Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
Author George Orwell
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Dystopian,
Political Novel
Publisher Secker and
Warburg (London)
Publication date 8 June 1949
Media type Print (Hardcover
& Paperback) & e-book, audio-CD
Pages 326 pp
(Paperback edition)
ISBN 978-0-141-18776-1
Nineteen Eighty-Four (also titled 1984), by George Orwell (the pen name
of Eric Arthur Blair), is a 1949 English novel about life under a futuristic
totalitarian regime in the year 1984. It tells the story of Winston Smith, a
functionary at the Ministry of Truth, whose work consists of editing historical
accounts to fit the government's policies. The book has major significance for
its vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive and constant
surveillance of the populace, insidious and blatant propaganda, and brutal
control over its citizens. The book had a substantial impact both in literature
and on the perception of public surveillance, inspiring such terms as 'Big
Brother' and 'Orwellian'.
CONTENTS
1 History
o 1.1 Title
2 Story
o 2.1 Background
o 2.2 Plot
3 Orwell's influences
4 Characters
o 4.1 Major characters
o 4.2 Minor characters
5 Fictional world
o 5.1 Ingsoc (English Socialism)
o 5.2 Ministries of Oceania
o 5.3 Doublethink
o 5.4 Political geography
o 5.5 The Revolution
o 5.6 The War
o 5.7 Living standards
6 Themes
o 6.1 Nationalism
o 6.2 Sexual repression
o 6.3 Futurology
o 6.4 Censorship
7 The Newspeak appendix
8 Cultural impact
o 8.1 Attempted censorship
9 Other media
History
Orwell, who had "encapsulate[d] the thesis at the heart of his
novel" in 1944, wrote most of Nineteen Eighty-Four on the island of Jura,
Scotland, during 1947–1948 while critically ill with tuberculosis. He
sent the final typescript to his friends Secker and Warburg on 4 December 1948,
who published the book on 8 June 1949. The dystopian novel We by Yevgeny
Zamyatin is largely considered to have been a primary influence for Nineteen
Eighty-Four.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has been translated into more than 50 languages.[citation
needed] The novel's title, its terms, its language (Newspeak), and its author's
surname are bywords for personal privacy lost to national state security. The
adjective "Orwellian" denotes many things. It can refer to
totalitarian action or organization as well as governmental attempts to control
or misuse information for the purposes of controlling, pacifying or even
subjugating the population. "Orwellian" can also refer to
governmental propagandizing by the misnaming of things; hence the
"Ministry of Peace" in the novel actually deals with war and the
"Ministry of Love" actually tortures people. Since the novel's
publication "Orwellian" has in fact become somewhat of a catch-all
for any kind of governmental overreach or dishonesty and therefore has multiple
meanings and applications. The phrase Big Brother is Watching You specifically
connotes pervasive, invasive surveillance but can also refer to attempts to
over-regulate or legislate societal behaviour.
Although the novel has been banned or challenged in some countries, it
is, along with Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, We (novel) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, among the most famous literary
representations of dystopia. In 2005, Time magazine listed it among the hundred
best English-language novels published since 1923.
Title
One of the original titles for the novel was The Last Man in Europe, but
in a letter to publisher Frederic Warburg dated 22 October 1948 (eight months
before the book was published), Orwell stated that he was
"hesitating" between that and Nineteen Eighty-Four, although Crick
mentions that it was Warburg who suggested changing it to a marketable title.
Orwell's reasons for the title are unknown; he might be alluding to the centenary
of the socialist Fabian Society founded in 1884, or to Jack London's novel The
Iron Heel (wherein a political movement came into power in 1984), or to G. K.
Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill, set in 1984, or to the poem
"End of the Century, 1984" by his first wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy.
Anthony Burgess claims in 1985 that Orwell, being disillusioned by the onset of
the Cold War, intended to name the book 1948.
According to the introduction of the Penguin Modern Classics edition,
Orwell originally meant 1980 as the story's time, but as the writing became
prolonged, he re-titled it 1982, then 1984, coincidently the reverse of the
year written, 1948. The full title of the first edition was Nineteen
Eighty-Four. A novel.
