Technique/Literary

Quote Explanation Analysis

Devices
Notes
“…the world looked cold” Descriptive imagery Creates a depressing atmosphere
Connotations
“though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, No matter what happens, life is always bleak and a
there seemed to be no colour in anything” despair due to the totalitarian government

“cold, harsh,” words of darkness and despair

• Within an oppressed society, civilians are
subjugated to harsh treatment, inextricably
conveyed through the dystopic overtones
of the novel (Part One Chapter One).
• Emphasises the motif of ‘urban decay’,
therefore Orwell constructs Oceania as a
continent in which harsh conditions
prevail.
It evokes a negative tone, reflecting the cultural
anxieties surrounding the imposition of harmful
circumstances by the ‘outsider’

“The black-moustachio’d face gazed down from every Allusion to Stalin and Orwell conveys the despotism of totalitarian
commanding corner” Hitler (moustache) regimes, similar to the ones occurring in Soviet
Russia
“overfulfilment of the Ninth Three Year Plan” Allusion to Stalin’s 5
year plans
“a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered Imagery Bluebottles are ugly threatening looking flies
for an instant like a bluebottle” simile

“Your worst enemy, he reflects, was your own nervous Change Point: Sense of individuality & humanity
system. At any moment, the tension inside you was In diminishes in the wake of contextual atrocities
liable to translate itself into some visible symptom” Narrative • Appeals to the responder as the tone
Perspective becomes confronting and engaging on a
personal level.
• The individual struggles internally, where
the fear of abnormality, effectively,
incapacitates them.
Complements the motif of surveillance within the
novel as the unrestrained use of telescreens,
reduces a sense of privacy

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“All one knew was that every quarter, astronomical Irony • Allows him to criticise the flaws of such
numbers of boots could be produced, whilst half the Satire barbaric regimes and it accentuates the
population of Oceania went barefoot” deceptive nature of Ingsoc.
• Clearly, civilians and records are
manipulated to help the party meets its
own ends.
• This contributes to the overall sense of
disorientation within the novel, whereby
the psychological strain highlights the
insidious corruption of the mind.
• The dichotomies within novel are
indicative of Orwell’s concern of the rise
of authoritarian governments, based on the
implications of WW2 with Stalinism and
Nazism in particular.

“there was…no way of knowing whether you were Symbolism of loss of This conveys the control and lack of individuality
being watched at any given moment” privacy in society
“…every sound you made was overheard…every Imagery Imagery of control and repression
moment scrutinized” Satirical
Allusion to totalitarian The change to second person creates a more
regimes confronting tone, as shows Orwell values freedom
and individuality
Repetition and anaphora-
of “every”

“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” Capitalisation The capitalisation highlights the confronting and
Ironic demeaning nature of these slogans
“WAR IS PEACE Axioms
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY It is ironic as they have the complete opposite
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” meaning

These are axioms

“At this moment the entire group of people broke into a Satire Repetition of “over and over” symbolises the lack
deep, slow, rhythmical chant of 'B-B!...B-B!'- Repetition of individuality as the “entire group of people”
-over and over again, very slowly…” Diction/Connotation chants “BB” This symbolises the loss of
individuality and robotic nature of these people
'You're a traitor!' yelled the boy. 'You're a Dialogue Repetition of You’re (anaphora) creates a
thoughtcriminal! Tone of rage confronting atmosphere and shows the extent to
You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you” Anaphora (you’re) which children are affected by these totalitarian
regime

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“’Why can’t we go and see the hanging?” Satire Kid wants to see the death of a criminal live.

“Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on Anaphora of “on” This conveys the extent to which people are
stamps, on the covers of books…everywhere” Repetition oppressed and controlled
“then the lie passed into history and became truth. Who Satire Demonstrates the control of the government
controls the past…controls the future: who controls the Irony The manipulation of information is also conveyed
present controls the past” Parallelism (through Emphasises the deceptive nature of Ingsoc as they
anaphora of “who” and fabricate material to align with party ideals. Has a
repetition of “past, threatening ambience in a contemporary society as
present) well-falsification of evidence to strengthen a
‘perceived’ political hegemony in the world.

“This process of continuous alteration was applied not Aphorism The list creates a fast-paced effect, the reader
only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, Satire understands the corrupt system
pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, Asyndeton
cartoons, photographs”
“even the date of the year had become uncertain” Satire Due to the Party’s control and rectification of all
Tone media in Oceania, there is no real certainty in any
records. Finally, Oceanians are forced to question
even their memories.

“You did not have friends Aphorism (truth) In this society, no one has friends➔loss of
nowadays, you had comrades” Second person humanity

“We're destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of Descriptive imagery The 11th Edition Newspeak Dictionary limits
them, every day. Aposiopesis thoughtcrime
We're cutting the language down to the bone.” Aposiopesis: Syme is too overcome by passion,
and was not able to speak for that moment
“'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”

“'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to

narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make
thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will
be no words in which to express it”
“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander Irony The Party’s surveillance tactics and technology are
when you were in any public place or within range of a Satire so advanced that even the smallest twitch can
telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away… betray a rebellious spirit.
There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime” Conveys dangers of technology

“Another bomb fell on a piece of Descriptive imagery Disturbing cruel imagery of death of children,
waste ground which was used as a playground and conveying dangers of totalitarianism
several dozen children were blown to pieces.”
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“In the end the Party would announce that two and two
made five, and you would have to believe it”

“A nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in Aphorism Paints a picture of the undesired situation, where
perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and Descriptive imagery totalitarianism does take control.
shouting the same slogans, perpetually working,
fighting, triumphing, persecuting-three hundred million Orwell warns responders against this
people all with the same face”
“In principle a Party member had no spare time, and Aphorism In concert with having no private time is the
was never alone except in bed” Party’s view that individualism and eccentricity run
contrary to the Party’s purposes

“The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance War is a necessary tool for Oceania because it
with the principles of doublethink, this aim is keeps the standard of living in check, such that the
simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the inequalities essential to a totalitarian state remain
directing brains of the Inner Party) is to use up the in place.
products of the machine without raising the general
standard of living.” War keeps people away from a rebellion

“Doublethink means the power of holding two Motif • Indicative of the structurally perverse
contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and society within Oceania
accepting both of them” • Lives are permeated with contradictions,
that the deceit is accepted as the complete
truth
• Extends the notion of deception &
manipulation
“A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye Tone of despair Dangers of Totalitarianism
of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone Oppression Loss of individuality
he can never be sure that he is alone.”
Party slogan “Who controls the past controls the
“since the Party is in full control of all records future”
and in equally full control of the minds of its members,
it follows that the past is whatever the Party
chooses to make it."

“"Who controls the past controls the future: who Dialogue Winston is slowly breaking down
controls the present controls the past," repeated Winston Anaphora of “on”
obediently” Political slogan
"In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all Dialogue O’Brien explains the Party’s logic
records, and we control all memories. Then we control Tone of enthusiasm
the past, do we not?"

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“The Party is not interested in the overt act: the thought Dialogue The Party ultimately vaporizes captured rebels, but
is all we care about. We do not merely destroy our not before converting and reindoctrinating them,
enemies, we change them. Do you understand what I through means of torture.
mean by that?"

“There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what

they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching
to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot
quickly, so that they could die while their minds were Demonstrates the total
still clean." absolute control of the
Party

"We control matter because we control the mind. Dialogue O’Brien It is the harsh truth
Reality is inside the skull…" Aphorism
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We O’Brien Dialogue The Party is only interested in power for more
are not interested in the good of others; we are Tone of enthusiasm power and absolute control
interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long
life or happiness: only power, pure power.”

“A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of Dialogue O’Brien deeply describes what the world is like,
trampling and being trampled upon” Tone of despair and the extent to which humanity has fallen and
Aphorism individuality is broken to nothingness
“In our world there will be no emotions except fear, Amplification
rage, triumph, and self-abasement” Allusion to totalitarian regimes where privacy is
severely restricted
“No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any
longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no
friends”

“There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the

Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big
Brother."

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot Imagery Orwell is describing the dangers of totalitarianism
stamping on a human face – for ever." • Conveys Orwell’s pessimistic conjectures
about the future
• Supported by contextual issues (historical
and textual)
• Idea that totalitarian regimes are
destructive for the individuals due to its
overpowering strengths
Exemplifies his concerns about the abuse of power

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“The Allusion to Communist Orwell likens his fictional setting to the Nazis and
German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very and Nazis (which were the Communist of his time period
close to us in their methods” Orwell’s influences)

“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not Dialogue • That power and control is the definitive
establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution, one aim of Ingsoc-disregards humanity and
makes the revolution in order to establish the morals, relinquish the power
dictatorship” This augments the oppression and restriction
within the state
“The object of persecution is Dialogue
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The
object of power is power.”

“…such a society could not long remain stable” Allusion • Orwell’s own political input is intertwined
Voice throughout the novel
Denounces the Communist ideology-it cannot
work, the hierarchal free market system would
dominate-exemplified in Metropolis with the
obvious contrasts between the affluent &
working class

“Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was Symbolism Telescreens - telescreens are a visible symbol as
safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be well as the direct means of the Party’s constant
revealing.” monitoring of its subjects. They also symbolise the
tendency of totalitarian governments to abuse
technology.

“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” Symbolism Big Brother - the ultimate figure of Oceania, is
everywhere.  A moustached man who is always
watching.  This symbol strikes both loyalty and fear
in the people.  They worship this icon, but are
continually kept afraid of his power.

Symbolism Glass Paperweight & St. Clementine’s Church -

These items are symbols of the past that, because
of the Party’s control, no longer have any basis in
"reality." When the Thought Police come to lead
Winston and Julia away, the glass paperweight is
shattered on the ground and symbolise Winston’s
shattered chances at recovering the past.

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 Symbolism Red armed prole woman - Winston sees this
woman as a symbol of freedom. Party members
never sing, but hearing her song through the
window of his rented room fills Winston – and soon,
Julia – with hope for the future. What is this hope?
That the proles will become cognizant of their plight
and rebel against the Party. Winston and Julia also
acknowledge the Prole woman as a symbol of
reproductive virility, and thereby, hope for the
future. They see her as "beautiful" because of her
wideness, largeness, and toughness

“Here comes the chopper to chop off your head!” (part of Symbolism
the song about the churches of old London.)

"Freedom is Slavery," "War is Peace," "Ignorance is Oxymoron or Paradox An oxymoron is use of contradictory terms to
Strength " present a statement that generally contains an
element of truth (Paradox also means a phrase that
"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls Oxymoron contradicts itself - these slogans could also be
the present controls the past," considered juxtaposition). The three mottos
represent oxymorons as all contain what appear to
be opposing terms, yet the meaning behind them is
true for the world state. Keeping the country at
constant war does lead to peace among the people
of Oceania.  Ignorance is Strength is also true in
that an uneducated, easily manipulated populace is
easy for the government to use for its own power.

“Winston woke up with the word 'Shakespeare' on his Allusion Literature Allusions - Orwell refers to Shakespeare,
lips” Chaucer and even, indirectly, Descartes (“‘I think I
exist,’ he said wearily. 'I am conscious of my own
‘I think I exist,’ he said wearily. 'I am conscious of my Allusion identity…’” - indirect reference to Descartes’ “I
own identity…’ (to O’Brien in the MoL) think, therefore I am”). These allusions to infamous
literary figures may be a message about the
importance of language and literature in shaping
society (think about how Newspeak aims to restrict
language) and also the complexities of human
predicaments.

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“..the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy Allusion Historical Allusions - 1984 creates links to history
black moustache and ruggedly handsome features.” through the use of allusion.  The posters of Big
Brother strikingly resemble Adolf Hitler (some think
perhaps Joseph Stalin).  The supposed leader of
the underground movement is Goldstein.  The
obviously Jewish name of Emmanuel Goldstein and
the name of a man responsible for the death of
millions of Jewish heritage set up the conflict by
relating it to a key turning point in the history of the
world.

Simile: “In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down Simile/Imagery or This simile, which compares the Thought Police to
between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a figurative language bluebottle jellyfish, describes how Oceanians are
bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight.” used to living in fear under a constant state of
surveillance, and so they learn to self-regulate.

“The place where there is no darkness” Foreshadowing This phrase first comes to Winston in a dream,
when he imagines that this is where O’Brien wants
to meet him. Heavy foreshadowing here, because
he does indeed get here eventually – at the Ministry
of Love, where the lights never go out. This
symbolises Winston’s ultimate, doomed fate. It’s
also more of Oceania’s ironic use of language. The
place of NO darkness is metaphorically the darkest
and gloomiest location.

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres Foreshadowing The idea of Thought Police is disturbing and
in your skull” — “He loved Big Brother” Winston believes that he can only truly be himself
inside his mind. In fact, this quote foreshadows the
mind control that takes place in the Ministry of Love
and ultimately leads to Winston’s subjugation and
loyalty to the Party.

“Uncalled, a memory floated into his mind. He saw a Flashback Appearing only in his dreams and memories,
candle-lit room…His mother was sitting opposite him Winston’s mother represents better, pre-Party days
and also laughing.” when life was safe and not quite so oppressive. As
the novel progresses, however, we also come to
see that she represents Winston’s intense sense of
guilt. If Winston didn’t actually kill his parents, then
Winston’s mother is the epitome of a pleasant past
coloured by the lies and manipulation of the Party.
Winston also has flashbacks of the countryside
when he visits the opening with Julia, representing
a natural and peaceful part of his past.

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“The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What Rhetoric The first-person, limited omniscient narration invites
certainty had he that a single human creature now living the reader to follow Winston’s thoughts, as does his
was on his side?” use of rhetorical questions. What he questions, we
also consider philosophically, both in relation to our
own context and the character’s situation.

“For, after all, how do we know that two and two make Rhetoric The continual reference to O’Brien’s method of
four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past mind control is demonstrated through ‘two plus two
is unchangeable?” equals five’ - only when Winston truly believes this
has the Party succeeded in controlling his mind. At
first Winston questions it, yet even he can’t rebel
against their totalitarian torture methods.

“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of Personification Big Brother is a personification of the Party and its
this or that event, IT NEVER HAPPENED— that, surely, control over the citizens of Oceania and the past.
was more terrifying than mere torture and death?”

Urban Decay: Motif Motif: Urban Decay -proves a pervasive motif in

“bombed sites where plaster dust swirled in the air” 1984. The London that Winston Smith calls home is
a dilapidated, rundown city in which buildings are
crumbling, conveniences such as elevators never
work, and necessities such as electricity and
plumbing are extremely unreliable. Though Orwell
never discusses the theme openly, it is clear that
the shoddy disintegration of London, just like the
widespread hunger and poverty of its inhabitants, is
due to the Party’s mismanagement and
incompetence.

Visual Imagery: reoccurring motif of ‘eyes’, Motif/Visual Imagery Big Brothers overseeing eyes, O’Brien’s gaze that
Winston mistakes for a comrades, Winston goes to
meet up with Julia and realises that he doesn’t even
know her eye colour, the telescreens as ‘electronic
eyes’

"A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a

desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a
sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole
group of people like an electric current, turning one
even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming
lunatic." Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 16

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"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable."
Part 1, Chapter 2, pg. 28

"With its grace and carelessness it seemed to

annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of
thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and
the Thought Police could all be swept into
nothingness by a single splendid movement of the
arm." Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 33

"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own

nervous system. At any moment the tension inside
you was liable to translate itself into some visible
symptom." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 64

"Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a

slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an
enema." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 69

"If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the

proles." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 72

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel,

and until after they have rebelled they cannot
become conscious." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 74

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two

make four. If that is granted, all else follows." Part
1, Chapter 7, pg. 84

"It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt

like to sit in a room like this, in an armchair beside
an open fire with your feet in the fender and a
kettle on the hob: utterly alone, utterly secure, with
nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no
sound except the singing of the kettle and the
friendly ticking of the clock." Part 1, Chapter 8, pg.
100

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"Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St
Clement's, You owe me three farthings, say the
bells of St Martin's." Part 1, Chapter 8, pg. 103

"At the sight of the words I love you the desire to

stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of
minor risks suddenly seemed stupid." Part 2,
Chapter 1, pg. 110-11

"Not merely the love of one person, but the animal

instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that
was the force that would tear the Party to pieces."
Part 2, Chapter 2, pg. 127

"She did not understand that there was no such

thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the
far future, long after you were dead, that from the
moment of declaring war on the Party it was better
to think of yourself as a corpse. 'We are the dead,'
he said." Part 2, Chapter 3, pg. 137

"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the

feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him,
or into the air all around him. She had become a
physical necessity." Part 2, Chapter 4, pg. 140

"So long as they were actually in this room, they

both felt, no harm could come to them." Part 2,
Chapter 5, pg. 152

"He had the sensation of stepping into the

dampness of a grave, and it was not much better
because he had always known that the grave was
there and waiting for him." Part 2, Chapter 6, pg.
160

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"It's the one thing they can't do. They can make
you say anything - anything - but they can't make
you believe it. They can't get inside you." Part 2,
Chapter 7, pg. 167

"The old feeling, that at bottom it did not matter

whether O'Brien was a friend or an enemy, had
come back. O'Brien was a person who could be
talked to... O'Brien had tortured him to the edge of
lunacy, and in a little while, it was certain, he would
send him to his death. It made no difference." Part
3, Chapter 2, pg.255-6

"There was nothing left in them except sorrow for

what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was
touching to see how they loved him. They begged
to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their
minds were still clean." Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 259

"We control matter because we control the mind.

Reality is inside the skull." Part 3, Chapter 3, pg.
268

"'Do you remember writing in your diary,' he said,

'that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an
enemy, since I was at least a person who
understood you and could be talked to? You were
right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to
me. It resembles my own mind except that you
happen to be insane.'" Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 271

"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't

care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her
to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" Part 3,
Chapter 5, pg. 289

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"There were things, your own acts, from which you
could not recover. Something was killed in your
breast; burnt out, cauterised out." Part 3, Chapter
6, pg. 293

"But it was all right, everything was all right, the

struggle was finished. He had won the victory over
himself. He loved Big Brother." Part 3, Chapter 6,
pg. 300

Book 1 Chapter 1
It was a bright cold day in April and the Adjective - Adjective ‘cold’ and ‘unlucky’ number
clocks were striking thirteen.’ (p. 3) Juxtaposition ‘thirteen
Imagery sets ominous tone
Allusion
-  Juxtaposes with traditional 

old chiming clocks and 24-hour clock
technology to show a sharp discontinuity
with the past
‘Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his Allusion
 -  Winston’s name alludes to Winston
breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, Olfactory and visual Churchill → referring to how the fate of
slipped quickly through the glass doors of imagery
 London lies with Winston (except Winston
Victory Mansion, though not quickly enough Symbolism Smith is unsuccessful)
to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering -  Words ‘vile’ and ‘gritty’ suggest
along with him.’ (p. 3) hardship 

-  ‘Victory’ symbolises Allied Resistance
to Nazi Germany → inspiring symbol has
been hijacked to serve totalitarian
government
‘It depicted simply an enormous face, more Allusion -  Image of Big Brother mirrors image of
than a metre wide: the face of a man of about Stalin
forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and -  Daunting reminder that ‘he’ is always
ruggedly handsome features.’ (p. 3) watching

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 -  Capital letters emphasise importance of
‘It was part of the economy drive in Capitalisation this event
preparation for Hate Week.’ (p. 3) Neologism -  Term ‘Hate Week’ shows that language
can be manipulated by context
‘The flat was seven flights up, and Winston,
- Perception of hero: Winston doesn’t fit
who was thirty and had a varicose ulcer above
the typical hero mould
his right ankle...’ (p. 3)
- Sign of manipulation and constant
‘On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the
reminder that citizens are being watched
poster with the enormous face gazed from the
to dispel thoughts of revolting against The
wall.’ (p. 3)
Party
-  Ubiquitous maxim to reinforce the notion
‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’ (p. 3) Capitalisation Motif of total surveillance
-  Gives an image of overwhelming figure
‘The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) - Telescreen is compared to means of
could be dimmed, but there was no way of Neologism communication to keep information on a
shutting it off completely.’ (p. 4) constant flow
‘Outside, even through the shut window-pane,
the world looked cold. Down in the street little
eddies of wind were whirling durst and torn
-  Image of a dystopian world 

paper into spirals, and though the sun was
Visual imagery -  No colour in this new world as it has
shining and the sky a harsh blue, there
seemed to be no colour in anything, except been stripped away by Big Brother
the posters that were plastered
everywhere.’ (p. 4)
- Commands subservience, as reflected in
‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’ (p. 4) Motif
the imagery thus far
 ‘Newspeak’ is a contraction of English
and Socialism → official Party ideology 

-  State can control thoughts 

-  Lack of laws means that citizens can be
punished without knowing what they
‘INGSOC’ ( p. 4) Neologism
did wrong
-  Punishment → taken away 

and disappear/ vapourisation
-  Context: Stalin’s Purge and 

gulag

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‘In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down
between the roofs, hovered for an instant like - Reflects how technology is used for
Simile
a bluebottle, and darted way again with a citizen surveillance
curving flight.’ (p. 4)
-  Audience knows the meaning of
‘thought’ and ‘police’ 

‘The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Conceptual
Thought Police mattered.’ (p. 4) neologism Allusion -  No one knows who they are though 

-  Alludes to the NKVD, who arrested
people for ‘anti-soviet’ remarks
-  Alludes to Soviet Union’s ‘Five Year
‘... the over-fulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plans’
Allusion
Plan.’ (p. 5) -  These plans centre around producing
massive volumes of iron and coal
‘The telescreen received and transmitted - Dual purpose of TV and telephone for
Neologism
simultaneously.’ (p. 5) spying purposes
-  Highlights the Thought Police’s powers
‘Any sound that Winston made, above the of surveillance 

level of a very low whisper, would be picked -  It’s impossible to know if they’re spying
up by it, moreover, so long as he remained on you so you assume they’re watching all
within the field of vision which the metal the time 

plaque commanded, he could be seen as well -  Citizens are forced into obedience and
as heard.’ (p. 5) caution due to the combined knowledge of
harsh punishment
You had to live- did live, from habit that
became instinct- in the assumption that every
- Emphasises how surveillance has taken
sound you made was overheard, and, except
over society
in darkness, every movement scrutinised.’ ( p.
5)

Page 15 of 134
 -  Winston ponders over London’s
desolate and war torn condition and
questions whether it was always this way 

‘Were there always these vistas of rotting -  No unaltered record exists since he
nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored
cannot remember personally → history is
up with baulks of timber, their windows Rhetorical question
manipulated to manipulate society and the
patched with cardboard and their roofs with Listing

corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls Visual imagery citizens’ minds to ensure to rebelling 

sagging in all directions?’... But it was no use, Juxtaposition -  Big Brother isn’t just absolute
he could not remember: nothing remained of governmental power but in control of
his childhood...’ (p. 5) ideas 

-  Big Brother controls the present and
molds the past by altering written record
to justify his future course
-  Language is used to restrict the breadth
of human expression, and hence
exchange of ideas 

-  Language has become so limited they
lack in perspective and language to
‘The Ministry of Truth- Minitrue, in Newspeak* differentiate concepts 

[Newspeak was the official language of -  Asterisk interrupts connection
Oceania. For an account of its structure and established between audience and
etymology see Appendix]’ (p. 6)
Winston 

* ’Newspeak was the official language of
-  Newspeak seeks to make it impossible
Oceania and had been devised to meet the Neologism
to express and turn thinking into
ideological needs of Ingsoc... The purpose of Foreshadow
Newspeak was not only to provide a medium revolutionary thoughts 

of expression for the world-view and mental -  Making your own choices and
habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to developing your own thoughts is a political
make all other modes of thought action 

impossible.’ (p. 343) -  Foreshadows how language will become
increasingly oppressive 

-  However, the Appendix is written in
Standard English, meaning that free
speech will ultimately prevail, allowing
language to become free again

Page 16 of 134
 -  Follows the paradox ‘less is more’ 

-  Follows the technique of ‘doublethink’
where contradictions are used so citizens
don’t notice the contradiction 

-  The paradoxical nature of these
‘WAR IS PEACE
 statements is to make language
Oxymoron
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS untrustworthy and have unsettling effect
Doublethink
STRENGTH’ (p. 6) on audience 

-  Weakening independence and strength
of individuals; minds and forcing them to
live in a constant state of propaganda-
induced fear allows the Party to force its
subjects to accept the the decrees
‘The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself
with news, entertainment, education and the
fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which
-  The four ministries are paradoxically
concerned itself with war. The Ministry of
named
Love, which maintained law and order. And the Oxymoron
-  Refers back to their technique of
Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for
‘doublethink’
economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak:
Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv and Miniplenty.’ (p.
6)
‘... then only by penetrating through a maze of
barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors and
- Ironic since the Ministry of Love has
hidden machine-gun nets. Even the streets Oxymoron Listing

nothing to do with love but is associated
leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by Visual imagery Irony
with violence
gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed
with jointed truncheons.’ (p. 7)
‘The thing that he was about to do was to -  The fact that there are no laws makes it
open a diary. This was not illegal (nothing was frightening because citizens won’t ever
illegal, since there were no longer any laws), know if they are breaking the law 

but if defected it was reasonably certain that it Allusion -  No laws mean citizens can’t use
would be punished by death, or at least by anything to rebel against the government 

twenty-five years in a forced-labour camp.’ (p. -  Punishment alludes to Stalin’s Purge
9) and Gulags
- April 4th refers to the liberation of
‘April 4th, 1984’ (p. 9) Allusion Hungary from Nazi occupation and
liberation of Ohrdruf (Nazi death camp)

