Characters And Themes Of 1984 English Literature Essay
The novel ‘s supporter. Winston is a quiet 39-year-old adult male life in Oceania in the twelvemonth 1984. A Party member, Winston works at the Ministry of Truth rectifying “ mistakes ” in past publications. Winston is besides an recreational intellectual who nurses a secret hate of the Party. To protect himself from find, Winston goes through the gestures of outward orthodoxy, but relishes his internal universe of dreams, memories and guess about the yesteryear. Winston is married but separated, and has no kids. Upon run intoing Julia, he finds an mercantile establishment for his dissident sentiments and for the love he yearns to portion with another human being. His physical and mental wellness improves, and Winston starts to believe more strongly in an established covert motion against the Party. Unfortunately, the matter is ephemeral, and the twosome is arrested. Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love and subjected to extended anguish and humiliation, which force him into entry. As a consequence of this experience, Winston loses all rebellious ideas, additions unadulterated love for Big Brother and the Party, and eradicates his love for Julia. In short, Winston loses his humanity. Upon his release, he is a shell of a adult male, yet besides an ideal, loyal, and devoted Party member.
Julia
A 26-year-old Party member who works in the Fiction Department of the Ministry of Truth. Julia besides in secret despises the Party, but accepts its regulation over her and hence externally appears to be zealously devoted to the Party ‘s causes. Julia declares her love for Winston, therefore get downing their matter and puting them down the way towards their eventual imprisonment. Unlike Winston, Julia sees life merely, and is interested merely in her endurance and personal rebellion against the Party – non in long-run programs for the revival of democracy. Julia is arrested along with Winston and tortured in the Ministry of Love. When they meet once more after their several releases, Julia is spiritless, physically broken, and even nurses a obscure disfavor for Winston. Just like Winston, Julia leaves the Ministry of Love as a mere shell of a human being.
O’brien
A outstanding Inner Party member with whom Winston feels a unusual bond. Winston feels that even if O’Brien is an enemy, it would n’t count because he knows O’Brien will understand him without account. O’Brien is a big, graceful, and clearly intelligent adult male who leads Winston to believe he is portion of an belowground motion against the Party, but in fact helps turn Winston in for thoughtcrime and tortures him in the Ministry of Love. O’Brien is full of unusual contradictions. He can be fatherlike – and even tender – even while fanatically showing his devotedness to the Party by tormenting Winston.
Large Brother
The symbol of Oceania and the Party, Big Brother is Oceania ‘s supreme leader, and is ubiquitous through telescreen projections, coins, and even big postings warning, “ BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. ” Large Brother is theoretically one of the original laminitiss of the Party and the Revolution, but Winston assumes he does non be, will ne’er age, and will ne’er decease. He is the mouthpiece of the Party, and the symbol all Party members worship.
Mrs. Parsons
The married woman of Tom Parsons and neighbour of Winston ‘s. A tired, aged adult female with “ dust in the folds of her face, ” Mrs. Parsons is the female parent of two hideous kids belonging to the Spies and Youth League and who are bound to finally denounce her and her hubby to the Thought Police. At the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Parsons knocks on Winston ‘s door when he is composing in his journal to inquire for his aid unclogging the kitchen sink. Winston obliges.
Tom Parsons
Husband to Mrs. Parsons, and Winston ‘s neighbour and coworker. Tom is a heavy, sweaty, simple adult male whom Winston despises for his unquestioning credence of everything the Party tells him. Parsons is active in his community groups, and appears to truly believe Party claims and philosophy. However, his girl finally denounces him to the Thought Police, claiming he was stating “ Down with Large Brother ” in his slumber. Winston sees Tom while imprisoned in the Ministry of Love, and Tom is ironically proud of his seven-year-old girl for holding done her responsibility.
Tillotson
A coworker of Winston ‘s, Tillotson sits across from him in the Records Department and is highly close about his work.
Ampleforth
A coworker of Winston ‘s, and a poet who works in the Records Department rewriting politically or ideologically obnoxious Oldspeak verse form. By the terminal of the novel, Ampleforth is in prison along with Winston, for, he believes holding left the word “ God ” in one of his verse forms.
Syme
A “ friend ” of Winston ‘s and a philologue working on the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Although Winston disfavors Syme, he enjoys holding slightly interesting conversations with him. Winston notices that Syme, although a devoted Party member, is excessively smart and excessively vocal for his ain good. He predicts Syme will be vaporized, and is proven right when he all of a sudden disappears.
