Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four (often 1984) is a political novel written by George Orwell. The story takes place in a nightmarish dystopia where the omnipresent State enforces perfect conformity among members of a totalitarian Party through indoctrination, propaganda, fear, and ruthless punishment. The novel introduced the concepts of the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother, the notorious Room 101, the ubiquitous thought police, and the bureaucrats' and politicians' language Newspeak. Many commentators draw parallels between today's society and the world of 1984, suggesting that we are starting to live in what has become known as Orwellian society. The novel was successful in terms of sales, and has remained one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Synopsis of the novel

The novel focuses upon one man named Winston Smith who ultimately gives up at the end of the novel: hence its original working name of The Last Man in Europe. Although the storyline is unified, it could be described as having three parts: The first part deals with the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four as seen through the eyes of Winston; the second part deals with Winston's forbidden sexual relationship with Julia and his eagerness to rebel against the Party, and the third part deals with Winston's capture and torture by O'Brien.

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The world described in Nineteen Eighty-Four contains striking and deliberate parallels with the Stalinist Soviet Union, notably the themes of a betrayed revolution ? with which Orwell famously dealt in Animal Farm ? the subordination of individuals to "the Party", and the extensive and institutional use of propaganda, especially as it influenced the main character of the book, Winston Smith.

Related Topics:
Stalinist - Soviet Union - Revolution - Animal Farm - Propaganda - Winston Smith

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Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, lives in the ruins of London, the chief city of Airstrip One ? a front-line province of the totalitarian hyperstate Oceania. Winston grew up in post-Second World War Britain, during the revolution and civil war. When his parents died during the civil war, he was picked up by the growing Ingsoc movement and given a job in the Outer Party. Like the rest of the population, Winston lives a squalid and materially deprived existence. He lives in a filthy one-room apartment in "Victory Mansions", and is forced to live on a diet of hard bread, synthetic meals served at his workplace, and vast amounts of industrial-grade "Victory Gin". He is deeply unhappy in his life and keeps a secret diary of his illegal thoughts about the Party. Winston is employed by the Ministry of Truth, which exercises complete control over all media in Oceania: his job in the Ministry's Records Department involves doctoring historical records in order to comply with the Party's version of the past. Since the perception of the past is constantly shaped by the events of the present, the task is a never-ending one.

Related Topics:
Oceania - Ingsoc - Outer Party - Gin

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However, Winston is fascinated by the real past, and eagerly tries to find out more about the forbidden truth. At the Ministry of Truth, he encounters Julia, a mechanic on the novel-writing machines, and the two begin an illegal relationship, regularly meeting up in the countryside (away from surveillance) or in a room above an antique shop in a prole area of the city. As the relationship progresses, Winston's views begin to change, and he finds himself relentlessly questioning Ingsoc. Unknown to him, he and Julia are under surveillance by the Thought Police, and when he is approached by Inner Party member O'Brien, he believes that he has made contact with the Resistance. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of "the book", a searing criticism of Ingsoc that Smith believes was written by the dissident Emmanuel Goldstein.

Related Topics:
Julia - Prole - Ingsoc - Thought Police - Inner Party - O'Brien - Emmanuel Goldstein

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Winston and Julia are apprehended by the Thought Police and interrogated separately in the Ministry of Love, where opponents of the regime are tortured and executed. O'Brien reveals to Winston that he has been brought to "be cured" of his hatred for the Party, and subjects Winston to numerous torture sessions. During one of these sessions, he explains to Winston the nature of the endless world war, and that the purpose of the torture is not to extract a fake confession, but to actually change the way Winston thinks. This is achieved through a combination of torture and electroshock therapy, until O'Brien decides that Winston is "cured". However, Winston unconsciously utters Julia's name in his sleep, proving that he has not been completely brainwashed. Winston is terrified of rats, and in Room 101, O'Brien uses these to destroy Winston's feelings for Julia. At the end of the novel, Winston and Julia meet, but their feelings for each other no longer exist. Winston has become an alcoholic and we know that eventually he will be shot, but the last sentence of the novel reveals that the torture and 'reprogramming' have been successful: 'He loved Big Brother'. On the closing page he writes the equation 2+2=5, which he was forced to believe in his captivity, and is symbolic of Big Brother's control over what he thinks, regardless of his own reason. This is expressed further at the very end of the book; as Winston is being led to the execution squad waiting for him, his last thoughts are those of loving Big Brother.

Related Topics:
Electroshock therapy - Room 101

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At the end of the novel there is an appendix on Newspeak (the artificial language invented and, by degrees, imposed by the Party to limit the capacity to express or even think "unorthodox" thoughts), in the style of an academic essay.