Story
Background
Nineteen Eighty-Four is set in Oceania, one of three intercontinental
totalitarian super-states. The story occurs in London, the "chief city of
Airstrip One", itself a province of Oceania that "had once been
called England or Britain". Posters of the ruling Party's leader,
"Big Brother", bearing the caption BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,
dominate the city landscapes, while two-way television (the telescreen)
dominates the private and public spaces of the populace. Oceania's people are
in three classes — the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. The
Party government controls the people via the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), the
workplace of protagonist Winston Smith, an Outer Party member. As in the Nazi
and Stalinist regimes, propaganda is pervasive; Smith's job is rewriting
historical documents to match the contemporaneous party line, the orthodoxy of
which changes daily. It therefore includes destroying evidence, amending
newspaper articles, deleting the existence of people identified as "unpersons".
The story begins on 4 April 1984: "It was a bright cold day in
April, and the clocks were striking thirteen". The date is questionable,
because it is what Winston Smith perceives. In the story's course, he concludes
it as irrelevant, because the State can arbitrarily alter it; the year 1984 and
its world are transmutable.
The novel does not render the world's full history to 1984. Indeed,
since the novel's only description of world history is contained in a book
given to Winston by a Party member, it is possible that what the reader knows
is itself meant to be a deception, and the history of the world of Nineteen
Eighty-Four is different. Winston's recollections, and what he reads in The
Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein, reveal
that after World War II, the United Kingdom fell to civil war, becoming part of
Oceania. Simultaneously, the Soviet Union encompassed mainland Europe, forming
the nation of Eurasia. The third super-state, Eastasia, comprises the east
Asian countries around China and Japan. Mentioned also is an atomic war, fought
mainly in Europe, western Russia, and North America. It is unclear what
occurred first: the civil war wherein the Party assumed power, the United
States' annexation of the British Empire, or the war during which Colchester
was bombed.
During the Second World War, George Orwell repeatedly said that British
democracy, as it existed before 1939, would not survive the war, the question
being: Would it end via Fascist coup d'état (from above) or via
Socialist revolution (from below)? During the war, Orwell admitted events
proved him wrong: "What really matters is that I fell into the trap of
assuming that 'the war and the revolution are inseparable'."Nineteen
Eighty-Four shares thematic likenesses with Animal Farm, another of Orwell's
novels, as follows: the betrayed revolution; the individual's subordination to
the Party collective; rigorously enforced class distinctions, i.e. the Inner
Party, the Outer Party, the Proles; the cult of personality; concentration
camps; Thought Police; compulsory, regimented, daily exercise; and youth
leagues.
Plot
Ministry of Truth bureaucrat Winston Smith is the protagonist; although unitary,
the story is three-fold. The first describes the world of 1984 as he perceives
it; the second is his illicit romance with Julia and his intellectual rebellion
against the Party; the third is his capture and imprisonment, interrogation,
torture, and re-education in the Ministry of Love. The plotline is therefore
virtually identical to that of a 1921 Russian novel titled We, which occurs in
a world similar to that of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The intellectual Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, lives in
the ruins of London (the "chief city of Airstrip One", a province of
Oceania), who grew up in the post-World War II United Kingdom, during the
revolution and the civil war. As his parents disappeared in the civil war, the
English Socialism Movement ("Ingsoc" in Newspeak) put him in an
orphanage for training and employment in the Outer Party. His squalid existence
consists of living in a one-room apartment, eating a subsistence diet of black
bread and synthetic meals washed down with Victory-brand gin. He is
discontented, and keeps an ill-advised journal of dissenting, negative thoughts
and opinions about the Party. If detected, it, and his eccentric behaviour,
this would result in torture and death by the Thought Police. Consequently, he
would lock himself in his room for days crying. However, he is blessed with
having a small alcove beside his telescreen where he cannot be seen, where he
can keep his own private secrets.
In his pink journal he explains thoughtcrime: Thoughtcrime does not
entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death. The Thought Police have two-way
telescreens (in the living quarters of every Party member and in every public
area), hidden microphones, and anonymous informers to spy potential
thought-criminals who might endanger The Party. Children are indoctrinated to
informing; to spy and report suspected thought-criminals — especially
their parents.
Winston Smith is a bureaucrat in the Records Department of the Ministry
of Truth, revising historical records to match The Party's contemporaneous,
official version of the past. The revisionism is required so that the past
reflect the shifts of the day in the Party's orthodoxy. Smith's job is
perpetual; he re-writes the official record, re-touches official photographs,
deleting people officially rendered as unpersons. The original or older
document is dropped into a "memory hole" chute leading to an
incinerator. Although he likes his work, especially the intellectual challenge
of revising a complete historical record, he also is fascinated by the true
past, and eagerly tries to learn more about that forbidden truth.
