. George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel about a coercive and impoverished totalitarian society, conditioning its population through propaganda rather than drugs. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale describes a future North America governed by strict religious rules which only the privileged dare defy.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• The natural world is banished and distrusted.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
The Dystopian Protagonist
• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
• questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he
or she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world
through his or her perspective.
Types of Dystopian Controls
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the
illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following
types of controls:
• Corporate Control: One or more large corporations control society through
products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report
and Running Man.
• Bureaucratic Control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through
a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government
officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
• Technological Control: Society is controlled by technology—through
computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix,
The Terminator, and I, Robot.
• Philosophical/Religious Control: Society is controlled by philosophical or
religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic
government.
• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
• questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he
or she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world
through his or her perspective.
Types of Dystopian Controls
Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control and the
illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of the following
types of controls:
• Corporate Control: One or more large corporations control society through
products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report
and Running Man.
• Bureaucratic Control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through
a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government
officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
• Technological Control: Society is controlled by technology—through
computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix,
The Terminator, and I, Robot.
• Philosophical/Religious Control: Society is controlled by philosophical or
religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic
government.