Page 17 of 134
 - Despite the title of the novel being 1984,
‘To begin with he did not know with any the ambiguity of this sentence indicates
certainty that this w as 1984.’ (p. 9) that the dystopic future could happen at
any point of time
-  The purpose of Newspeak has been
‘It was curious that he seemed not merely over
fulfilled
to have lost the power of expressing himself,
-  This shows how language is used to
but even to have forgotten what it was that he
manipulate society and allows the
had originally intended to say.’ (p. 10)
government to maintain their power
- Displays the thin line between
‘April 4th 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war entertainment and propaganda- the
Syntax
films.’ (p. 10) Ministry of Truth is responsible for
producing both
-  The first time the audience hear
‘One very good one of a ship full of refugees Winston’s voice 

being bombed somewhere in the -  Reveals how the norms and values of
Mediterranean. Audience much amused by Oceania centres around the massacre of
Syntax

shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim civilians 

Simile

away with a helicopter after him, first you saw -  Winston is uneasy by the massacre,
Visual imagery
him wallowing along in the water like a allowing him to reveal an element of
Adjectives Repetition
porpoise, then you saw him turned pink and humanity 

he sank as suddenly as though the holes had -  The fact that violence is part of
let in the water...’ (p. 11) entertainment shows the significant role
the Ministry of Truth in shaping their values
‘... then there was a wonderful shot of a child’s - The word ‘wonderful’ reflects how
arm going up up up right up into the air...’ ( p. violence and war films is deemed as
11) entertainment
‘... there was a lot of applause from the party
seats but a woman down in the prole part of
-  Term ‘proles’ alludes to the proletariat
the house suddenly started kicking up a fuss
workers, with Orwell portraying them as
and shouting they didn’t oughter of showed it
heroes in socialist ideology but are now
not in front of kids they didn’t it aint right not in Repetition
oppressed
front of kids it aint until the police turned her
-  The proles are the only one with moral
turned her out i dont suppose anything
imagination but even dissenters are limited
happened to her nobody cares what the proles
say typical proke reaction they never-’ (p. 11)

Page 18 of 134
 -  The notion of how novels can be
produced by a machine is reflected in this
phrase 

-  The adjective ‘mechanical’ when
‘... she had some mechanical job on one of the describing a novel is generally associated
Metaphor
novel-writing machines.’ (p. 12) with predictable plotting and uninspired
vernacular writing style 

-  The term ‘mechanical’ is used differently
in this context since these novels are used
for manipulation
-  Foreshadows the girl’s later sexual
activity 

‘A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Junior -  Red is often linked with sin and desire,
Anti-Sex League, was wound several times Irony Foreshadowing especially in the Bible where Mary
round the waist of her overalls, just tightly Allusion Biblical Magdalene or Scarlet woman 

enough to bring out the shapeliness of her allusion -  Junior Anti-Sex League most likely
hips.’ (p. 12) alludes to the Young Pioneers within the
Soviet Union where both groups feature a
red sash
-  Comparable to Leon Trotsky
(considering the Jewish name)
‘As usual, the face of Emmanuel -  Like Trotsky, Goldstein was a former
Allusion
Goldstein...’ (p. 14) high-ranking party member turned into an
enemy of the state when power passed to
his rival, Stalin
-  Backslider: A term used for people who
have fallen away from the Church, in
particular 

-  This applies to the fanatical culture
established in ‘1984’ displayed in the Two
‘Goldstein was the renegade and
Allusion Minutes Hate 

backslider...’ (p. 14)
-  In the Soviet Union, ‘backsliding’ is
comparable to wrecking- the crime of
sabotage 

-  Goldstein’s sabotage amounts to
challenging the state’s authority
‘He was the primal traitor, the earliest defiler of - Theological language implies Goldstein
Biblical allusion
the Party’s purity.’ (p. 14) occupies the place of Satan
Page 19 of 134
 - Ironic because sheep are known to
‘It resembled the face of a sheep, and the
Irony Simile follow a leader, whereas Goldstein did the
voice, too, had a sheeplike quality.’ (p. 15)
opposite
‘...- an attack so exaggerated and perverse -  Ironic because Winston reads
that a child should have been able to see Goldstein’s Manifesto, believing that
through it, and yet just plausible enough to fill Goldstein exists
Irony Foreshadowing
with an alarmed feeling that other people, less -  Foreshadows that Goldstein was
level-headed than oneself, might be taken in created to manipulate society- false
by it.’ (p. 15) propaganda
He was abusing Big Brother, he was
- Ironic that Goldstein is presenting
denouncing the dictatorship of the Party, he
agreeable propositions but people of
was demanding the immediate conclusion of
Irony Oceania violently reject his speech, having
peace with Eurasia, freedom of assembly,
been essentially hypnotised via
freedom of thought, he was crying hysterically
propaganda by The Party
that the revolution had been betrayed-’ (p. 15)
-  Alludes to the ‘show trials’ of the Soviet
Union where various crimes were blamed
on sabotage 

‘A day never passed when spies and -  Corresponds with Soviet crime of
saboteurs acting under his directions were not Allusion ‘wrecking’- attacks against the state 

unmasked by the Thought Police.’ (p. 16) -  The arrested ‘spies and saboteurs’ are
likely not guilty of any crime related to
Goldstein- Orwell is subtly challenging the
idea
‘Her mouth was opening and shutting like that - Totalitarian propaganda makes its target
Simile
of a landed fish.’ (p. 17) into something less than fully human
-  Comparison to pigs are often offensive
to certain religious groups who don’t eat
pork 

‘Swine! Swine! Swine!’ (p. 17) Repetition Allusion -  Jews are usually among this group 

-  Almost alludes to the assassination of
Walther Rathenau: ‘Death for Walther
Rathenau: he is a goddamn Jewish sow.’
- Reflects the total degradation of the
‘... she picked up a heavy Newspeak
Symbolism English language accomplished by the
dictionary and flung it at the screen.’ (p. 17)
Party

Page 20 of 134
 • -  Suggests the paralysis of thought
created by the destruction of language
‘It struck Goldstein’s nose and bounced off:
as people are only capable of primal
the voice continued inexorably.’ ( p. 17)
gesticulation and emotions around the
destruction they created after evolting
‘A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness,
a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in
- This notion of mobs and crowds
with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow Listing Simile
targeting their hate became dominant in
through the whole group of people like an Anaphora
the 20th century (e.g. Russian Revolution)
electric current, turning one even against one’s
will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.’ (p. 17)
‘He would flog her to death with a rubber
truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake -  Winston’s resentment and fantasies of
and shoot her full of arrows like Saint violence are wrapped up with his sexual
Sebastian. He would ravish her and cut her desire 

throat at the moment of climax... He hated her -  Possibly, his sexual fantasy is
because she was young and pretty and intertwined with the social fantasy of
Simile Anaphora
sexless, because he wanted to go to bed with power 

her and would never do so, because round her -  Orwell may be critiquing how the desire
sweet supple waist, which seemed to ask you to harm is a subset of the overarching
to encircle it with your arm, there was only the desire that state produces in its citizens to
odious scarlet sash, aggressive symbol of harm and humiliate the vulnerable
chastity.’ (p. 18)
‘All that they did was to keep alive in him the
- Emphasises the extensive manipulation
belief, or hope, that others besides himself
of the Party as they use rumours like
were the enemies of the Party. Perhaps the
underground conspiracies to either
rumours of vast underground conspiracies
provoke hatred or to stimulate a false
were true after all- perhaps the Brotherhood
sense of hope
really existed!’ (p. 20)
-  Even though Winston holds a dissenting
‘DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH
opinion towards the Party, his method of
BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
Repetition thought is still programmed by the state-
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH
obsessive and fanatic as reflected in his
BIG BROTHER’ ( p. 21)
reflection during Two Minutes Hate
‘And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract,
-  These energies against the Party can be
undirected emotion which could be switched
redirected to anything other than a
from one object to another like the flame of a
revolution
blowlamp.’ (p. 17)

Page 21 of 134
 -  Thought is meant to be internalised,
albeit the source of power in Oceania lies
within policing thought 

-  This is because Newspeak allows
people to prevent themselves from
‘He had committed- would still have
expressing their ideas 

committed, even if he had never set pen to
paper- the essential crime that contained all -  The idea behind paring back the English
others in itself.’ (p. 22) language would eventually be impossible
to make negative speech 

-  If something was bad, the word would
be ‘doubleplusungood’- the word contains
positive- sounding modifiers, making it
misleading
‘theyll shoot me i dont care theyll shoot me in Allusion Syntax - Method of execution, not commonly
the back of the neck’ (p. 22) Repetition recorded in Soviet Union
Book 1 Chapter 2
Testaments from Russia where housing
‘Victory Mansions were old flats built in 1930
quality was poor → shows the flaws of
or thereabouts, and were falling to pieces.’ (p. Allusion
Communism as it struggles to provide
25)
necessities.
Allusion to the Hitler Youth. Emphasises
‘“You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian
how the future of the State depends on
spy! I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporise you, I’ll send Allusion Anaphora
the new generation as they are easily
you to the salt mines!”’ (p. 27)
indoctrinated with ideologies.
‘What was worst of all was that by means of Alludes to the Hitler Youth. These children
such organisations as the Spies they were are considered ‘perfect’ by the State since
Allusion
systematically turned into ungovernable little they prioritised their love for the State, not
savages...’ (p. 29) their nuclear family.
‘Seven years it must be- he had dreamed that
Light symbolising hope is inverted as it’s
he was walking through a pitch-dark room.
Symbolism used for torture in Room 101.
And someone sitting to one side of him had
Foreshadowing Reflects the extensiveness of the
said as he passed: “We shall meet in the place
manipulation of thought.
where is no darkness.”’ (p. 29)
Religious Ingsoc is now the new religion to maintain
‘The sacred principles of Ingsoc.’ (p. 31)
connotations absolute power.

Page 22 of 134
 Reflects the sense of despair. Even though
‘And what way of knowing that the dominion
Rhetorical question there is a sense of hope in p. 29 with light,
of the Party would not endure for ever?’ (p. 31)
symbolism becomes inverted.
‘Thoughtcrime does not entail death:
Capitalisation Capitalising equates thought and death.
thoughtcrime IS death.’ (p. 33)
Book 1 Chapter 3
The Parsons’ children relate more to the
‘Winston was dreaming of his mother.’ (p. 34) Juxtaposition state than the parents but Chapter 3
states with when family was valued.
‘The landscape that he was looking at recurred
Winston values the notion of the old,
so often in his dreams that he was never fully
Juxtaposition natural place and the memory of private
certain whether or not he had seen it in the
love.
real world.’ (p. 36)
Prevailing thinking is logic but the
‘To use logic against logic, to repudiate development has overcome the restriction
Paradox of being stupid.
morality while laying claim to it...’ (p. 41)

‘In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother

Manipulating history = manipulating
figured as the leader and guardian of the
society
Revolution since its very earliest days.’ (p. 41)
Book 1 Chapter 4
Emphasises how there is power in
language since ideas can be developed
‘times 3.12.83 reporting bb day order
from language.
doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite
Since Newspeak reduces as much words
fullwise upsub antefiling.’ (p. 51)
as possible, it limits metaphorical
language = limiting ideas
Alludes to Stalin’s Great Purge with any
dissent against communist Russia.
‘That was to be expected, since it was unusual
Also alludes to the ‘show trials,’ where
for political offenders to be put on trial or even Allusion
political offenders were promised that their
publicly denounced.’ (p. 52)
sentence was reduced if they confess
crime.
‘... the thing had simply happened because 1984 takes this concept to a different
purges and vaporisations were a necessary scale where control is asserted by
part of the mechanics of government.’ (p. 53) vaporisation.

Page 23 of 134
‘Big Brother added a few remarks on the purity
Comrade Ogilvy is described as Christ-
and single-mindedness of Comrade Ogilvy’s Biblical allusion
like.
life.’ (p. 55)
Book 1 Chapter 5
Comrade’ being a universal term for all
‘You did not have friends nowadays, you had
Allusion members of society → alludes to Stalinist
comrades...’ (p. 56)
Russia
In your heart you’d prefer to stick to Oldspeak
Language is valued but Syme likes the
with all its vagueness and its useless shades Paradox
destruction of Oldspeak
of meaning.’ (p. 60)
‘The proles are not human beings... By 2050-
Comrade is an egalitarian term but it’s not
earlier, probably- all real knowledge of Irony
the case with the proles.
Oldspeak will have disappeared.’ (p. 61)
The works will be contradictory. Sense of
individuality will be removed.
‘Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron- they’ll
Allusion Fear of intellectual control: No means of
exist only in Newspeak versions...’ ( p. 61)
challenging since concepts will be
demolished.
‘... it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, Loss of humanity because of how society
Simile
like the quaking of a duck.’ (p. 63) has removed individual thoughts.
Propaganda has become absolute since
‘We have glorious news for you. We have won
the battle for production!’ (p. 67) you can’t challenge propaganda → leads
to indoctrination
‘And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been Rationing was important in WW2, but
announced that the ration was to be reduced post-WW2 still had rationing. The
Allusion

to twenty Grammys a week. Was it possible expectation was to indulge after WW2.
Rhetorical questions
that they could swallow that, after only twenty- This is an extrapolation of historical
four hours?’ (p. 67) context.
‘Had it always been like this? Had food always
Rhetorical question Shows the unorthodoxy of Winston.
tasted like this?’ (p. 68)
‘Nearly everyone was ugly, and would still
have been ugly even if dressed otherwise than
in the uniform blue overalls.’ (p. 69)

Page 24 of 134
A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety,
a habit of muttering to yourself... was a
punishable offense. There was even a word for Control inner and outer expression.
it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.’ (p.
71)
Book 1 Chapter 6
Alludes to Hitler’s Law for the
Encouragement of Marriage, where
couples reproduce for the sake of the
‘The only recognized purpose of marriage was
state.
to beget children for the service of the Allusion
Sex is a display of individuality and
Party.’ (p. 75)
pleasure and can threaten the Party since
all forms of love must go to Big Brother
and no one else.
‘Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a Sexual intersource is now classified as
slightly disgusting minor operation, like having Metaphor something awful to discourage people
an enema.’ (p. 75) from doing so.
Nuclear devotion is broken down (e.g.
‘All children were to be begotten by artificial Parsons). The Party preferred artificial
insemination
 insemination. Concept of libido was
Juxtaposition discovered, where scientists found energy
(a rtsem, it was called in Newspeak) and
brought up in public institutions.’ (p. 76) could be released elsewhere instead of
sex → Two Minute Hate
Shows the impact of the Junior Anti-Sex
‘To embrace her was like embracing a jointed
Simile League as Katherine is confused about the
wooden image.’ (p. 77)
act.
‘She would lie there with shut eyes, neither
Emphasises the act of submission to the
resisting nor co-operating but s ubmitting .’ (p. Italicised
Party, not Winston.
77)
‘So the performance continued to happen,
There’s no importance with sex since it’s
once a week quite regularly whenever it was Verb
described as a ‘performance.’
not impossible.’ (p. 77)
Book 1 Chapter 7

Page 25 of 134
Promiscuity went unpunished; divorce was
permitted. For that matter, even religious The proles are manipulated in thinking that
worship would have been permitted if the they can escape the system but in reality,
paroles had shown any sign of needing or Irony the Party was allowed them to live in
wanting it. They were beneath suspicion. As indulgence to ensure they don’t rebel.
the Party slogan put it: “Proles and animals are
free.” (p. 83)
‘It was a dark, dirty miserable place where
hardly anybody had enough to eat and where
Reflects that Communism hasn’t brought
hundreds of thousands of poor people had no
significant change to society.
boots on their feet and not even a roof to
sleep under.’ (p. 83)
‘How could you tell how much of it was Emphasises how effective the Inner Party
Rhetorical question
lies?’ (p. 84) is in ensuring the past was altered.
‘The ideal set up by the Party was something
huge, terrible, no glittering- a world of steel
and concrete, of monstrous machines and
terrifying weapons- a nation of warriors and Lists a number of features of the new
fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all Allusion Listing Communist society (collectivism)- alluding
thinking the same thoughts and shouting the to Soviet Russia.
same slogans, perpetually working, fighting,
triumphing, persecuting- three hundred million
people all with the same face.’ (p. 85)
‘Day and night the telescreens bruised your
ears with statistics proving that people today
had more food, more clothes, better houses,
Emphasises how propaganda is used to
better recreations- that they lived longer,
Listing influence the masses- and they’re very
worked shorter hours, were bigger, healthier,
effective.
stronger, happier, more intelligent, better
educated, than the people of fifty years
ago.’ (p. 85)
Was the Party’s hold upon the past less
Questioning reflects the ambiguity of the
strong, he wondered, because a piece of
Rhetorical question past since the Party ensured that the past
evidence which existed no longer had once
was altered.
existed?’ (p. 90)
‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus This thought is what allows Winston to
two make four. If that is granted, all else Foreshadowing maintain individuality in thought. However,
follows.’ (p. 93) he doesn’t maintain this in Room 101.

Page 26 of 134
Book 1 Chapter 8
‘When he got up to it he saw that it was a Even though Winston preaches about
human hand severed at the wrist... He kicked Irony love, he is dehumanised- this is something
the thing into the gutter.’ (p. 97) he denies.
The older generation had mostly been wiped
out in the great purges of the Fifties and Alludes to the Stalin’s Great Purge.
Sixties, and the few who survived had long Allusion ‘Intellectual surrender’ emphasises the
ago been terrified into complete intellectual importance of individuality of thought.
surrender.’ (p. 100)
‘The thing was doubly attractive because of its
apparent uselessness, though he could guess Coral paperweight represents the
Motif Symbolism
that it must once have been intended as a preserved past Winston desires.
paperweight.’ (p. 109)
‘“I never had one of those things. Too Even though there is no telescreen,
expensive. And I never seemed to feel the Irony Foreshadowing Winston can never get away from
need of it, somehow.”’ (p. 111) surveillance.
‘The hunting-down and destruction of books
Alludes to the book-burning in Nazi
had been done with the same thoroughness in Allusion
Germany to prevent any unorthodox ideas.
the prole quarters as everywhere else.’ (p. 111)
Book 2 Chapter 1
‘And even now, though his intellect told him Betrayal of Big Brother is an act of
that the message probably meant death- still, individuality. Winston does this by
that was not what he believed, and the communicating with a ‘comrade’ and
unreasonable hope persisted.’ (p. 123) maintaining intellectual thoughts.
Word ‘unformed’ indicates that citizens of
‘On it was written, in a large unformed this day barely physically write. Writing on
handwriting.’ (p. 124) paper is regarded as lower than typing
which can easily be monitored.
Declaration of death upon them both
‘I love you.’ (p. 124) Simple sentence
because love is forbidden.
‘... and got a sort of pale-pleasure from Religion is exterminated to sure all forms
identifying St Martin’s Church.’ (p. 130) of loyalty is directed to Big Brother.
Book 2 Chapter 2

Page 27 of 134
 Indicative of constant surveillance, even if
this world has abandoned nature, feelings
‘To look around was to show guilt.’ (p. 136)
of guilt or remorse will prevail due to the
influence of the Party.
Juxtaposition of ‘sweetness’ and
‘daunted.’ He doesn't find comfort in the
‘The sweetness of air and the greenness of natural world as it is something that
Juxtaposition
leaves haunted him.’ (p. 136) “daunted” him which contradicts his
thoughts on the Golden Country suggests
oppression.
Dehumanises himself to that of a ‘creature’
there is an ambiguity in the Winston that
‘... a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of defies the Party.
Imagery
London in the pores of his skin.’ (p. 137) The Party has conditioned his entire being
to be accustomed to the city -- life is
detached from nature.
Book 2 Chapter 3
Only because I prefer a positive to a negative. Irony Outcome of ‘rebellion’ is predetermined.
In this game we’re playing, we can’t win. He vacillates and believes he can change
Some kinds of failure are better than other society when reading Goldstein’s
kinds, that’s all.’ (p. 155) Manifesto but he changes from
pessimistic to hopeful.
Julia is still hopeful, though → naive?

Book 2 Chapter 4
Coral inside paperweight (alive, preserved
from past) not practical but filled with
‘The old-fashioned clock with the twelve-hour
beauty.
face was ticking away on the mantelpiece.’ (p. Symbolism
- Provides a gleam of hope, ultimately
158)
smashed (wants to use Winston’s
intelligence to their advantage)
Their first love-making had been simply an act
Importance of emotionality: Winston
of will. But after the second time it was
experiences emotional attachment (love)
different. The smell of her hair, the taste of her
towards Julia, rather than practicality
mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have
(positive, hopeful).
got inside him.’ (p. 161)

Page 28 of 134
‘As he sat waiting on the edge of the bed he Importance of emotionality: Winston is
thought again of the cellars of the Ministry of fatalistic but it's part of human nature to
Love. ‘ (p. 161) find hope.
Role of religion: Nursery rhyme is a link to
‘“You owe me three farthings,” says the bells religion and churches (world before Big
of St Martin’s, “When will you pay me?”say the Brother became idolised).
bells of Old Bailey-’ (p. 168) - Nostalgia is emphasised since the old
world is lost
‘The paperweight was the room he was in, and Romantic in the idealistic, metaphorical
the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in sense as he believes the room is a
Symbolism
sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.’ (p. microcosm (just like the glass protects the
169) coral).
Book 2 Chapter 5
‘A new poster had suddenly appeared all over Context: Propaganda posters are adapted
London. It had no caption, and represented to provoke racial racial fear.
simply the monstrous figure of a Eurasian - 1984: Global approach and uses foreign
soldier...’ (p. 172) force to strike fear.
‘Dirty or clean, the room was paradise.’ (p. Despite global control, the room was their
Juxtaposition
173) own world.
Emotions of comfort become idealistic for
Now that they had a secure hiding-place,
them. Party wants to let this continue to let
almost a home, it did not even seem a
Symbolism them re-experience individuality to have
hardship that they could meet infrequently and
more impact when they’re brought back to
for a couple of hours at a time.’ (p. 173)
reality.
‘The room was a world, a pocket of the past Connotes to meaningful connection with
Metaphor
where extinct animals could walk.’ (p. 173) humans is now extinct.
‘He led a ghostlike existence between the tiny,
Mr Charrington is part of the Party and
dark shop and an even tinier back Irony
helps them set up feeling of hope.
kitchen...’ (p. 173)
Sanctuary’: They’re led to believe that
‘Getting there was difficult and dangerous, but they’re optimistic. Reality is that they can
Irony
the room itself was sanctuary.’ (p. 174) be like the paperweight and eventually be
shattered.
Notion of humanity/ emotionality: Natural
‘Or Katherine would due, and by subtle
to daydream about their relationship
manoeuvrings Winston and Julia would
(either getting married or continue their
succeed in getting married.’ (p. 175)
love in the next life).
Page 29 of 134
‘In reality there was no escape.’
Thought is the only way to escape from
Juxtaposition
(p. 175) the Party, but there is the Thought Police.
‘“You’re a rebel from the waist downwards,”he
Julia has no thought about changing the
told her. She thought this brilliantly witty and Juxtaposition
world, whereas Winston desires to.
flung her arms round him in delight.’ (p. 179)
Book 2 Chapter 6
Importance of language: Describes the
‘He moved from thoughts to words, and now
process of revolution (starts with
from words to actions.’ (p. 184)
intelligence to action).
Ministry of Love is about torture. Winston
‘The last step was something that would
Irony has idealistic thoughts on rebellion and
happen in the Ministry of Love.’ (p. 184)
martyrdom (foreshadowing).
‘He had the sensation of stepping into the
Bleak tone since he knows that he’s going
dampness of a grave, and it was not much
Visual imagery to be caught. Winston believes O’brien is
better because he had always known that the
an act of hope.
grave was there and waiting for him.’ (p. 184)
Book 2 Chapter 7
‘It had all occurred inside the glass Dream of Winston being inside
paperweight, but the surface of the glass was paperweight incorporates gesture of his
the dome of the sky, and inside the dome Jewish mother.
Motif
everything was flooded with clear soft light in - Love and sacrifice is something he tries
which one could see into interminable to create within his dreams (ideal world
distances.’ (p. 185) with hope)
Act of love from his mother (in the past) is
‘Very occasionally she would take Winston in
contrasted with love towards Big Brother.
her arms and press him against her for a long Juxtaposition
- Communist ideology of the state is more
time without saying anything.’ (p. 187)
important than collective individual
His greediness resulting in him losing his
He stopped, but he did not come back. His family- he still feels emotion in the world of
mother’s anxious eyes were fixed on his 1984. His guilt drives him to be
face.’ (p. 189) responsible and emotionally impacted him
to the point of rebellion.
‘He told Julia the story of his mother’s
disappearance... “I expect you were a beastly
little swine in those days.”’ (p. 190)

Page 30 of 134
‘If you loved someone, you loved him, and Importance of emotionality: Moral values
when you had nothing else to give, you still are lost (Winston’s mother had moral
gave him love.’ (p. 190) values).
‘The terrible thing that the Party had done was
to persuade you that mere impulses, mere
feelings, were of no account...’ (p. 190)
‘And yet to the people of only two generations Importance of emotionality: Winston is
ago, this would not have seemed all- idealising the people of the past and
important, because they were not attempting connects them with the proles (nostalgic
to alter history.’ (p. 191) quality).
Importance of emotionality: Loss of
‘What mattered were individual relationships, individual is what totalitarianism
and a completely helpless gesture, an represents- a world with no choices.
embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying -  Controlling influence on individuality 

man, could have value in itself.’ (p. 191) -  Taking communism to an extreme
through extrapolation
Individuality/humanity: ‘Primitive’ has
negative connotations but is the core of
humanity (emotions).
-  Winston develops real sensitivity 

They had held on to the primitive emotions... -  Emotions/ability to share feelings for
“The proles are human beings... We are not another is the core of humanity 

human.”’ (p. 191) Metropolis: ‘Heart’ is needed in society →
also the core of Christianity. 

-  Emotion is needed for individuality 

-  Need to love oneself and not external
force
‘“We may be together for another six months- Winston loses all his values as he betrays
a year- there’s no knowing... When once they Julia.
get hold of us there will be nothing, literally Foreshadowing -  He highly believes in emotion 

nothing, that either of us can do for the other.”’ -  The Party is forcing you to hate other
(p. 192) people and then hate yourself
‘“They can’t get inside you. If you can feel that Individuality/emotionality: You can
staying human is worth while, even when it overthrow the Party at micro level if you
can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten maintain love for one another.
them.”’ (p. 192) - Love can overpower the state

Page 31 of 134
 Only feelings matter.

