THEMES
Themes are the fundamental and
often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
1. Order in Society vs. Freedom
of Choice
The freedom of individuals to
make choices becomes problematic when those choices undermine the safety and
stability of society, and in A Clockwork Orange, the state is willing to
protect society by taking away freedom of choice and replacing it with
prescribed good behavior. In Alex’s world, both the unfettered power of the
individual and the unfettered power of the state prove dangerous. Alex steals,
rapes, and murders merely because it feels good, but when his violent impulses
are taken away, the result is equally as dangerous, simply because freedom of
choice, a fundamental element of humanity, has been taken away.
Thematically, the minister of the interior stands on one side of Alex, supporting an ordered society, and the prison chaplain and Mr. Alexander stand on the other, supporting freedom of choice, even with the negative consequences that go with it. The minister of the interior argues that government should have the power to bring law and order to the streets, and that questions of individual liberty are insignificant compared with the values of safety and order. He cites the suffering Alex causes his victims as evidence for his argument’s merit, but the minister’s own misuse of power, such as hiring thugs as policemen and imprisoning political opponents, undermines his argument. Mr. Alexander, on the other hand, argues for the protection of individual liberty, but he weakens his own argument with his willingness to sacrifice Alex’s life and liberty in order to further his party’s agenda. The prison chaplain seems more sincere in his defense of the right of individuals to make moral choices, equating the ability to choose with being human, but his willful ignorance of Alex’s true destructive potential makes him seem almost naïve.
Throughout A Clockwork Orange, the film forces us to weigh the values and dangers of both individual liberty and state control, and consider how much liberty we’re willing to give up for order, and how much order we’re willing to give up for liberty.
Thematically, the minister of the interior stands on one side of Alex, supporting an ordered society, and the prison chaplain and Mr. Alexander stand on the other, supporting freedom of choice, even with the negative consequences that go with it. The minister of the interior argues that government should have the power to bring law and order to the streets, and that questions of individual liberty are insignificant compared with the values of safety and order. He cites the suffering Alex causes his victims as evidence for his argument’s merit, but the minister’s own misuse of power, such as hiring thugs as policemen and imprisoning political opponents, undermines his argument. Mr. Alexander, on the other hand, argues for the protection of individual liberty, but he weakens his own argument with his willingness to sacrifice Alex’s life and liberty in order to further his party’s agenda. The prison chaplain seems more sincere in his defense of the right of individuals to make moral choices, equating the ability to choose with being human, but his willful ignorance of Alex’s true destructive potential makes him seem almost naïve.
Throughout A Clockwork Orange, the film forces us to weigh the values and dangers of both individual liberty and state control, and consider how much liberty we’re willing to give up for order, and how much order we’re willing to give up for liberty.
2. The Necessity of Evil in Human
Nature
The importance of evil as well as
good in human nature is a fundamental theme of A Clockwork Orange. Alex is
despicable because he gives free rein to his violent impulses, but that sense
of freedom is also what makes him human. Unlike so many of the adult characters
in the film, he, at least, seems exuberantly alive. When Ludovico’s Technique
eliminates the evil aspects of his personality, he becomes less of a threat to
society, but also, the film suggests, less human. He is not truly good because
he didn’t choose to be good, and the utilization of that choice is vital to
being a complete human being.
Alex, with his many evil deeds, isn’t a traditional hero, and this is characteristic of and unique to Kubrick’s films. The good and bad in Kubrick’s characters are almost always inextricably intertwined. Through his characters, Kubrick suggests that dark impulses are a fundamental part of human nature. Human destructiveness and power-lust don’t go away with proper conditioning, except when that conditioning is so extreme that it makes us inhuman. Instead, we must decide how to channel those impulses, when to give them free rein, and when to suppress them by force. A Clockwork Orange illustrates the extremes of both freedom and suppression.