One day in the office, a woman surreptitiously hands him a note. She is
"Julia," a dark-haired mechanic who repairs the Ministry of Truth's
novel-writing machines. Before that day, he had felt deep loathing for her,
based on his assumptions that she was a brainwashed, fanatically devoted member
of the Party; particularly annoying to him is her red sash of renouncement of
and scorn for sexual intercourse. His preconceptions vanish on reading a
handwritten note she gives him, which states "I love you." After
that, they begin a clandestine romantic relationship, first meeting in the
countryside and at a ruined belfry, then regularly in a rented room atop an
antiques shop in the city's proletarian neighborhood. The shop owner chats with
Smith, discussing facts about the pre-revolutionary past, sells him period
artifacts, and rents him the room to meet Julia. The lovers believe their
hiding place paradisaical (the shop keeper having told them it has no
telescreen) and think themselves alone and safe.
As their romance deepens, Winston's views change, and he questions
Ingsoc. Unknown to him, the Thought Police have been spying on him and Julia.
Later, when approached by Inner Party member O'Brien, Winston believes that he
has come into contact with the Brotherhood who are opponents of the Party.
O'Brien gives him a copy of "the book", The Theory and Practice of
Oligarchical Collectivism, a searing criticism of Ingsoc said to be written by
the dissident Emmanuel Goldstein, the leader of the Brotherhood. This book
explains the perpetual war and exposes the truth behind the Party's slogan,
"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength".
The Thought Police later capture Winston and Julia in their sanctuary
bedroom and they are separately interrogated at the Ministry of Love, where the
regime's opponents are tortured and killed, but sometimes released (to be
executed at a later date). Charrington, the shop keeper who rented them the
room reveals himself an officer of the Thought Police. In the Ministry of Love
torture chamber, O'Brien tells Smith that he will be cured of his
"insanity", which O'Brien claims undeniably manifests itself in the
form of Winston's hatred for the Party. During a long and complex dialogue,
O'Brien reveals, in what is the most important line in the book, that the
motivation of the Inner Party is not to achieve a future paradise but to retain
power, which has become an end in itself. He outlines a terrifying vision of
how they will change society and people in order to achieve this, including the
abolition of the family, the orgasm, and the sex instinct. It will be a society
that grows more, not less merciless as it refines itself', and a society
without art, literature, or science. During a session, O'Brien explains that
the purpose of the torture Winston is about to experience is to alter his way
of thinking, not to extract a confession, and that once Winston unquestioningly
accepts reality as the Party describes it, he will be executed; electroshock
torture will achieve that, continuing until O'Brien decides Winston is cured.
One night, a dreaming Winston suddenly wakes, yelling: "Julia!
Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!", whereupon O'Brien rushes in and questions
him, and then sends him to Room 101, the most feared room in the Ministry of
Love. Here a person's greatest fear is forced upon him or her for the final
re-education step: acceptance. Winston, who has a primal fear of rats, is shown
a wire cage filled with starving rats and told that it will be fitted over his
head like a mask, so that when the cage door is opened, the rats will bore into
his face until it is stripped to the bone. Just as the cage brushes his cheek,
he shouts frantically: "Do it to Julia!". The torture ends and
Winston is returned to society, brainwashed to accept Party doctrine.
After his release, Winston and Julia fortuitously meet in a park. With
distaste, they remember the "bad" (unauthorized) feelings they once
shared for each other and acknowledge having betrayed each other. They are
apathetic about their reunion and each other's experiences. Winston, happily
reconciled to his impending execution, and accepting the Party's depiction of
life, celebrates the false fact of a news bulletin reporting Oceania's recent,
decisive victory over Eurasia. The final line of the story runs as follows:
"He had finally won the battle over himself. He loved Big Brother."
Orwell's
influences
In the essay Why I Write, Orwell explains that all the serious work he
wrote since the Spanish Civil War in 1936 was "written, directly or
indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism".[13]
Indeed, Nineteen Eighty-Four is an anti-totalitarian cautionary tale about the
betrayal of a revolution by its defenders. He already had stated distrust of
totalitarianism and betrayed revolutions in Homage to Catalonia and Animal
Farm. Coming Up For Air, at points, celebrates the personal and political
freedoms lost in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Much of Oceanic society is based upon Stalin's Soviet Union. The
"Two Minutes' Hate" television propaganda represents the ritual
demonisation of State enemies and rivals; Big Brother resembles Joseph Stalin;
and the Party's archenemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, resembles Leon Trotsky in that
both are Jewish, both have the same physiognomy, and Trotsky's real surname was
'Bronstein'. Another suggested inspiration for Goldstein is Emma Goldman, the
famous Anarchist figure. Doctored photography is a propaganda technique, as is
the creation of unpersons in the story, analogous to Stalin's enemies being
made nonpersons and being erased from official photographic records; the police
treatment of several characters recalls the Moscow Trials of the Great Purge.
