1984 by George Orwell

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Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, 1984 is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to... read more

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Ministry of Truth bureaucrat Winston Smith is the protagonist. The story consists of three parts. 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 intellectual Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party who lives in the ruins of London and 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 the journal or Winston's errant behavior were to be discovered, it would result in his torture and execution at the hands of the Thought Police. However, unlike most party members, he is lucky enough to have been given a room with a small alcove beside his telescreen where he cannot be seen, where he can keep his own private secrets.
In his 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 contemporary, official version of the past. The revisionism is required so that the past reflects 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. Winston enjoys his work, especially the intellectual challenge of revising a complete historical record, but he is also fascinated by the true past, and eagerly tries to learn more about that forbidden truth.
One day, after helping up a woman who fell over at the Ministry, she 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 neighbourhood. 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.
Unknown to Winston, 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 to be an officer of the Thought Police. After a prolonged regimen of systematic beatings by prison guards and psychologically draining interrogations by Party loyalists, Winston is subjected to electroshock torture by O'Brien, who tells Winston it will "cure" him 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 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, with the ultimate goal of eliminating anything that may come between one's love of Big Brother and Ingsoc. It will be a society that grows more, not less merciless as it refines itself, and a society without art, literature, or science, so that there are no distractions from their devotion to the Party, or any unorthodox thought, which is also meant to be achieved through the eventual eradication of Modern English, or "Oldspeak". Winston asks O'Brien if the brotherhood actually exists, O'Brien responds by telling Winston that he will never know so long as he shall live, that it will be an unresolvable riddle in his mind. During a session, O'Brien explains that the purpose of the ordeal at the Ministry of Love is to alter Winston's way of thinking, not to extract a confession, and that once Winston unquestioningly accepts reality as the Party describes it, he will be executed.
One night, as Winston lies dreaming in his cell, he suddenly wakes, yelling: "Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!", whereupon O'Brien rushes in and doesn't question 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. During the brainwashing, it is noted that O'Brien somehow was always aware of what Smith was thinking and in a way was reading his mind. It can be interpreted as either the Thought Police had devised a mechanism of reading people's thoughts or O'Brien understood Smith completely and was able to predict his chain of thought perfectly.
After his release, Winston encounters Julia in the park. With distaste, they remember the unauthorized and unorthodox ("ungood" in Newspeak) 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. It is at this moment that he sincerely loves Big Brother for the very first time — a metaphorical bullet entering his brain. Thus the book ends on a bitter note, with Winston Smith's inner transformation finally complete. Not resolved is whether Winston is ever actually executed, or whether his mental capitulation is considered enough.

Characters edit see section history

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Winston Smith: The novel's protagonist; a phlegmatic everyman. He has a varicose ulcer on one ankle and blond hair, and is neither fat nor thin. Has a hard time discriminating madness from truth. Very good at his job.
Julia: A young woman that Winston works with. She has black hair.
Big Brother: The dictator of Oceania. Shares similarities with Joseph Stalin and other dictatorial figures. It is not clear whether he is made up or whether he is a real person. His posters decorate all buildings everywhere.
O'Brien: A man within the Ministry of Truth whom Winston looks up to, without really knowing him.
Emmanuel Goldstein: The Party describes him as a former top member and now opponent of The Party. It is not clear whether or not he actually was a real person. He was rumored to have written /The Book/, although it was later hinted by O'Brien that it was written by a Party committee.
Aaronson, Jones, Rutherford: old party leaders killed and erased from the historical record.
Ampleforth: Winston's one-time Records Department colleague imprisoned for leaving the word "God" in a Kipling poem.
Mr. Charrington: An old man in the prole district who sells Winston various items. Has white hair, and is more of a collector than salesman.
Katharine: Winston's wife; they are separated, not divorced. He sometimes wished he had killed her. She was very orthodox, and believed the party's sexual ideals, but insisted that they try to have children anyway because it was 'their duty to the party'.
Martin: O'Brien's butler-like servant. Very nondescript, and keeps his false mannerisms at all times. Only appears briefly.
Parsons: Winston's naive neighbour and colleague
Mr. Parsons: Winston's naive neighbor and colleague who was turned in by his own daughter. He usually sweats excessively, and loves the Party. He typically participated in all party activities, and was, in fact, a bit of a fanatic. Fat, but always active.
Syme: Winston's intelligent colleague, very much into writing the new language of Oceania, Newspeak. Works for the Research Department. He no longer exists because he was too intelligent--an unperson. Said what was on his mind too much; didn't have the sort of censorship needed to survive. Doesn't like Parsons.
Mrs. Parsons: Parsons' wife. She stays home and takes care of her two children. Fears being turned in to the Thought Police by her children, and is in a constant state of stress and fear.
Winston's Mother: Mostly depicted in flashbacks, she took care of the young Winston and his sister; Winston recalls that she was taken from him by the Party when he was a small boy. Most of his flashbacks are associated with Winston depriving his mother and sister of food in favor of himself.