‘But if the object was not to stay alive but to

-  Party centers around emotional control 

stay human, what difference did it ultimately
Rhetorical question -  Ultimate betrayal of love is betraying the
make? They could not alter your feelings.’ (p.
193) people you love 

-  Hope is suggested here
Eventually, the Party is able to emotionally
... but the inner heart, whose working were manipulate/control Winston.

mysterious even to yourself, remained Irony - Lack of hope comes from Winston/Julia
impregnable.’ (p. 193) incapable of showing that love is a human
quality and an act of rebellion
Book 2 Chapter 8
‘Catechism’: Answers to the core doctrine
‘He began asking his questions in a low,
(religious term). Irony: Religious term
expressionless voice, as though this were a
Metaphor Irony applied to political.social movement.
routine, a sort of catechism, most of whose
- Catechetical model for question and
answers were known to him already.’ (p. 199)
answer
Winston states commitment to other
people for humanity but the Party is able
to undermine this as Winston is
‘“You are prepared to give your lives?” “Yes.”...
committing to destroy others.
“To commit acts of sabotage which may cause
Repetition Irony - The Party can trick him for that
the death of hundreds of innocent people?”
Individuality/humanity: Losing insight is a
“Yes.”’ (p. 199)
result of being so fixated on rebellion.

Irony: Trying to escape a treacherous
world by going down the path of treachery.
‘Persiflage’: Meaning that death is
‘When he spoke of murder, suicide, amputated common/desensitised.
limbs and altered faces, it was with a faint air Listing - Winston realises lack of moral concern
of persiflage.’ (p. 202) and questions if it’s justifiable to sacrifice
morals
Human morals/values: Winston finds the
‘“To the past,” said Winston. “The past is more importance of values in the past.
important,” agreed O’brien gravely.’ (p. 204) - These values concern sacrifice/
commitment to others

Page 32 of 134
 Role of religion: Goldstein’s book is the
‘It is important to change one’s hiding place
counter to the Bible.
frequently. Meanwhile I shall send you a copy
- The book is supposed to be filled with
of the book’ (p. 205)
the truth but is manufactured by the state
Book 2 Chapter 9
Importance of language: Deliberately uses
‘Winston was gelatinous with fatigue.’ (p. 208) ‘gelatinous’ to go against Newspeak.
- Shows the importance of language
Importance of language: Complex
intellectual words that expand thinking
(conceptual/abstract).
‘The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical
Oxymoron - Newspeak wants to prevent this
Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein.’ (p. 213)
Oligarchical: Hierarchical level
Collectivism: People sharing in some way
(singular level of existence)
‘... war hysteria is continuous and universal in Reinforces the loss of religious values and
all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, contributes to the violent nature of society
Listing
the slaughter of children... are looked upon as
→ desensitises society
normal...’ (p. 215)
Control: Can’t make people too
comfortable or you can’t control them
(extreme economic view on the purpose of
‘In principle the war effort is always so wars).
planned as to eat up any surplus that might Forms of mass manipulation.
exist after meeting the bare needs of the
Context: Lebensraum policy by Hitler and
population.’ (p. 220)
promote expansion but encourage
sacrifices so he can manipulate the
masses.
‘The social atmosphere is that of a besieged Control: Gives proles necessities such as
city, where the possession of a lump of porn makes them believe they have
horseflesh makes the difference between control- these magazines are distributed
wealth and poverty.’ (p. 221) by the Party.
‘All members of the Inner Party believe in this Role of religion: Winning war/expansion is
coming conquest as an article of faith.’ (p. 222) used as a religious values.

Page 33 of 134
 Capitalisation: Self-denial- the only vessel
is for the state.

No individuality/ personal identity since
everything is for the state.
‘In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Role of religion: Equivalent to religion/God
Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, is Big Brother. This notion is followed by
Capitalisation other states (not exactly Big Brother) but
and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name
usually translated as Death-worship..’ (p. 226) ‘semi-divine.’
- Continuous warfare deprives people from
wanting war and stimulate economy
Context: Ideological conflict between
democracy and communism (Cold War).
They have been subdivided in many ways, Social class: Orwell creates distinct social
they have borne countless different names, class- middle class makes the hierarchy
and their relative numbers, as well as their complicated.
attitude towards one another, have varied from 2% are the Inner Party, extensive middle
age to age.’ (p. 231) class (maintains status from lower class).
It had been preached by kings and aristocrats
and by the priests, lawyers and the like who
Using their faith to exploit adherents- ‘ it’s
were parasitical upon them, and it had
Religious allusion terribly hard for a rich man to to get into
generally been softened by promises of
the kingdomofheaven.’ (Mat19:23)
compensation in an imaginary word beyond
the grave.’
‘Even if it was still necessary for human beings Oppression: Ingsoc went extreme with
to do different social or economic levels.’ (p. previous, historical examples of
234) communism.
‘Imprisonment without trial, the use of war
prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture
to extract confessions, the use of hostages Listing Emphasises the flaws of communism.
and the deportation of whole populations...’ (p.
234)
Role of technology: Mass media were the
‘The invention of print, however, made it easier
only means. Manipulating the masses
to manipulate public opinion, and the film and
means that people can’t counter if there’s
the radio carried the process further.’ (p. 235)
only one source of opinion.
‘But the new High group, unlike all its
Oppression: They have collective
forerunners, did not act upon instinct but knew
ownership, with the Party owning
what was needed to safeguard its position.’ (p.
everything.
236)
Page 34 of 134
 Emphasising lack of private property in
‘Factories, mines, land, houses, transport- Oceania. Socialism wants economic
everything had been taken away from Listing Irony
them...’ (p.236) equality → Goldstein thinking results in
economic inequality.
‘Every success, every achievement, every
Emphasises the importance of Big Brother
victory, every scientific discovery, all
as a marketing brand for the Inner Party.
knowledge... all virtue, are held to issue Listing Anaphora
Loss of Christian values: Big Brother is
directly from his leadership and inspiration.’ (p.
similar to God.
238)
‘Hir friendship, his relaxations, his behaviour
towards his wife and children, the expression Reinforces how the state watches society
of his face when he is alone, the words he (any indicator within thought-process).
Listing Anaphora
mutters in sleep, even the characteristic - Mind control techniques in WW2, where
movements of his body, are all jealously controlling inner person = total control
scrutinised.’ ( p. 240)
‘On the contrary, orthodoxy in the full sense
Ensuring control over thoughts/mind
demands a control over one’s own mental
Metaphor control. Omnipotence and infallibility is the
processes as complete as that of a
core.
contortionist over his body.’ (p. 242)
Totalitarianism: Goldstein explains power
‘As we have seen, the mystique of the Party, organisation. Power is power’s own end
and above all of the Inner Party, depends upon (gaining power for power). Absolute power
double-think.’ (p. 247) corrupts absolutely.
Inner Party = God
Book 2 Chapter 10

Page 35 of 134
 Emotion isn’t something the Party
promotes. The song is sung by the proles-
although Winston finds it nonsense but is
what he values (love). Proles still have
emotional capacity (no desire to
‘It was only an ‘opeless fancy, It passed like an overthrow).
Ipril dye, But a look an’ a word an’ the dreams Church is a threat to stability.
Irony Dialect Northern British, working class dialect-
they stirred They ‘ave stolen my ‘eart
awye!’ (p. 249) Winston is still embedded in this culture.
Absolute power: Religion undermines the
state’s power since it’s another form of
influence- no alternative in 1984 .
Context: Soviet Russia outlawed religion to
maintain absolute power.
Winston suggests paroles have godlike
‘The mystical reverence that he felt for her was
features. Winston’s hope is that proles
somehow mixed up with the aspect of the
have quality to destroy the Inner Party (not
pale, cloudless sky, stretching away behind Religious terminology
fully indoctrinated)- can’t be controlled
the chimney pots into interminable
because 2% is Inner Party, 13% Outer
distances.’ (p. 251)
Party and 87% Proles.
‘Where there is equality there can be Importance of thought: Maintaining beliefs
sanity.’ (p. 253) can help bring down the Party.
‘... they would stay alive against all the odds,
like birds, passing on from body to body the Proles can breed without control of the
Simile
vitality which the Party did not share and could Inner Party.
not kill.’ (p. 252)
‘’We are the dead,’ he said. ‘We are the dead,’
echoed Julia dutifully. ‘You are the dead,’ said
an iron voice behind them.’ (p. 252)
Repetition Julia realises they have been spied on.
‘’We are the dead,’ he said. ‘We’re not dead
yet,’ said Julia prosaically.’ (p. 156)
‘’You are the dead,’ repeated the iron Absolute power: Optimism from Goldstein
voice.’ (p. 253) is destroyed by an iron voice.
‘’And by the way, while we are on the subject,
Bells of St Clements’ song brought hope
“Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here
Motif (from ‘candle’) but then there is despair
comes a chopper to chop off your head!”’ (p.
(chopper to chop off your head).
254)

Page 36 of 134
‘The fragment of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink Coral represents hope/potential for a
Symbolism Motif
like a sugar rosebud from a cake, rolled across different world. Small coral = small piece
Simile
the mat.’ (p. 254) of hope but this is shattered.
Book 3 Chapter 1
Winston believes he can maintain his
thoughts but all will collapse.

He wants to kill Julia but thinks he feels
love (he knows love but doesn’t feel love).

‘He felt no love for her, and he hardly even
Irony He is enculturated (to a degree) → hasn’t
wondered what was happening to her.’ (p. 263)
felt love and only views their relationship
as an act of rebellion, not love.

The essence of love is denial of self/
elevation of the other.
Light is supposed to be hope but is used
‘In this place, he knew instinctively, the lights for torture.

would never be turned out. It was the place Symbolism
Context: WW2/Soviet Russia, where sleep
with no darkness.’ (p. 263)
deprivation is used as a torture device.
Reinforces that Room 101 is the worst
‘’Room 101,’ said the officer. (p. 272) Repetition thing anyone could experience (as
suggested by lack of emotion)
‘He thought: ‘If I could save Julia by doubling Individuality/Perception of a hero:
my own pain, would I do it? Yes, I would.’ ’ ( p. Winston’s statement shows he’s not
273) capable of feelings.
Book 3 Chapter 2
‘He was rolling down a might corridor, a
kilometer wide, full of glorious, golden light, Individuality: Winston finds comfort from
roaring with laughter and shouting out his youth/memories.
confessions at the top of his voice.’ (p. 279)
‘’Don’t worry, WInston... I shall save you, I Positive language O’brien takes away individuality/thought
shall make you perfect.’’ (p.280) Irony and makes him a perfect adherent/

Page 37 of 134
 Sanity= thinking for self (rationalising) and
challenging the state.

In 1984, insanity is thinking and controlled
by the state since it’s the definition set by
the Inner Party.

‘Discipline’: Euphemism for torture and
forced control.

Absolute control/individuality: Insane

means to forgo individual thinking process
and accept everything.
‘You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of Existentialism: Whatever the Party holds to
one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Irony Euphemism be truth is the truth since everyone
Winston.’ (p. 285) determines reality with own
consciousness. Altering consciousness=
altering reality.
Context: Psychoanalysis/ existentialism.
Establishing connection between past
experiences and inability to connect with
social norms. Orwell extrapolates a
situation when individuals go against
social norm and will go against the Party→
force them into social norm or vaporise.
‘Uncured’: Controlled and need to return
to sanity.

Perverse view of individual relationship
with state.
Role of religion: There is no religion to
avoid any doubt towards power (faith can
have weaknesses).
‘Will you understand, Winston, that no one Ideology has stopped possibility to
whom we bring to this place very leaves our Euphemism
doub→ what to make Winston a convert,
hands uncured?’ (p. 190)
not a martyr. Context: Inquisition, where
those who are accused to not be an
adherent of a religion are killed or attempt
to purify society by killing those who go
against the state.
Show Trials in Soviet Russia but
martyrdom is a flaw.

Page 38 of 134
‘We bring him over to our side, not in
appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We Importance of thought: Controlling the
Repetition
make him one of ourselves before we kill spiritual aspect of self.
him.’ (p. 292)
‘Our command is “Thou art”.’
Importance of language: Uses positive
(p. 292) words to control.
Total power: O’brien is the perfect
‘His voice had grown almost dreamy.’ (p. 293)
adherent for the state.
Illustrates how a vacuum is created so Big
Brother fills that vacuum and individuals
‘We shall squeeze you empty, and then we will love Big Brother.

Metaphor
shall fill you with ourselves.’ (p. 293) Context: Electroconvulsive therapy was
used to remove thoughts and control
impulses.
‘She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately- Orwell showing how the state can control
Adverbs
unreservedly.’ (p. 296) someone who isn’t ideologically strong.
Book 3 Chapter 3
‘The proletarians will never revolt, not in a
Initially, Winston believed that if there is
thousand years or a million. They cannot.’ (p. Juxtaposition
hope it lies in the proles.
300)
‘What can you do, thought Winston, against
O’brien believed in his ideology (as a pure
the lunatic who is more intelligent than
convert) but is not insane.
yourself, who gives your arguments a fair Irony
Absolute power: Seeking power for power.
hearing and then simply persists in his
lunacy?’ (p. 301) 1984: Not interested in the good of power.
Emphasising the importance of power to
‘We are not interested in the good of others; the state.

we re interested solely in power. Not wealth or
Repetition Listing Context: Reasons for failure was because
luxury or long life or happiness: only power,
Germany wanted colonial expansion with
pure power.’ (p. 302)
Lebensraum, not absolute power.
Religious connotation
Religion is replaced with the Inner Party
We are the priests of power.’ (p. 303)
Metaphor and power is the main value.
Existentialism/importance of thought:
Being able to control thought is used to
‘Nothing exists except through human
manipulate→ nothing is as important as
consciousness.’ (p. 304)
thinking/consciousness and results in
collective consciousness.
Page 39 of 134
 Nature of humanity: O’brien thinks the
‘A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world should be more merciless and be
world of trampling and being trampled upon, a devoid of human emotions to ensure total
Anaphora
world which will grow not less but more power.

merciless as it refines itself.’ (p. 306) Absolute power: Higher ability of power re
shapes thinking to state’s choosing.
Emotionality: Compassion no longer exists
(removing relationship between families).
‘We have to cut the links between child and
Love is directed to Big Brother. Context:
parent, and between man and man, and Anaphora
Nazi Regime encouraged children to
between man and woman.’ (p. 306)
report their parents if they detect anti-state
discussion.
‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a Relentless pain in need in society.

boot stamping on a human face- for ever.’ (p. Metaphor
Society→ selflessness
307)
A world of victory after victory, triumph after Power is always desired (eternal
triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, Repetition exhibition)

pressing, pressing upon the nerve of power.’ Power= selfishness
‘You are under the impression that hatred is
Crush love out of existence and refine it
more exhausting than love. Why should it be?
Rhetorical question for love for Big Brother and everything else
And if it were, what difference would that
is hatred.
make?’ (p. 309)
‘We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You
Emotionality: Humanity is controlled
are imaging that there is something called
(absolute power), Shape of humanity is
human nature which will be outraged by what
created and cannot rebel.
we do and will turn against us.’ (p. 309)
‘’Do you believe in God, Winston?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then
what is it, this principle that will defeat us.’ ‘I
don’t know. The spirit of Man.’ (p. 309)
‘Do you understand that you are alone? ’ (p. Emphasises how you are ostracised for
Italics
309) having human emotions.
Emotionality: Winston is clinging onto love
‘No; that is perfectly true. You have not
(selflessness, sacrifice) to use against the
betrayed Julia.’ (p. 313)
Party.
‘But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured
Emotionality/nature of humanity: Winston
sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot
hopes to die (not associated with survival).
you.’ (p. 314)

Page 40 of 134
Book 3 Chapter 4
‘The so-called laws of Nature were nonsense.
Anaphora Rationality is overthrown and controlled.
The law of gravity was nonsense.’ (p. 319)
‘... by such a statement as ‘two and two make Part of control power is to be stupid
five’ were beyond his intellectual grasp.’ (p. Paradox (personal logic) and intelligence is what
320) the Party tells you to think.
‘He could feel the short springy turf under his Rare image of nature. Romantic
feet and the gentle sunshine on his face.’ (p. Tactile imagery description→ natural appreciation on
321) individual
‘... in the mind he had surrendered, but he had
Emotionality/humanity: Winston insists he
hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate.’ (p.
still has a heart.
232)
‘What was the most horrible, sickening thing Importance of thought: Display of
of all? He thought of Big Brother.’ (p. 323) individuality by challenging the state.
Emotionality: Winston tries to resist but
controlling people’s emotions= absolute
‘You must love Big brother. It is not enough to
Repetition control.

obey him: you must love him.’ (p. 324)

Want to turn Big Brother into a positive
association.
Book 3 Chapter 5
‘Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Repetition Emphasises how the state has won since
Julia!’ ( p. 329) Fragmented Winston loses his love for Julia→ leaves a
sentences vacuum for Big Brother.
Exclamation marks

Book 3 Chapter 6
‘In no chess problem since the beginning of the world Symbolism Association with white=good and always
has black ever won. Did it not symbolise the eternal, checkmates/forces control.

unvarying triumph of Good over Evil?’ (p. 333) Associated with Big Brother.

‘2+2=5... Something killed in your breast: burnt out, Total control: Once you accept out of rationality,
cauterised out.’ (p. 334) they have to make you defeat yourself→ can’t
force you into submission until you conquer
yourself.
Importance of thought: Indoctrination is complete
and Winston finally believes 2+2=5.

Page 41 of 134
‘You think there’s no other way of saving yourself, and Repetition Crushes hope of sacrifice since the state has won.
you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it Selflessness/humanity: It’s part of humanity to be
to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn selfish.
what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.’ (p.
336)

And after that, you don’t feel the same towards the other Emotionality: Crush the concern for others, then
person any longer.’ (p. 337) love is completely destroyed.
‘Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you Lyrics Reflects Julia and Winston’s betrayal of each other/
sold me-’ (p. 338) loss of love.

‘And then suddenly the life would go out of them and Metaphor Submission= he’s dead on the inside.

they would sit round the table looking at one another No life→ no existence in the world.
with extinct eyes, like ghosts fading at cock-crow.’ (p.
339)

‘Soon he was wildly excited and shouting with laughter Symbolism Chess game is a metaphor for control.

as the tiddlywinks climbed hopefully upo the ladders Snakes and ladders: variation of success and failure
and then came slithering down the snakes again, almost was a game of joy in childhood.
back to the starting point.’ (p. 340)
‘... his soul was white as snow.’ Religion metaphor His soul was cleansed and isn’t capable of going
(p. 342) against the state.

‘O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self- Exclamation Like a prayer, Winston glorifies Big Brother as he
willed exile from the loving breast!’ ( p. 342) experiences Romantic, genuine emotions.
Total control: His rationality is destroyed.

“The black-moustachio’d face gazed down Historical Allusion Historical allusions to Stalin, portrays leaders as
from every commanding corner... BIG infallible, superhuman fürhers.
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you Orwell instils his values in his protagonist Winston.
were being watched” By making him the internal focaliser, Orwell
prompts us to empathise with Winston’s anxieties.
Through this limited narrative perspective, the
audience senses the anxiety that the omnipresence
of Big Brother and the Thought Police create.

Page 42 of 134
“a desire to kill...seemed to flow through the Metaphor This metaphor depicts a bleak dystopia devoid of
whole group like an electric current, turning freedom and individuality where control is
one even against one’s will” maintained through ritual and enforced
homogeneity

“For how could you establish even the most Winston’s personal rhetoric demonstrates the
obvious fact when there existed no record absolute power of knowledge. - It is through this
outside your own money” extreme hyperbole that Orwell warns of the
dangers of a society that monopolises the media.
explains how ignorance makes the masses more
susceptible to control

“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of Syme’s excited tone in this paradoxical statement
words.” serves as a shock to the audience and highlights the
government’s absolute power.

“Expressionless Mongolian face and Propaganda poster Cumulation creating frightening visual
enormous boots, a submachine gun pointed imagery – reflects similar Nazi Germany
from his hip.” propaganda, used to propagate
xenophobia across Germany
“The great orgasm was quivering to its climax” Metaphor referring to the hate building up to a crescendo –
sexual imagery displays the party’s ability to take
over human emotion.

“The object of persecution is persecution. anaphoric sentences Orwell discloses the true motives of current
The object of torture is torture. The object of authoritarian leaders and prospects the extent of
power is power” how far totalitarianism can go.

“Slavery is freedom” Paradox/Absurdity Paradox and absurdity in O’Brien’s speech is so

extreme, provoking Orwell’s audience to resist this
kind of power.

“His pen had slid voluptuously over the Extended sexual passions that could compete with one’s loyalty to
smooth paper” metaphor The Part were acts of rebellion.

“DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG Repetition and

BROTHER” capitalisation

“theyll shoot me i dont care” Lack of punctuation Emphasises his mindless hysteria as he
privately protests the party

Page 43 of 134
“to a time when thought is free... men are Use of the form a letter directed to future or past -
different from one another... truth exists... directs his message to his audience
From the age of uniformity... solitude...
doublethink – greetings!”
“Their embrace had been a battle... It was a blow struck Extended sexual Their vibrant and fulfilling affair is a political
against the Party. It was a political act.” metaphor attack

“You are only a rebel from the waist downwards” double entendre Julia’s motive for rebellion and how she rebels
differs to Winston in that she isn’t conscious of
why she must rebel and she rebels by being
duplicitous.
“The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral The paperweight is symbolic for Winston and
was Julia's life and his own” Julia’s affair, as it is an object that has not been
changed by the party

“Someone had picked up the glass paperweight from the symbolises the deterioration of their hopes of
table and smashed it to pieces” rebellion and their love for each other.
“ ‘throw sulphuric acid in a child’s face – are you Emotive visual imagery provocative, emotive visual imagery – confronts
prepared to do that?’ ‘Yes’ ” the audience on the hypocrisy and senselessness of
rebellion

“I wrote it” irony as O’Brien is vigilant believer of the inner

party’s regimes yet he wrote the heresy of these
values.
“you consider yourself superior to us, with our lies and cumulation – the party facilitates and harnesses
our cruelty?... He heard himself promising to lie, to how they rebel, then use their act of rebellion as a
steal..to throw vitriol in a child’s face” means to exert more power over them.

“He loved Big Brother” this nihilistic denouement highlights the futility of
rebellion

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander Personification personifies the omniscient presence of the
when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen to provide the enduring image of an
telescreen.” autocratic regime that dehumanises the individuals
for self-benefit and maintenance of power.
“Big Brother is watching you”

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“There was of course no way of knowing whether you The audience feels the omnipresence of Big
were being watched” Brother and the Thought Police - Orwell
establishes this through the use of second person
narration and the use of Winston as the internal
focaliser, directing the audience to empathise with
Winston’s paranoia and anxieties. (thus
communicating Orwell’s fears and anxieties)

“the Hate Song...was being endlessly plugged on the auditory, military imagery and hyperbole of the
telescreens...to the tramp of marching feet” ongoing indoctrination through the media
expresses Orwell’s perspective of the media being
nothing more than a propaganda machine.
“Never again will you be capable of ordinary human
feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again
will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of
living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity.
You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and
then we shall fill you with ourselves.” - Book 3, Chapter
2

“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are

creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic
Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear
and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and
being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less
but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our
world will be progress toward more pain.” - Book 3,
Chapter 3

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you

were being watched at any given moment. How often,
or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on
any individual wire was guesswork. It was even
conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.
But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever
they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit
that became instinct—in the assumption that every
sound you made was overheard, and, except in
darkness, every movement scrutinized.” - Book 1,
Chapter 1

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“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to
narrow the range of thought?... Has it ever occurred to
you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest,
not a single human being will be alive who could
understand such a conversation as we are having
now?... The whole climate of thought will be different.
In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it
now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to
think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” - Book 1,
Chapter 5

“The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion. Winston views sex as an essentially politically
Desire was thoughtcrime.” rebellious act.

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and Paradox At reaching a metaphysical paradox, Winston has
until after they have rebelled they cannot become Anaphora arrived at a conclusion he does not wish to believe:
conscious.” the proles will never gain the consciousness
required for them to effectively rebel
Subhuman proles cannot understand their
oppression until they revolt, however cannot revolt
until they understand their oppression. Inextricably
conveys Winston’s despair and damaged
conjectures, which ultimately influences his own
rebellious tendencies. Effects of class struggle are
depicted in the novel and Lang’s film-perspective
on rebellion
“At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay Tone of excitement There is hope for Winston and the responder
alive had welled up in him”

“Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him Sense of hope Winston figures that there is a sense of hope, there
with a wild hope. Who knew, perhaps the Party was Stream of consciousness may be other corrupt Party members just like him
rotten under the surface”

“"I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue Dialogue Winston is interested in the act of rebellion
to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the Atmosphere of
bones." excitement
“So long as they were actually in this room, they both Sense of security The only privacy they have is in that room
felt, no harm could come to them”

“The proles had stayed human. They had not become Sense of Hope Winston realises that the Proles are the only
hardened inside” humans left
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"Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t
matter, only feelings matter. If they could make me stop
loving you – that would be the real betrayal."

“She thought is over. "They can’t do that," she said Aposiopesis Sense of hope is created, they will always stay
finally. "It’s the one thing they can’t do. They can make Irony because the human and remain conscious
you say anything – anything – but they can’t make you government actually does
believe it. They can’t get inside you." get inside them and The dashes indicate Julia’s thought process as she
makes them stop loving is overcome by passion, and this allows for the
each other reader to appreciate the complexity of her
statement
“We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve in the Dialogue Winston and Julia profess their devotion and
principles of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals” Bravery loyalty to the ultimate force of rebellion – the
Anaphora of “we” Brotherhood.

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism Mise-en-abyme Mise-en-abyme or ‘story-within-a-story’ is a

by Emmanuel Goldstein textual feature of both Metropolis and 1984. In
Metropolis, Lang uses the ‘Tower of Babel’ story,
whilst in 1984, Orwell uses ‘The Theory and
Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism’.