Biographer Michael Shelden notes these influences: the Edwardian world
of his childhood in Henley — for the golden country; being bullied at St.
Cyprian's — empathy with victims; his policeman's life in the Indian
Burma Police — the techniques of violence; and suffering censorship in
the BBC — capriciously-wielded authority.
Specific literary influences include Darkness at Noon and The Yogi and
the Commissar by Arthur Koestler, The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London; Brave
New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley; We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which Orwell
read in French and reviewed in 1946; and The Managerial Revolution (1940) by
James Burnham, predicting permanent war among three totalitarian superstates,
broadly equivalent to those in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell told Jacintha
Buddicom that he would write a novel stylistically like A Modern Utopia by H.
G. Wells.
World War II acts as the grounding for Orwell's more fantastic elements.
Most of the novel contains direct parallels, and occasional outright pastiche,
of the rhetoric and politics surrounding the end of the war and the changing
alliances of the nascent Cold War. The overseas service of the BBC, controlled
by the Ministry of Information, was the model for the Ministry of Truth. The
Ministry of Love's ultimate weapon against dissidents, Room 101, is named after
a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House where Orwell used to sit through
tedious meetings. The Senate House, where the Ministry of Information was
housed, is the architectural inspiration for the Ministry of Truth. Nineteen
Eighty-Four's world reflects the socio-political life of the UK and the USA,
i.e. the poverty of Britain in 1948, when the economy was poor, the Empire
dissolving, while newspapers reported imperial triumphs, and wartime ally
Soviet Russia was becoming a peacetime foe.
The world of 1984 also parallels, or extrapolates from, life during the
First World War as well as the Second. Just how oppressive the British
government had become during the earlier war can be judged from a satire of the
time which Eric Blair may even have read while at Eton, 1920: Dips into the
Near Future, published in 1917. Though Orwell may never have read it, it shares
some themes with 1984, themes which ultimately came from the common experience
of both authors if not from one reading the other. 1920 exaggerates actual
government oppression during World War I, and if not a literary influence on
Orwell it still reveals what undoubtedly had influenced him in the real world.
Oceania is a metamorphosed future British Empire that geographically
includes the United States, and whose currency is the dollar. As its name
suggests, it is a naval power, with much militarism focused on venerating
sailors serving aboard floating fortresses greater than Dreadnoughts. Moreover,
most of the fighting by Oceania's troops is in defending India (the "Jewel
in the Crown" of the British Empire).
The term "English Socialism" also has many precedents in
Orwell's wartime writings. In The Lion and the Unicorn of 1940, Orwell stated
that "the war and the revolution are inseparable (...) the fact that we
are at war has turned Socialism from a textbook word into a realizable
policy". The reason for that, according to Orwell, was that the outmoded
British class system constituted a major hindrance to the war effort, and only
a Socialist society would be able to defeat Hitler. Since the middle classes
were in process of realizing this, too, they would support the revolution, and
only the most outright reactionary elements in British society would oppose it,
which would limit the amount of force the revolutionaries would need in order
to gain power and keep it.
Thus, an "English Socialism" would come about which
"...will never lose touch with the tradition of compromise and the belief
in a law that is above the State. It will shoot traitors, but it will give them
a solemn trial beforehand and occasionally it will acquit them. It will crush
any open revolt promptly and cruelly, but it will interfere very little with
the spoken and written word".
Orwell's words in this and other writings at the time leave no doubt
that in 1940 he regarded "English Socialism" as highly desirable and
was actively trying to bring about its victory. Yet in the nightmare world he
envisioned eight years later, the same term - contracted to "Ingsoc"
- is the monstrous ideology of a totally oppressive regime, far from the
relative moderate revolution which Orwell foresaw in 1940. When the vision of
"The Lion and the Unicorn" is compared with that of "Nineteen
Eighty-Four" it is evident that Orwell saw the regime presided over by Big
Brother not only as a betrayal and perversion of Socialist ideals in general,
but also as a perversion of Orwell’s own specifically and dearly
cherished vision and hope of "English Socialism".