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History according to 1984

The novel itself initially explains little about the history of Oceania, but during the second part of 1984, Winston Smith receives a copy of "the book", apparently written by Emmanuel Goldstein, a tract which explains the concepts of party rule and the history of the Ingsoc party (in fact, O'Brien reveals later on that the novel was written by a committee that included him. In other words the work is a fake, although, of course, O'Brien could be lying). In the novel, Winston reads from "the book" that a revolution in the United Kingdom came shortly after the Allied victory in the Second World War, and lasted for a short but undefined period, plunging Great Britain into civil war. At the same time, the Soviet Union embarked on a mass invasion of mainland Europe, eventually overrunning the entire continent apart from the British Isles and Iceland. A Third World War then broke out between the three emerging powers of Oceania (led by what had previously been the United States), Eastasia (controlled by a revitalized China), and Eurasia (the expanded Soviet Union). As the three powers fought for global dominance, hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped on Europe, western Russia, and North America (Eastasia apparently escaped the bombs, perhaps explaining how this relatively small state was able to emerge without being crushed by the much larger powers of Eurasia and Oceania). Curiously, the novel fails to explain why the United States, when constructing Oceania, chose to adopt the British political system of Ingsoc. This suggests that the version of history portrayed in "the book" is not entirely accurate (which again supports the thesis that it is a fake: the inherent unreliability of all written sources is one of Orwell's points).

Related Topics:
Winston Smith - Emmanuel Goldstein - Ingsoc - United Kingdom - Second World War - Europe - British Isles - Iceland - Oceania - United States - Eastasia - China - Eurasia - Soviet Union - Atomic bombs

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In the novel, Winston recalls a point during the atomic wars of the 1950s when an atomic bomb was dropped on Colchester (presumably by Eurasian forces), provoking mass panic in civil-war-torn Britain. As the book explains, the three powers eventually realized that continuous stalemate war was preferable to conquest, as war allowed them to keep people busy by manufacturing products that could be wasted during fighting, rather than being used to improve people's standard of living (an impoverished population was easier to control than a rich one). By the time the novel is set, the three powers have taken over most of the world, but have left a large sector of the Earth nominally free. This sector, containing the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, southern India, Indonesia, and northern Australia, has become the main battlefield for the three powers, and provides a useful source of slaves (used only for propaganda purposes). The three world powers rarely actually fight on their own territory ? Airstrip One (the official name of Great Britain) has become the target of Eurasian rocket bombs, but it is hinted that the Oceanian government itself launches these weapons in order to convince Airstrip One's urban populations that they are under constant attack (the novel does not explain how short-range rocket bombs continue to land on British cities even when Oceania and Eurasia are allies, as rocket bombs could not travel all the way from Eastasia).

Related Topics:
Atomic wars - Atomic bomb - Colchester - Africa - Middle East - India - Indonesia - Australia - Propaganda - Airstrip One - Great Britain

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The revolution in Britain was betrayed in the late 1950s by the rising figure of Big Brother, who turned the socialist rebellion into a pretext for creating a terror state. By the year 1984, Airstrip One had become a police state and a province (the third richest) of the vast hyperpower Oceania, its citizens separated into three distinct, isolated classes (Inner Party, Outer Party, and Proles), controlled by the four Ministries of the Province of Airstrip One.

Related Topics:
Big Brother - Airstrip One - Oceania - Inner Party - Outer Party - Proles

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Ministries of Oceania

Oceania's four ministries are housed in huge pyramidal structures displaying the three slogans of the party (see below) on their sides.

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; The Ministry of Peace : Newspeak: Minipax. Concerns itself with conducting and perpetuating Oceania's peace through continuous wars.

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; The Ministry of Plenty : Newspeak: Miniplenty. Responsible for rationing and controlling food and goods.

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; The Ministry of Truth : Newspeak: Minitrue. The propaganda arm of Oceania's regime. Minitrue controls political literature, the Party organisation, and the telescreens. Winston Smith works for Minitrue, "rectifying" historical records and newspaper articles to make them conform to IngSoc's most recent pronouncements, thus making everything that the Party says true.

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; The Ministry of Love : Newspeak: Miniluv. The agency responsible for the identification, monitoring, arrest, and torture of dissidents, real or imagined. Responsible for making every Party member love the Party.

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The ministries' names are, of course, paradoxical ? the Ministry of Peace engages in war, the Ministry of Plenty administers over shortages, the Ministry of Truth spreads propaganda and lies, and the Ministry of Love inflicts human misery for its own sake.

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The Party

In his novel Orwell created a world in which citizens have no right to a personal life or to personal thought. Leisure and other activities are controlled through a system of strict mores. Sexual pleasure is discouraged; sex is retained only for the purpose of procreation, although artificial insemination (ARTSEM) is more encouraged.