“We shall crush you down to the point from which O’Brien Dialogue Tone of anger and demand makes the responder
there is no coming back.” feel weak and hopeless
“ever again will you be capable of love, or Repetition of “or” Repetition of “or” creates a sense of angst and
friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or worry as these are the values Winston will loose
courage, or integrity. You will be hollow”

"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care Tone of fright Winston finally gives in
what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the Dialogue of Winston Winston betrays his loyalty
bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" Highlights how torture and abuse of power
manipulates individuals
His love for Julia diminishes
Violent overtones-emphasises the extent of
indoctrination
Potentiality of succumbing to these regimes
The hellish world of Oceania is an onslaught to the
“…tinny music trickled from the telescreens.” Sensory imagery senses.
“The cloves and saccharine…disgusting…the smell of Winston’s suffers in mute acceptance.
gin which dwelt with him night and day.” Bleak and depraved existence of Winston is
“…a vile, biting day in March when the earth was like depicted for the reader.
iron.” Horror of dystopian world as depicted in the
opening.

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“Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the Symbolism/ motif of Big Brother has triumphed over rebellion.
dust…2+2=5” doublethink Winston has succumbed to doublethink.
(“…freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two
makes four.” P. 93)

Contrast / We are witness to the total destruction of Winston,

(“They can’t get inside you, p. 192”) Characterisation from an individual thinker, lover and rebel to
“But they could get inside you.” pathetic, lonely, member of the outer party.
Scene mirrors Winston’s Absolute subjugation of the individual is conveyed
(“If they could make me stop loving you – that would visit to café in Part I (Ch. in pessimism of final chapter.
be the real betrayal.”) VII) Loss in identity is evident through the contrast in
“Under the spreading chestnut tree / I sold you and you Winston’s attitudes by the end of the novel.
sold me” Underlines the satirical tone of the novel as irony is
skilfully employed.
(“Down with Big Brother” Ch. 1) The strong and resilient mindset of Winston is
“He loved Big Brother” juxtaposed with the ending. Furthermore, his tone
is elevated when describing Big Brother,
highlighting Winston’s submission to party ideals
as a result of being tortured.
symbolism (chestnut tree Contrast effectively highlights how barbaric
symbolises chastity, governments corrupt the minds of civilians in order
honesty and justice – all to maintain power and control.
values lost under Big
Brother)
“He looked up at the colossus that bestrode the world!” Mock heroism Elevating Big Brother to a huge status, one that he
doesn’t deserve.
“O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn self-
willed exile from the loving breast! Irony – emphatic We hear Orwell’s deeply satirical voice throughout
(Oldspeak) tone of the final chapter.
Winston directed at Big
Brother.

LitCharts

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“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete Theme: Reality Control Winston describes the concept of "doublethink," a
truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to style of consciousness that the Party demands all
hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, citizens adopt. Doublethink involves believing two
knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both contradictory things at the same time. One major
of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality example of doublethink comes in the form of the
while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was slogans of the ministries: "War is Peace,"
impossible and that the Party was the guardian of "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength."
democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth also involves
forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the doublethink; he must delete any evidence that
moment when it was needed, and then promptly to contradicts the Party's new version of the truth,
forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process while at the same time erasing his own awareness
to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: that he has changed anything. The "ultimate
consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once subtlety" that Winston mentions refers to the fact
again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you that, while experiencing doublethink, people must
had just performed. Even to understand the word also not be aware of the fact that they are
"doublethink" involved the use of doublethink.” Pg. 35 experiencing it.
(Book 1, Chapter 3) Doublethink highlights the extent of the Party's
control over the population. If doublethink is
successful, there is no need for indoctrination,
laws, or even punishment; people will simply
believe whatever the Party tells them, even if this
doesn't make sense, because they have given up the
ability to logically interrogate whether things are
true or just. This is part of the Party's larger tactic
of reality control, a method of oppressing the
population through altering the way people see and
interpret the world around them.
The concept of doublethink was inspired by real
tactics used in totalitarian regimes such as Nazism
and Stalinism. In Nazi concentration camps, for
example, signs over the entrances read "Arbeit
macht frei," meaning "Work sets you free." In
reality, of course, prisoners in the camps were
either worked to death or gassed.

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“The process of continuous alteration was applied not Theme: Reality Control/Totalitarianism and Here Winston describes the tasks he performs at his
only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, Communism job at the Ministry of Truth: "rectifying" cultural
pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, and historical records so that they don't contradict
cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or the Party's current version of truth, which is
documentation which might conceivably hold any constantly changing. This role is particularly
political or ideological significance. Day by day and thankless for a number of reasons. Firstly, because
almost minute by minute the past was brought up to all of the work is done in secret, Winston will
date. In this way every predication made by the Party never receive any acknowledgment or credit for
could be shown by documentary evidence to have been what he does. Indeed, doing his job well means
correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of making it impossible to prove that any falsification
opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, has taken place." Furthermore, he is constantly
ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a undoing his own work; every time he changes a
palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as record, he knows that perhaps only hours later he
often as was necessary. In no case would it have been will have to change it again.
possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any Finally, because the Party's version of the truth is
falsification had taken place.” Pg. 39 (Book 1, Chapter constantly changing and will continue to do so into
3) the foreseeable future, there is a nightmarish sense
of monotony to Winston's work, which will never
be complete, but will simply go on and on, its only
purpose to strengthen the Party's control over
reality. Indeed, this sense of monotony
characterises life in the world of 1984. Orwell
shows that existence under a totalitarian regime is
endlessly dull and repetitive, as the Party erases all
differentiation between people and their
experiences.

Page 50 of 134
“It was as though some huge force were pressing down Theme: Reality Control/Totalitarianism and Winston has been staring at a picture of Big
upon you—something that penetrated inside your skull, Communism Brother on the cover of a children's book,
battering against your brain, frightening you out of your reflecting on the way that the Party controls his
beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of Symbol: Big Brother thoughts. He describes the pressure to conform to
your senses. In the end the Party would announce that Party ideology at the expense of his own logic as a
two and two made five, and you would have to believe kind of physical force, so powerful that it could
it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim lead him to believe that 2+2=5. Indeed, this
sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. statement accurately foreshadows the moment
Not merely the validity of experience, but the very when O'Brien eventually does convince Winston
existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their through torture that 2+2=5 at the end of the novel.
philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. In this passage, Orwell conveys the idea that reality
And what was terrifying was not that they would kill control is even more horrifying than death. Perhaps
you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. because he has little to live for, Winston does not
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make fear death; however, his words suggest that the
four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the ability to reason is the most important thing in life,
past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external and without that, he might as well be dead. With
world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is this in mind, Winston's eventual fate at the end of
controllable—what then?” Pg. 80 (Book 1, Chapter 7) the novel is even more tragic than if he had been
killed. At the same time, this passage shows that
Winston knows such a fate is "inevitable."

“In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl's Theme: The Individual vs The Collective/Sex, Love Winston and Julia have just had sex, and Winston
body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end & Loyalty reflects on his feelings of desire for Julia and how
of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure these are inflected with the fear and hatred he
lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because constantly feels as a result of living under the
everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their Party. Because the Party controls citizens' actions
embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a and even emotions, simply the private act of
blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.” Pg. expressing love and desire is subversive. However,
126 (Book 2, Chapter 2) although Winston is able to overcome the sadistic,
violent urges he at first feels toward Julia, the Party
still plays a role in their romantic encounter;
indeed, what in a free society would be an ordinary
private act becomes a major political gesture with
very serious ramifications.

Page 51 of 134
There was a direct, intimate connection between Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The Julia has explained to Winston how the Party
chastity and political orthodoxy. For how could the fear, Individual vs The Collective/Sex, Love & Loyalty utilizes sexual repression as a way of creating and
the hatred, and the lunatic credulity which the Party harnessing frustrated energy that can then be
needed in its members be kept at the right pitch, except directed toward the Party's own political ends.
by bottling down some powerful instinct and using it as Winston agrees, and muses that if left uncontrolled,
a driving force? The sex impulse was dangerous to the sexuality would be a direct threat to the Party.
Party, and the Party had turned it to account. Once again, Orwell shows that characters in the
Pg. 133 (Book 2, Chapter 3) world of 1984are not able to understand their own
thoughts and feelings except in relation to the
Party: every act, thought, and emotion is instantly
categorized as either orthodox or subversive. This
passage is also significant because of its wider
implications beyond the issue of totalitarianism.
Although the sexual repression depicted in1984 is
extreme, Orwell's point about the ways in which
sexual repression can be used to create political
obedience is not necessarily limited to totalitarian
regimes.

He turned over towards the light and lay gazing into the Theme: The Individual vs The Collective/Sex, Love Winston and Julia have secretly met in the room
glass paperweight. The inexhaustibly interesting thing & Loyalty above Mr. Charrington's junk shop, enjoying the
was not the fragment of coral but the interior of the forbidden pleasures of black market food,
glass itself. There was such a depth of it, and yet it was Symbol: The Glass Paperweight spontaneous singing, and time together away from
almost as transparent as air. It was as though the surface the surveillance of the Party. At the end of this
of the glass had been the arch of the sky, enclosing a scene, Winston stares at the antique glass
tiny world with its atmosphere complete. He had the paperweight he has bought, marveling at its beauty
feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was and complexity. Under the Party, all production has
inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gateleg become purely functional, and thus craftsmanship
table and the clock and the steel engraving and the no longer exists and beautiful objects are (literally)
paperweight itself. The paperweight was the room he relics of the past.
was in, and the coral was Julia's life and his own, fixed Winston's fascination with the paperweight is
in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal. Pg. 147 moving, and the level of detail in this description
(Book 2, Chapter 4) betrays the way in which citizens living in free
societies might end up taking such small
manifestations of beauty and skill for granted.
Winston's desire to be inside the paperweight
highlights the strength of his longing for privacy
and for an internal life beyond the reach of the
Party. The phrase "in fact he was inside it" also
reflects Orwell's repeated challenging of the binary
between external reality and our internal
perspective.

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The terrible thing that the Party had done was to Theme: Reality Control/Totalitarianism and Winston has told Julia that he has spent his entire
persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of Communism/The Individual vs The Collective/Sex, life feeling guilty for his mother's death, an
no account, while at the same time robbing you of all Love & Loyalty emotional revelation that was only made possible
power over the material world. When once you were in through the time he and Julia have spent alone in
the grip of the Party, what you felt or did not feel, what the rented room. Having made this confession,
you did or refrained from doing, made literally no Winston feels resentful of the way that the Party
difference. Whatever happened you vanished, and has made his emotions insignificant, while also
neither you nor your actions were ever heard of again. robbing him of any structural power within the
Pg. 164 (Book 2, Chapter 7) Party itself. The statement "what you did or
refrained from doing, made no difference.
Whatever happened you vanished" emphasizes the
fact that individual identity is completely dissolved
in the world of1984. It is impossible to have any
individual autonomy, as the only possible modes of
behavior––obedience or rebellion––both ultimately
result in being subsumed back into the Party.

The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/Class O'Brien has given Winston a copy of Emmanuel
the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously Struggle Goldstein's (banned) book, The Theory and
recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of Practice of Oligarchal Collectivism, which Winston
the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine reads once he is in private in the rented room. In
without raising the general standard of living. Pg. 188 Chapter 3, "War Is Peace," Goldstein describes
(Book 2, Chapter 9) how the perpetual state of war is achieved and why.
Although the war is partly a territorial conflict over
colonized regions containing resources and people
used as slave labor, the main reason for war is to
use up goods in order to prevent a rise in the
standard of living. The population is kept in
poverty, as it is thought that the accumulation of
resources would lead to better education and
political resistance. The logic of war also gives a
veneer of purpose to the Party's control of the
population and to policies such as rationing;
however, this purpose is undermined by the fact
that the war is designed to be perpetual. Once
again, 1984depicts a world in which time no longer
unfolds with any kind of direction or purpose, but
is rather directionless and monotonous.

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The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The Here Emmanuel Goldstein details the two obstacles
surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all Individual vs The Collective preventing the Party from achieving its aim of
the possibility of independent thought. There are global domination. This passage implies that once
therefore two great problems which the Party is these two problems are solved, there will be
concerned to solve. One is how to discover, against his nothing to stop the Party from seizing and
will, what another human being is thinking, and the maintaining power over the entire world. The two
other is how to kill several hundred million people in a problems are 1) the ability to know what a person
few seconds without giving warning beforehand. Pg. is thinking and 2) the ability to kill hundreds of
193 (Book 2, Chapter 9) millions of people without warning.
In the main narrative, each of the problems is
presented as being partially solved. The constant
surveillance of the telescreen means that any
subversive behavior, however minor, can be
detected by the Party. There are also several points
when it is shown to be possible to tell when
someone is thinking unpatriotic thoughts just by
looking at their face. Meanwhile, remember
that1984 is set in a post-nuclear world; nuclear
weapons can kill hundreds of thousands of people
at a time, although in the novel the three states
have signed a nuclear truce. The fact that the Party
has already begun to overcome these obstacles
ominously suggests that it will soon be able to
achieve its aim of total world domination.

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“The heirs of the French, English, and American Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/Class Here Orwell gives an interpretation of the actual
revolutions had partly believed in their own phrases Struggle/Class Struggle history of the world up until the 1940s through the
about the rights of man, freedom of speech, equality voice of the imagined revolutionary Emmanuel
before the law, and the like, and have even allowed their Goldstein. This narrative presents a somewhat
conduct to be influenced by them to some extent. But cynical view of the French, English, and American
by the fourth decade of the twentieth century all the revolutions, suggesting that the leaders of these
main currents of political thought were authoritarian. events only partly believed in the egalitarian
The earthly paradise had been discredited at exactly the political ideals on which they were supposedly
moment when it became realizable. Every new political based. The passage features an even bleaker view
theory, by whatever name it called itself, led back to of the 1930s and '40s, suggesting that although
hierarchy and regimentation. And in the general political theories such as communism, socialism,
hardening of outlook that set in round about 1930, and fascism may have seemed ideologically
practices which had been long abandoned, in some different, they all ultimately led to abuse of power
cases for hundreds of years-- imprisonment without and crimes against humanity.
trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public Although this passage is part of Emmanuel
executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of Goldstein's book-within-the-book, there is a strong
hostages, and the deportation of whole populations--not sense of Orwell's voice coming through here. The
only became common again, but were tolerated and pessimistic outlook reflects the climate in which
even defended by people who considered themselves 1984 was written. In 1948, the events of the first
enlightened and progressive.” Pg. 204-205 (Book 2, and second World Wars and the continued power of
Chapter 9) totalitarian regimes (such as Franco's fascist
government in Spain and Stalinism in the USSR)
made it difficult to trust that political theories
would lead to positive outcomes, or that leaders
would not end up corrupted by power. Both in this
passage and throughout the book, Orwell suggests
that political theories themselves are somewhat
meaningless, because they seem to inevitably lead
to authoritarianism and oppression. Although the
Party in 1984claims to be pursuing its aims in the
name of equality, peace, love, and freedom, in
reality of course the opposite is true.

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“Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as Theme: The Individual vs The Collective/Reality At this point in the book Emmanuel Goldstein
though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous Control describes crimestop, a newspeak word describing a
thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, form of orthodox consciousness where subversive
of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding thoughts are stopped before they even come into
the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, existence. To the party,crimesetop represents the
and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought ideal state of mind for all citizens. It is not enough
which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. to have subversive thoughts occur but then to
Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.” Pg. dismiss them, as this still involves the use of
212 (Book 2, Chapter 9) reason, which might then be used to criticize the
party. What the Party requires in order to have
ultimate control is for people to become so stupid
that they lose the ability to imagine criticism or
alternatives to Party ideology in the first place.
Here Orwell shows that the suppression of
politically subversive or "unpatriotic" thoughts
inevitably equates to the suppression of thought in
general, and that the ultimate result of this
suppression would be a completely numb and
idiotic population. This passage shows why Syme
was vaporized even though he was completely
obedient to the party; despite his orthodoxy, Syme's
intelligence meant the Party viewed him as
dangerously far from the ideal of crimestop, and
thus felt that he represented a threat.

Page 56 of 134
“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/Class In this passage Emmanuel Goldstein makes an
Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with important distinction between doublethink and
torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These Struggle/Reality Control lying or hypocrisy. Recall that doublethink is not
contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result saying one thing and believing another, but rather
from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in holding that two contradictory things are true at
doublethink. For it is only by reconciling contradictions once. Again, the important thing to note here is that
that power can be retained indefinitely. In no other way logic is a threat to the Party's power, and thus
could the ancient cycle be broken. If human equality is doublethink is necessary because it is a way of
to be for ever averted—if the High, as we have called perceiving the world that is by definition
them, are to keep their places permanently—then the illogical––it is completely incompatible with logic
prevailing mental condition must be controlled and thus, in Goldstein's words, can be considered a
insanity.” Pg. 216 (Book 2, Chapter 9) form of "controlled insanity."
It is also important to note Goldstein's statement
that the aim of the Party is for "human equality... to
be for ever averted." Of course this in itself
represents doublethink, as the Party simultaneously
tells citizens that the regime's purpose is to ensure
equality. This reflects the hypocrisy of Stalinism,
where communist ideals of a fair, egalitarian
society were distorted in such a way that preserved
the high status and rewards of government officials
while huge sections of the population were starved,
imprisoned, or worked to death.

Page 57 of 134
“If there was hope, it lay in the proles! Without having Theme: Class Struggle Winston and Julia have admitted they are doomed,
read to the end of the book, he knew that that must be and meanwhile have been watching the red-armed
Goldstein's final message. The future belonged to the Symbol: The Red-Armed Prole Woman prole woman singing; it is in this moment that
proles. And could he be sure that when their time came Winston realizes that in contrast to himself, Julia,
the world they constructed would not be just as alien to and other members of the Outer Party, the proles
him, Winston Smith, as the world of the Party? Yes, still have enough energy and freedom to overthrow
because at the least it would be a world of sanity. Where the regime. He considers that the proles might not
there is equality there can be sanity. Sooner or later it realize this for a long time––perhaps even a
would happen, strength would change into thousand years––and that even when it does
consciousness. The proles were immortal; you could not eventually happen, it would create a world that he
doubt it when you looked at that valiant figure in the might not personally feel comfortable in. However,
yard. In the end their awakening would come. And until he decides it would be worth it because there
that happened, though it might be a thousand years, they would at last be true equality and "sanity"––a
would stay alive against all the odds, like birds, passing world where freedom of thought and common
on from body to body the vitality which the Party did sense were allowed to exist.
not share and could not kill.” Pg. 220 (Book 2, Chapter This passage stands in contrast to the rest of the
10) novel, which stresses the inevitability of the Party's
total power over the population. Winston's belief
that hope "lay in the proles" reflects Karl Marx's
theory that revolution would be achieved through a
temporary "dictatorship of the proletariat,"
meaning a period of time when working-class
wage laborers took control of political power,
overthrowing the bourgeoisie. In 1984 it is
debatable whether Orwell endorses or dismisses
this view; while he does depict the
"proles" (proletariat) as possessing energy and
freedom, the narrative ends on a decidedly
hopeless note, with no sign of a coming revolution.
Note also the rather elitist way in which Orwell
describes the proles. In this passage his statement
that they are "like birds" suggests that he considers
them closer to animals than humans.

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". . . The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism Winston, who has succumbed to torture in the
not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in Ministry of Love and is doing everything he can to
power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only get O'Brien to ease the pain, has told O'Brien that
power, pure power. What pure power means you will he believes the Party seeks absolute power because
understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies
this is ultimately the best for the majority of the
of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others,
even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and population. However, O'Brien's gives a surprising
hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists response to this; he explains to Winston that the
came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the Party seeks power for no other reason than to have
courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, it. This shift in ideology shows that, now that
perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power Winston has been tortured into accepting
unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the doublethink, brainwashing and lies are no longer
corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free necessary.
and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever Note O'Brien's distinction between this aspect of
seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is Party ideology and the legacies of Nazism and
not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship
Stalinism. O'Brien suggests that these regimes fell
in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in
order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is short of the ultimate form of totalitarianism
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of symbolized by the Party, because they maintained
power is power." Pg. 263 (Book 3, Chapter 3) that there was a reason for their authoritarian
power (such as increasing equality or efficiency, or
conquering other nations) other than the goal of
achieving power itself. The Party thus symbolizes
the logical conclusion of totalitarianism, where
leaders are not corrupted by power, but instead
justify everything through the aim of having power
over others.

“To die hating them, that was freedom.” Pg. 281 (Book Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The After months of torture, Winston has accepted the
3, Chapter 4) Individual vs The Collective Party's control over reality and over his own mind.
However, he still dreams of the past, of his mother,
Symbol: Big Brother and of Julia, and has awoken realizing that despite
the fact that he has accepted doublethink, he still
loves Julia and thus his emotions are still free from
the Party's control. He realizes that he wants to die
hating the Party and Big Brother, because even if
the Party controls every other aspect of his life, this
hatred will prove that he died a person with at least
a tiny modicum of dignity and agency.
This sentence tragically foreshadows the remainder
of the narrative, where Winston loses his emotional
freedom, including his love of Julia and hatred of
the Party. This is reflected in the final sentence of
the novel, which is "He loved Big Brother."

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"They can't get inside you," she had said. But they could Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The Winston has been released from the Ministry of
get inside you. "What happens to you here is forever," Individual vs The Collective/Reality Control Love, having successfully been tortured into
O'Brien had said. That was a true word. There were accepting and obeying the Party. He is now an
things, your own acts, from which you could never alcoholic and is drinking gin in the Chestnut Tree
recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out, Cafe, recalling a moment when Julia had told him
cauterized out. Pg. 290 (Book 3, Chapter 6) that no matter what the Party did, "they can't get
inside you." Of course, Winston's time being
tortured in the Ministry of Love disproves this fact,
something he now understands. The horror of
Room 101 lies in the fact that, when faced with
their greatest fear, a person will betray everything
that is meaningful to them, thereby losing their
sense of self. Winston knows he will never be able
to "recover" from the moment when he betrayed
Julia, and because of this will never have enough
agency to be able to resist the Party again.

"Sometimes," she said, "they threaten you with Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The Winston has run into Julia, and they have both
something—something you can't stand up to, can't even Individual vs The Collective/Reality Control/Sex, confessed that they betrayed each other while
think about. And then you say, ‘Don't do it to me, do it Love & Loyalty being tortured in Room 101. Julia admits that this
to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.' And perhaps you moment of betrayal represents a total loss of one's
might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and sense of self, reflecting Winston's earlier thoughts
that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really in the Chestnut Tree Cafe.
mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens Even though this betrayal is induced by the worst
you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving form of torture, it is not possible for either Julia or
yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that Winston to forgive themselves. They are haunted
way. You want it to happen to the other person. You by the memory of their own selfishness in the face
don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is of torture, a selfishness that then results in total
yourself." "All you care about is yourself," he echoed.
 obedience to the Party. This highlights a paradox
"And after that, you don't feel the same towards the within the consequences of torture; the moment
other person any longer." — "No," he said, "you don't when "all you care about is yourself" becomes the
feel the same." Pg. 292 (Book 3, Chapter 6) moment when you lose your sense of self forever.
Orwell thus implies that what gives people a sense
of personal identity is in fact the ability to care
about other things (such as people and principles)
more than themselves.

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He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had Theme: Totalitarianism and Communism/The In the final paragraph of the main narrative,
taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden Individual vs The Collective/Reality Control Winston is drunk from gin at the Chestnut Tree
beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless Cafe and gazes lovingly at a picture of Big Brother.
misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from Symbol: Big Brother He regrets all the time he spent struggling against
the loving breast! Two gin- scented tears trickled down the Party, and feels relieved that he now accepts the
the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was Party and loves Big Brother. The two exclamations
all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the beginning with "O" use over-the-top poetic
victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. Pg. 298 language to convey Winston's drunkenness, and
(Book 3, Chapter 6) this impression, along with his total surrender to
the Party, highlight the fact that he is not the same
person as he was at the beginning of the novel. His
ability to think and feel autonomously has totally
disappeared, and he is now simply a vehicle of
obedience to the Party.

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The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a Theme: The Individual vs The Collective/Reality In the appendix to the novel, Newspeak is
medium of expression for the world-view and mental Control explained in detail, including the plan to replace
habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all Oldspeak entirely with Newspeak by 2050. The
other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that Symbol: Big Brother aim of this transition is crimestop, a concept
when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and introduced in Emmanuel Goldstein's book, which
Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought—that is, a means preventing the possibility of subversive
thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc— thought. This passage shows that just the existence
should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought of Oldspeak (the English language we know) is a
is dependent on words. Pg. 299 (Appendix) threat to the total dominance of the Party, as it is
possible to express an infinite variety of thoughts
and feelings in Oldspeak, most of which do not
confirm to Party ideology.
Given this information, if the novel were set in
2050 instead of 1984 almost none of the events that
take place in the narrative would be possible.
Winston's critical thoughts about the Party, his
writing in the diary, and Julia's note that says "I
love you" would not be able to be expressed in
Newspeak. However, the final phrase "at least so
far as thought is dependent on words" might
suggest a note of ambiguity about the possibility of
future resistance. Recall that, even after Winston
has been tortured into abandoning reason, he is still
able to love Julia through his dreams and to
maintain the feeling of hating Big Brother. While
subversive thought might cease to exist after the
adoption of Newspeak, perhaps subversive
emotions could survive because emotions are not
necessarily dependent on language.

Sparknotes

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``War is peace Motif These words are the official slogans of the Party, • ``War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance if
Freedom is slavery and are inscribed in massive letters on the white strength’’ is a motif of double think.
Ignorance is strength’’ pyramid of the Ministry of Truth, as Winston •
observes in Book One, Chapter I. Because it is
introduced so early in the novel, this creed serves as
the reader’s first introduction to the idea of
doublethink. By weakening the independence and
strength of individuals’ minds and forcing them to
live in a constant state of propaganda-induced fear,
the Party is able to force its subjects to accept
anything it decrees, even if it is entirely illogical—
for instance, the Ministry of Peace is in charge of
waging war, the Ministry of Love is in charge of
political torture, and the Ministry of Truth is in
charge of doctoring history books to reflect the
Party’s ideology.
That the national slogan of Oceania is equally
contradictory is an important testament to the power
of the Party’s mass campaign of psychological
control. In theory, the Party is able to maintain that
“War Is Peace” because having a common enemy
keeps the people of Oceania united. “Freedom Is
Slavery” because, according to the Party, the man
who is independent is doomed to fail. By the same
token, “Slavery Is Freedom,” because the man
subjected to the collective will is free from danger
and want. “Ignorance Is Strength” because the
inability of the people to recognize these
contradictions cements the power of the
authoritarian regime.

