33 pages • 1 hour read
Aldous HuxleyIsland
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Will Farnaby
Will is a journalist. The novel begins with a familiar trope in literature, that of a stranger coming to town—or in this case, the island of Pala. Will becomes shipwrecked and lands on Pala by accident, where he is injured. During his recovery, Will learns about Palanese culture and becomes increasingly curious as to how the island is governed. His exposure to Palanese ideology leads to his growth.
Will carries emotional baggage about his infidelity and wife’s death. It’s not that he is shameless and unfeeling. Instead, he learned compartmentalizing techniques as a young man growing up with a tyrannical father. These techniques enabled him to get by. Will’s father was an abusive alcoholic and left a monumental mark. Will lacked a proper means to process grief, trauma, and emotional abuse.
As the novel begins, Will doesn’t care about Pala’s fate. He sees his unintentional landing on Pala as an opportunity to do business for his capitalist boss. However, as he spends more time in Pala, his views begin to change. He becomes less cynical and accepts the island’s ideology. We see his growth when he refuses to sign the oil deal. He spares the island for the time being and, by the end of the novel, fully accepts the Palanese lifestyle.
Susila MacPhail
Susila is the daughter-in-law of the island’s primary intellectual leader, Dr. Robert. She is a psychologist by trade, though not in the typical, Western sense. She performs hypnosis, often as a means of pain relief. When she first visits Will, she speaks to him briefly, sees that he is hurt emotionally, and puts him in a therapeutic trance to help him recover.
Like Will, Susila has experienced a spouse’s death and is at times haunted by the loss. Unlike Will, she recognizes that life goes on. Susila grieves; however, she also recognizes that she must release her pain so that it isn’t ever-present. She practices acceptance, attention to the present moment, and awareness of the senses. She lives in a way that honors her husband but also allows her to experience life.
Susila introduces Will to the Moksha medicine. She guides him through his experience, helping him to negotiate his visions and sensations. When Will looks at her, he sees that she is beautiful. Susila is sensual, but she does not allow Will to turn the spiritual experience carnal. She helps him realize Transcendence and Being Present.
Murugan
Murugan is the heir to the throne of the Raja and raised by his overprotective mother in Switzerland. He is highly influenced by the consumerism of Western culture. Through Murugan, the novel explores Greed and the End of Utopia.
It does not take long for Will to penetrate the young man’s true motivations. Murugan has every intention of Westernizing Pala, beginning with industrialization. Symbolically, he represents the Western colonial impetus to conquer, subjugate, and exploit smaller, indigenous populations. Even though he is Palanese, he sees himself as a Westerner.
Murugan is gay. As things currently exist in Pala, the people would accept Murugan’s sexuality. Ironically, the style of rule that Murugan advocates would likely be oppressive for himself.
Dr. Robert
Dr. Robert MacPhail is the island’s intellectual leader. He is a scientist and doctor, a philosopher and historian. Like Will, he also has experienced the loss of a loved one, his son, Dugald, and during the novel loses his wife. Robert benefited from holistic lifestyle education, which was initiated by Andrew MacPhail, his grandfather, and the Old Raja.
Robert’s interaction with his wife Lakshmi demonstrates the island’s approach to life. He is not consumed with worry and anxiety, nor does he ever become resentful or angry. Instead, he accepts her condition and death as part of life. Robert is the ultimate representation of Pala’s ethos and the hybridization of reason with utopian vision. He is not naïve and understands the threats his country faces from Rendang-Lobo. However, he sees these threats as insufficient reasons for abandoning attention to the present moment. He serves as a foil to Will, as he highlights Will’s cynicism and Western attitude through opposing qualities.
Related Titles
By Aldous Huxley