Katharine
Winston ‘s married woman, who ne’er appears straight in the book but is discussed at some length. Winston describes her as “ unthinkful ” and claims she was absurdly devoted to the Party, to the point where she referred to kiping with Winston to bring forth offspring as her “ responsibility to the Party. ” The two ne’er had kids, and finally separated. In a conversation with Julia, Winston reveals he was one time tempted to slay Katharine when they were separated from others on a nature walk. However, he did non, and he assumes Katharine still lives, although he has non seen her in old ages.
Mr. Charrington
The proprietor of the old-timer store where Winston foremost buys his diary, pen, and subsequently on a glass paperweight. Winston rents the room above the store from Mr. Charrington for his love matter with Julia. Mr. Charrington appears to be a sort old adult male interested in history and the past, but subsequently reveals himself to be a member of the Thought Police. Mr. Charrington leads Winston and Julia into his trap, and observes their action from the hidden telescreen in the room above the store. As he is being arrested, Winston notices that Mr. Charrington looks wholly different, and has clearly been working under camouflage for rather some clip.
Martin
O’Brien ‘s retainer, Martin is a little, black-haired adult male who Winston believes might be Chinese. He leads Winston and Julia into O’Brien ‘s flat and sits in on their meeting, but does non talk.
Companion Witherss
A former prominent Inner Party member who received the Order of Conspicuous Merit, Second Class. The topic of a “ rectification ” Winston must do at the Ministry of Truth after Withers is vaporized.
Comrade Ogilvy
A adult male Winston invents to replace Comrade Withers when “ correcting ” the intelligence narrative environing the awards Withers, an nonperson, received from the Party.
Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford
Three Inner Party members wrongly arrested in 1965 and forced to imply themselves of assorted offenses, including lese majesty and slaying. They are finally killed. Winston finds a niping turn outing their artlessness and destroys the papers, but ne’er forgets keeping the cogent evidence that Party “ fact ” was fiction.
Wilsher
A coworker of Winston ‘s who delays his first conversation with Julia by ask foring Winston to sit with him in the canteen.
Prole Washer Woman
A big, brawny, compact prole adult female who is invariably hanging wash and vocalizing below the window in Mr. Charrington ‘s flat.
Starving Man
A adult male briefly placed in Winston ‘s keeping cell who is clearly being starved to decease. When told to travel to Board 101 he tells them to take the adult male who offered him nutrient ( Bumstead ) alternatively – anything but 101.
Bumstead
A captive in the Ministry of Love who offers the starvation adult male a piece of old staff of life. He is instantly punished with a violent onslaught that breaks his jaw and causes heavy hemorrhage.
Subjects, Motifs & A ; Symbols
Subjects
Subjects are the cardinal and frequently cosmopolitan thoughts explored in a literary work.
The Dangers of Totalitarianism
1984 is a political novel written with the intent of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian authorities. Having witnessed firsthand the hideous lengths to which totalitarian authoritiess in Spain and Russia would travel in order to prolong and increase their power, Orwell designed 1984 to sound the dismay in Western states still unsure about how to near the rise of communism. In 1949, the Cold War had non yet escalated, many American intellectuals supported communism, and the province of diplomatic negotiations between democratic and communist states was extremely equivocal. In the American imperativeness, the Soviet Union was frequently portrayed as a great moral experiment. Orwell, nevertheless, was profoundly disturbed by the widespread inhuman treatments and subjugations he observed in communist states, and seems to hold been peculiarly concerned by the function of engineering in enabling oppressive authoritiess to supervise and command their citizens.
In 1984, Orwell portrays the perfect totalitarian society, the most utmost realisation imaginable of a contemporary authorities with absolute power. The rubric of the novel was meant to bespeak to its readers in 1949 that the narrative represented a existent possibility for the close hereafter: if dictatorship were non opposed, the rubric suggested, some fluctuation of the universe described in the novel could go a world in lone 35 old ages. Orwell portrays a province in which authorities proctors and controls every facet of human life to the extent that even holding a unpatriotic idea is against the jurisprudence. As the novel progresses, the shyly rebellious Winston Smith sets out to dispute the bounds of the Party ‘s power, merely to detect that its ability to command and enslave its topics shadow even his most paranoid constructs of its range. As the reader comes to understand through Winston ‘s eyes, The Party uses a figure of techniques to command its citizens, each of which is an of import subject of its ain in the novel. These include:
Psychological Manipulation
The Party barrages its topics with psychological stimulations designed to overpower the head ‘s capacity for independent idea. The elephantine telescreen in every citizen ‘s room blasts a changeless watercourse of propaganda designed to do the failures and defects of the Party appear to be exultant successes. The telescreens besides monitor behavior-everywhere they go, citizens are continuously reminded, particularly by agencies of the ubiquitous marks reading “ BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, ” that the governments are size uping them. The Party undermines household construction by investing kids into an organisation called the Junior Spies, which brainwashes and encourages them to descry on their parents and describe any case of disloyalty to the Party. The Party besides forces persons to stamp down their sexual desires, handling sex as simply a generative responsibility whose terminal is the creative activity of new Party members. The Party so channels people ‘s repressed defeat and emotion into intense, fierce shows of hatred against the Party ‘s political enemies. Many of these enemies have been invented by the Party expressly for this intent.