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``Who controls the past controls the future. Who Motif This Party slogan appears twice in the novel, once
controls the present controls the past.’’ in Book One, Chapter III, when Winston is thinking
about the Party’s control of history and memory,
and once in Book Three, Chapter II, when Winston,
now a prisoner in the Ministry of Love, talks to
O’Brien about the nature of the past. The slogan is
an important example of the Party’s technique of
using false history to break down the psychological
independence of its subjects. Control of the past
ensures control of the future, because the past can
be treated essentially as a set of conditions that
justify or encourage future goals: if the past was
idyllic, then people will act to re-create it; if the past
was nightmarish, then people will act to prevent
such circumstances from recurring. The Party
creates a past that was a time of misery and slavery
from which it claims to have liberated the human
race, thus compelling people to work toward the
Party’s goals.
The Party has complete political power in the
present, enabling it to control the way in which its
subjects think about and interpret the past: every
history book reflects Party ideology, and individuals
are forbidden from keeping mementos of their own
pasts, such as photographs and documents. As a
result, the citizens of Oceania have a very short,
fuzzy memory, and are willing to believe anything
that the Party tells them. In the second appearance
of this quote, O’Brien tells Winston that the past has
no concrete existence and that it is real only in the
minds of human beings. O’Brien is essentially
arguing that because the Party’s version of the past
is what people believe, that past, though it has no
basis in real events, has become the truth.

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``In the end the Party would announce that two and two - Motif This quote occurs in Book One, Chapter VII, as
made five, and you would have to believe it. It was - Theme Winston looks at a children’s history book and
inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or marvels at the Party’s control of the human mind.
later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely These lines play into the theme of psychological
the validity of experience, but the very existence of manipulation. In this case, Winston considers the
external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy.’’ Party’s exploitation of its fearful subjects as a
means to suppress the intellectual notion of
objective reality. If the universe exists only in the
mind, and the Party controls the mind, then the
Party controls the universe. As Winston thinks,
“For, after all, how do we know that two and two
make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or
that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and
the external world exist only in the mind, and if the
mind itself is controllable—what then?” The
mathematical sentence 2 + 2 = 5 thus becomes a
motif linked to the theme of psychological
independence. Early in the novel, Winston writes
that “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus
two make four.” The motif comes full circle at the
end of the novel after the torture Winston suffers in
the Ministry of Love breaks his soul; he sits at the
Chestnut Tree Café and traces “2 + 2 = 5” in the
dust on his table.

``And when memory failed and written records were This quote from Book One, Chapter VIII,
falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to emphasizes how one’s understanding of the past
have improved the conditions of human life had got to affects one’s attitude about the present. Winston has
be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again just had a frustrating conversation with an old man
could exist, any standard against which it could be about life before the Revolution, and he realizes that
tested.’’ the Party has deliberately set out to weaken people’s
memories in order to render them unable to
challenge what the Party claims about the present. If
no one remembers life before the Revolution, then
no one can say that the Party has failed mankind by
forcing people to live in conditions of poverty, filth,
ignorance, and hunger. Rather, the Party uses
rewritten history books and falsified records to
prove its good deeds.

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``And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it Julia speaks these lines to Winston in Book Three,
was only a trick and that you just said it to make them Chapter VI, as they discuss what happened to them
stop and didn’t really mean it. But that isn’t true. At the in Room 101. She tells him that she wanted her
time when it happens you do mean it. You think there’s torture to be shifted to him, and he responds that he
no other way of saving yourself and you’re quite ready felt exactly the same way. These acts of mutual
to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the betrayal represent the Party’s final psychological
other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. victory. Soon after their respective experiences in
All you care about is yourself.’’ Room 101, Winston and Julia are set free as they no
longer pose a threat to the Party. Here, Julia says
that despite her efforts to make herself feel better,
she knows that in order to save herself she really did
want the Party to torture Winston. In the end, the
Party proves to Winston and Julia that no moral
conviction or emotional loyalty is strong enough to
withstand torture. Physical pain and fear will always
cause people to betray their convictions if doing so
will end their suffering.
Winston comes to a similar conclusion during his
own stint at the Ministry of Love, bringing to its
culmination the novel’s theme of physical control:
control over the body ultimately grants the Party
control over the mind. As with most of the Party’s
techniques, there is an extremely ironic strain of
doublethink running underneath: self-love and self-
preservation, the underlying components of
individualism and independence, lead one to fear
pain and suffering, ultimately causing one to accept
the principles of anti-individualist collectivism that
allows the Party to thrive.

Shmoop

Theme: Language & Communication

The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with Employing the concept of doublethink, the Party
news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The gives ironic names to its branches as a way to
Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The euphemize what they actually are.
Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And
the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for
economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue,
Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty. (1.1.8)

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"It's a beautiful thing, the Destruction of words. Of By curtailing frivolous and "fighting" words, the
course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, Party seeks to narrow the range of thought
but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as altogether, such that eventually, thoughtcrime will
well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the be literally impossible.
antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a
word, which is simply the opposite of some other word?
A word contains its opposite in itself. Take ‘good,’ for
instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need is
there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as
well – better, because it's an exact opposite, which the
other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of
‘good,’ what sense is there in having a whole string of
vague useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and
all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning or
‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something stronger still.
Of course we use those forms already, but in the final
version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end
the whole notion of goodness and badness will be
covered by only six words – in reality, only one word.
Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.'s
idea originally, of course," he added as an afterthought.
(1.5.23, Syme)

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to By curtailing frivolous and "fighting" words, the
narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make Party seeks to narrow the range of thought
thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be altogether, such that eventually thoughtcrime will
no words in which to express it. Every concept that can be literally impossible. The same goes for disruptive
ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, or subversive behavior.
with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary
meanings rubbed out and forgotten." (1.5.23, Syme)

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"By 2050, earlier, probably – all real knowledge of The Party, in controlling and manipulating
Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of language, seeks to ultimately make thinking
the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, innately pure – void of rebellious concepts.
Shakespeare, Milton, Byron – they'll exist only in
Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something
different, but actually changed into something
contradictory of what they used to be. Even the
literature of the Party will change. Even the slogans will
change. How could you have a slogan like ‘freedom is
slavery’ when the concept of freedom has been
abolished? The whole climate of thought will be
different. In fact there will be no thought, as we
understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking – not
needing to think. Orthodoxy is
unconsciousness." (1.5.30, Syme)

Theme: Philosophical Viewpoints

The sacred principles of Ingsoc: Newspeak, Trapped between the Party’s nonsense principles
doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as and his own perception of reality, Winston
though he were wandering in the forests of the sea experiences a metaphysical crisis that ultimately
bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was leads to his demise.
the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the
future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a
single human creature now living was on his side? And
what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party
would not endure forever? (1.2.34)

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete The Party’s concept of doublethink is contrary to
truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to reason, logic, and the workings of the brain. It takes
hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, a great effort for Winston to engage in doublethink.
knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both
of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality
while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was
impossible and that the Party was the guardian of
democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to
forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the
moment when it was needed, and then promptly to
forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process
to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety:
consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once
again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you
had just performed. Even to understand the word
"doublethink" involved the use of doublethink. (1.3.20)
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Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and • At reaching a metaphysical paradox, Winston has
until after they have rebelled they cannot become arrived at a conclusion he does not wish to
conscious. (1.7.4) believe: the proles will never gain the
consciousness required for them to effectively
rebel.
• For the proles, consciousness is as necessary for
rebellion as the latter is for consciousness. This
paradox is the proles’ futile plight.

It was as though some huge force were pressing down Deathly afraid of the Party’s proposition that there
upon you – something that penetrated inside your skull, exists no external reality independent of the mind,
battering against your brain, frightening you out of your Winston feels despair – not because of the doctrine
beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of itself, but because he may be subject to the truth of
your senses. In the end the Party would announce that that doctrine.
two and two made five, and you would have to believe
it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim
sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it.
Not merely the validity of experience, but the very
existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their
philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense.
And what was terrifying was not that they would kill
you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right.
For, after all, how do we know that two and two make
four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the
past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external
world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is
controllable…what then? (1.7.27)
Syme had vanished. A morning came, and he was That Syme has vanished and ceased to exist on
missing from work: a few thoughtless people paper (or anywhere else, for that matter) means that
commented on his absence. On the next day nobody for all historical purposes, he has never existed at
mentioned him. On the third day Winston went into the all.
vestibule of the Records Department to look at the
notice-board. One of the notices carried a printed list of
the members of the Chess Committee, of whom Syme
had been one. It looked almost exactly as it had looked
before – nothing had been crossed out – but it was one
name shorter. It was enough. Syme had ceased to exist:
he had never existed. (2.5.1)

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"Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, Winston feels confident that, despite the Party’s
has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it's control of information–and thus, the past–he alone
in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, had possession of evidence to prove the Party’s
like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost wrong. (At least in his memory.)
literally nothing about the Revolution and the years
before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed
or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every
picture has been repainted, every statue and street and
building has been renamed, and every date has been
altered. And that process is continuing day-by-day and
minute-by-minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists
except an endless present in which the Party is always
right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it
would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I
did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no
evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my
own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any
other human being shares my memories. Just in that one
instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete
evidence after the event – years after it." (2.5.14,
Winston to Julia)

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls To O’Brien’s dismay, Winston continues to deny
the present controls the past," repeated Winston that the mutability of the past leads to control of the
obediently. present. However, the prolonged torture has been
"Who controls the present controls the past," said gnawing away at Winston’s belief in an
O'Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. "Is it independent, external reality.
your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?"
(3.2.39-40)

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O'Brien smiled faintly. "You are no metaphysician, Facing extreme torture, Winston vehemently refuses
Winston," he said. "Until this moment you had never to give up the view that an independent external
considered what is meant by existence. I will put it reality exists, even in a world where the Party
more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? controls all records. Winston’s fierce belief in the
Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid immutability of memory is the last straw he holds
objects, where the past is still happening?" on to.
"No."
"Then where does the past exist, if at all?"
"In records. It is written down."
"In records. And- ?"
"In the mind. In human memories."
"In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all
records, and we control all memories. Then we control
the past, do we not?"
"But how can you stop people remembering things?"
cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. "It
is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you
control memory?
You have not controlled mine!" (3.2.42-49)

"You believe that reality is something objective, In urging Winston to discard his rebellious views,
external, existing in its own right. You also believe that O’Brien imparts on him a Party-centric,
the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude metaphysical view of reality: reality does not exist
yourself into thinking that you see something, you except in the collective and immortal mind of the
assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. Party.
But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external.
Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.
Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes,
and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the
Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the
Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to
see reality except by looking through the eyes of the
Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn,
Winston. It needs an act of self- destruction, an effort of
the will. You must humble yourself before you can
become sane." (3.2.51, O’Brien)

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Did not the statement, "You do not exist", contain a Winston continues to hold on to the concept of an
logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His independent, external reality by referring to his
mind shriveled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad being conscious of his own existence.
arguments with which O'Brien would demolish him.
"I think I exist," he said wearily. "I am conscious of my
own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and
legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid
object can occupy the same point simultaneously. In that
sense, does Big Brother exist?" (3.2.40-41, Winston)

"We control matter because we control the mind. Furthering Party doctrines, O’Brien attempts to
Reality is inside the skull…" (3.3.21, O’Brien) push his view of a mind-dependent reality on
Winston.
"Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How Winston continues to resist the concept of a mind-
could it be older? Nothing exists except through human dependent reality by referring to the existence of
consciousness." creatures pre-dating man.

"But the rocks are full of the bones of extinct animals –

mammoths and mastodons and enormous reptiles which
lived here long before man was ever heard
of." (3.3.25-26, Winston, O’Brien)

Winston shrank back upon the bed. Whatever he said, Winston continues to believe in an independently
the swift answer crushed him like a bludgeon. And yet existing reality, but O’Brien ridicules him and tells
he knew, he knew, that he was in the right. The belief him it is not so.
that nothing exists outside your own mind – surely there
must be some way of demonstrating that it was false?
Had it not been exposed long ago as a fallacy? There
was even a name for it, which he had forgotten. A faint
smile twitched the corners of O'Brien's mouth as he
looked down at him.
"I told you, Winston," he said, "that metaphysics is not
your strong point. The word you are trying to think of is
solipsism. But you are mistaken. This is not
solipsism." (3.3.31-32, O’Brien)

If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of Winston takes metaphysics more seriously than he
this or that event, it never happened – that, surely, was does death.
more terrifying than mere torture and death? (1.3.17)

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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes Winston believes fiercely in the correctness of his
and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His position on there being an external, mind-
heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed independent reality; however, he cannot help but
against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual wonder whether the Party is right in asserting that
would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments the contrary is true.
which he would not be able to understand, much less
answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong
and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had
got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that!
The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones
are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards
the earth's centre. With the feeling that he was speaking
to O'Brien, and also that he was setting forth an
important axiom […] (1.7.29-30)

Theme: Power
Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling A totalitarian power seeks to exert influence over its
dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was constituents by conveying the message that it is
shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.
color in anything, except the posters that were plastered Ubiquitously posting awe-inspiring posters is one
everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed down such means to this end.
from every commanding corner. There was one on the
house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS
WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes
looked deep into Winston's own. Down at street level
another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the
wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single
word INGSOC. (1.1.4)

Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was Fear runs so deep in Winston that he fancies that, by
safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be turning his back on a telescreen, his rebellious spirit
revealing. (1.1.6) may be sniffed out.
From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, Another method by which a totalitarian power seeks
picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the to exert influence over its constituents is to place
three slogans of the Party: reminders of its slogans and doctrines everywhere.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH (1.1.7)

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The other person was a man named O'Brien, a member As is typical with all Party officials and operations,
of the Inner Party and holder of some post so important mystery is the key, and O’Brien is the epitome of an
and remote that Winston had only a dim idea of its enigmatic authority figure.
nature. A momentary hush passed over the group of
people round the chairs as they saw the black overalls of
an Inner Party member approaching. O'Brien was a
large, burly man with a thick neck and a coarse,
humorous, brutal face. In spite of his formidable
appearance he had a certain charm of manner. (1.1.24)

The next moment a hideous, grinding speech, as of The Party’s modus operandi in maintaining power is
some monstrous machine running without oil, burst to shift blame to a designated scapegoat, toward
from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a which all of its constituents’ hatred and violence
noise that set one's teeth on edge and bristled the hair at may be directed. Their favorite scapegoat is up
the back of one's neck. The Hate had started. As usual, today—Emmanuel Goldstein.
the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the
People, had flashed on to the screen. (1.1.25-26)
In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People The Party’s go-to tactic for maintaining power is to
were leaping up and down in their places and shouting shift blame to a designated scapegoat, toward which
at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the all of its constituents’ hatred and violence may be
maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. directed. Here we have the citizens letting it all out
The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, during the daily Two Minutes Hate—which is of
and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a course organized and overseen by the Party.
landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He
was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest
swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to
the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind
Winston had begun crying out "Swine! Swine! Swine!"
and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak
dictionary and flung it at the screen. (1.1.29)

People simply disappeared, always during the night. The Party’s way of dealing with subversive people
Your name was removed from the registers, every is to make them disappear, and subsequently, to
record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, remove them from history altogether.
and your one-time existence was denied and then
forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized
was the usual word. (1.1.39)

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With those children, he thought, that wretched woman The Party seeks to maintain power by severing
must lead a life of terror. Another year, two years, and private loyalties, replacing them with loyalty to the
they would be watching her night and day for symptoms party. With children, the success of the Party’s plan
of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were is furthered in that the children serve as extra
horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of surveillance forces for the Party.
such organizations as the Spies they were systematically
turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this
produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against
the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored
the Party and everything connected with it. (1.2.25)

Bad news coming, thought Winston. And sure enough, By keeping supply down and demand up on luxury
following on a gory description of the annihilation of a goods, the Party is able to check and direct its
Eurasian army, with stupendous figures of killed and constituents’ desires and wants.
prisoners came the announcement that, as from next
week, the chocolate ration would be reduced from thirty
grams to twenty. (1.2.31)
A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up The Party holds their power by using children as
from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy extra surveillance forces for the Party. This younger
automatic pistol, while his small sister, about two years sister is learning how to spy by following her
younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of brother's lead. We bet the Party was extra happy that
wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, they didn't have to train her themselves.
grey shirts, and red neckerchiefs, which were the
uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above
his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the
boy's demeanor, that it was not altogether a game.
"You're a traitor!" yelled the boy. "You're a thought-
criminal! You're a Eurasian spy! I'll shoot you, I'll
vaporize you, I'll send you to the salt mines!"
Suddenly they were both leaping round him, shouting
"Traitor!" and "Thought-criminal!" the little girl
imitating her brother in every movement. It was
somehow slightly frightening, like the gamboling of
tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters.
There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy's eye,
a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a
consciousness of being very nearly big enough to do so.
(1.2.15-17)

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On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, The Party’s modus operandi in maintaining power is
the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the to shift blame to a designated scapegoat, toward
posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums which all of its constituents’ hatred and violence
and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, may be directed.
the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of
massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of
this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax
and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into
such delirium that if the crowd could have got their
hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to
be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings,
they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at
just this moment it had been announced that Oceania
was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at
war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally. (2.9.3)

The problem is the same for all three super-states. It is The Party ensures undying loyalty to it by instilling
absolutely necessary to their structure that there should – and indeed, creating – fear, hatred, and
be no contact with foreigners, except, to a limited uncertainty against the world outside Oceania.
extent, with war prisoners and colored slaves. Even the
official ally of the moment is always regarded with the
darkest suspicion. War prisoners apart, the average
citizen of Oceania never sets eyes on a citizen of either
Eurasia or Eastasia, and he is forbidden the knowledge
of foreign languages. If he were allowed contact with
foreigners he would discover that they are creatures
similar to him and that most of what he has been told
about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives
would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-
righteousness on which his morale depends might
evaporate. (2.9.32, Goldstein’s Manifesto)
"We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you The Party ultimately vaporizes captured rebels, but
have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt not before converting and re-indoctrinating them.
act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely
destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you
understand what I mean by that?" (3.2.99, O’Brien)

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"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We The Party will not repeat historical mistakes;
are not interested in the good of others; we are indeed, rather than seeking power as a means to
interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long something else, its quest for power is for power’s
life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure own sake.
power means you will understand presently. We are
different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we
know what we are doing. All the others, even those who
resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites.
The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came
very close to us in their methods, but they never had the
courage to recognize their own motives. They
pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had
seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and
that just round the corner there lay a paradise where
human beings would be free and equal. We are not like
that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the
intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is
an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to
safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in
order to establish the dictatorship. The object of
persecution is persecution. The object of torture is
torture. The object of power is power. Now do you
begin to understand me?" (3.3.14, O’Brien)

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"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are The world that the Party aspires to create is a world
creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic unlike any that has existed before: fear and torment
Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear shall replace love and happiness; destruction shall
and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trump advancement; loyalty to the party will be the
trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but only acceptable loyalty; families and the sexual
more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world instinct shall be eradicated.
will be progress towards more pain. The old
civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or
justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there
will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-
abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything.
Already we are breaking down the habits of thought,
which have survived from before the Revolution. We
have cut the links between child and parent, and
between man and man, and between man and woman.
No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any
longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no
friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at
birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will
be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality
like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the
orgasm. Our neurologists are mat work upon it now.
There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the
Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big
Brother." (3.3.34, O’Brien)

"But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there The Party is chiefly concerned with attaining and
will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing maintaining the type of power that depends on
and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every triumph over resistance.
moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation
of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a
picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a
human face – for ever." (3.3.34, O’Brien)
The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with War is a necessary tool for Oceania because it keeps
the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously the standard of living in check, such that the
recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of inequalities essential to a totalitarian state remain in
the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine place.
without raising the general standard of living. (2.9.25,
Goldstein’s Manifesto)

Page 78 of 134
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily War is a necessary tool for the Party because it
of human lives, but of the products of human labor… keeps the people peaceful, such that rebellion is far
The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city, where from their minds.
the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the
difference between wealth and poverty. And at the same
time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in
danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small
caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of
survival. (2.9.28, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, The Party employs science and technology to curtail
has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no human freedom and privacy, and to control human
word for "Science." The empirical method of thought, behavior.
on which all the scientific achievements of the past were
founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles
of Ingsoc. And even technological progress only
happens when its products can in some way be used for
the diminution of human liberty. (2.9.30).
In principle, membership of these three groups is not The Party’s view of loyalty is that for totalitarianism
hereditary. The child of Inner Party parents is in theory to thrive, there must not be private loyalties at all.
not born into the Inner Party. Admission to either branch Rather, insofar as Inner Party members are
of the Party is by examination, taken at the age of concerned with the perpetuation of the Party’s rule,
sixteen. Nor is there any racial discrimination, or any the only allowable loyalty is the loyalty to power
marked domination of one province by another. Jews, itself.
Negroes, South Americans of pure Indian blood are to
be found in the highest ranks of the Party […] Its rulers
are not held together by blood-ties but by adherence to a
common doctrine […] The Party is not a class in the old
sense of the word. It does not aim at transmitting power
to its own children, as such; and if there were no other
way of keeping the ablest people at the top, it would be
perfectly prepared to recruit an entire new generation
from the ranks of the proletariat. In the crucial years, the
fact that the Party was not a hereditary body did a great
deal to neutralize opposition […] The essence of
oligarchic rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the
persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of
life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling
group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its
successors. The Party is not concerned with
perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself.
(2.9.58, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

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Theme: Warfare
"Attention! Your attention, please! A newsflash has this The announcement of war in Oceania is so constant
moment arrived from the Malabar front. Our forces in that Winston can almost predict it.
South India have won a glorious victory. I am
authorized to say that the action we are now reporting
may well bring the war within measurable distance of
its end. Here is the newsflash –"Bad news coming,
thought Winston. And sure enough, following on a gory
description of the annihilation of a Eurasian army, with
stupendous figures of killed and prisoners […]
(1.2.30-31)
Winston could not definitely remember a time when his No matter how hard he digs at his memory, Winston
country had not been at war, but it was evident that is uncertain whether a time existed when Oceania
there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his was not at war with someone.
childhood, because one of his early memories was of an
air raid, which appeared to take everyone by surprise.
Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had
fallen on Colchester. He did not remember the raid itself
[…]. (1.3.12)

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Since about that time, war had been literally continuous, For as long as Winston can recall, Oceania has been
though strictly speaking it had not always been the same in a constant state of war – with whom it was at war
war. For several months during his childhood there had is of neither importance nor consequence.
been confused street fighting in London itself, some of
which he remembered vividly. But to trace out the
history of the whole period, to say who was fighting
whom at any given moment, would have been utterly
impossible, since no written record, and no spoken
word, ever made mention of any other alignment than
the existing one. At this moment, for example, in 1984
(if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in
alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance
was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any
time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as
Winston well knew, it was only four years since
Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance
with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive
knowledge, which he happened to possess because his
memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially
the change of partners had never happened. Oceania
was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always
been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment
always represented absolute evil, and it followed that
any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
(1.3.16)

"What I mean to say, there is a war on," said Parsons. Parsons is merely stating the obvious that there is a
(1.5.51, Parsons) war going on in Oceania.
Suddenly the whole street was in commotion. There The wars Oceania endures often create fear and
were yells of warning from all sides. People were destruction, though ultimately keep its constituents
shooting into the doorways like rabbits. A young in check.
woman leapt out of a doorway a little ahead of Winston,
grabbed up a tiny child playing in a puddle, whipped
her apron round it, and leapt back again, all in one
movement. At the same instant a man in a concertina-
like black suit, who had emerged from a side alley, ran
towards Winston, pointing excitedly to the sky.
"Steamer!" he yelled. "Look out, guv'nor! Bang
over’ead! Lay down quick!" "Steamer" was a nickname
which, for some reason, the proles applied to rocket
bombs. (1.8.7-9)

Page 81 of 134
"That was before the war, of course." Warfare is so constant in Oceania that one war
"Which war was that?" said Winston. blends with another.
"It's all wars," said the old man vaguely. (1.8.35-37, the
old prole Man)

In one combination or another, these three super-states Oceania is permanently at war with the other
are permanently at war, and have been so for the past superstates. Such war is not necessary – except in
twenty-five years. War, however, is no longer the the sense of keeping the warring states’ constituents
desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early in check. Oceania uses war to control its
decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of constituents.
limited aims between combatants who are unable to
destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting
and are not divided by any genuine ideological
difference. (2.9.22, Goldstein’s Manifesto)
The primary aim of modern warfare (in accordance with War is a necessary tool for the Party because it
the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously keeps the standard of living in check, maintaining
recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the inequalities essential to a totalitarian state.
the Inner Party) is to use up the products of the machine
without raising the general standard of living. (2.9.25,
Goldstein’s Manifesto)

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily War is a necessary tool for the Party because it
of human lives, but of the products of human labor […]. keeps the people peaceful, such that rebellion is far
The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city, where from their minds.
the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the
difference between wealth and poverty. And at the same
time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in
danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small
caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of
survival. (2.9.28, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

Page 82 of 134
On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, Winston again recognizes the switch! Now the Party
the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the announces that Oceania is at war with Eastasia, and
posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums not Eurasia after all.
and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet,
the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of
massed planes, the booming of guns – after six days of
this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax
and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into
such delirium that if the crowd could have got their
hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to
be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings,
they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces – at
just this moment it had been announced that Oceania
was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at
war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally. (2.9.3)

Theme: Violence
The chinless man obeyed. His large pouchy cheeks were The Party uses brutality against captured rebels in
quivering uncontrollably. The door clanged open. As the order to control and reform them.
young officer entered and stepped aside, there emerged
from behind him a short stumpy guard with enormous
arms and shoulders. He took his stand opposite the
chinless man, and then, at a signal from the officer, let
free a frightful blow, with all the weight of his body
behind it, full in the chinless man's mouth. The force of
it seemed almost to knock him clear of the floor. His
body was flung across the cell and fetched up against
the base of the lavatory seat. For a moment he lay as
though stunned, with dark blood oozing from his mouth
and nose. A very faint whimpering or squeaking, which
seemed unconscious, came out of him. Then he rolled
over and raised himself unsteadily on hands and knees.
Amid a stream of blood and saliva, the two halves of a
dental plate fell out of his mouth. (3.1.63)

