He has also, as the text describes, had problems with his relationship with Katherine, in the past. With the rule of the Party, comes the constant control of the omnipresent, Big Brother. He controls everything, from living conditions to how much chocolate is allowed to be given to any member of Oceania. There is also the constant fear of betrayal.When considering these restrictions and frustrations placed onto Winston and every individual in Oceania, the statement: “A character in conflict is necessary to any text” is supported and evident in the text.
Winston, no matter where he goes, is always being watched by the thought Police. Devices are used in Oceania, to monitor every action. Telescreens are devices, like televisions, that have cameras and microphones built into them. They cannot be shut off, except for ones issued to Inner party members, and they see everything.An example of this is when in part one, chapter three, Winston is doing exercise in front of the telescreen, when he is told to bend lower: ‘6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that.
You’re not trying. Lower, please! ” This feeling of never being alone is really a reflection of George Orwell. Orwell, through this text, is showing his views and is stressing to anyone that reads this text, what it would be like if Stalin’s or Hitler’s rule continued and was perfected.He is showing that from his point of view, it would become as horrible as it is in the text he wrote.
A technique that shows this and that Orwell used to stress his thoughts, is repetition: ‘Big Brother is watching you. ’ This quote and use of repetition is well matched with the idea of constantly being watched. No matter where you are or what you are doing, you can never escape the Parties watching eyes and therefore, the constant fear of getting caught by the Thought Police is always with you.This feeling is what the Party wants every inhabitant of Oceania to feel. This, they believe, will keep everyone from doing anything wrong. The idea that, the character in conflict is needed to give the text purpose is more and more established as the storyline progresses.
What is the Party though and how do they affect Winston? The Inner Party is a single body of people that govern everything else.It comprises of only 2% of the population of Oceania. Their control is continuously expanding until the oint where even thoughts will be completely controlled. The Party wishes to rewrite the English language until there is no way for a person to think against the Party and commit thought crime or to feel emotion other than what the Party wants, because there would be no words to formulate them. ‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. ’ This phrase stated by Syme, goes to show how the Party supports this idea, to remove the range of possible thought and to keep narrowing it.
It also impresses how their indoctrination is steadily growing.Even an intelligent man like Syme, cannot foresee the horrible future that will soon come to be, a future without words and independent thought. Winston is troubled by the thought that he will never be able to live a life of freedom. He recognises that if there were any chance of that happening, hope lies in the Proles. Since they comprise 85% of the population, they would have no trouble overthrowing the Party. The Brotherhood also is a group that Winston believes in.
These two beliefs are the only things that give Winston hope.At the end of the text, when Winston is arrested, and indoctrinated, these hopes get crushed. Winston’s struggle against the Party is the basis of the entire text and this is again relative to the statement that the character and the conflict are essential to the flow of the text. How do the Party use relationships and sex as another way to control people and how does this impact on Winston? Winston’s environment is one of little emotion.
People are trained like dogs, to show no emotion towards others and that relationships are only permitted for the benefit of the Party only.If it is not necessary for the Parties survival than the emotion becomes against the law and the infamous Thought Police are a constant reminder of this reality. One of these relationships is sexual ones. A sexual act is only permitted to procreate, to create new members of the Party. All other aspects of sex are viewed as useless and not needed for the continuity of the Party.
Obrien states to Winston: ‘Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card.We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now.
’ The sentences are short, like dot points are. This could be to clarify the points that Orwell is trying to make. As Obrien has stated to Winston, the orgasm is unnecessary to the thriving of the Party and is thus getting eradicated, as well as the sex instinct. There are two similes in this passage. The first one, referring to eggs taken from a hen, is a pointer to the future of the Party.
There will be no love between a mother and her children, her children will be harvested and indoctrinated at an early age.The second simile is the other one talking about a ration card. A ration card was issued by the government for the holder to obtain certain foods. They were renewed annually.
Orwell has likened sex to a ration stamp in that it is going to occur as rarely as they are renewed. The passage continues on: ‘There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. ’ Yet again, love for another human being will not exist only for Big Brother.
’ Relationships would not be held together by love of both partners but because of the love of their leader.Sexual frustration is seen as a tool by the Party that can be used and directed to the Parties enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein and this is a way for the Party to exert power over its subjects. These ideas lead back to the central theme. A character is not complete in a story without a conflict and both are needed to catalyse the narrative. In this case, Winston is in conflict with his emotions, which are burdened and restricted by the laws put in place about relationships and sex. Totalitarianism was a type of ruling in Stalin and Hitler’s time, and is the type of government they both used to control people in Germany and the Soviet Union.