Alex, with his many evil deeds, isn’t a traditional hero, and this is characteristic of and unique to Kubrick’s films. The good and bad in Kubrick’s characters are almost always inextricably intertwined. Through his characters, Kubrick suggests that dark impulses are a fundamental part of human nature. Human destructiveness and power-lust don’t go away with proper conditioning, except when that conditioning is so extreme that it makes us inhuman. Instead, we must decide how to channel those impulses, when to give them free rein, and when to suppress them by force. A Clockwork Orange illustrates the extremes of both freedom and suppression.
3. The Interdependence of Life
and Art
In A Clockwork Orange, characters
view and use art in many different ways, creating a complex and conflicted
picture of how art and real life interact. Alex uses music, film, and art to
express and understand his life. During the two weeks that doctors show Alex
reel upon reel of sex and violence, he is amazed that the real world looks even
more real on a television screen. He and other characters also use art to
detach from life and to cut themselves off from other people. When Alex beats
Mr. Alexander and prepares to rape his wife, he sings “Singin’ in the Rain” and
dances like Gene Kelly did in the musical. By making the violent act into a
song and dance, Alex distances himself from the brutality and from his victims’
suffering. The cat lady, whom Alex kills, expresses her sexuality through her
statues and the paintings on her walls, but when Alex touches her statue of a
penis, she screams at him not to touch it because it’s a work of art. Through
art, she makes sexuality an object not to be touched, rather than an act that
is all about touching.
The characters’ varied responses
to and uses of art in A Clockwork Orange suggest that art has within it the
potential for both good and evil. Art both expresses and channels human
impulses, and it can therefore enhance or deaden life. It can bring people
closer to reality or it can distance them from it. Kubrick makes sex and
violence look unreal in the film. He directs fight scenes to look like dance,
slows down the camera, and distorts images. He plays with our perceptions so
that we never forget we are watching a work of art. Some critics have said that
the stylized and detached way Kubrick presents violence makes accepting it easier,
and that the film even celebrates violence. However, the detachment we
experience as a result of the film’s artistic elements can also make us reflect
more deeply on our own ability to distance ourselves from violence.
Aside from the metaphorical meanings of the title of Stanley Kubrick’s A
Clockwork Orange (1971), the name reportedly came from an off-hand Cockney
expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange," which the source
novel’s author, Anthony Burgess, claimed he heard in a London pub before World
War II, decades before publishing his famous work in 1962. Burgess has written
and spoken about the title on several occasions. In an introduction called
"A Clockwork Orange Resucked," he refers to a person who "has
the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only
a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is
increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State.” On the television programme
Camera Three in 1972, he explained, "I've implied the junction of the
organic, the lively, the sweet – in other words, life, the orange – and the
mechanical, the cold, the disciplined. I've brought them together in this kind
of oxymoron, this sour-sweet word.”
In the film adaptation, however, Kubrick touches upon these themes without explicitly breaking down the title, leaving its specific meaning more open to the audience's interpretation.
Still, Kubrick has shared analysis of the film's central issues. In an interview with Michael Ciment, a French film critic and editor of the cinematic magazine Positif, the director stated, “The film explores the difficulties of reconciling the conflict between individual freedom and social order. Alex exercises his freedom to be a vicious thug until the State turns him into a harmless zombie no longer able to choose between good and evil. One of the conclusions of the film is, of course, that there are limits to which society should go in maintaining law and order. Society should not do the wrong thing for the right reason, even though it frequently does the right thing for the wrong reason.”
In the film adaptation, however, Kubrick touches upon these themes without explicitly breaking down the title, leaving its specific meaning more open to the audience's interpretation.
Still, Kubrick has shared analysis of the film's central issues. In an interview with Michael Ciment, a French film critic and editor of the cinematic magazine Positif, the director stated, “The film explores the difficulties of reconciling the conflict between individual freedom and social order. Alex exercises his freedom to be a vicious thug until the State turns him into a harmless zombie no longer able to choose between good and evil. One of the conclusions of the film is, of course, that there are limits to which society should go in maintaining law and order. Society should not do the wrong thing for the right reason, even though it frequently does the right thing for the wrong reason.”