Nemeckova 1

Pavla Nmekov
Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D.
AJ14070 Aspekty britsk przy poloviny 20. stolet
30 January 2016
Beautiful Red Krovvy: The Violence in A Clockwork Orange
This essay focuses on the role of violence in Anthony Burgesss novel A Clockwork
Orange published in 1962. The aim of this essay is to show how Burgess treats the
controversial topic of violence and to trace the implications of the violent scenes depicted in
the story.
The theme of violence is undoubtedly one of the crucial issues discussed in the book
and also one of the reasons for its generally controversial reception which resulted in the
novel being banned in certain countries. However, a closer analysis of how the theme of
violence is portrayed and treated in the story reveals that A Clockwork Orange does not
employ violence for violences sake. The purpose of the scenes where Alex and his droogs
brutally beat innocent people is more than just to shock the readers or to portray Alex and his
friends as the horrid generation of immoral dangerous juvenile delinquents and murderers.
Burgesss approach towards this sensitive topic implies that violence is actually used more
like a thematic tool to hint at the problematic sociological issues and thus to convey a
complex critique of a society. This critique is not based on specific issues and examples
entrenched in a particular time or connected to a particular environment. It is rather
constructed through the thematic level of the book and the performance and portrayal of
violence is one of the key aspects of this concept of social criticism. That is also the reason for
the atemporal and unspecified setting of the book. By creating a narrative which is based on
significant themes and symbols rather than concrete events framed by time and place, Burgess

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manages to construct a story which is still relevant and applicable even after 54 years from its
publication.
One of the strategies used in A Clockwork Orange to create the persisting tension of
controversy throughout the story is the unconventional attitude towards violence which is
predominantly expressed through the main character of the book, Alex. Alexs two true
passions music and violence are not just a coincidental combination of peculiar interests.
Alexs character actually functions as an embodiment of a line of analogy between art and
violence winding through the whole plot. The principal controversy of the book is created by
the fact that violence is treated as art. This effect is achieved by a number of stylistic as well
as thematic techniques. As for the formal aspect of dealing with the theme of violence in the
book it is interesting to note the language used when Alex describes the violent acts
performed. The descriptions of fights are very explicit, detailed and ornate. Alexs language
used for the recounting of his night-time adventures is always very colourful and affluent.
This can be demonstrated on the description of one of the first incidents in the book: The old
veck began to make sort of chumbling shooms - "wuf waf wof" - so Georgie let go of holding
his goobers apart and just let him have one in the toothless rot with his ringy fist, and that
made the old veck start moaning a lot then, then out comes the blood, my brothers, real
beautiful. (Burgess 8). The word beautiful in the novel usually appears in relation to the
description of violent scenes and it is particularly associated with the intense red colour of
blood. As this excerpt shows, the violent scene is described in a similar manner as a dynamic
painting. However, in Alexs narration it is not only the result of the act, the canvas painted
with the red blood, which is assessed in terms of beauty and artistry but also the process of
violence itself. Dim had a real horrorshow length of oozy or chain round his waist, twice
wound round, and he unwound this and began to swing it beautiful in the eyes or glazzies.
Pete and Georgie had good sharp nozhes, but I for my own part had a fine starry horrorshow

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cut-throat britva which, at that time, I could flash and shine artistic. (Burgess 15). In this
case, Alex clearly expresses that he considers violence to be art. He describes the acts and the
tools using positive evaluative adjectives such as good, fine, horrorshow (meaning again good
in the Nadsat slang of teenagers in the book) and again he assesses the mastery of these tools
as beautiful. Alex is also very particular about looks. After one of the ultraviolent episodes,
Alex says: I didn't like the look of Dim: he looked dirty and untidy, like a veck who'd been in
a fight, which he had been, of course, but you should never look as though you have been. His
cravat was like someone had trampled on it, his maskie had been pulled off and he had floordirt on his litso, so we got him in an alleyway and tidied him up a malenky bit, soaking our
tashtooks in spit to cheest the dirt off. (Burgess 11). The interesting thing to note is the
remark that one should not look as though they had been fighting. The violence is truly
pictured as a neat, graceful and artistic process. Alex does not enjoy violence for the dirty
physical pleasure which he deems barbaric. For him, violence is a visual artistic stimulus
which stirs up strong yet surprisingly tender emotions in him.
Another fact which points out the artistic nature of violence as described in the book is
the emphasis put on its performative character. This is even suggested by one of the most
frequently used Nadsat words in the story horrorshow. As the Nadsat glossary included in
some of the later versions of the book reveals, the word horrorshow is actually a kind of
Russian-English hybrid. It is based on the phonetic sound of Russian word for good
khorosho. However, as opposed to a regular phonetic transcription, the word is adjusted as for
the spelling so that it acquires a specific meaning even in the English language quite
independent from the Russian original. The implications of this word are especially
significant in relation to the performative character of violence. The violent scenes are truly a
horror show. It is also important to note that horror in this case may easily turn its pejorative
sense inside out, similarly to the word horrific which is often used in both senses as terrible