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Quotes edit see section history

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“The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.”
“Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.”
“Whoever controls the past controls the present, whoever controls the present controls the future.”
“To die hating them, that was freedom.”
“He sat down with a friendly smile. The silly blond face beamed into his. Winston had a hallucination of himself smashing a pickax right into the middle of it.”
“Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?”
“It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it. Nothing had changed except your own attitude...”
“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
“We shall meet in a place where there is no darkness”
“Your own worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system.”
“The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already.”
“Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me”
Song from telescreen
“War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is Strength”
The Party slogan.
“To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one's lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available.”
Narrator
“How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?”
Narrator
“For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable -- what then?”
Narrator

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WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
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'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'
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Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
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The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv and Miniplenty.
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Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.'
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'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
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Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
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It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.
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Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.
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It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one's own body.
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Setting & Locations edit see section history

Oceania: One of three intercontinental super-states who divided the world among themselves after a global war.
London: A city that belongs to Airstrip One, main setting of the novel.
Airstrip One: Province that makes up the area once known as England.
Eurasia: One of the three world super-states. It is made up of the northern part of Asia and Europe.
Eastasia: One of three world super-states. It makes up China and the countries on the southern edge of Asia.
Africa: One of the locations mentioned as the scene of a great battle. Not held permanently by any of the three super-states.
Miniluv: The Ministry of Love, where those are taken to be interrogated by the thought police and reformed.
Minitrue: The Ministry of Truth, where Winston works.

Organizations edit see section history

The Party: The communist ruling party of Oceania, also known as Ingsoc (English Socialism).
Thinkpol: The Thought Police.
Miniluv: The Ministry of Love. This ministry deals with the laws and security of Oceania.
Minipax: Ministry of Peace. This ministry deals with war against other states
Miniplenty: Ministry of Plenty. This ministry deals with industrial and agricultural productions on the state of Oceania
Minitrue: Ministry of Truth. This ministry concerns itself with the media, including newspapers, novels, musics and movies.
The Brotherhood: Secret organization dedicated to overthrowing the Party.
Proles: The working-class of Oceania.
Records Department: Department in the Ministry of Truth, charged with changing all past records to reflect current politics.
The Spies: The Party's organization for children, taught to hate thought criminals and traitors. Organize as the primary-middle compulsory education

First Sentence edit see section history

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8

Part II
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10

Part III
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6

Glossary edit see section history

"The book": Titled "Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" and supposedly written by Goldstein, it contains the story of humankind and the Revolution, arguing that there is hope for a stronger future without the dishonesty and manipulation of the Party.
Doublethink: Newspeak word with two mutually contradictory meanings. The first is used to refer to an opponent, and can be defined as habitually contradicting plain facts. The second is used to refer to a Party member, and can be defined as a loyal willingness to believe contradictory statements when the Party demands it, which allows for continual alteration of the past. Also, it entails knowing that you are lying but still believing the lie that you are telling.
Ministry of Love (Miniluv): Maintains law and order. Protected with great force. Only those arrested for Thought Crime or who are on official Party business can enter. Referred to within the novel as "the place with no darkness" because the lights are always on. Dissidents are taken here to be tortured, reformed, or killed.
Ministry of Peace (Minipax): Responsible for the Party's management of issues surrounding war.
Ministry of Plenty (Miniplenty): Responsible for the Party's economic affairs.
Ministry of Truth (Minitrue): Responsible for all Party news, entertainment, education and fine arts. The Party's propaganda machine.
Newspeak: The official language of Oceania and the new language of the Party, devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc (English Socialism). The goal of Newspeak is to reduce the English language to the fewest words possible and supercede Oldspeak by 2050. Removing words removes ways to define anti-Party feelings and the ability to disagree. For example, the word "speedful" can be used in place of the word "rapid."
Oldspeak: The English language as we know it today.
Telescreen: A device similar to a television, but aside from broadcasting, it also serves as an aid for the thought police to spy. Members of the party and lower can not turn it off, only dim the volume.
Crimestop: A newspeak word, meaning to stop oneself from thinking something disloyal to the party, before the thought comes about.
The Thought Police: A police force that arrests people for committing crimes to the party, no matter how insignificant.
Ingsoc: English Socialism, the system the citizens of Oceania live by. The three tenets of Ingsoc are Newspeak, mutability of the past, and doublethink.

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Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

Julia: Although it is rare when authors use characters as symbols, Julia is the symbol of feminism in 1984. She is the only female figure in the novel and she is perhaps the only one with such qualities in Oceania.
Physical Control: The party not only manipulates the minds of the people, but watches their every move.
Urban Decay: The world is a dilapidated place. Elevators never work, and basic necessities are rather unreliable. Adding to the image of impoverished people who know no other way of life.
Totalitarianism: The whole regime of Oceania is this.