George Orwell

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George Orwell

• Nineteen Eighty-Four

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• PLOT
• UTOPIA / ANTI-UTOPIA
• SETTING
• THEMES
• CHARACTERS, NAMES

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PLOT

• 3 parts ? three stages of Winstons rebellion
  against the party
• Starts keeping a diary (remembers the Two
  Minutes Hate of the morning, where he had been
  impressed by two people a dark-haired woman,
  OBrien ? thinks he shares his feelings)
• DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

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• Starts leading a double life, writing his diary
  and working at re-writing history at the Ministry
  of Truth
• (Syme, the philologist ? illustrates some of the
  principles on which Newspeak is based W. thinks
  one day he will be vapourized since hes too
  intelligent)
• If there is hope, it lies in the proles

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• 2. W. meets the dark-haired girl in a corridor
  she falls down, he helps her, she slips a note
  into Ws hand (I love you)
• After some days she gives him instructions to
  meet in a crowd after work they make an
  arrangement to meet in a wood next Sunday
  afternoon
• Her names Julia, shes against all that the
  Party stands for. They make love
• They meet again W. rents a room above Mr
  Charringtons shop (rats)

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• OBrien gives W. his address and offers him a
  copy of the new dictionary of Newspeak they go
  to his house, speak about Goldstein, he
  illustrates the ideas of the Brotherhood to them
• W. goes to the room with a copy of Goldsteins
  book, he and Julia read some passages, they fall
  asleep
• A voice wakes them up the room is invaded by
  police, they are arrested

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• 3. W. is in a cell in the Ministry of Love. After
  some time in which W. thinks he will be loyal to
  Julia, OBrien enters the room
• Starts undergoing interrogation (physical
  mental torture)
• OBrien explains to W. the Party cannot allow
  opposition
• re-integration through 3 stages learning,
  understanding, acceptance
• pain at wrong answers, humiliation

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• Time passes, W. tries to make himself accept the
  views of the Party
• Finally , he is sent to Room 101
• Strapped in a chair with a cage with rats in
  front of his face (Room 101 contains the worst
  thing in the world)
• W. panics, shouts that Julia should be tortured
  in his place

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• W. has been released a heavy drinker
• Remembers a meeting with Julia in which they both
  revealed they had betrayed each other their love
  has been destroyed
• Remembers his childhood but pushes the memory
  away
• The telescreen announces a great victory over
  Eurasia, W. is caught up in the excitement
• He realizes he loves Big Brother

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utopia

• Platos Republic ? ideal world governed by
  philosophers
• Renaissance 1516 T. Mores Utopia
• 1627 F. Bacons New
  Atlantis
• Revival in the 19th century
• W. Butlers
  Erewhon (1872)
• W. Morriss News
  from Nowhere
• 
  (1890)

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antiutopia

• Often, no journey distance in time, not in
  space the traveller is internal
• Promotes the creation of a better society by
  showing a negative one as terrible
• Exaggeration of trends already present
• Nightmarish vision of the future

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Examples

• J. Swifts Gullivers Travels 1726
• Jack Londons The Iron Heel 1907 (changes in
  society and politics not much attention to
  technological developments)
• Yevgeny Zamyatins We 1920 (a war, perhaps
  about oil, swept off most of the worlds
  population use of technology to control people)
• Orwell wrote essays on all of them

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Another famous example

• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
• Ironical title taken from Shakespeares The
  Tempest V.i
• O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there
  here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new
  world! That has such people in it!

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• A science fiction novel
• A frightening vision of the future
• Historical, social, political, scientific issues
  of the time (mass production, totalitarian
  regimes, modern views of sex and social
  relationships, reproduction in labs)

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SETTING

• London part of one of the three superpowers
  leading the world (Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia)
• Dominated by the dictatorship of Big Brother his
  face is present everywhere
• Social organization
• Stalinist Russia some
  aspects Nazi Germany of Western
  capitalism

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• Manipulation of minds
• Abolition of any form of freedom
• System of doublethink
• Subjection of history and the arts to the aims of
  the party

• Urban settings
• Miserable life conditions of the proles
• Simplified language

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THEMES

• TOTALITARIANISM see essay The Prevention of
  Literature (about the freedom of thought and
  expression analyses the mechanisms at the basis
  of totalitarian thought)
• Rebellion of the individual total control of the
  Party
• He cant become a martyr
• His destruction and reintegration goes through 3
  stages learning, understanding, acceptance

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• Inability and need to communicate (diary, sex,
  intellectual relationship with O'Brien)
• Squalid world in which love, pleasure and the
  arts are canalized towards pre-established aims
• Sex one of the primary drives in mans life
  manipulated and transformed into
• love for BB
• hatred for the enemy
• energy spent in the service of the party

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• a grey world, with no pleasure or joy
• symbols of a dreary, squalid, hopeless life
• physical infirmities of the characters
• widespread mismanagement
• constant presence of dust everywhere

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NAMES, CHARACTERS

• Winston Smith Winston Churchill the most
  common surname in England
• Universal highly individualized character
• Everyman exceptional man
• ?
  ?
• ordinariness
  integrity/intellectual
• 
  awareness

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• his job (Orwells work for the BBC)
• the way to experience love
• the effort to remember
• Part III he thinks he can retain inner integrity
  while conforming outwardly (thats why he needs
  to be taken to Room 101)

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• Julia relates to the romantic character of
  Shakespeares Juliet, but very practical-minded
  and matter-of-fact
• no surname woman
• not explored in any depth
• extension and contrast with Winston
• great resourcefulness, animal vigour
• practical rebellion against the Party
  optimism not interested in politics, but great
  capacity for original ideas

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• Big Brother
• sounds like the name given to Stalin (Little
  Father)
• the embodiment of power, like God
• Emmanuel Goldstein
• Jewish origin maybe inspired to L. Trotsky
• Emmanuel the saviour, the Messiah

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• OBrien
• relationship with Winston
• (Dostoevskys Grand Inquisitor, The Brothers
  Karamazov)
• Torturer-tortured (Stockholm syndrome love,
  complicity)

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Quotes

• "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."

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• "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."

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• "We are not content with negative obedience, nor
  even with the most abject submission. When
  finally you surrender to us, it must be of your
  own free will. We do not destroy the heretic
  because he resists us so long as he resists us
  we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture
  his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil
  and all illusion out of him we bring him over to
  our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart
  and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we
  kill him. It is intolerable to us that an
  erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the
  world, however secret and powerless it may be.
  Even in the instance of death we cannot permit
  any deviation . . . we make the brain perfect
  before we blow it out."

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• "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.
  There will be no laughter, except the laugh of
  triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no
  art, no literature, no science. When we are
  omnipotent there will be no need of science.
  There will be no distinction between beauty and
  ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no
  enjoyment of the process of life. All competing
  pleasures will be destroyed. But alwaysdo not
  forget this Winstonalways there will be the
  intoxication of power, constantly increasing and
  constantly growing subtler. Always, at every
  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 faceforever."