Alex and Billyboy

Alex and Billyboy are sworn enemies whose violent rivalry defines the early ultra-violent world of the novel and undergoes a grotesque inversion when the two meet again under the authority of the state.

Origins and First Confrontation

Billyboy is introduced as the leader of a rival gang of five or six droogs, a fat, stinking figure whose very presence makes Alex want to sick. When Alex and his three droogs come across Billyboy and his gang near the Municipal Power Plant, Billyboy and his number-one Leo are holding a weepy young devotchka, not more than ten, preparing to perform something on her. The sight of Alex's gang causes Billyboy to release the girl, and the two gangs immediately engage in a knife and chain fight. Alex taunts Billyboy with a stream of inventive insults, calling him a "globby bottle of cheap stinking chip-oil" and daring him to "come and get one in the yarbles, if you have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly, thou." During the fight, Alex uses his cut-throat britva to carve two curtains of blood from Billyboy's fat filthy oily snout, but Billyboy feels nothing and continues lumbering forward like a filthy fatty bear, poking at Alex with his flick-type nozh. The fight is broken up by the arrival of police sirens, and Alex vows to get Billyboy's yarbles off lovely next time.

Reversal of Power: Billyboy as Police Officer

Years later, after Alex has been subjected to the Ludovico Technique and released from prison, he is attacked by a group of old men in the Public Biblio. The police who arrive to break up the riot are Billyboy and Dim, Alex's former droog who had betrayed him. Billyboy, now a police officer, is no longer as fat as he had been. He and Dim drive Alex out into the country, where they administer what they call "summary punishment." Billyboy tells Alex that the old days are dead and gone days, but that naughty little malchicks handy with cut-throat britvas must be kept under. During the beating, Billyboy and Dim take off their shlems and tunics, and the driver of the patrol car, a young officer named Rex, reads a book calmly while the assault takes place. After they finish, Billyboy waves and says "Be viddying you some more sometime, Alex," while Dim gives one of his old clowny guffs.

Thematic Significance

The transformation of Billyboy from a gang leader into a police officer represents the novel's central critique of state violence and the hypocrisy of authority. The same brutality that Billyboy once practiced as a criminal is now sanctioned and wielded by the state against Alex, who has been rendered incapable of violence by the Ludovico Technique. The relationship thus illustrates the cyclical nature of violence and the ease with which the agents of ultra-violence can be absorbed into the machinery of law enforcement, a point underscored by the fact that Billyboy and Dim now work together as rozzes, despite having been enemies in their gang days.