freeclo Violence and Free Will in Anthony Burgess A...

Violence as an Expression of Free Will in A Clockwork Orange This essay will deal with the subject of free choice, which is the main topic of the novel, A Clockwork Orange . This significant problem is already indicated in the very first line of the text when an unknown voice asks Alex - and certainly by that the reader - What s it going to be then, eh? (13). Being repeated at the beginning of the second part and at the beginning of the very last chapter of the third part this question sets up the thematic frame of the book. It asks the protagonist what he is going to chose, good or evil. Likewise it addresses to the reader to consider his own choice, too (14). Anthony Burgess is intensely committed to this†¦show more content†¦A similar method of characterization is applied to Alex antagonist, the free-thinker F. Alexander. Though he is generally a charming person, fighting against the nasty government, he changes into a furious, revengeful old man as he finally recognizes Alex. With this kind of characterization Burgess takes away over plus sympathy for F. Alexander and unmasks him as a traitor of his own ideals .Mr. Alexanders complacent and blasà © style of writing makes his ambitions somehow suspect (16). So does his behaviour as he recognizes Alex. He promptly seems to forget his charity for mankind and the victims of supreme power (17). As we now know that Alex and F. Alexander are the principal heterogeneous pairing of the novel, we see that they hold different ethical and moral attitudes. Yet it is impossible to divide them up into good and evil. Both of them carry features of a benefactor, respectively a malefactor. Thereby the story achieves authenticity as the characters correspond closer to real human nature. Besides, this character constellation expresses the general relation of good and evil in the world and our possibility to make a choice between them. This is demonstrated by the similar names of