Question: How exactly were the doctors able to reverse the effects and undo the Ludovico technique that Alex was subjected to?
Socks1000
25th Jun 2009
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Answer: When Alex jumped out of the window, the shock of the fall snapped him out of the Ludovico technique.
He mentions later that he's been having dreams of someone picking through his brain. This is the government undoing the treatment.
25th Jun 2009
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Question: Why did Alex's droogs turn against him? Did they plan to turn against him all along or was it a spur of the moment thing when the police came?
Chosen answer: The droogs didn't like how Alex was leading them, so he attacked them. It's never explained whether the plan was to set him up all along, but given that Din was ready with the bottle to smash him over the head, it seems like an opportunity to be rid of him came up and they took it.
25th Jun 2009
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Question: I have a few questions: What was the ultimate fate of Mr. Alexander, the writer? The Minister of Interior mentioned something about incarceration? If so, why was he incarcerated? Was it because of what he did to Alex, or because he was a threat? Also, the Minister mentioned something about him writing subversive literature? What kind of literature? Finally, what exactly did Alex and his droogs do to confine Mr. Alexander to a wheelchair and how exactly did his wife die? Was it pneumonia or circumstances related to her rape?
Chosen answer: Since this is a futuristic police state, it's likely that Mr. Alexander was dealt with the way dissenters are often dealt with in such situations (Execution or lifelong imprisonment.). In the book, he wrote literature protesting the police state. (The phrase "A Clockwork Orange" comes from a pamphlet he wrote.) Alex and his droogs kicked and beat him while they raped his wife. A while later, the doctors told him she'd died of pneumonia, but he thinks the trauma made her give up the will to live.
25th Jun 2009
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Question: How exactly does the Ludovico technique work?
Chosen answer: It's an extreme form of aversion therapy. The pleasant stimulus (violence in this case) is associated with an unpleasant stimulus (a drug that makes him feel sick). Eventually, it is hard to think of the pleasant stimulus without thinking of the unpleasant stimulus thus making the whole experience unpleasant.
20th Jun 2009
Chosen answer: We're never given details. Possibly electroshock therapy or somehow purging his system of the Ludovico formula.
Captain Defenestrator