Page 83 of 134
"Do anything to me!" he yelled. "You've been starving The type of torture the Party employs is so intense
me for weeks. Finish it off and let me die. Shoot me. that the people subjected to it are ready to betray
Hang me. Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there anything and anyone in order to avoid it.
somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who
it is and I’ll tell you anything you want. I don't care who
it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three
children. The biggest of them isn't six years old. You
can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in
front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not
Room 101!" (3.1.71, the old tortured man at the
Ministry of Love)

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With that first blow on the elbow the nightmare had Prolonged torture can influence anyone to do
started. Later he was to realize that all that then anything. Eventually, just the threat of torture is
happened was merely a preliminary, a routine sufficient to make Winston do anything.
interrogation to which nearly all prisoners were
subjected. There was a long range of crimes –
espionage, sabotage, and the like – to which everyone
had to confess as a matter of course. The confession was
a formality, though the torture was real. How many
times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had
continued, he could not remember. Always there were
five or six men in black uniforms at him simultaneously.
Sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons,
sometimes it was steel rods, and sometimes it was
boots. There were times when he rolled about the floor,
as shameless as an animal, writhing his body this way
and that in an endless, hopeless effort to dodge the
kicks, and simply inviting more and yet more kicks, in
his ribs, in his belly, on his elbows, on his shins, in his
groin, in his testicles, on the bone at the base of his
spine. There were times when it went on and on until
the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not
that the guards continued to beat him but that he could
not force himself into losing consciousness. There were
times when his nerve so forsook him that he began
shouting for mercy even before the beating began, when
the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was
enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and
imaginary crimes. There were other times when he
started out with the resolve of confessing nothing, when
every word had to be forced out of him between gasps
of pain, and there were times when he feebly tried to
compromise, when he said to himself: ‘I will confess,
but not yet. I must hold out till the pain becomes
unbearable. Three more kicks, two more kicks, and then
I will tell them what they want.' Sometimes he was
beaten till he could hardly stand, then flung like a sack
of potatoes on to the stone floor of a cell, left to
recuperate for a few hours, and then taken out and
beaten again. (3.2.3)

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He did not remember any ending to his interrogation. O’Brien directs the torture and interrogation of
There was a period of blackness and then the cell, or Winston. Prolonged torture has the ability to
room, in which he now was had gradually materialized influence Winston to do anything. Eventually, the
round him. He was almost flat on his back, and unable threat of torture is sufficient to make him do
to move. His body was held down at every essential anything.
point. Even the back of his head was gripped in some
manner. O'Brien was looking down at him gravely and
rather sadly. […] Under his hand there was a dial with a
lever on top and figures running round the face.[…]
Without any warning except a slight movement of
O'Brien's hand, a wave of pain flooded his body. It was
a frightening pain, because he could not see what was
happening, and he had the feeling that some mortal
injury was being done to him. He did not know whether
the thing was really happening, or whether the effect
was electrically produced; but his body was being
wrenched out of shape, the joints were being slowly
torn apart. Although the pain had brought the sweat out
on his forehead, the worst of all was the fear that his
backbone was about to snap. He set his teeth and
breathed hard through his nose, trying to keep silent as
long as possible.
"You are afraid," said O'Brien, watching his face, "that
in another moment something is going to break. Your
especial fear is that it will be your backbone. You have a
vivid mental picture of the vertebrae snapping apart and
the spinal fluid dripping out of them. That is what you
are thinking, is it not, Winston?" (3.2.12-16)

"What have you done with Julia?" said Winston. Upon O’Brien’s informing Winston of Julia’s ready
O'Brien smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. betrayal of him, Winston is certain that Julia was
Immediately-unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone subjected to torture, just as he was.
come over to us so promptly. You would hardly
recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her
deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness – everything has
been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a
textbook case." "You tortured her?" (3.2.32-34)

Page 86 of 134
He had stopped because he was frightened. A bowed, Not only did physical torture take its toll on
Grey colored, skeleton-like thing was coming towards Winston’s body, but the sight of his own body has
him. Its actual appearance was frightening, and not taken a toll on him psychologically.
merely the fact that he knew it to be himself. He moved
closer to the glass. The creature's face seemed to be
protruded, because of its bent carriage. A forlorn,
jailbird's face with a knobby forehead running back into
a bald scalp, a crooked nose, and battered-looking
cheekbones above which his eyes were fierce and
watchful. The cheeks were seamed, the mouth had a
drawn-in look. Certainly it was his own face, but it
seemed to him that it had changed more than he had
changed inside […]. Here and there under the dirt there
were the red scars of wounds, and near the ankle the
varicose ulcer was an inflamed mass with flakes of skin
peeling off it. But the truly frightening thing was the
emaciation of his body. The barrel of the ribs was as
narrow as that of a skeleton: the legs had shrunk so that
the knees were thicker than the thighs […]. The
curvature of the spine was astonishing. The thin
shoulders were hunched forward so as to make a cavity
of the chest, the scraggy neck seemed to be bending
double under the weight of the skull. At a guess he
would have said that it was the body of a man of sixty,
suffering from some malignant disease. (3.3.66)

"You asked me once," said O'Brien, "what was in Room The Party does not merely employ physical torture
101. I told you that you knew the answer already. on the captured rebels and criminals, but
Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the psychological torture as well.
worst thing in the world." (3.5.4, O’Brien)

Page 87 of 134
The cage was nearer; it was closing in. Winston heard a The Party capitalizes on fear very proficiently, and
succession of shrill cries which appeared to be Winston finally breaks under the weight of
occurring in the air above his head. But he fought psychological fear.
furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with
a split second left – to think was the only hope.
Suddenly the foul musty odor of the brutes struck his
nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside
him, and he almost lost consciousness. Everything had
gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming
animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an
idea. There was one and only one way to save himself.
He must interpose another human being, the body of
another human being, between himself and the rats.
(3.5.21)

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls To O’Brien’s dismay, Winston continues to deny
the present controls the past," repeated Winston that the mutability of the past leads to control of the
obediently. present. However, the prolonged torture has been
"Who controls the present controls the past," said gnawing away at Winston’s belief in an
O'Brien, nodding his head with slow approval. "Is it independent, external reality.
your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?"
(3.2.39-40)
"We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you The Party ultimately vaporizes captured rebels, but
have committed. The Party is not interested in the overt not before converting and reindoctrinating them,
act: the thought is all we care about. We do not merely through means of torture.
destroy our enemies, we change them. Do you
understand what I mean by that?" (3.2.99, O’Brien)

"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care Faced with his biggest fear, Winston finally betrays
what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the his private loyalty to Julia.
bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (3.5.24)

Page 88 of 134
"I betrayed you," she said baldly. For both Winston and Julia, torture is able to chew
"I betrayed you," he said. through the deepest bonds of loyalty.
She gave him another quick look of dislike.
"Sometimes," she said, "they threaten you with
something you can't stand up to, can't even think about.
And then you say, ‘Don't do it to me, do it to somebody
else, do it to So-and-so.’ And perhaps you might
pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you
just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it.
But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do
mean it. You think there's no other way of saving
yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that
way. You want it to happen to the other person. You
don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is
yourself."
"All you care about is yourself," he echoed.
"And after that, you don't feel the same towards the
other person any longer."
"No," he said, "you don't feel the same." (3.6.16-22,
Winston and Julia)

He obeyed the Party, but he still hated the Party. In the Even after months of torture, Winston outwardly
old days he had hidden a heretical mind beneath an obeys the Party, but inwardly does not resign his
appearance of conformity. Now he had retreated a step rebellious spirit.
further: in the mind he had surrendered, but he had
hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate. He knew that he
was in the wrong, but he preferred to be in the wrong.
(3.4.24)

Theme: Technology & Modernisation

Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of Oceanians live in a constant state of being
figures which had something to do with the production monitored by the Party, through the use of
of pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal advanced, invasive technology.
plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the
surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch
and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were
still distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it
was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of
shutting it off completely. (1.1.3)

Page 89 of 134
In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between Oceanians are used to living in a constant state of
the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and surveillance – either through technology or police
darted away again with a curving flight. It was the patrol.
police patrol, snooping into people's windows. (1.1.4)

It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander The Party’s surveillance tactics and technology are
when you were in any public place or within range of a so advanced that even the smallest twitch can betray
telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A a rebellious spirit.
nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of
muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the
suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide.
In any case, to wear an improper expression on your
face (to look incredulous when a victory was
announced, for example) was itself a punishable
offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak:
facecrime, it was called. (1.5.65)
"That's a first-rate training they give them in the Spies Its reach not limited to technology, the Party
nowadays – better than in my day, even. What d'you employs children against their parents as another
think's the latest thing they’ve served them out with? way of to survey behavior.
Ear trumpets for listening through keyholes! My little
girl brought one home the other night – tried it out on
our sitting-room door, and reckoned she could hear
twice as much as with her ear to the hole." (1.5.67,
Parsons)

He took his scribbling pad on his knee and pushed back The Party’s chief monitoring device, the telescreen,
his chair so as to get as far away from the telescreen as is so sensitive that it can detect the rapid beatings of
possible. To keep your face expressionless was not a person’s rebellious heart.
difficult, and even your breathing could be controlled,
with an effort: but you could not control the beating of
your heart, and the telescreen was quite delicate enough
to pick it up. (1.7.22)

In general you could not assume that you were much Its reach not limited to telescreens, the Party also
safer in the country than in London. There were no places hidden microphones throughout London to
telescreens, of course, but there was always the danger monitor the interactions of its constituents.
of concealed microphones by which your voice might
be picked up and recognized; besides, it was not easy to
make a journey by yourself without attracting attention.
(2.2.2)

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In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, The Party employs science and technology to curtail
has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no human freedom and privacy, and to control human
word for 'Science'. The empirical method of thought, on behavior.
which all the scientific achievements of the past were
founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles
of Ingsoc. And even technological progress only
happens when its products can in some way be used for
the diminution of human liberty. (2.9.30).

Winston kept his back turned to the telescreen. It was Fear runs so deep in Winston that he fancies that by
safer, though, as he well knew, even a back can be turning his back on a telescreen, his rebellious spirit
revealing. (1.1.6) may be sniffed out.
"‘Down with Big Brother!’ Yes, I said that! Said it over With children, the success of the Party’s plan
and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, manifests further in that the children serve as extra
I'm glad they got me before it went any further […]." surveillance forces for the Party. Indeed, the child of
"Who denounced you?" said Winston. Party member Parsons is so overcome with love for
"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of and indoctrination by the Party that she surveys and
doleful pride. "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I turns in her own father in for thoughtcrime.
was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next
day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear
her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I
brought her up in the right spirit, anyway." (3.1.48-50)

"You can turn it off!" he said. Privacy away from the telescreens is a privilege
"Yes," said O'Brien, "we can turn it off. We have that afforded only to Inner Party members.
privilege" (2.8.8-9, Winston and O’Brien)

"You are the dead," repeated the iron voice. Winston and Julia come to a rude awakening when
"It was behind the picture," breathed Julia. it turns out that their rented room has a hidden
"It was behind the picture," said the voice. "Remain telescreen that has surveyed them for their entire
exactly where you are. Make no movement until you are affair.
ordered."
It was starting, it was starting at last! They could do
nothing except stand gazing into one another's eyes […]
unthinkable to disobey the iron voice from the wall.
There was a snap as though a catch had been turned
back, and a crash of breaking glass. The picture had
fallen to the floor uncovering the telescreen behind it.
(2.10.21-24)

Theme: Manipulation

Page 91 of 134
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party Winston believes that as long as a person’s
imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie perception (or memory) of the truth can be
passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the externally verified, then even a lie can become
past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who truth. Such is the Party’s method of control.
controls the present controls the past." And yet the past,
though of its nature alterable, never had been altered.
Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to
everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed
was an unending series of victories over your own
memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak,
"doublethink." (1.3.18)

For how could you establish even the most obvious fact Without physical records outside of his own
when there existed no record outside your own memory, Winston experiences great trouble in
memory? He tried to remember in what year he had first trying to remember the commencement of the
heard mention of Big Brother. He thought it must have Party’s rule.
been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to
be certain. In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother
figured as the leader and guardian of the Revolution
since its very earliest days. His exploits had been
gradually pushed backwards in time until already they
extended into the fabulous world of the forties and the
thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical
hats still rode through the streets of London in great
gleaming motor-cars or horse carriages with glass sides.
There was no knowing how much of this legend was
true and how much invented. Winston could not even
remember at what date the Party itself had come into
existence. (1.3.22)
This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar The Party seeks to control the present by mandating
slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands the destruction of all records of the past through
throughout the building, not only in every room but at "memory holes."
short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they
were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that
any document was due for destruction, or even when
one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an
automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory
hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled
away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces
which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the
building. (1.4.2)

Page 92 of 134
The messages he had received referred to articles or Winston’s duties consist of editing and rewriting
news items which for one reason or another it was history in the form of various media in order to
thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had conform and reinforce the Party’s version of the
it, to rectify. For example, it appeared from The Times past and present. The Party refers to this task as the
of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his "rectification" of records.
speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South
Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian
offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As
it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had
launched its offensive in South India and left North
Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a
paragraph of Big Brother's speech, in such a way as to
make him predict the thing that had actually happened.
Or again, The Times of the nineteenth of December had
published the official forecasts of the output of various
classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of
1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth
Three-Year Plan. Today's issue contained a statement of
the actual output, from which it appeared that the
forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong.
Winston's job was to rectify the original figures by
making them agree with the later ones. As for the third
message, it referred to a very simple error which could
be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago
as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise
(a "categorical pledge" were the official words) that
there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration
during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the
chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grams to
twenty at the end of the present week. All that was
needed was to substitute for the original promise a
warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce
the ration at some time in April. (1.4.6)

Page 93 of 134
As soon as all the corrections which happened to be Winston’s employment duties consist of editing and
necessary in any particular number of The Times had rewriting history in the form of various media to
been assembled and collated, that number would be conform and reinforce the Party’s version of the
reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected past and present. Once this "rectification" of records
copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of takes place and the deed itself has generated no
continuous alteration was applied not only to records, the falsification begins to pass for truth.
newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets,
posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons,
photographs – to every kind of literature or
documentation which might conceivably hold any
political or ideological significance. Day by day and
almost minute by minute the past was brought up to
date. In this way every prediction made by the Party
could be shown by documentary evidence to have been
correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of
opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment,
ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a
palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as
often as was necessary. In no case would it have been
possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any
falsification had taken place. (1.4.8)

A number of The Times which might, because of The rectification of records is an endless task, as
changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies history has been written and rewritten dozens of
uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times.
times still stood on the files bearing its original date,
and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also,
were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were
invariably reissued without any admission that any
alteration had been made. Even the written instructions
which Winston received, and which he invariably got
rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or
implied that an act of forgery was to be committed:
always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or
misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the
interests of accuracy. (1.4.8)

Page 94 of 134
And the Records Department, after all, was itself only a The Party controls and constructs all sources of
single branch of the Ministry of Truth, whose primary information in Oceania, including the type of
job was not to reconstruct the past but to supply the news and media its citizens receive.
citizens of Oceania with newspapers, films, textbooks,
telescreen programs, plays, novels – with every
conceivable kind of information, instruction, or
entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric
poem to a biological treatise, and from a child's
spelling-book to a Newspeak dictionary. And the
Ministry had not only to supply the multifarious needs
of the party, but also to repeat the whole operation at a
lower level for the benefit of the proletariat. There was a
whole chain of separate departments dealing with
proletarian literature, music, drama, and entertainment
generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers
containing almost nothing except sport, crime and
astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing
with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed
entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of
kaleidoscope known as a versificator. There was even a
whole sub-section – Pornosec, it was called in
Newspeak – engaged in producing the lowest kind of
pornography, which was sent out in sealed packets and
which no Party member, other than those who worked
on it, was permitted to look at. (1.4.12)

And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or Due to the Party’s control and rectification of all
small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in media in Oceania, there is no real certainty in any
which, finally, even the date of the year had become records. Finally, Oceanians are forced to question
uncertain. (1.4.9) even their memories.
So tricky a piece of work would never be entrusted to a During Hate Week, Winston’s duties consist of
single person: on the other hand, to turn it over to a editing and rewriting history with respect to the
committee would be to admit openly that an act of announcement of Oceania’s new enemy, Eastasia.
fabrication was taking place. Very likely as many as a After he "rectifies" a particular record, it is then
dozen people were now working away on rival versions passed on to a supervisor who chooses among
of what Big Brother had actually said. And presently competing versions of rectification for the one
some master brain in the Inner Party would select this falsification that shall have the privilege of passing
version or that, would re-edit it and set in motion the as truth over the course of time.
complex processes of cross-referencing that would be
required, and then the chosen lie would pass into the
permanent records and become truth. (1.4.19)

Page 95 of 134
Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, The Party sometimes creates new identities of
now existed in the past, and when once the act of persons who never existed in order to further its
forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as ends. Once that act of creation has been forgotten,
authentically, and upon the same evidence, as such persons seemingly exist just as authentically as
Charlemagne or Julius Caesar. (1.4.25) real individuals.

Not a word of it could ever be proved or disproved. The The Party’s control of information and records is so
Party claimed, for example, that today 40 per cent of extensive that it is impossible to prove or disprove
adult proles were literate: before the Revolution, it was anything it claims.
said, the number had only been 15 per cent. The Party
claimed that the infant mortality rate was now only 160
per thousand, whereas before the Revolution it had been
300 – and so it went on. It was like a single equation
with two unknowns. It might very well be that literally
every word in the history books, even the things that
one accepted without question, was pure fantasy. For all
he knew there might never have been any such law as
the jus primae noctis, or any such creature as a
capitalist, or any such garment as a top hat. (1.7.10)
Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the Winston feels confident that, despite the Party’s
erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. Just once in control of information, he alone had possession of
his life he had possessed – after the event: that was what evidence to prove the Party’s wrong – at least in his
counted – concrete, unmistakable evidence of an act of memory.
falsification. He had held it between his fingers for as
long as thirty seconds. (1.7.11)

Very likely the confessions had been rewritten and Winston does not understand the ultimate motive
rewritten until the original facts and dates no longer had behind the Party’s control and falsification of
the smallest significance. The past not only changed, records.
but changed continuously. What most afflicted him with
the sense of nightmare was that he had never clearly
understood why the huge imposture was undertaken.
The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were
obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious. He
took up his pen again and wrote:
I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.
(1.7.24-25, Winston)

Page 96 of 134
Winston wondered vaguely to what century the church The Party’s control of information is not limited to
belonged. It was always difficult to determine the age of written sources alone, but extends even to matters
a London building. Anything large and impressive, if it such as architecture.
was reasonably new in appearance, was automatically
claimed as having been built since the Revolution,
while anything that was obviously of earlier date was
ascribed to some dim period called the Middle Ages.
The centuries of capitalism were held to have produced
nothing of any value. One could not learn history from
architecture any more than one could learn it from
books. Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names
of streets – anything that might throw light upon the
past had been systematically altered. (1.8.85)

[…] he was not troubled by the fact that every word he During Hate Week, Winston’s duties consist of
murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink- editing and rewriting history with respect to the
pencil, was a deliberate lie. He was as anxious as announcement of Oceania’s new enemy, Eastasia.
anyone else in the Department that the forgery should He is not troubled by his deliberate lying in
be perfect […] A mighty deed, which could never be furtherance of the Party’s goals, but rather proud of
mentioned, had been achieved. It was now impossible the horrendous deed in which he participates.
for any human being to prove by documentary evidence
that the war with Eurasia had ever happened. (2.9.8)
Actually he was not used to writing by hand. Apart from Winston’s memory of the past is fuzzy because of
very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the Party’s control and elimination of records in the
the speakwrite which was of course impossible for his past and present.
present purpose. (1.1.14)

Theme: Repression
She was a bold-looking girl, of about twenty-seven, Julia, a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League, is
with thick hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic the epitome of the pretty and chaste young girls
movements. A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Winston despises. It is clear that his hatred arises
Junior Anti-Sex League, was wound several times round only because he must repress his hopeless urges for
the waist of her overalls, just tightly enough to bring out them.
the shapeliness of her hips. Winston had disliked her
from the very first moment of seeing her. He knew the
reason. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-
fields and cold baths and community hikes and general
clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about
with her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially
the young and pretty ones. (1.1.23)

Page 97 of 134
The girl with dark hair was coming towards them across Winston fantasizes about making love with Julia as
the field. With what seemed a single movement she tore both an escape from the Party’s oppression and as
off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her an act of active rebellion against Party rule.
body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in
him, indeed he barely looked at it. What overwhelmed
him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with
which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace
and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture,
a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and
the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into
nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm.
That too was a gesture belonging to the ancient time.
(1.3.6)

The Physical Jerks would begin in three minutes. The The swelling of Winston’s varicose ulcer coincides
next moment he was doubled up by a violent coughing with his heightened feelings of sexual repression.
fit which nearly always attacked him soon after waking
up. It emptied his lungs so completely that he could
only begin breathing again by lying on his back and
taking a series of deep gasps. His veins had swelled
with the effort of the cough, and the varicose ulcer had
started itching. (1.3.7)
He seemed to breathe again the warm stuffy odor of the Winston is so sexually repressed that he finds the
basement kitchen, an odor compounded of bugs and cheap scent of prostitutes alluring.
dirty clothes and villainous cheap scent, but
nevertheless alluring, because no woman of the Party
ever used scent, or could be imagined as doing so. Only
the proles used scent. In his mind the smell of it was
inextricably mixed up with fornication. (1.6.7)

When he had gone with that woman it had been his first Sexually repressed to the extreme, Winston employs
lapse in two years or thereabouts. Consorting with prostitutes to quell his urges.
prostitutes was forbidden, of course, but it was one of
those rules that you could occasionally nerve yourself to
break. It was dangerous, but it was not a life-and-death
matter. To be caught with a prostitute might mean five
years in a forced-labor camp: not more, if you had
committed no other offence. (1.6.8)

Page 98 of 134
The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and The Party seeks not only to sever private loyalties in
women from forming loyalties which it might not be encouraging chastity, but also to control its
able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to constituents’ use of time by advocating the abolition
remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so of sex entirely.
much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as
well as outside it. All marriages between Party members
had to be approved by a committee appointed for the
purpose, and – though the principle was never clearly
stated – permission was always refused if the couple
concerned gave the impression of being physically
attracted to one another. The only recognized purpose of
marriage was to beget children for the service of the
Party. Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a
slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an
enema. This again was never put into plain words, but
in an indirect way it was rubbed into every Party
member from childhood onwards. There were even
organizations such as the Junior, Anti-Sex League,
which advocated complete celibacy for both sexes. All
children were to be begotten by artificial insemination
(artsem, it was called in Newspeak) and brought up in
public institutions. This, Winston was aware, was not
meant altogether seriously, but somehow it fitted in with
the general ideology of the Party. The Party was trying
to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then
to distort it and dirty it. He did not know why this was
so, but it seemed natural that it should be so. And as far
as the women were concerned, the Party's efforts were
largely successful. (1.6.9)

Page 99 of 134
As soon as he touched her she seemed to wince and Winston hated having sex with Katharine because
stiffen. To embrace her was like embracing a jointed of her mindless devotion to the Party.
wooden image. And what was strange was that even
when she was clasping him against her he had the
feeling that she was simultaneously pushing him away
with all her strength. The rigidity of her muscles
managed to convey that impression. She would lie there
with shut eyes, neither resisting nor co-operating but
submitting. It was extraordinarily embarrassing, and,
after a while, horrible. But even then he could have
borne living with her if it had been agreed that they
should remain celibate. But curiously enough it was
Katharine who refused this. They must, she said,
produce a child if they could. So the performance
continued to happen, once a week quite regularly,
whenever it was not impossible. She even used to
remind him of it in the morning, as something which
had to be done that evening and which must not be
forgotten. She had two names for it. One was "making a
baby," and the other was "our duty to the
Party." (1.6.13)

Winston sighed inaudibly. He picked up his pen again How romantic.

and wrote:
She threw herself down on the bed, and at once, without
any kind of preliminary in the most coarse, horrible way
you can imagine, pulled up her skirt. (1.6.14-15,
Winston)
He saw himself standing there in the dim lamplight, Winston resents the Party because Katharine’s
with the smell of bugs and cheap scent in his nostrils, devotion to it repressed him sexually.
and in his heart a feeling of defeat and resentment
which even at that moment was mixed up with the
thought of Katharine's white body, frozen for ever by
the hypnotic power of the Party. Why did it always have
to be like this? Why could he not have a woman of his
own instead of these filthy scuffles at intervals of years?
(1.6.16)

Page 100 of 134

Chastity was as deep ingrained in them as Party loyalty. Party members have been totally brainwashed to
By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, use chastity as a way to show one’s loyalty to the
by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and Party. We have to admit, we're a bit curious what
in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, those songs sounded like.
songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling
had been driven out of them. (1.6.16)

Then the memory of her face came back, and with it a Flustered by the note and Julia’s interest in him,
raging, intolerable desire to be alone […]. At the sight Winston feels alive again, no longer hampered by
of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had the sexual repression that restricted him earlier.
welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks
suddenly seemed stupid. It was not till twenty-three
hours, when he was home and in bed – in the darkness,
where you were safe even from the telescreen so long as
you kept silent – that he was able to think continuously.
(2.1.20)
He thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen Sexually repressed for years now, the thought of
it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the having Julia stirs and scares Winston at once.
rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her
belly full of ice. A kind of fever seized him at the
thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body
might slip away from him! What he feared more than
anything else was that she would simply change her
mind if he did not get in touch with her quickly. (2.1.21)