Physical Control
In add-on to pull stringsing their heads, the Party besides controls the organic structures of its topics. The Party invariably watches for any mark of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a bantam facial vellication could take to an apprehension. A individual ‘s ain nervous system becomes his greatest enemy. The Party forces its members to undergo mass forenoon exercisings called the Physical Jerks, and so to work long, grueling yearss at authorities bureaus, maintaining people in a general province of exhaustion. Anyone who does pull off to withstand the Party is punished and “ reeducated ” through systematic and barbarous anguish. After being subjected to hebdomads of this intense intervention, Winston himself comes to the decision that nil is more powerful than physical pain-no emotional trueness or moral strong belief can get the better of it. By conditioning the heads of their victims with physical anguish, the Party is able to command world, converting its topics that 2 + 2 = 5.
Control of Information and History
The Party controls every beginning of information, managing and rewriting the content of all newspapers and histories for its ain terminals. The Party does non let persons to maintain records of their yesteryear, such as exposure or paperss. As a consequence, memories become fuzzed and undependable, and citizens become absolutely willing to believe whatever the Party tells them. By commanding the present, the Party is able to pull strings the yesteryear. And in commanding the yesteryear, the Party can warrant all of its actions in the present.
Technology
By agencies of telescreens and concealed mikes across the metropolis, the Party is able to supervise its members about all of the clip. Additionally, the Party employs complicated mechanisms ( 1984 was written in the epoch before computing machines ) to exercise large-scale control on economic production and beginnings of information, and awful machinery to bring down anguish upon those it deems enemies. 1984 reveals that engineering, which is by and large perceived as working toward moral good, can besides ease the most devilish immorality.
Language as Mind Control
One of Orwell ‘s most of import messages in 1984 is that linguistic communication is of cardinal importance to human idea because it structures and limits the thoughts that persons are capable of explicating and showing. If control of linguistic communication were centralized in a political bureau, Orwell proposes, such an bureau could perchance change the really construction of linguistic communication to do it impossible to even gestate of disobedient or rebellious ideas, because there would be no words with which to believe them. This thought manifests itself in the linguistic communication of Newspeak, which the Party has introduced to replace English. The Party is invariably polishing and honing Newspeak, with the ultimate end that no 1 will be capable of gestating anything that might oppugn the Party ‘s absolute power.
Interestingly, many of Orwell ‘s thoughts approximately linguistic communication as a commanding force have been modified by authors and critics seeking to cover with the bequest of colonialism. During colonial times, foreign powers took political and military control of distant parts and, as a portion of their business, instituted their ain linguistic communication as the linguistic communication of authorities and concern. Postcolonial authors frequently analyze or redress the harm done to local populations by the loss of linguistic communication and the attendant loss of civilization and historical connexion.
Motifs
Motifs are repeating constructions, contrasts, and literary devices that can assist to develop and inform the text ‘s major subjects.
Doublethink
The thought of “ doublethink ” emerges as an of import effect of the Party ‘s monolithic run of large-scale psychological use. Simply put, doublethink is the ability to keep two contradictory thoughts in one ‘s head at the same clip. As the Party ‘s mind-control techniques break down an person ‘s capacity for independent idea, it becomes possible for that person to believe anything that the Party tells them, even while possessing information that runs counter to what they are being told. At the Hate Week rally, for case, the Party shifts its diplomatic commitment, so the state it has been at war with all of a sudden becomes its ally, and its former ally becomes its new enemy. When the Party talker all of a sudden changes the state he refers to as an enemy in the center of his address, the crowd accepts his words instantly, and is ashamed to happen that it has made the incorrect marks for the event. In the same manner, people are able to accept the Party ministries ‘ names, though they contradict their maps: the Ministry of Plenty oversees economic deficits, the Ministry of Peace rewards war, the Ministry of Truth behaviors propaganda and historical revisionism, and the Ministry of Love is the centre of the Party ‘s operations of anguish and penalty.