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and wonderful. Arguably, in general, the word horrorshow suggests that terrible things tend
to be wonderful. Alex and his friends usually perform violence as a kind of theatrical act. Alex
in particular often indulges in verbal plays with his victims and in those cases he tends to
switch the style of his utterance. I said: Do watch that, O Dim, if to continue to be on live
thou dost wish. (Burgess 26). This manner of talk reminds the reader of the classic
Shakespearean English. Alex usually lapses into this theatre talk in tense situations and
enhances the paradox of violence as art. The more emotionally excited Alex gets the more
controlled and sophisticated are his manners. Apart from the dramatic way of talking, another
aspect which contributes to the portrayal of violence as an artistic performance is the use of
masks. As Alex describes, before embarking on a robbery or other criminal enterprise, he and
his friends would wear masks: they were like faces of historical personalities (they gave you
the names when you bought) and I had Disraeli, Pete had Elvis Presley, Georgie had Henry
VIII and poor old Dim had a poet veck called Peebee Shelley (Burgess 10). The fact that
these masks are actually portraits of historically, politically and culturally significant persons
is quite important and implies that violence is actually entrenched in the culture and is a part
of our society though disguised in some cases. Apart from these obvious masks which even
Alex and his friends acknowledge as a kind of disguise, the reader may also consider the
regular clothes of these boys as a kind of costume. The fashion style of the youngsters in the
book is very specific. The reader may accept the eccentric clothes simply as the youths
attempt to distinguish themselves from the older generation and as the natural tendency to
shock and rebel. However, the clothes of these teenagers also bear quite an essential symbolic
value. Besides the sense of unity which the common fashion awakens, it also bestows a sense
of significance on the acts of these teenagers. Just like an actors actions become symbolically
meaningful once they put on their costume and step on the stage, the scenes of teenagers in
their obscure apparel beating a person acquire a performative character. This fact suggests one

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of the great dangers which the parallel between violence and art in the story reveals. The
aesthetic assessment of the violent acts, the costumes of the youth, the masks, the
distinguished manner of speech, all of these aspects lead to certain depersonalization of the
audience. The readers may soon realize that they quickly adopt Alexs evaluative views. They
perceive the violence through Alexs artistic description, they watch Alexs neat dance of
blood and eventually they begin to assess the scene as an artistic performance as well. This
shift in the readers perception is an interesting example of the writers subtle manipulation
and brings into question the human capacity of making truly objective and moral decisions
and judgements in general.
The most prominent strategy used in the novel to portray violence as an artistic act is
its strong connection to music. As suggested above, Alexs character serves as a kind of
personification of this parallel. This can be very well demonstrated on the descriptions of
Alexs personal music concerts in his room.

As I slooshied, my glazzies tight shut to shut in the bliss that was better than any
synthemesc Bog or God, I knew such lovely pictures. There were vecks and ptitsas,
both young and starry, lying on the ground screaming for mercy, and I was smecking
all over my rot and grinding my boot in their litsos. And there were devotchkas ripped
and creeching against walls and I plunging like a shlaga into them, and indeed when
the music, which was one movement only, rose to the top of its big highest tower, then,
lying there on my bed with glazzies tight shut and rookers behind my gulliver, I broke
and spattered and cried aaaaaaah with the bliss of it (Burgess 29).

The music for Alex is a catalyst of strong emotions and pleasure in the same way as
violence. Some may argue that it is perverse to associate the pathological images of irrational

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violence with some of the greatest works of classical music. However, this extreme
juxtaposition is a further support for the paradox created in the story.
By drawing a parallel between violence and art, Anthony Burgess leads his readers
towards the aestheticization of violence. He guides the audience to assess something generally
considered as evil and immoral in terms of beauty which is universally associated with the
good aspect of human nature and culture. In effect, this aestheticization of violence points out
the unreliability of human judgement and especially the relativity of categories of good and
evil. The binary opposition of good and bad proves to be one of the main issues in the book.
Alex himself remarks:

But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the cause of badness is what
turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don't go into the cause of goodness, so
why the other shop? If lewdies are good that's because they like it, and I wouldn't ever
interfere with their pleasures, and so of the other shop. And I was patronizing the other
shop. More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies, and
that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self
cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools
cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self (Burgess 35).

This is one of the crucial ideas of the story. Where does the goodness end and the evil
start and what is the role of free will in the human nature. Violence as a theme is used to bring
up these questions. It is the evil portrayed as the art and what is more, violence itself proves to
be relative in the book. Alexs violent behaviour is not very different from the governments
corrective program introduced in the story using the so-called Ludovicos Technique. As
shown above, Alexs violence is a performance, based on certain aesthetic and visual aspects.

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Ludovicos Technique also has this attribute of a spectacle. Alex is forced to look at visually
stimulating films accompanied by dense classical music just like he and his friends held F.
Alexander, a mirror character to young Alex, to witness the rape of his wife earlier in the
story. The aspect of the relative nature of violence is completed by the fact that some of the
young criminals, namely Dim, the former droog of Alex, and Billyboy, his main enemy, end
up as policemen. The already doubtful difference between the illegal violence of immoral
youngsters and the legal violence of the government and police is definitively eliminated by
the fact that the performers of the violence are still the same and it is only the uniforms that
change.
The aim of this essay was to show how Burgess uses the theme of violence to
construct a valid and complex social criticism. Violence is aestheticized through the narration
of Alex who perceives it as another form of art and intertwines it with his passion for classical
music. The aesthetic perception of art bring into question the universal binary categories of
good and evil, moral and immoral and hints at the problem of human inability to make truly
objective and purely ethical decisions. Burgess utilizes the strong theme of violence as an
aspect of social behaviour which poses a problem throughout the whole history of humankind.
At one point in the story, Alex is even unable to read Bible after undergoing the Ludovicos
treatment which conditioned him to become physically sick whenever he comes into contact
with any form of violence. He picks it up to find comfort: But all I found was about smiting
seventy times seven and a lot of Jews cursing and tolchocking each other, and that made me
want to sick, too. (Burgess 125). Even religion, the advocacy of human goodness, is
permeated with violence. By using the method of beautification of the horrible, Burgess
constructs a powerful criticism of the positivist approach towards the human nature and
capacities.

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Works Cited
Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. London: Penguin, 2010. Print.