The youthful body was strained against his own, the After living in such a repressed society, Winston’s
mass of dark hair was against his face, and yes! physical functions are at first rusty when finally
Actually she had turned her face up and he was kissing confronted with a lusty situation.
the wide red mouth. She had clasped her arms about his
neck, she was calling him darling, precious one, loved
one. He had pulled her down on to the ground, she was
utterly unresisting, he could do what he liked with her.
But the truth was that he had no physical sensation,
except that of mere contact. All he felt was incredulity
and pride. He was glad that this was happening, but he
had no physical desire. It was too soon, her youth and
prettiness had frightened him, he was too much used to
living without women – he did not know the reason.
(2.2.16)

Page 101 of 134

"I've been at school too, dear. Sex talks once a month Female Party members have been brainwashed
for the over-sixteens. And in the Youth Movement. They since childhood about the importance of chastity as
rub it into you for years. I dare say it works in a lot of manifestation of one’s loyalty to the Party.
cases. But of course you can never tell; people are such
hypocrites." (2.3.24, Julia)

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we The world that the Party aspires to create is a world
are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid unlike any that has existed: fear and torment shall
hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers replace love and happiness; destruction shall trump
imagined. A world of fear and treachery is advancement; loyalty to the party will be the only
acceptable loyalty; families and the sexual instinct
torment, a world of trampling and being trampled
shall be eradicated.
upon, a world which will grow not less but more
merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world
will be progress towards more pain. The old
civilizations claimed that they were founded on
love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In
our world there will be no emotions except fear,
rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything
else we shall destroy everything. Already we are
breaking down the habits of thought which have
survived from before the Revolution. We have cut
the links between child and parent, and between
man and man, and between man and woman. No
one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any
longer. But in the future there will be no wives and
no friends. Children will be taken from their
mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen.
The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will
be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration
card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our
neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be
no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There
will be no love, except the love of Big
Brother." (3.3.34, O’Brien)

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Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of Julia teaches Winston about her musings on the
the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the dangerous effects of sex on loyalty to the Party: The
sex instinct created a world of its own which was Party not only seeks to sever private loyalties in
outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be encouraging chastity, but also to control its
destroyed if possible. What was more important was constituents’ use of time by advocating the abolition
that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was of sex at all.
desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever
and leader-worship. The way she put it was: "When you
make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you
feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They
can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be
bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up
and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex
gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should
you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year
Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their
bloody rot?"
That was very true, he thought. There was a direct
intimate connection between chastity and political
orthodoxy. For how could the fear, the hatred, and the
lunatic credulity which the Party needed in its members
be kept at the right pitch, except by bottling down some
powerful instinct and using it as a driving force? The
sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party
had turned it to account. They had played a similar trick
with the instinct of parenthood. The family could not
actually be abolished, and, indeed, people were
encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the
old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand,
were systematically turned against their parents and
taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The
family had become in effect an extension of the
Thought Police. It was a device by means of which
everyone could be surrounded night and day by
informers who knew him intimately. (2.3.25-27)

Four, five, six – seven times they met during the month As Winston moves away from the sexually
of June. Winston had dropped his habit of drinking gin repressed lifestyle he'd been used to, we start to see
at all hours. He seemed to have lost the need for it. He some emotional and even physical improvements in
had grown fatter, his varicose ulcer had subsided, him.
leaving only a brown stain on the skin above his ankle,
his fits of coughing in the early morning had stopped
[…]. (2.5.6)

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Theme: Loyalty
He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him that The Party takes loyalty seriously, and does not
it was only now, when he had begun to be able to tolerate any acts of subversion – even if they are
formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive mere thoughts.
step. The consequences of every act are included in the
act itself. He wrote:

Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS

death. (1.2.42-43)

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Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of Julia teaches Winston about her musings on the
the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the dangerous effects of sex on loyalty to the Party: The
sex instinct created a world of its own which was Party not only seeks to sever private loyalties in
outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be encouraging chastity, but also to control its
destroyed if possible. What was more important was constituents’ use of time by advocating the abolition
that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was of sex entirely.
desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever
and leader-worship. The way she put it was: "When you
make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you
feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They
can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be
bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up
and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex
gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should
you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year
Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their
bloody rot?"
That was very true, he thought. There was a direct
intimate connection between chastity and political
orthodoxy. For how could the fear, the hatred, and the
lunatic credulity which the Party needed in its members
be kept at the right pitch, except by bottling down some
powerful instinct and using it as a driving force? The
sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party
had turned it to account. They had played a similar trick
with the instinct of parenthood. The family could not
actually be abolished, and, indeed, people were
encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the
old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand,
were systematically turned against their parents and
taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The
family had become in effect an extension of the
Thought Police. It was a device by means of which
everyone could be surrounded night and day by
informers who knew him intimately. (2.3.25-27)

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For a moment he was violently angry. During the month Winston quickly falls in love with Julia; from here,
that he had known her the nature of his desire for her the feared bond of private loyalty is created.
had changed. At the beginning there had been little true
sensuality in it. Their first love-making had been simply
an act of the will. But after the second time it was
different. The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth,
the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or
into the air all round him. She had become a physical
necessity, something that he not only wanted but felt
that he had a right to. When she said that she could not
come, he had the feeling that she was cheating him. But
just at this moment the crowd pressed them together and
their hands accidentally met. She gave the tips of his
fingers a quick squeeze that seemed to invite not desire
but affection. It struck him that when one lived with a
woman this particular disappointment must be a normal,
recurring event; and a deep tenderness, such as he had
not felt for her before, suddenly took hold of him. He
wished that they were a married couple of ten years'
standing. He wished that he were walking through the
streets with her just as they were doing now but openly
and without fear, talking of trivialities and buying odds
and ends for the household. He wished above all that
they had some place where they could be alone together
without feeling the obligation to make love every time
they met. (2.4.13)

When his father disappeared, his mother did not show Winston tells the tale of his mother’s depression
any surprise or any violent grief, but a sudden change over his father’s disappearance – an example of
came over her. She seemed to have become completely loyalty severed by the Party.
spiritless. It was evident even to Winston that she was
waiting for something that she knew must happen.
(2.7.9)
He never saw his mother again…When he came back It is common for the Party to move family members
his mother had disappeared. This was already becoming away from each other so that private loyalties may
normal at that time. Nothing was gone from the room be severed in a timely manner.
except his mother and his sister. They had not taken any
clothes, not even his mother's overcoat. To this day he
did not know with any certainty that his mother was
dead. It was perfectly possible that she had merely been
sent to a forced-labor camp. As for his sister, she might
have been removed, like Winston himself, to one of the
colonies for homeless children […]. (2.7.14)

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[…] yet she had possessed a kind of nobility, a kind of Winston describes his mother as loving – an
purity, simply because the standards that she obeyed example of true, unadulterated private loyalty.
were private ones. Her feelings were her own, and could
not be altered from outside. It would not have occurred
to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby
becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved
him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still
gave him love. (2.7.19)

And yet to the people of only two generations ago this Winston realizes that the proles, like people of the
would not have seemed all-important, because they past, hold dear to their hearts loyalty to persons –
were not attempting to alter history. They were not a party or a country or an idea. That, he
governed by private loyalties which they did not believes, is true and natural freedom.
question. What mattered were individual relationships,
and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a
word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself.
Proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in
this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a
country or an idea, they were loyal to one another. For
the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or
think of them merely as an inert force which would one
day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles
had stayed human. They had not become hardened
inside. They had held on to the primitive emotions
which he himself had to re-learn by conscious effort.
(2.7.19)
"The one thing that matters is that we shouldn’t betray Winston and Julia discuss betrayal, and resolve that
one another, although even that can’t make the slightest their shared loyalty to each other shall triumph.
difference."
[…]
"Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t
matter, only feelings matter. If they could make me stop
loving you – that would be the real betrayal."
She thought is over. "They can’t do that," she said
finally. "It’s the one thing they can’t do. They can make
you say anything – anything – but they can’t make you
believe it. They can’t get inside you." (2.7.26-29,
Winston and Julia)

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"You are prepared to give your lives?" Winston and Julia pledge selfless loyalty to the
"Yes." Brotherhood. While Winston seems prepared to
"You are prepared to commit murder?" give it all up, including his love for Julia, Julia
"Yes." presently is reluctant.
"To commit acts of sabotage which may cause the death
of hundreds of innocent people?"
"Yes."
"To betray your country to foreign powers?"
"Yes."
"You are prepared to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to
corrupt the minds of children, to distribute habit-
forming drugs, to encourage prostitution, to disseminate
venereal diseases – to do anything which is likely to
cause demoralization and weaken the power of the
Party?"
"Yes."
"If, for example, it would somehow serve our interests
to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face – are you
prepared to do that?"
"Yes."
"You are prepared to lose your identity and live out the
rest of your life as a waiter or a dock-worker?"
"Yes."
"You are prepared to commit suicide, if and when we
order you to do so?"
"Yes."
"You are prepared, the two of you, to separate and never
see one another again?"
"No!" broke in Julia. (2.8.28-45, O’Brien, Winston, and
Julia)

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In principle, membership of these three groups is not The Party’s view about loyalty is that for
hereditary. The child of Inner Party parents is in theory totalitarianism to thrive, there must not be private
not born into the Inner Party. Admission to either branch loyalties at all. Rather, insofar as Inner Party
of the Party is by examination, taken at the age of members are concerned with the perpetuation of the
sixteen. Nor is there any racial discrimination, or any Party’s rule, the only allowable loyalty is the loyalty
marked domination of one province by another. Jews, to power itself.
Negroes, South Americans of pure Indian blood are to
be found in the highest ranks of the Party […]. Its rulers
are not held together by blood-ties but by adherence to a
common doctrine… The Party is not a class in the old
sense of the word. It does not aim at transmitting power
to its own children, as such; and if there were no other
way of keeping the ablest people at the top, it would be
perfectly prepared to recruit an entire new generation
from the ranks of the proletariat. In the crucial years, the
fact that the Party was not a hereditary body did a great
deal to neutralize opposition… The essence of
oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the
persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of
life, imposed by the dead upon the living. A ruling
group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its
successors. The Party is not concerned with
perpetuating its blood but with perpetuating itself.
(2.9.58, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

A Party member is expected to have no private A Party member’s duties include ensuring that he
emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is has no private loyalties or enthusiasms, in addition
supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of to ensuring that he learns ways to counter any
foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over temptations of rebellion.
victories, and self-abasement before the power and
wisdom of the Party. The discontents produced by his
bare, unsatisfying life are deliberately turned outwards
and dissipated by such devices as the Two Minutes
Hate, and the speculations which might possibly induce
a sceptical or rebellious attitude are killed in advance by
his early acquired inner discipline. (2.9.61, Goldstein’s
Manifesto)

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"‘Down with Big Brother!’ Yes, I said that! Said it over The children of Party members such as Parsons are
and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, so overcome with love for and indoctrination by the
I'm glad they got me before it went any further […]." Party that they survey and turn in their own parents
"Who denounced you?" said Winston. for thoughtcrime.
"It was my little daughter," said Parsons with a sort of
doleful pride. "She listened at the keyhole. Heard what I
was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next
day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear
her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her. It shows I
brought her up in the right spirit, anyway." (3.1.48-50)

"Can you think of a single degradation that has not Despite prolonged torture, Winston’s final act of
happened to you?" rebellion is to hold on to his private loyalty to Julia;
Winston had stopped weeping, though the tears were he refuses to betray her.
still oozing out of his eyes. He looked up at O'Brien.
"I have not betrayed Julia," he said […].
He had not stopped loving her; his feeling toward her
had remained the same. (3.3.77-81, O’Brien to Winston)
Suddenly he started up with a shock of horror. The In a fit of rebellion and manifestation of private
sweat broke out on his backbone. He had heard himself loyalty, Winston refuses to give up his ties to Julia.
cry aloud:
"Julia ! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!" (3.4.20-21)

"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care Faced with his biggest fear, Winston finally betrays
what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the his private loyalty to Julia.
bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (3.5.24)

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"I betrayed you," she said baldly. For both Winston and Julia, torture is able to chew
"I betrayed you," he said. through the deepest bonds of loyalty.
She gave him another quick look of dislike.
"Sometimes," she said, "they threaten you with
something you can't stand up to, can't even think about.
And then you say, ‘Don't do it to me, do it to somebody
else, do it to So-and-so.’ And perhaps you might
pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you
just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it.
But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do
mean it. You think there's no other way of saving
yourself, and you're quite ready to save yourself that
way. You want it to happen to the other person. You
don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is
yourself."
"All you care about is yourself," he echoed.
"And after that, you don't feel the same towards the
other person any longer."
"No," he said, "you don't feel the same." (3.6.16-22,
Winston and Julia)

Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his How appropriate it is to end with Winston’s self-
nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the proclamation of love, acceptance, and loyalty to the
struggle was finished. He had won the victory over Party.
himself. He loved Big Brother. (3.6.41)
" […] in the end we broke them down. I took part in The Party ultimately vaporizes captured rebels, but
their interrogation myself. I saw them gradually worn not before converting, reforming, and
down, whimpering, groveling, weeping – and in the end reindoctrinating them – thereby ensuring continued
it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence. By the and undying loyalty.
time we had finished with them they were only the
shells of men. There was nothing left in them except
sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother.
It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged
to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their
minds were still clean." (3.2.105, O’Brien)

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"Do anything to me!" he yelled. "You've been starving The type of torture the Party employs is so intense
me for weeks. Finish it off and let me die. Shoot me. that the people subject to it are ready to betray
Hang me. Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there anything and anyone in order to avoid it. No private
somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who loyalty can be said to exist after the threat of this
it is and I'll tell you anything you want. I don't care who pain.
it is or what you do to them. I've got a wife and three
children. The biggest of them isn't six years old. You
can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in
front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not
Room 101!" (3.1.71, the old tortured man at the
Ministry of Love)

"What have you done with Julia?" said Winston. Upon hearing of Julia’s betrayal, Winston is certain
that she was subject to torture, just as he was.
O'Brien smiled again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Loyalty is easy to breach in the face of torture.
Immediately-unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone
come over to us so promptly. You would hardly
recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her
deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness – everything has
been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a
textbook case." "You tortured her?" (3.2.32-34)
"That's a first-rate training they give them in the Spies Its reach not limited to technology, the Party
nowadays – better than in my day, even. What d'you employs children against their parents as another
think's the latest thing they’ve served them out with? way of behavior surveillance. There is simply no
Ear trumpets for listening through keyholes! My little loyalty to speak of.
girl brought one home the other night – tried it out on
our sitting-room door, and reckoned she could hear
twice as much as with her ear to the hole." (1.5.67,
Parson)

Chastity was as deep ingrained in them as Party loyalty. From an early age, Party members are taught to
By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, show loyalty to the Party by remaining chaste.
by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and
in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades,
songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling
had been driven out of them. (1.6.16)

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"We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some Winston and Julia profess their devotion and loyalty
kind of secret organization working against the Party, to the ultimate force of rebellion – the Brotherhood.
and that you are involved in it. We want to join it and
work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve
in the principles of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals.
We are also adulterers. I tell you this because we want
to put ourselves at your mercy. If you want us to
incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are
ready." (2.8.16)

Theme: Rebellion
For some reason the telescreen in the living-room was Winston starts a journal of rebellious thoughts as a
in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as was first step towards his eventual fate at the Ministry of
normal, in the end wall, where it could command the Love.
whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the
window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in
which Winston was now sitting, and which, when the
flats were built, had probably been intended to hold
bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well
back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of
the telescreen, so far as sight went. He could be heard,
of course, but so long as he stayed in his present
position he could not be seen. It was partly the unusual
geography of the room that had suggested to him the
thing that he was now about to do. (1.1.12)

Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary Winston enjoys small acts of rebellion to begin
shops ("dealing on the free market," it was called), but with, as he frequents ordinary shops in the prole
the rule was not strictly kept, because there were district and purchases items from the past.
various things, such as shoelaces and razor blades,
which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way.
He had given a quick glance up and down the street and
then had slipped inside and bought the book for two
dollars fifty. At the time he was not conscious of
wanting it for any particular purpose. He had carried it
guiltily home in his briefcase. Even with nothing
written in it, it was a compromising possession. (1.1.13)

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Momentarily he caught O'Brien's eye. O'Brien had Paranoid but fanciful, Winston imagines an
stood up. He had taken off his spectacles and was in the encounter with O’Brien that might deepen their
act of resettling them on his nose with his characteristic rebellious tie.
gesture. But there was a fraction of a second when their
eyes met, and for as long as it took to happen Winston
knew- yes, he knew!- that O'Brien was thinking the
same thing as himself. An unmistakable message had
passed. It was as though their two minds had opened
and the thoughts were flowing from one into the other
through their eyes. 'I am with you,' O'Brien seemed to
be saying to him. 'I know precisely what you are
feeling. I know all about your contempt, your hatred,
your disgust. But don't worry, I am on your
side!' (1.1.33)

His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that Unleashing all of his fury, Winston finally triumphs
while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, his over fear by setting pen to paper in the essential
as though by automatic action. And it was no longer the rebellion that contains all other crimes in itself –
same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen thoughtcrime.
had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in
large neat capitals
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER (1.1.36-37)
To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is By dedicating the journal of rebellion to the future
free, when men are different from one another and do or to the past, Winston is interested in large or grand
not live alone – to a time when truth exists and what is scale rebellion – the type that perpetuates itself and
done cannot be undone: leads to the overthrow of the Party.
From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude,
from the age of Big Brother, from the age of
doublethink – greetings! (1.2.40-41)

And what he wanted, more even than to be loved, was Winston views sex as an essentially politically
to break down that wall of virtue, even if it were only rebellious act.
once in his whole life. The sexual act, successfully
performed, was rebellion. Desire was thoughtcrime.
(1.6.16)

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In principle a Party member had no spare time, and was In concert with having no private time is the Party’s
never alone except in bed. It was assumed that when he view that individualism and eccentricity run
was not working, eating, or sleeping he would be taking contrary to the Party’s purposes.
part in some kind of communal recreation: to do
anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go
for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous.
There was a word for it in Newspeak: ownlife, it was
called, meaning individualism and eccentricity. (1.8.2)

"It was something in your face. I thought I'd take a Julia believes she is adept at identifying rebels.
chance. I'm good at spotting people who don't belong.
As soon as I saw you I knew you were against
them." (2.2.34, Julia)
They were both breathing fast. But the smile had Having dreamt of it for so long, Winston finally
reappeared round the corners of her mouth. She stood sees the ultimate act of rebellion in Julia—or rather,
looking at him for an instant, then felt at the zipper of in having sex with Julia. Bow-chicka-bow-wow.
her overalls. And, yes! It was almost as in his dream.
Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn
her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was
with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole
civilization seemed to be annihilated. (2.2.47)

"Have you done this before?" Julia must be awfully busy if she's been getting
"Of course. Hundreds of times – well scores of times jiggy with hundreds of guys. For her, it's just
anyway." another way to stick it to the Man.
"With Party members?"
"Yes, always with Party members." (2.2.48-51, Winston
and Julia)

His heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it: he Winston probably would have had a great time with
wished it had been hundreds – thousands. Anything that all the free love in the 1960's. Here he's fantasizing
hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. about how rebellious it would be if Julia had sex
Who knew, perhaps the Party was rotten under the with thousands of other men. Thousands? Really,
surface, its cult of strenuousness and selfdenial simply a Winston? For him, it's all part of her rebellious
sham concealing iniquity. If he could have infected the allure—she's the bad girl, but that's what makes her
whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly oh-so-good.
he would have done so! Anything to rot, to weaken, to
undermine! He pulled her down so that they were
kneeling face to face. "Listen. The more men you've
had, the more I love you. Do you understand
that?" (2.2.54-55, Winston)

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"I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue to Looks like someone's gonna be on Santa's naughty
exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the list. Winston is first and foremost interested in sex
bones." as an act of rebellion, and secondly in sex as a
"Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I'm corrupt to the pleasurable act. We have Big Brother to thank for
bones." that.
"You like doing this? I don't mean simply me: I mean
the thing in itself?"
"I adore it." (2.2.57-60, Winston and Julia)

But you could not have pure love or pure lust The Party? More like the Party Poopers. These guys
nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything have managed to mess up society so much that
was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had something as intimate as sex becomes an act of
been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck rebellion. And it's not just sex, every human
against the Party. It was a political act. (2.2.63) emotion gets turned into a possible act of rebellion
—including feeling hangry.
She hated the Party, and said so in the crudest words, Julia wants to have the best of both worlds—to live
but she made no general criticism of it. Except where it under the Party's rule but still participate in little
touched upon her own life she had no interest in Party acts of rebellion as they suit her, like falling in love
doctrine […]. Any kind of organized revolt against the and having sex. Winston is critical of this mindset
Party, which was bound to be a failure, struck her as because he thinks it signifies a tacit acceptance of
stupid. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay the Party's authority, since rebellion only happens
alive all the same. He wondered vaguely how many on such a small scale.
others like her there might be in the younger generation
people who had grown up in the world of the
Revolution, knowing nothing else, accepting the Party
as something unalterable, like the sky, not rebelling
against its authority but simply evading it, as a rabbit
dodges a dog. (2.3.15)

She knew the whole driveling song by heart, it seemed. Makeover time. So apparently makeup is banned in
Her voice floated upward with the sweet summer air, the future, and Julia puts some on (gasp!). This is
very tuneful, charged with a sort of happy melancholy another example of one of her low-key acts of
[…]. It struck him as a curious fact that he had never rebellion, but we've got to ask—what the heck did
heard a member of the Party singing alone and she do to her face to make her unrecognizable? This
spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly may be the future, but we're pretty sure Youtube
unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to beauty tutorials still don't exist.
oneself […].
"You can turn round now," said Julia.
He turned round, and for a second almost failed to
recognize her […]. The transformation that had
happened was much more surprising than that. She had
painted her face. (2.4.29-31)

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Yet she had only the dimmest idea of who Goldstein Idealogical battles of the sixties? There's one thing
was and what doctrines he was supposed to represent. Orwell accurately predicted. Winston's still pretty
She had grown up since the Revolution and was too unimpressed by Julia's half-hearted efforts at
young to remember the ideological battles of the fifties rebellion, but he attributes that to the fact she was
and sixties. Such a thing as an independent political born after the Party took control—she can't fathom
movement was outside her imagination: and in any case that true revolution even remotely possible.
the Party was invincible. It would always exist, and it
would always be the same. You could only rebel against
it by secret disobedience or, at most, by isolated acts of
violence such as killing somebody or blowing
something up. (2.5.8)

The conspiracy that he had dreamed of did exist, and he The rebellion trajectory is now complete for
had reached the outer edges of it […]. Winston: from starting a journal, to having an affair,
What was happening was only the working-out of a to the imminent induction into the Brotherhood by
process that had started years ago. The first step had O’Brien, Winston has finally attained the status of
been a secret, involuntary thought, the second had been the true rebel.
the opening of the diary. He had moved from thoughts
to words, and now from words to actions. The last step
was something that would happen in the Ministry of
Love. (2.7.16-17)
"They can’t get inside you. If you can feel that staying Winston believes that as long as his rebellious spirit
human is worth while, even when it can’t have any is intact, the Party can not triumph.
result whatever, you’ve beaten them."
He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear.
They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept
your head you could still outwit them. (2.7.30-31)

"We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some Winston and Julia profess their devotion and loyalty
kind of secret organization working against the Party, to the ultimate force of rebellion – the Brotherhood.
and that you are involved in it. We want to join it and
work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We disbelieve
in the principles of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals.
We are also adulterers. I tell you this because we want
to put ourselves at your mercy. If you want us to
incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are
ready." (2.8.16)

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"A description, yes. The program it sets forth is O’Brien’s belief in the Party’s power is so strong
nonsense. The secret accumulation of knowledge – a that he believes any act of rebellion will prove
gradual spread of enlightenment – ultimately a futile.
proletarian rebellion – the overthrow of the Party. You
foresaw yourself that that was what it would say. It is all
nonsense. The proletarians will never revolt, not in a
thousand years or a million. They cannot. I do not have
to tell you the reason: you know it already. If you have
even cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you
must abandon them. There is no way in which the Party
can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever.
Make that the starting-point of your thoughts." (3.3.7)

"If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. Your Winston’s belief in his moral superiority to the
kind is extinct; we are the inheritors. Do you understand Party’s lies and cruelty is indispensable to his
that you are alone? You are outside history, you are non- rebellious spirit.
existent." His manner changed and he said more
harshly: "And you consider yourself morally superior to
us, with our lies and our cruelty?" "Yes, I consider
myself superior." (3.3.58-59, O’Brien and Winston)
He obeyed the Party, but he still hated the Party. In the After months of torture, Winston outwardly obeys
old days he had hidden a heretical mind beneath an the Party, but inwardly does not resign his
appearance of conformity. Now he had retreated a step rebellious spirit.
further: in the mind he had surrendered, but he had
hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate. He knew that he
was in the wrong, but he preferred to be in the wrong.
(3.4.24)

After months of torture, Winston outwardly obeys the Winston believes that any hope in overthrowing the
Party, but inwardly does not resign his rebellious spirit. Party lies in the proles – if only they were smart
enough.

Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and Having reached a metaphysical paradox, Winston
until after they have rebelled they cannot become concludes that which he does not wish to believe:
conscious. (1.7.4) the Proles will never gain the consciousness
required for them to effectively rebel.

Thought 2: For the proles, consciousness is as

necessary for rebellion as the latter is for
consciousness. Unfortunately, that paradox is the
proles’ futile plight.