Urban Decay
Urban decay proves a permeant motive in 1984. The London that Winston Smith calls place is a bedraggled, rundown metropolis in which edifices are crumpling, comfortss such as lifts ne’er work, and necessities such as electricity and plumbing are highly undependable. Though Orwell ne’er discusses the subject openly, it is clear that the cheapjack decomposition of London, merely like the widespread hungriness and poorness of its dwellers, is due to the Party ‘s misdirection and incompetency. One of the subjects of 1984, inspired by the history of twentieth-century communism, is that totalitarian governments are brutally effectual at heightening their ain power and miserably incompetent at supplying for their citizens. The begrimed urban decay in London is an of import ocular reminder of this thought, and offers insight into the Party ‘s precedences through its contrast to the huge engineering the Party develops to descry on its citizens.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colourss used to stand for abstract thoughts or constructs.
Large Brother
Throughout London, Winston sees postings demoing a adult male staring down over the words “ BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU ” everyplace he goes. Big Brother is the face of the Party. The citizens are told that he is the leader of the state and the caput of the Party, but Winston can ne’er find whether or non he really exists. In any instance, the face of Big Brother symbolizes the Party in its public manifestation ; he is a reassurance to most people ( the heat of his name suggests his ability to protect ) , but he is besides an unfastened menace ( one can non get away his regard ) . Large Brother besides symbolizes the vagueness with which the higher ranks of the Party present themselves-it is impossible to cognize who truly regulations Oceania, what life is like for the swayers, or why they act as they do. Winston thinks he remembers that Big Brother emerged around 1960, but the Party ‘s official records day of the month Big Brother ‘s being back to 1930, before Winston was even born.
The Glass Paperweight and St. Clement ‘s Church
By intentionally weakening people ‘s memories and deluging their heads with propaganda, the Party is able to replace persons ‘ memories with its ain version of the truth. It becomes about impossible for people to oppugn the Party ‘s power in the present when they accept what the Party tells them about the past-that the Party arose to protect them from bloated, oppressive capitalists, and that the universe was far ugly and harsher before the Party came to power. Winston mistily understands this rule. He struggles to retrieve his ain memories and explicate a larger image of what has happened to the universe. Winston buys a paperweight in an old-timer shop in the prole territory that comes to typify his effort to reconnect with the yesteryear. Symbolically, when the Thought Police arrest Winston at last, the paperweight shatters on the floor.
The old image of St. Clement ‘s Church in the room that Winston rents above Mr. Charrington ‘s store is another representation of the lost yesteryear. Winston associates a vocal with the image that ends with the words “ Here comes the chopper to chop off your caput! ” This is an of import foreshadow, as it is the telescreen hidden behind the image that finally leads the Thought Police to Winston, typifying the Party ‘s corrupt control of the yesteryear.
The Place Where There Is No Dark
Throughout the fresh Winston imagines run intoing O’Brien in “ the topographic point where there is no darkness. ” The words foremost come to him in a dream, and he ponders them for the remainder of the novel. Finally, Winston does run into O’Brien in the topographic point where there is no darkness ; alternatively of being the Eden Winston imagined, it is simply a prison cell in which the visible radiation is ne’er turned off. The thought of “ the topographic point where there is no darkness ” symbolizes Winston ‘s attack to the hereafter: perchance because of his intense fatalism ( he believes that he is doomed no affair what he does ) , he foolishly allows himself to swear O’Brien, even though inside he senses that O’Brien might be a Party secret agent.
The Telescreens
The omnipresent telescreens are the book ‘s most seeable symbol of the Party ‘s changeless monitoring of its topics. In their double capableness to blast changeless propaganda and observe citizens, the telescreens besides typify how totalitarian authorities maltreatments engineering for its ain terminals alternatively of working its cognition to better civilisation.
The Red-Armed Prole Woman
The red-armed worker adult female whom Winston hears singing through the window represents Winston ‘s one legitimate hope for the long-run hereafter: the possibility that the workers will finally come to acknowledge their predicament and Rebel against the Party. Winston sees the worker adult female as a premier illustration of generative virility ; he frequently imagines her giving birth to the hereafter coevalss that will eventually dispute the Party ‘s authorization.
