Dystopia

The term dystopia is coined as a counterpart of utopia; a term originally coined by Thomas
More and applied to the works which depict the ideal society. In opposing to this thought,
some science fiction writers argue that in future, humankind will destroy the whole world in
the pursuit of quest for colonizing nature and to fulfil their desires of technological evolution.
Thus, the term dystopia, which is derived from Greek which means a bad place and usually it
depicts a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of
a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or
totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism
about a current trend, societal norm, or political system. In the Brave New World, Aldous
Huxley firstly used the term to refer to a bad place. The best definition of ‘dystopia’ can be
found in A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (1998) in two simple words
-“See UTOPIA.” and one finds that dystopias are “almost chiliastic forecasts of the doom
awaiting mankind.”
The journey from utopia to dystopia is the result of disappointment with the visions of an
ideal or perfect state that is aroused out of the current state of events and fear of frightening
magnitude. It is the result of the ambivalence, isolation, lack of confidence in the human
being which is the gift of chaos of the Two World Wars and threat of scientific
advancements. Science, which is once considered as the gift for human life, has become a
tool of misery; and people begin to hate and fear science because it will be the remoteness
enemy of mankind. This fear is further sparked with the establishment of totalitarian
governments, which began to devour the freedom of human being under the false ideals of
state.
Looking at some of the recurrent themes in dystopian fiction, it is apparent that they are
startlingly comparable to the main characteristics of the utopian vision of the world. Yet,
there is a difference between utopian and dystopian realizations of the visions. The utopian
writers see the positive effects of the life when it is lead through the principles of the ideal
state. On the contrary, the dystopian writers tend to articulate the upcoming dangers in
restricting the individual life. They warn the society against the threats that may be resulted
because of the flaws of the utopian ideals. They foreground the crisis in which either the
people of the state do not wish to become the part of the collective or the government
dictatorship to gain power and control over its people. This characteristic difference is rightly
presented in the writing of Walsh, who articulates that If utopia is social planning that
produces good results, dystopia is most often social planning that backfires and slides into
nightmare. Similar stances are taken by Jessica Langer, who, in her book The Shapes of
Dystopia: Boundaries, Hybridity and the Politics of Power argues that rather than imagining a
world in which the criticized aspects of the author‘s society have disappeared. She imagines a
world in which those same aspects are overgrown and run amok, displacing them into an
alternate universe where life is defined by them. Thus, dystopia is the projection of nightmare
where sever aspects have overgrown.
Loss of individualism is another important characteristic of dystopian vision. Most of the

philosophical discussions and literary representations in relation to dystopia have pointed out
the departure of individualism from the collective ambitions of the state, because the common
happiness of the society destroys the individual freedom. The loss of individual identity is
classically expressed by the critic Walsh, who claims that by weakening the sense of
individual identity, they make it more likely that the average man will merge his own frail
identity with the social whole and cease to demand that he be called by a name instead of a
number. The aforementioned artistic renderings have cleared that the collective tendency of
the state forces its people to sacrifice the indigenousness and transforms them into the
machines, which must live and die for the sake of the state. Sharon Stevenson rightly
comments that the evil in a dystopia is usually a faceless, all-encompassing state,
bureaucracy, or belief. system that annihilates or restricts some set of values the readers
believe are indispensable to both their own and the characters‘ ability to function as fully
dignified human beings. Dystopian thoughts are centred on such a loss of individualism
where state denies the indigenous.
Regimented lives of people are other characteristics of the dystopia, where the citizens of the
state have to live under servile and lead the lives as per the regiment instructions. The
individuals are bound to the regiment or the government, where they are not allowed to
establish any kind of person relationships or emotions. The concepts like sex and marriage
are merely part of the human reproduction. The state government adopts children, provides
education and training to them and teaches them to be loyal to the state. The children are
taught to never question the system of the state and they should complete their duties
accurately. Thus, the principle of utopian communism, which aims to assure the well-being of
its people, turns into the abusing power that, begins to suppress the people of the state making
them slaves. Totalitarian Government: The theme of the government control is another
significant aspect of the dystopian literature. According to a few critics, the government
exercises its control in the society in the form of the technological inventions. The technology
is utilized to control the citizens of the state as they are forced to live constantly in the state of
depressed deprivation. Sometimes the lives of the people are manipulated with the help of
technology. The time scheduled lives of the people of the state and their transformation into
the mindless machines are the tools in the hands of the government. The routine lives of the
people are expressed by Samuel Macey, who writes that in the clocks dominate dystopian
societies eventually the people themselves take on the nature of clocks. This is also seen in
George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four, where the societal vision is characterised by the
despotic power regime, the Party. The Party’s most recognizable characteristic is the
totalitarian paradigm personified by its dictator Big Brother, who looks after the community
and all individuals through the omnipresent surveillance. According to the critics, the control
of the state forces the individual to suppress his emotions and individualism that results into
the increment of the uniformity in the place of originality. Such an organization of the society
leads to the transformation of the individual in the communal harmony who identifies
common behavioural patterns, which ultimately provide an opportunity to the state to exploit
the society.
Dystopian novels reveal the concerns of the society in which they were written; they
comment on topical concerns by projecting a speculative future scenario that is intended to
alarm the reader.

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The term dystopia is coined as a counterpart of utopia; a term originally coined by Thomas

Loss of individualism is another important characteristic of dystopian vision. Most of the

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