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The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily War is a necessary tool for the Party because it
of human lives, but of the products of human labor […]. keeps the people peaceful, such that rebellion is far
The social atmosphere is that of a besieged city, where from their minds.
the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the
difference between wealth and poverty. And at the same
time the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in
danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small
caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of
survival. (2.9.28, Goldstein’s Manifesto)

The cage was nearer; it was closing in. Winston heard a The Party does not merely employ physical torture
succession of shrill cries which appeared to be on the captured rebels and criminals, but
occurring in the air above his head. But he fought psychological torture as well. The Party capitalizes
furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with on fear very proficiently, and Winston finally breaks
a split second left – to think was the only hope. under the weight of psychological fear. Rebellion is
Suddenly the foul musty odor of the brutes struck his not a match for psychological torture and fear.
nostrils. There was a violent convulsion of nausea inside
him, and he almost lost consciousness. Everything had
gone black. For an instant he was insane, a screaming
animal. Yet he came out of the blackness clutching an
idea. There was one and only one way to save himself.
He must interpose another human being, the body of
another human being, between himself and the rats.
(3.5.21)
"Can you think of a single degradation that has not Despite prolonged torture, Winston’s final act of
happened to you?" rebellion is to hold onto his private loyalty to Julia;
Winston had stopped weeping, though the tears were he refuses to betray her.
still oozing out of his eyes. He looked up at O'Brien.
"I have not betrayed Julia," he said […].
He had not stopped loving her; his feeling toward her
had remained the same (3.3.77-81, O’Brien to Winston)

Theme: Memory & The Past

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He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory that Winston’s memory of the past is fuzzy.
should tell him whether London had always been quite
like this. Were there always these vistas of rotting
nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with
baulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard
and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden
walls sagging in all directions? And the bombed sites
where the plaster dust swirled in the air and the willow-
herb straggled over the heaps of rubble; and the places
where the bombs had cleared a larger patch and there
had sprung up sordid colonies of wooden dwellings like
chicken-houses? But it was no use, he could not
remember: nothing remained of his childhood except a
series of bright-lit tableaux occurring against no
background and mostly unintelligible. (1.1.6)

Actually he was not used to writing by hand. Apart from Winston’s memory of the past is fuzzy because of
very short notes, it was usual to dictate everything into the Party’s control and elimination of records in the
the speakwrite which was of course impossible for his past and present.
present purpose. (1.1.14)
The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance Even though Winston has evidence of the Party’s
with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania lies in his memory, he also accepts that the
had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four unreliability of his mind will soon expunge that
years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in evidence as well.
his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be
annihilated. (1.3.18)

Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had Winston believes a tie exists between one’s intuition
some kind of ancestral memory that things had once and one’s "ancestral memory."
been different? (1.5.55)

"You are very much older than I am," said Winston. Winston seeks out history because of his fascination
"You must have been a grown man before I was born. with the memory aspect of existence.
You can remember what it was like in the old days,
before the Revolution. People of my age don't really
know anything about those times. We can only read
about them in books, and what it says in the books may
not be true. I should like your opinion on that." (1.8.39,
Winston)

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What appealed to him about it was not so much its Winston is strangely drawn to objects from the past
beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an because of his fascination with the memory aspect
age quite different from the present one […]. The thing of existence.
was doubly attractive because of its apparent
uselessness […]. Anything old, and for that matter
anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect.
(1.8.70)

Uncalled, a memory floated into his mind. He saw a After being brainwashed, Winston experiences
candle-lit room with a vast white counterpaned bed, and overactive crimestop and doublethink, as evidenced
himself, a boy of nine or ten, sitting on the floor, by the occasional "false memories" he never used to
shaking a dice-box, and laughing excitedly. His mother doubt.
was sitting opposite him and also laughing.
[…]
He pushed the picture out of his mind. It was a false
memory. He was troubled by false memories
occasionally. They did not matter so long as one knew
them for what they were. Some things had happened,
others had not happened […]. (3.6.34-36)
"Do you realize that the past, starting from yesterday, Winston feels confident that, despite the Party’s
has been actually abolished? If it survives anywhere, it's control of information, and thus, the past, he alone
in a few solid objects with no words attached to them, had possession of evidence to prove the Party’s
like that lump of glass there. Already we know almost wrong – at least in his memory.
literally nothing about the Revolution and the years
before the Revolution. Every record has been destroyed
or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every
picture has been repainted, every statue and street and
building has been renamed, every date has been altered.
And that process is continuing day by day and minute
by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except
an endless present in which the Party is always right. I
know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would
never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the
falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence
ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind,
and I don't know with any certainty that any other
human being shares my memories. Just in that one
instance, in my whole life, I did possess actual concrete
evidence after the event – years after it." (2.5.14,
Winston to Julia)

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Winston could not definitely remember a time when his No matter how hard he scrutinizes his memory,
country had not been at war, but it was evident that Winston is uncertain whether a time existed when
there had been a fairly long interval of peace during his Oceania was not at war with someone.
childhood, because one of his early memories was of an
air raid which appeared to take everyone by surprise.
Perhaps it was the time when the atomic bomb had
fallen on Colchester. He did not remember the raid itself
[…]. (1.3.12)

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party Winston believes that as long as one’s perception
imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie (or memory) of the truth can be externally verified,
passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the then even a lie can become truth. Such is the Party’s
past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who method of control.
controls the present controls the past." And yet the past,
though of its nature alterable, never had been altered.
Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to
everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed
was an unending series of victories over your own
memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak,
"doublethink." (1.3.18)
For how could you establish even the most obvious fact Without physical records outside of his own
when there existed no record outside your own memory, Winston experiences great trouble in
memory? He tried to remember in what year he had first trying to remember the commencement of the
heard mention of Big Brother. He thought it must have Party’s rule.
been at some time in the sixties, but it was impossible to
be certain. In the Party histories, of course, Big Brother
figured as the leader and guardian of the Revolution
since its very earliest days. His exploits had been
gradually pushed backwards in time until already they
extended into the fabulous world of the forties and the
thirties, when the capitalists in their strange cylindrical
hats still rode through the streets of London in great
gleaming motor-cars or horse carriages with glass sides.
There was no knowing how much of this legend was
true and how much invented. Winston could not even
remember at what date the Party itself had come into
existence. (1.3.22)

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This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar The Party seeks to control the present by mandating
slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands the destruction of all records of the past through
throughout the building, not only in every room but at "memory holes."
short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they
were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that
any document was due for destruction, or even when
one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an
automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory
hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled
away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces
which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the
building. (1.4.2)

And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or Due to the Party’s control and rectification of all
small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in media in Oceania, there is no certainty in historical
which, finally, even the date of the year had become records.
uncertain. (1.4.9)

A Research Guide
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength These are the slogans engraved on the Ministry of
Truth. They evoke the double think of the
totalitarian regime of Oceania. The meaning and
logic of the slogans run counter to all conventional
sense and they reveal the mind-numbing force of
the party. All reality is what the Party says it is,
even in the face of logic and reason. War is peace
because with a common enemy, an individual can
find peace. Freedom is slavery since the only way
to be free is by being a slave to the collective will
of the Party. Ignorance is strength because the
individual finds strength only in the official
knowledge of the party.

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“Who controls the past, controls the future. Who The Party's internal slogan, this represents the
controls the present controls the past.” entire strategy of the Party. It is spoken twice in the
novel; once in Book One, Chapter 3 while Winston
thinks about the way the Party controls history and
personal memory; again in Book 3, chapter 2 as
Winston talks to O’Brien about the nature of
history. It is a perfect example of how the Party
exerts control over history and truth to subvert
individual ideas of both. The totalitarian power of
the Party resides in its ability to exert all
understanding of reality over individual will.

“And when memory failed and written records were From Book 1, Chapter 8, this demonstrates the far-
falsified - when that happened, the claim of the Party to reaching power of the Party. By not only erasing
have improved the conditions of human like had got to and re-writing history, but also eliminating any and
be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again all counter-claims to truth, the party rendered it
could exist, any standard against which it could be impossible to challenge their dominating version of
tested.” truth. Even if a rebellion were to present a real
challenge, there are no documents or records to
support any of their claims. The only history and
truth is the official version written and constantly
re-written by the Party. This is the ultimate exertion
of knowledge as a form of power.
“And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was Spoken toward the end by Julia to Winston as they
only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop talk about their experiences in Room 101. This
and didn’t really mean it. But that isn’t true. At the time quotation reveals the final triumph of the Party.
when it happens you do mean it. You think there’s no They deny any real love, devotion, or dedication to
other way of saving yourself and you’re quite ready to each other and accept the Party’s version of what
save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the happened. The triumph of the brutal state over
other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. individual will is complete as they accept and
All you care about is yourself.” admit their love was a lie and that their intentions
were to hurt each other so as to prevent themselves
from being hurt. They final claim is that there are
no real motives beyond self-interest and
individuals require a powerful central authority to
ensure peace and order.

Other

Theme: Mind Control

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``Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to Syme explains the political goals of Newspeak to
narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make Winston. According to Syme, eliminating traditional
thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be words from the English language and replacing
no words in which to express it.’’ them with Party-approved concepts will rob English
speakers of the ability to express concepts that
counter the Party’s ideology. The influence of
language on people’s ability to think is one of the
book’s most enduring themes.

“He was already dead, he reflected. It seemed to him Shortly after Winston begins keeping a diary of his
that it was only now, when he had begun to be able to subversive thoughts, he begins to think of himself
formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive as “already dead.” In this and other examples, the
step.” reader can see how thoroughly Winston has
internalized the Party’s ideology. To disobey the
Party is to gain a death sentence, or to commit
social suicide, and Winston believes that he has
forfeited his own life by committing thoughtcrime.
“Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly Thinking back to his wife, Katharine, Winston
disgusting minor operation, like having an enema. This reflects on the social programming that teaches
again was never put into plain words, but in an indirect Party members that sex is disgusting and only to be
way it was rubbed into every Party member from used for procreation. Examples he gives are
childhood onwards.” arranged marriages between Party members and the
existence of organizations like the Junior Anti-Sex
League. Later, Julia will explain to Winston that the
Party uses people’s suppressed sexual energy to fuel
its marches and rallies and to keep people in line.

“All beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes This section of Goldstein’s manifesto sums up the
that characterize our time are really designed to sustain nature of totalitarianism. Having conquered the day-
the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of to-day life of modern society, the Party needs to
present-day society from being perceived.” gain control over the first and last place where
revolution could take root: the minds of the people.
Winston and Julia are unaware of the full extent of
the Party’s psychological reach until they read the
manifesto.

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“‘If they could make me stop loving you—that would With Goldstein’s manifesto in hand, Julia and
be the real betrayal.’ She thought it over. ‘They can’t do Winston talk over the sacrifices they are prepared to
that. . . . They can make you say anything—anything— make for the cause. Julia convinces Winston that no
but they can’t make you believe it. They can’t get inside matter what the Party makes them say under torture,
you.’” the Party will be unable to force them to change
their minds. She will be wrong. In this conversation,
Winston and Julia also unwittingly give the Party
ammunition against them, as the room is bugged.

“‘We do not destroy the heretic because he resists Inside the Ministry of Love, O’Brien explains to
us. . . . We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we Winston that the ultimate goal of the Party’s
reshape him.’” punishments is to regain control over thought-
criminals by changing their psychology and
manipulating them into giving up their resistance.
This speech emphasizes how thoroughly the Party
wants to gain control over people’s thoughts and
signals to Winston that O’Brien won’t be satisfied
with false confessions.

Theme: Manipulation Of History

“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls Winston introduces the theory behind the work he
the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” does at the Ministry of Truth. The Party understands
that by rewriting the events of the past and
controlling the narrative of history, they can
maintain their position of authority.
“Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready-made as it While working at the Ministry of Truth, Winston
were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had invents the backstory of a fallen soldier to cover up
recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. . . . It the mention of a person who had been declared an
was true that there was no such person as Comrade unperson. This moment shows both the cynicism
Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked Winston holds toward the work he does and also
photographs would soon bring him into existence.” how thoroughly he has internalized Party ideology,
because he is able to imagine the kind of person the
Party would most approve of.

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“Within twenty years at most, he reflected, the huge and Winston attempts to learn about life before the
simple question ‘Was life better before the Revolution Revolution by talking to an old man in a prole bar,
than it is now?’ would have ceased once and for all to but the man isn’t able to remember anything
be answerable.” substantive (or he is afraid to answer the questions
of a stranger who could be a Party informant).
Winston realizes that due to the unreliability of
individual memory, the influence of propaganda,
and most of all the deaths of people who
remembered life before the Revolution, the Party
can succeed in exerting its control over the past.

“What appealed to [Winston] about [the coral Winston purchases an antique paperweight from Mr.
paperweight] was not so much its beauty as the air it Charrington’s shop. By doing so, he is skirting
seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different illegal behavior by owning something aesthetically
from the present one.” pleasing and without a clear use. He is also forming
a connection to a world without the Party in it.
“[T]he Party member, like the proletarian, tolerates This section from Goldstein’s manifesto explains
present-day conditions because he has no standards of why the Party’s maxim “Who controls the past
comparison. He must be cut off from the past, just as he controls the future” holds true. If people had a set of
must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is standards and norms to hold the Party against,
necessary for him to believe that he is better off than his Orwell implies, its authority would collapse.
ancestors and that the average level of material comfort
is constantly rising.”

Theme: Resistance And Revolution

“The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion. Reflecting on his failed marriage to Katharine,
Desire was thoughtcrime.” Winston realizes that sex and sexuality must have
revolutionary potential and that this is why the Party
spends so much time and energy training people to
repress their sexual instincts. Later, Julia will
express a similar theory—that the Party is anti-sex
because suppressed sexual energy can be transferred
into marches and rallies.

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make Winston writes this in his diary after remembering
four. If that is granted, all else follows.” the photograph he found at work, which depicted
Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford and proved that
the Party was lying about their whereabouts on a
certain date and therefore must be lying about their
involvement in treason. Orwell establishes
objectivity, logic, and access to historical facts as
the antidote to the Party’s psychological control.

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“Any kind of organized revolt against the Party, which Winston reflects on his and Julia’s different
was bound to be a failure, struck her as stupid. The attitudes toward the Party and attributes their
clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the different attitudes to generational differences.
same.” Having seen a successful revolution once in his
lifetime, the Revolution that installed the Party,
Winston believes a successful organized revolt can
happen again. Julia, who was born after the
Revolution, has internalized the Party’s propaganda
that its authority is permanent. In her view, revolt is
individual and covert.

“[E]verywhere, all over the world, hundreds or Watching the red-armed woman, Winston comes to
thousands or millions of people just like this . . . people realize that although he’d written off the proles as
who had never learned to think but were storing up in too unintelligent to organize and overthrow the
their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that Party, the proles have kept their humanity and
would one day overturn the world. If there was hope, it empathy in a way that Party members like himself
lay in the proles!” and Julia have lost, or have traded away.

“The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a Simile We get our first glance of how Big Brother In comparing the metal plaque to a “dulled mirror,”
dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the communicates inside the home of our protagonist, Orwell creates an image of a TV screen before
right-hand wall.” (Book 1, Chapter 1) Winston. The communication method being the there were even TVs
oblong metal plaque.
“In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between Simile When Orwell wrote 1984, helicopters were in their The imagery is very effective, giving the aircraft
the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and Imagery infancy. In this example, Orwell compares a quick, insect-like qualities.
darted away again with a curving flight” (Book 1, helicopter to a bluebottle, a type of fly.
Chapter 1)

“A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire Simile This is during the two minute hate where everyone In this evocative example, Orwell displays the
to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a is being worked into a frenzy by the images/video ability of powerful emotions to travel within a
sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group being show to them. group of people. Comparing the emotions’ ability
of people like an electric current, turning one even to travel quickly as if conducted by electricity
against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.” gives the emotions a certain amount of power, that
(Book 1, Chapter 1) whatever person comes into contact will be
infected and electrified.

“And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, Simile Comparing rage to things like fire is not exactly
undirected emotion which could be switched from one original. However, Orwell gives us a very specific
object to another like the flame of a blowlamp.” (Book image of a blowlamp, which is more commonly
1, Chapter 1) called a blowtorch. Just imagine the burning heat
of a blue flame.

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“He went to the bathroom and carefully scrubbed the Simile Orwell is very good at providing similes we can
ink away with the gritty dark brown soap which rasped feel. All throughout 1984, Orwell describes
your skin like sandpaper and was therefore well adapted products that are very inferior or of poor quality. In
for this purpose.” (Book 1, Chapter 2) this example, Orwell compares the soap Winston
uses to sandpaper. You can almost feel the
grittiness.

“From the table at Winston’s left, a little behind his Simile Just like in the last example, Orwell is expert at
back, someone was talking rapidly and continuously, a using similes that compel our senses. In this
harsh gabble almost like the quacking of a duck, which example, Orwell plays on our sense of sound as he
pierced the general uproar of the room.” (Book 1, compares a crowd’s banter to the quacking of a
Chapter 2) duck.
“They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like Simile Here we have another visually-stimulating simile.
a horse shaking off flies.” (Book 1, Chapter 7) You can almost hear this one.

“But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of Simile This is a very well-deployed simile. Orwell
the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up in compares a piece of evidence that the protagonist,
the wrong stratum and destroys a geological Winston, discovers to a fossil that challenges
theory” (Book 1, Chapter 7) previous theories. This simile is very appealing
because it is comparing something abstract from
the past to something tangible form the past: a
fossil that one can touch and hold.

“Seen from the top the stuff looked almost black, but in Simile This example occurs in the part of the story where
the decanter it gleamed like a ruby.” (Book 2, Chapter Winston sees and drinks wine for the first time.
8) The imagery Orwell employs is very effective. In
comparing the wine to a ruby, we not only get a
colorful visual reference, but we also get a sense of
the rarity and preciousness of the wine.
“It was like swimming against a current that swept you Simile This last example is another simile that plays to our
backwards however hard you struggled, and then sense of touch. This example makes use of the
suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current common metaphor of swimming against the
instead of opposing it.” (Book 3, Chapter 4) current, meaning moving counter to a trend or
tradition. Reading this passage almost makes one
feel as if they are in the ocean or in a fast-moving
river being swept away and totally out of control.

“For, after all, how do we know that two and two make Synesis In this excerpt, the grammatical construction of the
four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the words “two and two make four,” which should be
past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external “makes” instead of “make.” The arrangement is not
world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is made in morphosyntactic form. Instead, the words
controllable – what then?” are arranged according to their logic.

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“The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a Affix In this example, the author has used both types of
dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the affix. The prefixes include “dis-” and “uni-,” and
right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice the suffixes include “-ed,” “-ly,” “-ish,” “-ness,”
sank somewhat, though the words were still and “-lly.”
distinguishable. The instrument (the telescreen, it was
called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of
shutting it off completely. He moved over to the
window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagreness of his
body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which
were the uniform of the party. His hair was very fair, his
face naturally sanguine…”

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were Phoneme The underlined letters are sounds of /i/ /b/ /d/ /s/ /
striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into ie/ /w/ /s/ and /v/ respectively. However, two
his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped phonemes have used aspirated diphthong sounds /
quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, th/ in “Smith” and /th/ in “though.”
though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty
dust from entering along with him.”
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to Distortion In the above excerpt taken from 1984, George
narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make Orwell has used distortion of several facts as a
thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be manipulative device. He expresses that this is an
no words in which to express it. Every concept that can important part of human thought, as it either limits
ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, or structures the ideas of individuals. Orwell has
with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary rather focused on political language to distort the
meanings rubbed out and forgotten.” story’s concepts and events by naming them
“[…] Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range differently than their names in our reality.
of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of
course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing
thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline,
reality-control. But in the end there won’t be any need
even for that.”
“[…] In fact there will be no thought, as we understand
it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to
think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

“The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was Symbol Big Brother is a representative of a dictatorial
thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right government, and its supremacy in the society. It
ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On can exercise total control and manage citizen’s
each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the lives by watching with spy cameras and advanced
enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those technology.
pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you
about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
YOU, the caption beneath it ran.”

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“Big Brother is watching you.’’ (Book 1, Chapter 1) This is the most critical quote seen by Winston
Smith on posters every time he enters his
apartment. This is a slogan propagated by the Party
that Big Brother, the leader of the country Oceania
to warn all the citizens that Big Brother is watching
everyone. Therefore, everyone must stay within the
given lines of the Party or else face the
consequences. This slogan is given in all capital
letters to show that this directive is very important.
It relates to the existing surveillance through
internet and smartphones.

“WAR IS PEACE Slogan These slogan type of quotes occur in the first
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY chapter of the novel. These are mottos of the
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (Book 1, Chapter 1) Paradox Ministry of Truth of the state of Oceania. The main
political party “The Party” has introduced these
slogans to manipulate and control the minds of
people while putting ‘thoughts from the Party’
about what is important for them and what is not.
In other words, these mottos show that people
should accept these truths. In recent circumstances,
it shows the subversive use of language to make
people think what the governments want them to
think.

This is a paradox because of how contradicting

each statement is. Each statement given by the
society are literal opposites from each other, but
are given to the people as if they are made to be
truth. They are basically telling the people to go the
opposite of their natural belief and trust in them
only. This paint a picture for the totalitarian society
depicted in the novel.
“One of those completely unquestioning, devoted These lines are about Parsons, the fellow employee
drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought of Winston Smith, the main character of the
Police, the stability of the Party depended.” (Book 1, storyline of 1984. This line is a comment on his
Chapter 2) enthusiasm to work for “The Party” and the
government. It says that the Party depends on such
unquestioning fellows who prove diehard
followers. These people become the main source of
the Thought Police to control the thoughts of the
people. This shows their relevance to the religious
fanatics of the modern times.

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“The past was dead, the future was This short line occurs in the second chapter of the
unimaginable.” (Book 1, Chapter 2) novel. It is a significant line that shows how the
past is modified to make it equal to zero, or almost
dead for the people. The main character, Winston
Smith, is feeling quite odd when working in the
party office. He feels that the past is more before
him and that he cannot imagine what may happen
to him in the future. Therefore, he is clueless about
time due to his work in the Ministry of Truth.

“Who controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls These lines are from the third chapter. Winston
the future: who controls the present controls the Smith thinks about the existence of knowledge and
past.” (Book 1, Chapter 3) realizes that truth is being annihilated. He thinks
that if the line of the Party is accepted that who
controls the present controls the past, it means it
also controls the future. Therefore, the Party is
working to obliterate all records. Then it will own
the future as it can create its own record for future
reference.
“Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous These lines are spoken in the sixth chapter.
system. At any moment the tension inside you was Winston Smith, the protagonist of this novel, is in a
liable to translate itself into some visible reflective mood. He is writing a diary which could
symptom.” (Book 1, Chapter 6) prove a rebellious act against him. In these
sentences, he thinks that his nervous system could
prove bad for him. He knows that his inner tension
could become visible, and he could be arrested.
These lines show how the Party has overpowered
the mental processes of its workers.

“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, The hero of the novel, Winston Smith, writes these
and until after they have rebelled they cannot become lines in his diary in the seventh chapter of the first
conscious.” (Book 1, Chapter 7) section. He has been visiting the proles, the
settlements of the proletariat people. He is thinking
about the mob of the proletariat and states that if
they become conscious of the situation in which
they are forced to live, they will rebel. However,
their thoughts have been curbed so much so that
they could not become conscious of why they rebel
and against whom they are rebelling. These lines,
given in italics in original, are significant as they
show how the politicians dominate the commoners
using their power.

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“At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay These lines occur in the first chapter of the second
alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor section. These are very important lines, as Winston
risks suddenly seemed stupid.” (Book 2, Chapter 1) Smith has already read “I love you” when Julia
secretly passes the note. Now he is reflecting upon
its meanings and feeling passionate intimate
moments with Julia. In the past, he has experienced
intimacy is a routine matter where no love is
involved. Hence, meeting Julia has changed that
thought and he has become passionate. He also
understands that taking these small risks for love is
mindless and yet worth it because Julia makes him
feel alive

“The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the These lines occur in the fourth chapter of the
feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or second section. Here Winston is again thinking
into the air all around him. She had become a physical about his girlfriend, Julia, with whom he has met
necessity.” (Book 2, Chapter 4) earlier. Although in the past sexual relationship was
declared a routine matter for breeding more
members of the Party, it is still a passionate act for
him. He thinks about Julia and feels her presence.
Then it suddenly dawns upon him that Julia has
removed all his repression from the past and that
he craves to be with her.
“For the first time, he perceived that if you want to keep These words are thoughts of Winston Smith. He is
a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” (Book 3, very much overwhelmed by his rebellious
Chapter 4) thoughts, and seem, to be on the verge of spilling
the beans or making it visible. He is very much
aware of ‘Thought Police’ and the consequence of
his thoughts. It has occurred to him for the first
time that if you are working as a spy, you must
hoodwink yourself, too. This line is significant in
the novel and shows how a change of thoughts
sometimes causes delusion.

"From over scrubby cheekbones eyes looked into Foreshadowing The prisoners looking at Winston so intently could
Winston’s, sometimes with strange intensity, and foreshadow Winston becoming one of them in the
flashed away again. The convoy was drawing to an end. future. Their glares could be a way of drawing
" pg. 146 Winston towards them showing how he may be
with them one day. Coupled with the fact that he's
going around with Julia, may lead him down a path
where his own well being is threatened.

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"‘It’s this bloody thing that does it,’ she said, ripping off Symbol Julia ripping off the sash symbolizes her blatant
the scarlet sash of the Junior Anti-Sex League and defiance towards the society. Where the sash itself
flinging it on to a bough." pg. 153 illustrates a citizen's devotion to the cause, Julia
shows her commitment in her desires when taking
off the sash, rather than the societies desires. She
uses the sash to hide her true intentions.

"Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the Irony The irony in this in "the lie became the truth". This
erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. Just once in symbolizes how the big brother takes every part of
his life he had possessed—AFTER the event: that was history pertaining to them and twists it into their
what counted—concrete, unmistakable evidence of an own imaging, creating a "lie".
act of falsification." Pg. 95-96
"In the dream he had remembered his last glimpse of his Flashback The flashback depicts the animosities the society
mother, and within a few moments of waking the cluster puts people through. Winston was taken away from
of small events surrounding it had all come back. It was his family as a child, and believed he was the one
a memory that he must have deliberately pushed out of who killed his mother. When in actuality, his dream
his consciousness over many years." Pg. 203 shows that his mother was killed by the society.

"Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure Satire The man is telling Winston that they will make him
you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, "sane" meaning that they will bring him to what the
that no one whom we brings to this place leaves society deems normal. This shows how what Big
uncured." Pg. 265 brother deems to be normal or accepted is opposite
from what others think. With this, the statement
shows the narrow minded viewpoint of officials in
the society.

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