It incorporated similar ideas to what is described in ‘1984. ’ More accurately, ‘1984’ is based on Totalitarianism. George Orwell experienced totalitarianism first hand and knew how horrible it was. He thought into the future and imagined how much worse it would get if Hitler or Stalin continued ruling and slowly perfected a Party to continue this rule past their deaths. Every year, this Party would grow more thorough in its ruling of its subjects and freedom would be drastically reduced.
Surveillance would only get worse. Again the quote, ‘Big Brother is watching you,’ applies.He put all of his predictions into the text. He used the text, ‘1984’ to warn of the dangers of this happening.
He tried to use his book to create awareness about Totalitarianism and its devastating effects. This is a primary reason why he created the pseudonym, Winston. Winston is Orwell. Winston feels and knows everything Orwell does.
Orwell used Winston to air his view on the Totalitarian government. Upon reading the last of the book, it can be said that it is a sad ending and the conflict is not resolved, as typical of any usual narrative.I think that this was done on purpose. Orwell designed the text, to be sad at the end, to reflect his personal feelings. He is relating the idea that there is no good to come of Totalitarianism. Winston is always in conflict with the Party.
Maybe not physically for a good part of the book, but emotionally and mentally. He opposes every single idea and restriction placed onto him by the Party. He is always in conflict with the Party and this is what the plot is built on, this conflict between Winston and the Party. This neatly links the main statement to the story.
There is one more idea that is going to be discussed in this essay. Betrayal. Betrayal is a cardinal aspect or theme of the storyline. The book is designed to betray the responder. The character, Winston is betrayed by many characters in the text, and so we feel the same.
Orwell has characterised several characters, in ‘1984,’ to be good characters, some being innocent, others being powerful and deceiving. The betrayals occur near the end of the story as these characters are characterised for most of the book and the responder builds a trust in them.Then these characters reveal themselves and betray Winston. This is another of Orwell’s techniques. He is again using this idea of Betrayal, to strengthen his view in the responder of the book. He is introducing the responder into a world of deception and betrayal and how that existed in the Totalitarian societies of the 1940’s and how it would only get worse.
The first character to betray Winston is Mr. Charrington. He is shown to be a nice elderly Prole who owns a gift shop of antiques. He lets Winston and Julia to rent the top apartment of the shop and to be alone.
Winston bought a glass paperweight with coral inside it. He relates how this coral is like his life and also the room that he and Julia are staying in. It is covered in the protection of the glass ‘atmosphere. ’ Like his life though, people and more importantly, the thought Police, can easily peer into the paperweight and see the coral inside.
When Mr. Charrington exposes himself as an agent of the thought Police, the paperweight gets smashed, signifying that, like the coral, his life is now exposed and unprotected.The second person to betray Winston is O’Brien. This characters betrayal is perhaps the hardest hitting on Winston and the responder. O’Brien gives Winston hope in life and even though Winston talks little to O’Brien, he builds a trust in him. When O’Brien invites Winston to his house, his fake identity is strengthened in Winston and affirmed.
O’Brien becomes Winston’s saviour so much that even when O’Brien reveals himself to be not a member of the Brotherhood but a member of the Party and an interrogator, Winston still has trouble giving up in him.O’Brien takes Winston to the infamous Room 101. This room consists of nothing more than an upright bed and a table in its centre. The torture is caused by the victims fear.
Whatever the fear of the victim, is what they are tortured with. Despite O’Brien doing this to Winston, Winston still remains on a small level, loyal to O’Brien. In the room, when Winston is threatened with rats, his worst fear, he betrays Julia, the very person he thought he would never betray. At the end he finds out that Julia did the same thing to him.
This betrayal is the most significant since both Winston and Julia loved each other and vowed to each other that they would never betray one another. Not only Winston is betrayed but also Parsons. He is caught in his sleep saying ‘Down with Big Brother. ’ His own daughter betrays him to the thought Police. This phrase is repeated not only by Parsons, but by Winston as well at the start of the text.
Parsons and Winston, being both completely different people, say the same thing. This use of repetition is to strengthen the responders understanding of Winston’s thoughts.Even though Parsons brags about how he never would betray the Party, he still does and this is another example of betrayal. The fact this phrase is repeated by two different characters goes to show that in the individual’s subconscious, they want to rebel against the Party and betray them. It seems that everybody has the urge for freedom but because of the overwhelming conflict between them and the Party, no war comes of it.
This once again is relevant to the statement, ‘A character requires a conflict to develop that character and the plot of the story.As we can see the entire text is evidence that Winston is in conflict. Without this conflict, there would be no story. Orwell has written this book about the Totalitarian rule and how much it could get if Hitler and Stalin continued their rein. This is the conflict; this is the reason why the book has purpose, why it exists.
Orwell in this text shows how, if continued, Totalitarianism would increase control over time until relationships, love, sex and freedom would cease to exist and through his character, Winston he has been able to show the audience of this text how horrible it would be.