Characters
Several characters in the book are based upon people from real life, and
nearly all of them parallel figures from the Russian Revolution and Communist
Russia in general.
Major characters
* Winston Smith
- The novel's protagonist; a phlegmatic everyman.
* Julia -
Winston's lover, a covert "rebel from the waist down" who militantly
praises the Party's doctrines while secretly living in contradiction of them.
* Big Brother -
The dictator of Oceania; believed to be based upon Joseph Stalin. However, as
Winston Smith points out, he has never seen, nor remembers anyone else seeing
Big Brother, and suggests that he never existed. This is also true of Emmanuel
Goldstein, whom Winston Smith points out is, if real, definitely dead, but may
have been created for propaganda purposes.
* O'Brien - A
government agent who deceives Winston and Julia into believing that he is a
member of the resistance, convinces them to "join" it, and later uses
this against them to torture them. It is implied that O'Brien was once a rebel
himself, before he was caught and brainwashed by the Thought Police.
* Emmanuel
Goldstein - A former top member and now opposer of the ruling Party; he is
based upon Leon Trotsky, a dissident member of the Soviet Communist Party, who
was forced to flee the Soviet Union to save himself from Stalin's persecutions.
Minor characters
* Aaronson,
Jones, Rutherford - old party leaders killed and erased from the historical
record.
* Ampleforth -
Winston's colleague.
* Mr.
Charrington - ostensibly the owner of a junk store in the prole district;
actually a member of the dreaded Thought Police.
* Katharine -
Winston's wife, a strong supporter of the Party. It is unknown whether or not
she is alive at the time of the novel because she and Winston had separated
several years earlier.
* Martin -
O'Brien's servant.
* Parsons -
Winston's naive neighbor.
* Syme -
Winston's intelligent coworker; works with the language Newspeak, and is later
vaporized (made so as to seem that he never existed), presumably because he
thinks too clearly and knows too much. Syme's disappearance is an allusion to
the Stalin Purges.
Fictional world
Ingsoc (English Socialism)
Ingsoc is the ideology of the totalitarian government of Oceania. Ingsoc
is Newspeak for "English Socialism".
Ministries of Oceania
Oceania's four ministries are housed in huge pyramidal structures, each
roughly 930 feet high and visible throughout London, displaying the three
slogans of the party on their façades. The ministries' names are ironic
antonyms of the true nature of their actions.
Ministry of Peace (Newspeak: Minipax)
Conducts Oceania's perpetual war.
Ministry of Plenty (Newspeak: Miniplenty)
Responsible for rationing and controlling food and goods, along with all
production of all domestic goods. The Ministry of Plenty declares false claims
to have increased the standard of living every time by a considerable amount,
when in fact the ministry counteracts its own claims.
Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue)
The propaganda arm of Oceania's regime, controlling information: news,
entertainment, education, and the fine arts. Winston Smith works for the
Records Department (RecDep) of Minitrue, "rectifying" historical
records and newspaper articles to make them conform to Big Brother's most
recent pronouncements, thus making everything that the Party says 'true'.
Ministry of Love (Newspeak: Miniluv)
The agency is responsible for the identification, monitoring, arrest and
torture of dissidents, real or imagined. Based on Winston's experience there at
the hands of O'Brien, the basic procedure is to wear down the subject with a
long series of beatings and electrical torture. Finally, when the subject is
near broken, they are sent to "Room 101", where they are exposed to
their worst fear, once and for all eradicating any remaining impulse of
individuality or resistance, and replacing it with a sincere embrace of the
Party. The Ministry of Love differs from the other ministry buildings in that
it has no windows in it at all.
The ministries' names are an example of doublethink — “The
Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies,
the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with
starvation”. (Part II, Chapter IX - chapter I of Goldstein's book)
It is noteworthy that, while there is considerable and repeated mention
of the ministries, there is never mention of a minister heading one of them, or
of a cabinet where the ministers meet; nor is there mention of a politburo or
any other decision-making body. If there is at all a "Minister of
Truth", he (it would likely be a man, as Oceania seems very much
male-dominated) seems much of a cypher, neither mentioned in the newspapers
which his ministry is constantly re-writing nor considered as their ultimate
boss by Winston and his fellow-workers.
Doublethink
The keyword
here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually
contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of
impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.
Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is
white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to
believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to
forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous
alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really
embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink.
Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in
one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
– Part
II, chapter IX - chapter I of Goldstein's book
Political geography
The world is controlled by three functionally similar totalitarian
super-states engaged in perpetual war with each other:
* Oceania
(ideology: Ingsoc or English Socialism) comprises Great Britain, Ireland,
Australia, Polynesia, Southern Africa, and the Americas.
* Eurasia
(ideology: Neo-Bolshevism) comprises continental Europe and northern Asia.
* Eastasia
(ideology: Obliteration of the Self, usually rendered as "Death
worship") comprises China, Japan, Korea, and Northern India.
The "disputed area", which lies "between the frontiers of
the super-states", is "a rough quadrilateral with its corners at
Tangier, Brazzaville, Darwin, and Hong Kong."
That Great Britain and Ireland are in Oceania rather than in Eurasia is commented
upon in the book as a historical anomaly. North Africa, the Middle East, South
India, and Southeast Asia 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 the same, but it is imperative to keep the
public ignorant of this, so that they believe that the other two ideologies are
detestable. London, the novel's setting, is the capital of the Oceanian
province of Airstrip One, the former United Kingdom.
The Revolution
In the novel, there are a few glimpses of what happened to cause the
revolution. The formation of Eurasia is depicted as occurring after the Second
World War when American troops left Europe earlier than in our history, allowing
Soviet troops to move in and gain control of war-torn Europe without much
opposition.
As explained in the book, Eurasia does not contain the British Empire
because it merged with the United States giving the successor to both states,
Oceania, control of a quarter of the world (southern Africa, Australasia, and
Canada). The United States also annexed Latin America at around the same time,
forming Oceania.
Eastasia is the last of three superstates to be formed, and apparently
was formed when China conquered surrounding nations. The previously-formed
Eurasia prevented Eastasia from growing to the size of the others, a handicap
it made up thanks to its numerous and hard-working population.
Although the chronology of these events is unclear in the book, most of
it appears to happen between 1920 and the 1960s.
The War
The world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is built around a never-ending war
involving the book's three superstates, with two allied powers fighting against
the third. As Goldstein's book explains, each superstate is so strong it cannot
be defeated even when faced with the combined forces of the other two powers.
The allied states occasionally split with each other and new alliances are
formed. Each time this happens, history is rewritten to convince the people
that the new alliances always existed, using the principles of doublethink. The
war itself never takes place in the territories of the three powers, but is
conducted in the disputed zone stretching from Tangier to Darwin, and in the
unpopulated Arctic wastes. Throughout the first half of the novel, Oceania is
allied with Eastasia, and Oceania's forces are combating Eurasia's troops in
northern Africa.
Midway through the book, the alliance breaks apart and Oceania, newly
allied with Eurasia, begins a campaign against Eastasian forces. This happens
during "Hate Week" (a week of extreme focus on the malice supposed of
of Oceania's enemies, the purpose of which is to stir up patriotic fervour in
support of the Party). The public is quite abnormally blind to the change, and
when a public orator, mid-sentence, changes the name of the enemy from Eurasia
to Eastasia (still speaking as if nothing had changed), the people are shocked
and soon enraged as they notice that all the flags and posters are wrong and
tear them down. This is the origin of the idiom "we've always been at war
with Eastasia". Later, the Party claims to have captured the whole of
Africa. As with all other news, its authenticity is questionable.
Goldstein's book explains that the war is unwinnable, and that its only
purpose is to consume human labour and the fruits of human labour so that each
superstate's economy cannot support an equal (and high) standard of living for
every citizen. 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, the three powers no longer use them, 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 they
appear to be rare. 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.
Goldstein's book hints that, in fact, there may not actually be a war.
The only view of the outside world presented in the novel is through Oceania's
media, which has an obvious tendency to exaggerate and even fabricate
"facts", and the rocket bombs ostensibly fired by the enemy.
Goldstein's book suggests that the three superpowers may not actually be
warring, and as Oceania's media provide completely unbelievable news reports on
impossibly long military campaigns and victories (including a ridiculously
large campaign in the Sahara desert), it can be suggested that the war is a
lie. Julia even goes so far as to suggest that the rocket bombs that land on
London are launched by the Party from other parts of Oceania.
Even Eurasia and Eastasia themselves may only be a fabrication by the
government of Oceania, with Oceania the sole undisputed dominator of the world.
On the other hand, Oceania might as well actually control only a rather small
part of the world (Great Britain and Ireland) and still brainwash its citizens
into believing that they are battling/allying with a fabricated Eurasia or
Eastasia.