Related Topics:
Procreation - Artificial insemination

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The mysterious head of government is the omniscient, omnipotent, beloved Big Brother, or "B.B.", usually displayed on posters with the slogan "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU". However, it is never quite clear whether Big Brother truly exists or not, or whether he is a fictitious leader created as a focus for the love of the Party which the Thought Police and others are there to engender. It is perfectly possible that the conflict between Big Brother and Goldstein is in fact a conflict either between two fictitious or two dead leaders, whose true purpose is to personify both the Party and its opponents.

Related Topics:
Big Brother - Goldstein

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His political opponent is the hated Emmanuel Goldstein, a Party member who had been in league with Big Brother and the Party during the revolution. Goldstein is said to be a major part of the Brotherhood, a vast underground anti-Party fellowship. The reader never truly finds out whether the Brotherhood exists or not, but the implication is that Goldstein is either entirely fictitious or was eliminated long ago. Party members are expected to vilify Goldstein and the Brotherhood via the daily "two minute hate." During this ritual citizens are expected to ridicule and shout at a video of the hated "bleating" Goldstein expounding his alternative philosophy (indeed, the image ultimately morphed into a bleating sheep).

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The three slogans of the Party, on display everywhere, are:

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• WAR IS PEACE
• FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
• IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Each of these is of course either contradictory or the opposite of what we normally believe, and in 1984 the world is in a state of constant war, no one is free, and everyone is ignorant. The slogans are analysed in Goldstein's book. Through their constant repetition, the terms become meaningless, and the slogans become axiomatic. This type of misuse of language, and the deliberate self-deception with which the citizens are encouraged to accept it, is called doublethink.

Related Topics:
Goldstein's book - Axiom - Doublethink

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One essential consequence of doublethink is that the Party can rewrite history with impunity, for "The Party is never wrong." The ultimate aim of the Party is, according to O'Brien, to gain and retain full power over all the people of Oceania; he sums this up with perhaps the most distressing prophecy of the entire novel: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face ? for ever.

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Political geography

The world is controlled by three functionally similar totalitarian superstates engaged in perpetual war with each other: Oceania (ideology: Ingsoc or English Socialism), Eurasia (ideology: Neo-Bolshevism), and Eastasia (ideology: Death Worship or Obliteration of the Self). In terms of the political map of the late 1940s when the book was written, Oceania covers the areas of the British Empire (or the Commonwealth), the Americas, and Australia. Eastasia corresponds to China, Japan, Korea, and India. Eurasia corresponds to the Soviet Union and Continental Europe. That Great Britain is in Oceania rather than in Eurasia is commented upon in the book as an historical anomaly. North Africa, the Middle East, India, and Indonesia form a disputed zone which is used as a battlefield and source of slaves by the three powers. Goldstein's book explains that the ideologies of the three states are basically the same, but it is imperative to keep the public ignorant of that. The population is led to believe that the other two ideologies are detestable. London, the novel's setting, is the capital of the Oceanian province of Airstrip One, the renamed Great Britain.

Related Topics:
Totalitarian - Superstate - Perpetual war - Oceania - Ingsoc - 1940s - British Empire - Commonwealth - Americas - Australia - China - Japan - Korea - India - Soviet Union - Continental Europe - Africa - Middle East - Indonesia - Goldstein's book - London - Airstrip One

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The War

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is built around an endless war involving the three global hyperstates, with two allied powers fighting against the third. The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are formed, but as Goldstein's book explains, this does not matter, as each hyperstate is so strong it cannot be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers. The war rarely takes place on the territory of the three powers, and actual fighting is conducted in the disputed zone stretching from Morocco to Australia, and in the unpopulated Arctic wastes. Throughout the first half of the novel, Oceania is allied with Eastasia, and Oceania's forces are engaged with fighting Eurasian troops in northern Africa. Mid-way through the novel, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces in India. When Winston is released from the Ministry of Love at the end of the novel, Oceania and Eurasia are enemies once again. The public is quite blind to the change, and when a speaker, midsentence, changes the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia (speaking as if nothing had changed) the people are shocked as they notice all the flags and banners are wrong (they blame Goldstein and the Brotherhood) and quite effectively tear them down.

Related Topics:
Oceania - Eastasia - Eurasia

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The book which Winston receives explains that the war cannot be won, and that its only purpose is to destroy the produce of human labour and maintain a constant death toll, thus keeping the totalitarian society intact. The book also details an Oceanian strategy to attack enemy cities with atomic-tipped rocket bombs prior to a full-scale invasion, but quickly dismisses this plan as both infeasible and contrary to the purpose of the war. Although, according to Goldstein's book, hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped on cities during the 1950s, they are no longer used by the three powers as they would upset the balance of power. Conventional military technology is little different from that used in the Second World War. Some advances have been made, such as replacing bomber aircraft with "rocket bombs", and using immense "floating fortresses" instead of battleships, but such advances appear to be few and far between. As the purpose of the war is to destroy manufactured products and thus keep the workers busy, obsolete and wasteful technology is deliberately used in order to perpetuate useless fighting.

