Nineteen Eighty-Four
Written by George Orwell
First published in 1949
About George Orwell
George Orwell is the writer’s pen name, his actual name is Eric Arthur Blair. He was born on
the 25th of June, 1903, in British India. He died at the age of 46, on the 21st of January,
1950. Orwell has written a total of 8 books, of which Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm
are the most known. As Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution
and on into the Stalinist Era of the Soviet Union, it is a novel of the political genre, just like
Nineteen Eighty-Four. He has also written Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter, Keep
the Aspidistra Flying, Coming Up for Air, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to
Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.
Characters
Winston Smith
A minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London, Winston Smith is a thin, frail,
contemplative, intellectual, and fatalistic thirty-nine-year-old. Winston hates the totalitarian
control and enforced repression that are characteristic of his government. He harbors
revolutionary dreams.
Orwell’s primary goal in 1984 is to demonstrate the terrifying possibilities of totalitarianism.
The reader experiences the nightmarish world that Orwell envisions through the eyes of the
protagonist, Winston. His personal tendency to resist the stifling of his individuality, and his
intellectual ability to reason about his resistance, enables the reader to observe and
understand the harsh oppression that the Party, Big Brother, and the Thought Police
institute. Whereas Julia is untroubled and somewhat selfish, interested in rebelling only for
the pleasures to be gained, Winston is extremely pensive and curious, desperate to
understand how and why the Party exercises such absolute power in Oceania. Winston’s
long reflections give Orwell a chance to explore the novel’s important themes, including
language as mind control, psychological and physical intimidation and manipulation, and the
importance of knowledge of the past.
Apart from his thoughtful nature, Winston’s main attributes are his rebelliousness and his
fatalism. Winston hates the Party passionately and wants to test the limits of its power; he
commits innumerable crimes throughout the novel, ranging from writing “DOWN WITH BIG
BROTHER” in his diary, to having an illegal love affair with Julia, to getting himself secretly
indoctrinated into the anti-Party Brotherhood. The effort Winston puts into his attempt to
achieve freedom and independence ultimately underscores the Party’s devastating power.
By the end of the novel, Winston’s rebellion is revealed as playing into O’Brien’s campaign of
physical and psychological torture, transforming Winston into a loyal subject of Big Brother.
One reason for Winston’s rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his sense of fatalism—his
intense (though entirely justified) paranoia about the Party and his overriding belief that the
Party will eventually catch and punish him. As soon as he writes “DOWN WITH BIG
, BROTHER”in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought Police will quickly capture him
for committing a thoughtcrime. Thinking that he is helpless to evade his doom, Winston
allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting O’Brien and renting the room
above Mr. Charrington’s shop. Deep down, he knows that these risks will increase his
chances of being caught by the Party; he even admits this to O’Brien while in prison. But
because he believes that he will be caught no matter what he does, he convinces himself
that he must continue to rebel. Winston lives in a world in which legitimate optimism is an
impossibility; lacking any real hope, he gives himself false hope, fully aware that he is doing
so.
Julia
Julia is Winston’s lover and the only other person who Winston can be sure hates the Party
and wishes to rebel against it as he does. Whereas Winston is restless, fatalistic, and
concerned about large-scale social issues, Julia is sensual, pragmatic, and generally content
to live in the moment and make the best of her life. Winston longs to join the Brotherhood
and read Emmanuel Goldstein’s abstract manifesto; Julia is more concerned with enjoying
sex and making practical plans to avoid getting caught by the Party. Winston essentially
sees their affair as temporary; his fatalistic attitude makes him unable to imagine his
relationship with Julia lasting very long. Julia, on the other hand, is well adapted to her
chosen forms of small-scale rebellion. She claims to have had affairs with various Party
members, and has no intention of terminating her pleasure seeking, or of being caught (her
involvement with Winston is what leads to her capture). Julia is a striking contrast to
Winston: apart from their mutual sexual desire and hatred of the Party, most of their traits
are dissimilar, if not contradictory.
O’Brien
One of the most fascinating aspects of 1984 is the manner in which Orwell shrouds an
explicit portrayal of a totalitarian world in an enigmatic aura. While Orwell gives the reader a
close look into the personal life of Winston Smith, the reader’s only glimpses of Party life are
those that Winston himself catches. As a result, many of the Party’s inner workings remain
unexplained, as do its origins, and the identities and motivations of its leaders. This sense of
mystery is centralized in the character of O’Brien, a powerful member of the Inner Party who
tricks Winston into believing that he is a member of the revolutionary group called the
Brotherhood. O’Brien inducts Winston into the Brotherhood. Later, though, he appears at
Winston’s jail cell to abuse and brainwash him in the name of the Party. During the process
of this punishment, and perhaps as an act of psychological torture, O’Brien admits that he
pretended to be connected to the Brotherhood merely to trap Winston in an act of open
disloyalty to the Party.
This revelation raises more questions about O’Brien than it answers. Rather than developing
as a character throughout the novel, O’Brien actually seems to un-develop: by the end of the
book, the reader knows far less about him than they previously had thought. When Winston
asks O’Brien if he too has been captured by the Party, O’Brien replies, “They got me long
ago.” This reply could signify that O’Brien himself was once rebellious, only to be tortured
into passive acceptance of the Party. One can also argue that O’Brien pretends to
sympathize with Winston merely to gain his trust. Similarly, one cannot be sure whether the
Brotherhood actually exists, or if it is simply a Party invention used to trap the disloyal and
give the rest of the populace a common enemy. The novel does not answer these questions,