It is noted in the novel that there are no longer massive battles, but rather
expert fighters occasionally appearing in small skirmishes; this makes sense as
the reason for the wars are to destroy national production, rather than the
populace which is to be dominated at every turn.
Living standards
By the year 1984, the society of Airstrip One lives in squalid poverty;
hunger, disease, and filth are the norms. Under the influence of the civil war,
atomic wars, and enemy (or possibly even Oceanian) rocket bombs, the cities and
towns are in ruins. When travelling about London, Winston finds himself
surrounded by rubble, decay, and the crumbling shells of wrecked buildings.
Half of the population of Oceania go barefoot, despite the Party reporting
large quantities of boots being produced; Winston believes it likely that very
few, if any, boots were actually produced at all.
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 (and Oceania) are in the same desperate condition. Living
standards for the population are generally very low; everything is in short
supply and those goods 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. Goldstein's book states that they are partially correct in as much as
the point of continuous warfare is to be rid of the surplus of industrial
production to prevent the rise of the standard of living and make possible the
economic repression of people.
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
clean and comfortable apartment, and has variety of quality foodstuffs such as
wine, coffee, and sugar, none of which is available to the rest of the
population. Synthetic versions of these foodstuffs are available to members of
the Outer Party; but they are of far inferior quality. Winston, for example, is
astonished simply that the lifts in O'Brien's building actually work, and that
the telescreens can be turned off. Members of the Inner Party also seem to be
waited on by slaves captured from the disputed zone; O'Brien's servant, Martin,
is described as having Asiatic features, which would identify him as an
Eastasian or Eurasian national, possibly a former soldier captured in battle.
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 (apart from the slaves) are significantly lower than
pre-Revolution standards and says the social atmosphere is that of a besieged
city, where the possession of a lump of horseflesh makes the difference between
wealth and poverty. The proles (proletarians), treated by the Party as animals,
live in squalor and poverty. They are kept sedated by 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.
However, the proles are subject to much less close control of their
daily lives than Party members. The proles whom Winston Smith meets in the
streets and in the pubs seem to speak and behave much like working-class Britons
of Orwell's time. In addition, the proletarian criminals whom he meets in the
first phase of his imprisonment are far less subdued and intimidated than the
intellectual "politicals", some of them rudely jeering at the
telescreens with apparent impunity.
As explained in Goldstein's book, this derives from the social theory
which the regime believes, that revolutions are always started by the middle
class and that the lower classes would never start an effective revolt on their
own. Therefore, if the middle classes are so tightly controlled that the regime
can penetrate their very thoughts and their most minute daily life, the lower
classes can be left to their own devices and pose no threat. This produces a
contrast with the ideas of Karl Marx, who held that revolution would rise from
the lower classes. Meanwhile, any potentially rebellious or intelligent
proletarian indivdiuals who could become the nuclei for resistance are simply
eliminated by the Thought Police.
As Winston is a member of the Outer Party, more is shown from its 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 synthetic; the main alcoholic beverage — Victory Gin — is
industrial-grade; Outer Party Victory Cigarettes are not manufactured properly.
The use of the word "victory" as a brand-name may refer to the
"victory suit" and victory garden meant to support American war
efforts.
Themes
Nationalism
Nineteen Eighty-Four expands upon the subjects summarized in the essay
Notes on Nationalism (1945), about the lack of vocabulary needed to explain the
unrecognized phenomenon behind certain political forces; in Nineteen
Eighty-Four Newspeak, the Party's artificial, minimalist language, addresses
the matter.
Positive nationalism: Oceanians’ perpetual love for Big Brother
(who may be long dead or even non-existent); Celtic Nationalism, Neo-Toryism,
and British Zionism are (Orwell argues) defined by love.
Negative nationalism: Oceanians’ perpetual hatred for Emmanuel
Goldstein (who, like Big Brother, may not exist); Stalinism, Anti-Semitism, and
Anglophobia are defined by hatred.
Transferred nationalism: in mid-sentence, an orator changes the enemy of
Oceania; the crowd instantly transfers their hatred to the new enemy.
Transferred nationalism swiftly redirects emotions from one power unit to
another, e.g. Communism, Pacifism, Colour Feeling, and Class Feeling.
O'Brien conclusively describes: “The object of persecution is
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is
power”.