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Living Standards

By the year 1984, the society of Airstrip One lives in abject squalor and poverty. Hunger, disease, and filth have become the social norm. As a result of the civil war, atomic wars, and Eurasian rocket bombs, the urban areas of Airstrip One lie in ruins. When travelling around London, Winston is surrounded by rubble, decay, and the crumbling shells of wrecked buildings. Apart from the gargantuan bombproof Ministries, very little seems to have been done to rebuild London, and it is assumed that all towns and cities across Airstrip One are in the same desperate condition. Living standards for the population are generally very low ? everything is in short supply and those goods that are available are of very poor quality. The Party claims that this is due to the immense sacrifices that must be made for the war effort, but in fact, living standards are deliberately kept low so as to keep people's minds on the most basic of needs and avoid questioning the Party.

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The Inner Party, at the top level of Oceanian society, enjoys the highest standard of living. O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, lives in a relatively clean and comfortable apartment, and has access to a variety of quality foodstuffs such as wine, coffee, and sugar, none of which is available to the rest of the population. Members of the Inner Party also seem to be waited on by slaves captured from the disputed zone. Although the Inner Party enjoys the highest standard of living, Goldstein's book points out that, despite being at the top of society, their living standards are far, far below those of society's elite before the revolution. The proletariat, treated by the Party as animals, lives in squalor and poverty. They are kept sedate with vast quantities of cheap beer, widespread pornography, and a national lottery, but these do not mask the fact that their lives are dangerous and deprived ? proletarian areas of the cities, for example, are ridden with disease and vermin. As Winston is a member of the Outer Party, we discover more about the Outer Party's living standards than any other group. Despite being the middle class of Oceanian society, the Outer Party's standard of living is very poor. Foodstuffs are low-quality or even synthetic, and the main alcoholic beverage available to the Outer Party ? Victory Gin ? is industrial-grade, whilst the cigarettes smoked by Outer Party members are of very shoddy quality. Smith, like many other members of the Outer Party, lives in a filthy one-room apartment with no comforts. All members of the Outer Party are required to wear scruffy overalls, and clothes in general seem to be of very low quality. Members of the Outer Party are subject to a rigid timetable, being awoken each morning by the telescreens, and are required to participate in group "leisure" activities. Apart from Victory Gin, everything from artificial foods to badly-made razor blades is in very short supply, and living standards as a whole appear to be declining further.

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Newspeak

Newspeak, the "official language" of Oceania, is extraordinary in that its vocabulary decreases every year; the state of Oceania sees no purpose in maintaining a complex language, and so Newspeak is a language dedicated to the "destruction of words". As the character Syme puts it:

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:Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well... If you have a word like 'good', what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well... 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.... In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words; in reality, only one word. (Part One, Chapter Five)

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The true goal of Newspeak is to take away the ability to conceptualize revolution adequately, or even to dissent, by removing words that could be used to that end. Syme openly discusses this aim, this indiscretion being the presumed reason for his disappearance later on. Since the thought police had yet to develop a method of reading people's minds to catch dissent, Newspeak was created. (This concept has been examined ? and widely disputed ? in linguistics: see the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.)

Related Topics:
Linguistics - Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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See also: External link to a Newspeak Dictionary

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Technology

The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is first and foremost a political, not a technological, dystopia. The technological level of the society in the novel is mostly crude and less advanced than in the real 1980s. Apart from the telescreens, speech-recognizing typewriters, and novel-writing machines (the credibility of which is stated to be dubious), technology is barely more advanced than in wartime Britain. Orwell explains that, in the latter part of the twentieth century, technology has been driven by only two things: "war, and the desire to determine against his will what another human being is thinking."

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Living standards are low and declining, with rationing and unpalatable ersatz products; in that regard, Orwell's vision is diametrically opposed to the technologically advanced hedonism of Brave New World.

Related Topics:
Hedonism - Brave New World

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None of the three blocs has much genuine interest in technological progress, since it could destabilize their grip on power. Some scientific advance is conducted in the field of interrogation, developing techniques against thought criminals through advanced torture, drugs, and hypnosis, but in other fields, technology is stagnant. Atomic weapons are avoided in the perpetual war, since the whole point of the conflict is to be indecisive and wasteful. The technologies employed are obsolete and deliberately wasteful. This stagnation is related to what is perhaps the most frightening aspect of the novel: for all their brutality, the regimes are not going to burn themselves out in strategically significant conquests or technological arms races. Rather, they have reached a stable equilibrium which could theoretically last forever.

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However, it is hinted in the book that O'Brien is capable of reading Winston's thoughts. This could mean the party have some kind of "mind reading technology".

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