Erin Siemsen

105H

Rhetorical Analysis

Many years ago, Aldous Huxley wrote a short story entitled: “Hyperion

to a Satyr.” It is an interesting look at society and the relational boundaries

with in it based on a person’s dirt. Most of this commentary revolves around

one’s personal hygiene and how your smell, or lack-there-of, ranks you in

society. In all of this talk of cleanliness, a question of importance lies,

though it is seemingly unrelated. That is, can “Hyperion” be seen as a

metaphor for God?

To achieve my goal of answering this research question, I will begin

buy examining Huxley’s piece, “Hyperion to a Satyr,” as a whole, using

metaphoric criticism. I will do this so that a general sense of its meaning

may be obtained. I will then isolate the metaphors that relate to my topic.

Since my research question is so specific, it would be impossible to sort out

the metaphors pertaining to it any further than they already have been.

Therefore, I will skip the step of sorting these metaphors according to vehicle

or tenor. I will finally analyze the metaphors to discover their relation to

my research question.

Huxley’s “Hyperion to a Satyr” is a short story commentary on society’s

dirt. Huxley says, “Dirt…was once accepted as an unalterable element in the

divinely established Order of Things.” (Huxley p.139) Thankfully, people could

not live with the dirt. According to Huxley, society came up with the idea

that “filth is disgusting. Therefore, let us …get rid of the filth.” (Huxley

p.141) The basic rule that is explained by this story is thus: since dirt is

disgusting, get rid of it. If you are able to get rid of it, then you have

risen in society. If you cannot get rid of it, and live in it day by day, then

you are lower in society. Dirt is a parallel for sin. If you rise above it and

get rid of sin, you are higher in society, people look up to and respect you. You become basically perfect. On the other hand, if you wallow in sin day by day, you will be perceived as lower in society, because people look down and you and don’t respect you because of your immorality.

In “Hyperion to a Satyr,” Hyperion is the sewage treatment plant that

achieves the wonder of eliminating the sludge and dirt of the city. It is

mentioned many times in ways that suggest it is a metaphor for God. It is

described as a “marvel of modern technology.” (Huxley p.139) The way it works

is it takes in water from a river that runs through it. This river is 99.7%

pure and “exceeds [the purity] of ivory soap.” (Huxley p.147) It is mixed with

bacteria, sewage, and soap, and leaves Hyperion with a purity of 99.95%. The

water that goes through is cleaner when it comes out. Christians would say

that through God our sins are washed away and we are made clean. As was stated

earlier, if dirt is sin, Hyperion washes away dirt, and God washes away sin.

All of this dirt people carry in reality bears with it a lot of

illnesses. Better care of personal hygiene has lead to the reduction of

disease that previously had been solved “only by saints.” (Huxley p149)

Sinners with diseases would go to priests to receive a laying on of hands where

the priest blesses them and asks God to lift away the disease. For many people

this worked and their disease was gone. Saints supposedly solved the diseases

because it was the Will of God that it should be so. This example can be

paralleled to Hyperion being a metaphor for God. In this passage about the

saints, the image of God making people clean is again visible.

As said earlier, dirt is unalterable, but Hyperion (the sludge plant)

got rid of the dirt. This unalterable dirt creates symbols in our daily lives. Huxley says, “bad smells may stand for social inferiority, dirt for low IQ, vermin for immorality, sickness for a status beneath the human.” (Huxley p.49) These symbols are in essence social labels. Human nature is such that we tend to apply these labels to ourselves and others wontonly. In his conclusion Huxley says,

“ Symbols are necessary - for we could not think without them…. There is no way out, except for those who have learned to go beyond all symbols to a direct experience of the basic fact of the divine imminence.” (Huxley p.151-152)

Here, he is saying that symbols are unalterable, but we as a society can get around them if we learn to trust in “divine imminence.” In these two sections, dirt and symbols are compared with this metaphor. God and Hyperion are also ultimately compared.

There is a metaphor that relates God and Hyperion and it is in the name itself.

Hyperion was the titan of light according to Greek Mythology. He was one of

the children of Gaea and Uranus who were the first to exist. Hyperion was the

god who dispelled darkness with his sunlight as God dispels sin with grace and

mercy.

If we move from just the idea of God to bringing the idea of the Holy Trinity

into the argument, another connection can be made. Whereas the name Hyperion

was associated with a sludge plant and the treated water it produced, so Jesus

was associated with sinners and their ultimate redemption.

Redemption from sin and redemption from dirt have been paralleled in such a way

that it becomes a key part of Huxley’s “Hyperion to a Satyr.” Throughout this

criticism I have proved that Hyperion can be seen as a parallel for God. Some

may say that this metaphor is unimportant in Huxley’s commentary. The

metaphors that pertain to it are certainly not overwhelming in his story. A

reader would have to stop and think about the piece to go beyond its face value

and make this connection of greater thought. It is an important metaphor to

recognize though. Likening Hyperion to God puts “Hyperion to a Satyr” on a

different level. It makes a reader go back and read the text with a religious

view in mind. Comparing Hyperion to God implies a comparison between dirt and

sin. Talking about the amount of dirt in the world makes us examine the amount

of sin. Talking about ways to get rid of the dirt, leads to thoughts of getting

rid of the sin too. There is an element of Aldous Huxley’s piece, “Hyperion to a Satyr,” that could be telling his readers to examine the dirt in their own lives, and furthermore, challenges us to “get rid of it.”