Sexual repression
The Party imposes antisexualism upon its members (as manifest in the
Junior and presumably Senior Anti-Sex-League), because sexual attachments
diminish loyalty to the Party. Julia describes Party fanaticism as "sex
gone sour"; except during the liaison with Julia, Winston suffers an
inflamed ankle (an allusion to Oedipus the King, symbolic of unhealthy sexual
repression).[citation needed] In Part III, O'Brien tells Winston that
neurologists are working to extinguish the orgasm; sufficient mental energy for
prolonged worship requires repressing the libido, a vital instinct, and
therefore requires externally-imposed sexual restriction by the authorities
(civil, political, et cetera).
Futurology
If Orwell meant the novel as prophecy is unknown; yet O'Brien describes
the future:
There will be
no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will
be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always 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 face … for ever.
—Part
III, Chapter III
This starkly contrasts with his forecast essay England Your England, in
The Lion and the Unicorn (1941):
The
intellectuals who hope to see it Russianised or Germanised will be
disappointed. The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence
for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings
and the misty skies. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged
subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture. The Stock
Exchange will be pulled down, the horse plough will give way to the tractor,
the country houses will be turned into children's holiday camps, the Eton and
Harrow match will be forgotten, but England will still be England, an
everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all
living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the
same.
Yet, Nineteen Eighty-Four's geopolitical climate is like his
précis of James Burnham's ideas in the essay 'James Burnham and the
Managerial Revolution' (1946).
These people
will eliminate the old capitalist class, crush the working class, and so
organize society that all power and economic privilege remain in their own
hands. Private property rights will be abolished, but common ownership will not
be established. The new 'managerial' societies will not consist of a patchwork
of small, independent states, but of great super-states grouped round the main
industrial centres in Europe, Asia, and America. These super-states will fight
among themselves for possession of the remaining uncaptured portions of the
earth, but will probably be unable to conquer one another completely.
Internally, each society will be hierarchical, with an aristocracy of talent at
the top and a mass of semi-slaves at the bottom.
Censorship
A major theme of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is censorship, which
is displayed especially well in the ministry of truth, where photographs are
doctored and public archives rewritten to rid them of "unpersons". In
the telescreens, figures for all types of production are grossly
over-exaggerated (or simply invented) to indicate an ever-rising economy where
there is actually loss.
An excellent example of this is when Winston is charged with the task of
eliminating reference to an unperson in a newspaper article. He proceeded to
write an article about Comrade Ogilvy, an imaginary party member, who displayed
great heroism by giving his life so that the important dispatches he was
carrying would not fall into enemy hands.
The Newspeak
appendix
"The Principles of Newspeak" is an academic essay appended to
the novel. It describes the development of Newspeak, the Party's minimalist
artificial language meant to ideologically align thought and action with the
principles of Ingsoc by making "all other modes of thought
impossible". (See Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.)
Whether or not the Newspeak appendix implies a hopeful end to 1984
remains a critical debate, as it is in Standard English and refers to Newspeak,
Ingsoc, the Party, et cetera, in the past tense (i.e. "Relative to our
own, the Newspeak vocabulary was tiny, and new ways of reducing it were
constantly being devised", p. 422); in this vein, some critics (Atwood,
Benstead, Pynchon) claim that, for the essay's author, Newspeak and the
totalitarian government are past. The counter view is that since the novel has
no frame story, Orwell wrote the essay in the same past tense as the novel, with
"our" denoting his and the reader's contemporaneous reality.
Cultural impact
Nineteen Eighty-Four's impact upon the English language is extensive;
many of its concepts: Big Brother, Room 101 (the worst place in the world), the
Thought Police, the memory hole (oblivion), doublethink (simultaneously holding
and believing two contradictory beliefs), and Newspeak (ideological language),
are common usages for denoting and connoting overarching, totalitarian
authority; Doublespeak is an elaboration of doublethink; the adjective
"Orwellian" denotes that which is characteristic and reminiscent of
George Orwell's writings, specifically 1984. The practice of appending the
suffixes "-speak" and "-think" (groupthink, mediaspeak) to
denote unthinking conformity. Many other works, in various forms of media, have
taken themes from Nineteen Eighty-four.
Attempted censorship
* The USSR
banned Nineteen Eighty-Four until 1988.
* In 1981, a
Baptist minister in Jackson County, Florida challenged the novel's suitability
as proper reading for young Americans, arguing it contained pro-Communist and
sexually explicit material.
Other media
Nineteen Eighty-Four has been twice adapted to the cinema and radio,
three times for television, and once to the stage. References to its themes,
concepts, and plot frequently appear in other works, especially in popular
music and video entertainment.