Violence as an expression of free will in A Clockwork Orange This essay will deal with the theme of free choice, which is the main topic of the novel, A Clockwork Orange. This significant problem is already indicated in the very first line of the text when an unknown voice asks Alex - and therefore certainly the reader - "What will it be then, eh?" (13). Repeated at the beginning of the second part and at the beginning of the last chapter of the third part, this question constitutes the thematic framework of the book. He asks the protagonist what he will choose, good or evil. In the same way, the reader is also invited to consider his own choice (14). Anthony Burgess is intensely engaged with this problem in "A Clockwork Orange". In his own words the book "was intended to be a kind of tract, even a sermon on the importance of the power of choice." (15)So he wrote the story of Alex, an antihero robbed of his capacity for free choice and condemned to be meek, whether he wants it or not. But from now on his moral beliefs will not have really changed. Alex hasn't acknowledged his failures, he's just not capable of committing any crimes even if he wants to. He is also an ambiguous character. On the one hand, Alex is a sadistic criminal, guilty of murder and rape and fascinated by acts of senseless destruction. At the same time he is a quite intelligent and intelligent boy, deeply interested in music and language. His adoration of classical music and his elaborate use of the "Nadsat" dialect endear him to the reader. It is Burgess's intention to make him sympathetic, because we are meant to feel pity when Alex is insulted in the last two parts of the novel. Thus the author for... half of the sheet......, (1965), S. 171-17710. Hahn, Ronald M. and Volker Jansen. Uhrwerk Orange, in: Hahn, Ronald M. and Volker Jansen. Cultural film: from "Metropolis" to "Rocky Horror Picture Show". 4. Auflage. Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1990, (1985), S. 293-30311. Kagan, Norrnan. A Clockwork Orange, in: Kagan, Norman. Stanley Kubrick's cinema. New expanded edition. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1989, (1972), S.167-18712. Melchior, Claus. Zeittafel zu Leben und Werk di Anthony Burgess, in: Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. 1. Auflage. Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam June, 1992, S. 247-24913. Melchior, Claus. Nachwort, in: Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. 1. Auflage. Stuttgart: Phillip Reclam June, 1992, S. 251-26014. Rabinovitz, Rubin: Ethical Values ​​in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, in: Studies in the Novel, 11 (1979) S. 43-50